Presonus Ampire

So what makes today’s Ampire so great? Well, this time around, the boys in Hamburg leveraged their expertise in State Space Modeling technology to create our amplifier and stompbox models. This same technology also powers our StudioLive Fat Channel plug-in emulations of the venerated compressor and EQ designs that keep eBay in business—while also ensuring that the nuanced, variable sonic character of analog survives its transition to the digital realm.

These aren’t your gramp’s amps

(Actually, a couple of them might be.) These five world-class amplifier models are the heart of Ampire. Each is meticulously State Space Modeled from a bonafide classic, with all their analog-defining nonlinearities and dynamic responsiveness—critical for capturing the tone and character of vacuum tube and semiconductor-based circuitry.

Amps, of course, aren’t the end-all, be-all of guitar tone, as speaker cabinets do a great deal to color the sound of a guitar rig: speaker complement, wood, and cabinet size are all determining factors in the final tone. Furthermore, when recording a speaker cab, strategic microphone placement also imparts a dramatic sonic consequence. But when it comes to emulation, speaker cabinets require a different solution than the State Space Modeling tech we use with the amplifiers.

As the circuitry of cabinets is comparatively simple, we relied heavily on impulse responses (acoustic measurements of real-world cabinet behavior) and microphone modeling to emulate the recording performance of the 16 classic speaker cabinets found in Ampire. You also get a microphone edit page that provides control over microphone blend, plus polarity and balance. We even included a convenient tuner.

And if you’re into DIY cabinetry, you can even create impulse responses of your own real-world cabinets and spaces and save them for use in Ampire! Mix and match amps, mics, and cabs to your heart’s content with our best simulations yet.

No non-Ramones tribute band guitar rig is complete without a mess of stompboxes, and Ampire doesn’t hold back in this regard. The same nerdy State-Space Modeling technology that made our amp modeling possible also drives five of the thirteen stompboxes included in the Ampire Pedalboard. And for non-guitarists looking to use stompboxes to warp their vocals, drum machines, keyboards, kazoos, or any other audio source, the Pedalboard is also available as a stand-alone plug-in.