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Amp Modeler Pro packs everything into a single-page interface.

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• Review

Studio Devil's Amp Modeller Pro is its most ambitious product to date. It includes not only valve preamp and power amp modelling, but also four stompbox-style effects, impulse-based cabinet emulations, a 7-band graphic EQ, 1-band parametric EQ, compressor, gate, echo, reverb and wah-wah.

Currently the software is in VST and AU formats (it doesn't run standalone), with RTAS support in the pipeline.

Studio Devil is keen to point out that Amp Modeller Pro uses its own patented modelling technology to replicate the behaviour of hardware preamp valves. There are tone controls (bass, mid, treble and presence) and a modelled power amp stage (Tube Class A, Class AB and FET). Aiding sound quality are 64-bit processing and, with the Hi-Fi switch engaged, 192kHz internal upsampling.

In detail

Unusually for a modern amp plug-in, AMP has a single-page interface, and with the exception of its tuner (which appears in a pop-up window), all controls are crammed into quite a small window.

Our first impression of this was that it's a little crowded, but in its defence, you won't get lost hunting across multiple pages, and once you've learnt where everything is, it's quite immediate.

It's worth noting that AMP doesn't enable you to use multi-amp setups, and it doesn't feature variable mic positioning (although its cab options provide different mic positions), nor does it offer any 'tone' pedals (ie, overdrive, distortion, etc). However, you can assign MIDI CCs to all of its parameters (including the Wah-Wah Filter), and its cabinet impulse processor accepts third-party WAV and AIFF impulses. Indeed, the program's stock cabinet impulse library is bolstered by a demo set from ReCabinet to whet your appetite, and a further selection of bonus cabs.

AMP's controls are, for the most part, self-explanatory and the division of the GUI between the top half (amp, cabinet and EQ) and the bottom half (effects, compressor and gate) makes perfect sense. However, there are a few controls that merit particular mention.

First up, five of the effects (Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Tremolo and Echo) and the EQ section can each be placed before the amp (stompbox-style) or after (like studio effects). This influences the sound considerably, and effects placed after the preamp become stereo, too.

The effects are all of good quality, and while they don't have zillions of controls, there's enough there for you to dial in a range of sounds. For instance, the Echo effect's Style control takes the sound from 'analogue' (low-pass filter) to 'tape' (band-pass) on through to digital delay (no filtering).

Amp Modeler Pro is the work of New York DSP engineer Marc Gallo, who's made it his personal mission to produce CPU-efficient models of real-world valve circuits. Gallo reckons that his work has resulted in a plug-in that captures the non-linear behaviour of both the frequency and dynamics of hardware guitar preamps, and we're inclined to agree with him.

Gallo's f­irst port of call was to model that preamp mainstay, the 12AX7A (or ECC83) valve - from there, he was then able to con­figure full preamp stages from the schematics of the original amps.

He later turned his attention to emulating the behaviour of three power amp stages: Class A, Class AB and FET. The former two are valve-based and have more of a squashy, bouncy character. FET amps use transistors, and while they don't sound as lively as valves, they're generally a better bet for solidity and consistency.

Turning up the power amp Drive knob is like cranking up a real amp, with the sound gradually becoming thicker and more saturated. Just like with real amps, putting everything 'on ten' doesn't necessarily give you the most powerful sound, so be sure to play around with the preamp and power amp Gain/Drive controls until you hit that elusive sweet spot.