The iPhone’s a pretty sweet bit of hardware right? It can do
tons of different stuff, and there’s virtually an app for everything on the iPhone. In fact, the App Store just crossed the
700,000 mark, which says a lot itself! Unsurprisingly then, there are a lot of
great apps for guitarists on the iOS platform.
If you’re the proud owner of an iPhone or an iPad, here is a
list of some pretty amazing amp apps (direct links included, they’re not
referral links):
(Mind you, you’ll need to purchase a piece of hardware
called an instrument adapter before using your phone with any of these app, so
make sure you purchase one before buying any of these apps. The names of
instrument adapters have been mentioned with each app as well)
1. Amplitube
Amplitube is one of the more popular amp apps on the iTunes
app store. It has plenty of reviews (464 in total!) and most of them are
positive. Which is a good indicator of the app itself: it is an excellent
amplifier app, which turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into a mobile amp and
effects processor and a fully-functional recording studio! Coupled with the
iRig or the STOMP hardware accessory (sold separately), you can then control
the app with the foot controller. The effects library includes 11 stompbox
effects, 5 amp effects, as well as many other effects that are also available
as in-app purchases.
2. PocketAmp
PocketAmp is another winner when it comes to amplifier apps
on the iPhone. It’s a simple $5 purchase, and you many different effects out of
the box with this, without the need to make any in-app purchases (unlike
Amplitube) – effects like distortion, flanger, rotary, and reverb, to name a
few. The amp also comes with a chromatic guitar tuner built-in. You’ll need to
buy the iRiffPort accessory (or any other Guitar Amp to iPhone connecting
accessory) in order to hook your phone up with your electric or bass guitar.
3. Guitar FX Deluxe
One of the golden oldies of the guitar amplifier apps,
Guitar FX Deluxe puts a digital effects unit for your acoustic guitar. Here’s how it works: it uses the mic on your iOS
device to pick up with sound of your acoustic guitar, and amplifies the sound
by applying effects to it. It does all this in real time, and you can hear the
amplified sound from the speakers, or through earphone output. What this means
is that with this app, you can use your acoustic guitar to produce the sound of
any electric guitar, and apply various effects such as chorus, distortion and
echo on it. It’s pretty neat, and even though it’s not a substitute for an
electric guitar, you can still use this app to ‘convert’ your acoustic guitar
into an electric guitar while you save up for one.
4. GuitarAmp for iPhone
Studio Devil’s Guitar Amp is a comparatively little-known
amplifier app that turns your iOS device (iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch) into a
fully-functional tube amplifier. Once again, the app requires a guitar
adapter/input device (the developers recommend the Apogee JAM, iRig, or the Peavey
AmpKit). Once you have everything hooked up, you’ll be able to get some really
good vacuum tube amp tone, with the ability to control gain, level, bass and
treble, and choose from 3 amp speaker cabinets in order to change the tone and
the sound of the guitar. While it doesn’t give a particularly large range of
effects, the fact is that it produces a pretty great sound, and as one reviewer
remarked ‘ is the best-sounding amp on the iPhone’.
5. AmpKit
Our first free app of the list! AmpKit is your standard
Guitar Amplifier app on the iPhone. Except that it works pretty well for a free
app, and offers a great set of effects and features to boot. The app is a
2-channel Peavey ValveKing amplifier, with 2 cabinets, noise gat, overdrive
pedal and mics. You can buy tons of effects and additional stuff as in-app
purchases (and I do mean tons in every sense of the word!). The amps looks
pretty cool, and the app does a great job with reproducing the gain and the
effects (especially hard rock tones), as well as delivering a realistic tone on
clean and high-distortion setups. Once again, you’ll need to buy interface
hardware in order to connect your virtual amp with your guitar. You can of
course, choose to get the AmpKit+ app, a $19.99 app on the App Store.
6. Stompbox
An app that looks more like an effects rack, rather than a
typical stompbox, this iPad-exclusive app ‘turns the iPad into a fully-fledged
digital effects unit’, allowing you to build a rack of effects that can be
saved and recalled easily. Using a virtual foot pedal, you can access and
control your patches. There are 17 effects including delay, reverb, phaser,
flanger, treomolo and more (17 unique effects in total and 7 distortion
effects), and the sound reproduction is pretty great as well. You’ll have to
connect your guitar with the iPad using an adaptor (such as the AmpKit Link adaptor)
of course. You get a 4-track loop recorder (a lot of the other apps don’t offer
this), and Stompbox also comes with a fully-functional metronome, and a nice
chromatic tuner.
This amplifier is great. I guess i have to find some more information on the matter.
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