N00b at mastering

[austinhue]

I agree with Jim. Pod Farm and Amplitube are on an equal level in my head, it's not like one is strictly better. Pod Farm gets you that super clean Sturgis sound, and that's about all you can get it to do and sound good. Amplitube sound more realistic, more metal, and in my opinion it can handle more gain before it starts sounding overdistorted. My band's in the same genre as bands like TDWP or Attack Attack, but we're trying to set ourselves apart with a more "metal" production and sound - harder and faster drum parts, smaller drum sizes, more aggressive guitar tones and mixing, that sort of thing.

And I don't have a preset, because I'm constantly tweaking around with it. But this is about where I would start, then adjust based on pickups, guitar, playing style, genre, etc:

I use the 150W head, in fact I just load up the factory preset "Metal Lead V" and tweak from there. I start with bass and treble at 5, and mids a bit higher (maybe 7), then mess around from there. Keep that "bottom" knob at about 2 or 3. Then I turn the gain off and slowly raise it until it sounds overdistorted and messy. Then turn it down a bit. I usually keep turning it down as the production goes on. This time it landed at 3.
Before the head, there's an overscream adding gain, so only adjust the gain on the head once you have this loaded. I set it almost the same way I would in real life - drive at about 9 o'clock, level at 50% to make it match, start with the tone all the way off and turn it up if you need to.
Then I load up the 4x12 Metal T 1 cab preset. Turn the room mics level all the way off. Put a 57 as mic one, right in the center of the cone, and then slide it over a bit to the right. Then put the Ribbon 121 next to it as mic 2, sitting directly to the right and overlapping a bit. This mic should be right on the right edge of the cone. Set your noise gate and all that and you're good to go.

This is with the new Amplitube 3, by the way

 

[jimwilbourne]

yeah. austin's got the right idea. the main part of this is getting the cab mic config right. Austin is spot on with it. although the royer 121 doesn't have to be a set in stone choice. it's nice to use different mics in it's place to get some different tones based on the project. as well as trying a few other cabs. the Modern2 is pretty good too. as well as a few others depending on the sound you want.

also, it's key to understand that you can swap out your EQ & power amp models with the 150W (5150) head model.
this is great because I don't like the EQ model for the that head. I like using the Metal T (triple rec) head's EQ for it.

 

[austinhue]

yeah. austin's got the right idea. the main part of this is getting the cab mic config right. Austin is spot on with it. although the royer 121 doesn't have to be a set in stone choice. it's nice to use different mics in it's place to get some different tones based on the project. as well as trying a few other cabs. the Modern2 is pretty good too. as well as a few others depending on the sound you want.

also, it's key to understand that you can swap out your EQ & power amp models with the 150W (5150) head model.
this is great because I don't like the EQ model for the that head. I like using the Metal T (triple rec) head's EQ for it.

That's right, I forgot to mention that step. I swap out the EQ with the "Metal T" as well. Basically, the reason I think so many people have trouble with Amplitube is because if you click on a preset it's bound to sound bad =]
Version 3 seems a whole lot easier to get good tones out of than version 2 (or Amplitube Metal), as well.