Over the years I have put together quite a bit of kit for both recording and live work. Only trouble is, the bulk of it all. If I want to quickly put down a song idea, I need to keep my recording rig set up permanently, which used to be the case until the wee one arrived, but now – no chance. So I started looking at simple interfaces I could use to quickly and easily get my guitar into my laptop, and this is what I got for Christmas!
In the pack you get, an installation CD, an authorisation code on a card and this lead. That’s it. On first sight, not that impressive, but then, as I said, I was just looking for ease of use and simplicity.

Loading up the software was easy enough. Stick the CD in, follow the installer instructions and then authorise it, which was done by launching the authoriser app, and filling in the code from the card. Took about 5 minutes. Next, you simply plug the jack plug end into your guitar and the other end into a USB port and launch Amplitude, IKM’s (IK Multimedia) guitar amp simulation software. Good to go? I thought so, but I couldn’t select the correct driver, it appeared to be missing. A quick trip to the online user area of IKM and there was a driver available. After downloading and installing this, there wasn’t a problem. Mind you, installing anything on your PC thses days, this is one of the first checks you should do. Are all your drivers up to date??

Before I go on, there is perhaps one thing I should mention. One reason I requested the StealthPlug was that it came with a copy of Mackie’s Traction 2, a full blown DAW (Digital Audio Workstation).

What’s a DAW? It’s basically a software version of a recording studio. I’ve not used Traction 2 before, but many of these programs work in a similar fashion, and as I’m experienced with pro tools, cubase and a few others I didn’t think it would be that hard to pick up. Why did I want it? Well, having a copy of it on my laptop would enable me to quickly build up a song around a riff or knock up a demo in double quick time.

http://www.electric-guitar-blog.com/stealthplug-electric-guitar-recording-interface/

However, at the time of purchase the item was out of stock, and IKM meanwhile, stopped offering Tracktion 2, and instead included a basic 4 track recorder. I was a little peeved at this so fired off an email to them, and got a prompt reply from their marketing people. Apparently, they stopped supplying Tracktion because it became obsolete, and the 4 track recorder is basically a scratchpad for working out ideas, which can then be exported if necessary.

I decided to look into this and it appears that yes, even the latest version of Tracktion isn’t compatible with Vista or Windows 7, with development having stopped sometime in 2008. The marketing guy also pointed out there are some very cheap and even freeware DAW’s out there now besides the established names like pro tools, cubase, sonar etc. etc. so they didn’t really see the need to develop and add another one. Up ’till now I’ve always used pro tools, but having a quick internet search, I was shocked to see quite a few interesting alternatives, and yes, some of them were ridiculously cheap or free so I guess he has a point. Well after that I didn’t feel quite so hard done by, especially as I know the gift cost only £65 ($100) including postage.

But that’s not all that was included in the pack… IKM also include their “Custom Shop” software too, but more about that in a moment. First things first, the Amplitude program. This is a pretty sophisticated piece of software. Note that I didn’t say complicated, as it’s fairly easy to use, (I still haven’t bothered to read the manual yet…), but it is quite powerful. It aims to re-create your electric guitar signal chain, from where it leaves your guitar, to the speaker, so as standard it has a few amplifier, cabinet and microphone emulations – it also includes a couple of effects and a tuner. There’s a lot to it so I could go on and on at great length, but this is about the StealthPlug pack, so I’m going to be brief here and review the software itself in full another time.

So is it any good? Well starting it up, I selected one of the standard amps based on the Marshall JCM800, because I know that amp very, very well.  I’ve had 3, and my current one has been with me for more than 15 years. It’s always the first amp I reach for when recording, so I know what it feels like to play, and I know how it should sound on tape. I was also delighted to find that one of the mic emulation options was the good old Shure SM57, my weapon of choice when recording electric guitar.

Initially there was a lot of hiss, and I did think to myself, software engineers are clever bar stewards, but did they really have to emulate the hiss of the amp as well? Turns out it was the pickups picking up interference from the laptop screen. Good job they included a cable that’s fully 9 feet long, so you can stand quite far away. You don’t need 9 feet of headphone cable either, as your phones plug into the monitor control part which is at the guitar end, nice thoughtful touches. There’s even a physical volume control.

Back to the amp. A real JCM800 isn’t actually that high gain, so they’re quite touch sensitive. You can really hear the valve compression when you give it some, and you have to drive it pretty hard to get it to properly growl. The amp interacts with the guitar in a very feelsome way.

And now for the “old man” bit. I have been playing guitar now since the ’80′s and every now and then one company or another comes out with the magical claim that their new transistor amps, (or lately computerised amps or devices) now sound and feel like valve amps. Marshal did valvestate, Peavey did transtube and it’s always been a case of the amp not meeting the hype and still is, despite some companies’ claims. You don’t need me to tell you this, because if these big boys HAD cracked it, they wouldn’t still produce their very good, yet extremely heavy valve products today. And it also applies in other areas as well.

For example, many of these same manufacturers are making big claims about emulated outputs which you can take straight from the back of the amp into the desk at a studio rather than mic’ing up your amp and cranking it. Honestly, they’re much better than they used to be in that the sounds produced are now at least useable, but they still don’t reproduce the effect the room has, or the subtleties of the noise blowing past a mic. You just can’t achieve that with a few resistors and capacitors, or even a couple of silicon chips in the back of your amp. You need proper computer power to get anywhere near that.

So what about Amplitude? What IKM have done is really quite remarkable. My fingers couldn’t quite believe my ears, as they’ve actually managed to squeeze a valve amp into software. Where they claim to reproduce the “feel” of an amp, they’ve succeeded. And I don’t say that lightly.

At this point I started to get a bit giddy and booted up Custom Shop. This is an online shop where you can purchase other emulations. These can be of stomp boxes, rack units, amps, mics and all sizes of cabinets loaded with all sizes of speakers. Handily, you get 50 “points” to spend in the store, also included with StealthPlug, so I went hunting for my other favourite amp, Peavey’s 6505 (nee 5150). And there it was along with matching cabinet! And this one too was spot on, and like the real thing, even giving the annoying squelchy sound when you drive it too hard…

So would I recommend it?

Definitely. For £65, it’s great value, especially in these times of recession. It does what it says on the tin, and it does it well. In fact I’ll be sure to take it with me to the next recording session. Guitarists with hernias everywhere can rejoice!

For IKM’s marketing bumpf and product details etc. click here for their StealthPlug page.