
Hallo guitar fans. This month we are presenting the latest game changer app for iPad called "BIAS". As you may know, Positive Grid is a developer of one of the best iOS guitar apps Jam Up XT Pro which we have reviewed recently. This time they went ahead of the game and completely revolutionized guitar amp modeler market.
Key features:
- The most complete, accurate and versatile amp modeling available on the market
- 36 factory authentic amp models (28 guitar, 4 bass and 4 keyboard/vocal)
- Factory categories: clean, blues, twang, crunch, metal, insane, acoustic and bassamps
- Fully customizable preamps, tone stacks, power amps, transformers, cabinets, panel controls and mic selection and placement—mix and match!
- Works the way guitarists think: tweak gain and overdrive, swap out tubes and transformers, change the cabinet and mic position, and shape the tone with different tone stacks and two eight-band equalizers
- Included room simulator adds depth and natural ambience
- Included noise gate nips noise in the bud with high-gain setups
- Save a virtually unlimited number of custom amps
- Quick presets recall up to eight favorites in turn with just one tap
- Seamless integration with Positive Grid - JamUp Pro XT with one finger tap
- Works with GarageBand and other audio apps via Inter-App Audio and Audiobus
- Designed for iOS7 and works on iPad 2 and newer
I was so impressed right away with factory categories. I could already start jamming with these Factory presets and they sound cool out of the box. No mater what your style is, there is a high possibility that you will find the sound you want right away with very minimal tweaking. Let's say you want to make your own signature sound, there presets are great starting point for your custom tone quest.
This time Positive Grid changed the game by introducing things "under the hood",and also behind the amp panel. This is every guitarist's dream come true.
It is so cool to be able to chose different tubes, swap them around, experiment with the sound because in a real world, every tube sounds different and unique.
The basic chain in BIAS starts with customization of an amp panel. You can start by typing a custom name of your amp, browse through your own iPad photo library and choosing a background photo for the amp panel. One can also change the knobs, grill cloth and the front panel look.
In preamp section you can change the tubes, swap them around and chose different ones for input stage and different ones for cathode followers. There are tons of tweakable parameters here, but if you are not sure what you're doing, there some cool presets available to get you started: Bright Tube Preamp, British Crunch, Four Stage, Glassy Tube, High Gain, Rock Clean, Small Tweed, Top Boost, Twang, Ultra Clean and VH 4 higain.
One of the coolest features after tweaking tubes is definitely ability to change a transformer, like all legendary players would do, Eddie Van Halen for example. There are three choices of these transformers ": British Style, American Style and Fat Style. In the real world, an amp sound is created by all of its parts.
There is a cool switch on the bottom of the screen called RoomControl, this simulates miked amp in a studio room. Incredible. I like this extra natural room reverberation, without using the amp reverb or any other pedals of that kind.
You can share your own patch design on Facebook, but here is the greatest part. You can import your customized amp in JamUp XT and use it with other effects, pedals, 8 track recorder.... Once in JamUp XT, if you decide to further customize your amp, you can bring it back to BIAS by tapping corresponding button, tweak your settings, and bring it back to JamUp again. BIAS can be used in Garage Band or any other app supported via Audiobus.
BIAS is the new product developed by Positive Grid. At the moment of this writing, it is already #1 music app on Apple App Store. It's a definite game changer and now the other manufacturers have to follow this approach to stay in the competition. What I would like to see in the future is transition of BIAS to VST and AAX plug-in formats. If Positive Grid decides to do this, and stay in an affordable price range , they could entirely take over guitar/bass emulation software market.
The revolution has started.
BIAS retails for $19.99 and is immediately available for download at the iTunes App Store. Designed for iOS7, the app requires an iPad 2 or newer to operate.
For more details, visit www.postivegrid.com/bias or follow the company via Twitter (@PositiveGrid) or Facebook www.facebook.com/positivegrid
Related video links:
Introducing BIAS for iPad: http://youtu.be/ieXn80yYa8A
BIAS for iPad - Features Overview: http://youtu.be/Y_H9NndThsg
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