User manual

AmpliTube
™
Live
3 - Using AmpliTube™ Live
12
Using AmpliTube™ Live
Connect your guitar to your computer
To achieve the best input signal when using AmpliTube™ Live be sure you
have an “instruments input” on your audio card (or a guitar dedicated input
- fig. 3.1). The “instrument input” needs a gain control and commonly is a
high impedance input, this means that the pickups of your guitar will find
an input that matches that found in guitar amplifiers.
NOTE: Normal +4 dB low impedance line input (i.e. the ones you would
normally use for a synth or a keyboard) are not ideal for directly connect-
ing the guitar because guitar pickups are not designed to deliver such a
high level and on a low impedance load. In these conditions the guitar
sound will be weak.
The best quality connection is obtained using a very good microphone
preamplifier with the addition of a quality D.I. box to which the guitar will
be connected. This setup will deliver the best possible sound because the
signal from the pickups will be treated with extreme sensitivity by the D.I.
box, as it is designed expressly for these requirements.
Input Level – optimal settings
For optimal sound quality the signal that feeds into AmpliTube™ Live from
your computer should be within a certain level range. AmpliTube™ Live
shows the input signal level with a very simple three LED meter (fig. 3.2):
yellow shows that a too little signal is present
green indicates that the signal is OK
red which should light only occasionally, shows that the input is close
to overload.
AmpliTube™ Live does not have an “input level” control, because it’s very
Chapter 3
3.1
3.2
fig. 3.1
fig. 3.2