alterbridgefan
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Recently got both of these programs on my iPad, and am very, very impressed for many reasons.
In case you aren't familiar, Jamup is a processing program available to iOS users, and it's full of amp modelers and effects available to use. Bias is an amp designer available to both iOS and mac/pc, that integrates seamlessly with jamup and offers a large range of options for tone customization. Simply stunning programs.
Firstly, the price. Both apps cost me $20 total. I have yet to buy any expansions for either program, but it's worth noting that Bias gives you almost every amp available for purchase in jamup(I believe the price for all amps is somewhere around $30), and each is completely customizable and easy to mod in any way desired, whereas jamup will give you only your panel controls - Gain, Bass, Mids, Treble, Presence, and Master. Each expansion effect is around $2, but I haven't needed to buy any yet... Jamup comes with many great sounding effects already downloaded. The tube screamer, digital reverb, EQ, and the echo are so far my favorites, and each emulate what they are supposed to do really well. As can be expected of course, a couple of the effects are essentially useless, IMO. The octave and the boss overdrive are especially bad, and the octave effect eats up all the CPU and causes some serious lag and a noticeable decrease in sound quality. The flangers I also strongly dislike, but I tend to hate all flange effects, iOS or no. The noise gate could be much better, but I've heard good things about the other noise gates available, and the one integrated into bias is very nice, despite being simple and not particularly tweakable.
So far, I've had a lot of luck with these programs. Tone cloud, Bias's amp sharing feature, is very useful when getting started, because there are some very nice starting points on there, and many are of better quality than the factory presets. I downloaded a few amps at first, not quite sure yet what the program's capabilities were. The first one I heard, I downloaded - A high gain EL34 fireball model. I quickly decided that I hated it, so I trashed it and went looking for something else. Stumbled across an Orange 50 watt model that I liked, downloaded it. This was the first amp I began to mod with the program.
First impression opening the editor was slightly unpleasant, as I was somewhat overwhelmed with all the things one can do with it. The mods are divided into a few sections, all things you may or may not see in a good tube amp. You start with your preamp, and can change as much as you need to - high cut, low cut, gain, tube types, tube stages, etc. there is thing an optional EQ, followed by a tone stack - Lots of amp types to choose from. Treadplate(Mesa), Fireball, Blackface, etc. Very cool feature that plays a large part in your sound. On top of that, you have a power amp, a transformer, another optional EQ, mic, cab, and more, all totally customizable. It's a ton to mess with, but it gives almost complete control over the sound of your amp. The amps are very sensitive too - Playing in 4th pickup position can give me beautiful cleans, and yet playing in bridge through the same amp with gain up will give a really tight, heavy tone if the amp is designed well. In a way, the sound is left entirely up to the user.
Overall, more than worth the $20 I payed for the whole rig, and easily gives some truly professional sounds if used properly. Excitedly waiting for positive grid to announce a standalone rack unit. :cool01:
In case you aren't familiar, Jamup is a processing program available to iOS users, and it's full of amp modelers and effects available to use. Bias is an amp designer available to both iOS and mac/pc, that integrates seamlessly with jamup and offers a large range of options for tone customization. Simply stunning programs.
Firstly, the price. Both apps cost me $20 total. I have yet to buy any expansions for either program, but it's worth noting that Bias gives you almost every amp available for purchase in jamup(I believe the price for all amps is somewhere around $30), and each is completely customizable and easy to mod in any way desired, whereas jamup will give you only your panel controls - Gain, Bass, Mids, Treble, Presence, and Master. Each expansion effect is around $2, but I haven't needed to buy any yet... Jamup comes with many great sounding effects already downloaded. The tube screamer, digital reverb, EQ, and the echo are so far my favorites, and each emulate what they are supposed to do really well. As can be expected of course, a couple of the effects are essentially useless, IMO. The octave and the boss overdrive are especially bad, and the octave effect eats up all the CPU and causes some serious lag and a noticeable decrease in sound quality. The flangers I also strongly dislike, but I tend to hate all flange effects, iOS or no. The noise gate could be much better, but I've heard good things about the other noise gates available, and the one integrated into bias is very nice, despite being simple and not particularly tweakable.
So far, I've had a lot of luck with these programs. Tone cloud, Bias's amp sharing feature, is very useful when getting started, because there are some very nice starting points on there, and many are of better quality than the factory presets. I downloaded a few amps at first, not quite sure yet what the program's capabilities were. The first one I heard, I downloaded - A high gain EL34 fireball model. I quickly decided that I hated it, so I trashed it and went looking for something else. Stumbled across an Orange 50 watt model that I liked, downloaded it. This was the first amp I began to mod with the program.
First impression opening the editor was slightly unpleasant, as I was somewhat overwhelmed with all the things one can do with it. The mods are divided into a few sections, all things you may or may not see in a good tube amp. You start with your preamp, and can change as much as you need to - high cut, low cut, gain, tube types, tube stages, etc. there is thing an optional EQ, followed by a tone stack - Lots of amp types to choose from. Treadplate(Mesa), Fireball, Blackface, etc. Very cool feature that plays a large part in your sound. On top of that, you have a power amp, a transformer, another optional EQ, mic, cab, and more, all totally customizable. It's a ton to mess with, but it gives almost complete control over the sound of your amp. The amps are very sensitive too - Playing in 4th pickup position can give me beautiful cleans, and yet playing in bridge through the same amp with gain up will give a really tight, heavy tone if the amp is designed well. In a way, the sound is left entirely up to the user.
Overall, more than worth the $20 I payed for the whole rig, and easily gives some truly professional sounds if used properly. Excitedly waiting for positive grid to announce a standalone rack unit. :cool01:
arty07: A lot of amp models, eminently tweakable, all very realistic and super sweet. I have my system latency down to around 6 or 7 milliseconds with only Bias running, so I have room for some other plugins to chain with it. So now I'm looking for a good drums plugin, so I can get some rudimentary backing going, and get some time in with it.
