Amplitube Through Speakers vs Headphones

AmpliTube TONEX, AmpliTube 5, AmpliTube Custom Shop, AmpliTube Joe Satriani, AmpliTube Brian May, MESA/Boogie®,Orange™, Fender™, Hendrix™, Metal, AmpliTube SVX, and more for Mac/PC

Amplitube Through Speakers vs Headphones

Postby Sandro153 » Sun May 10, 2020 1:20 am

Hi Guys,

I was just wondering how you guys deal with this glitch. When I create a tone using my headphone when I play the same tone through my speaker it sound totally different, so I come to a conclusion that I need to have a presets for speakers and a presets for my headphones...what do you guys do?

Thanks,
Sandro :D
Sandro153
 
Posts: 14
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2015 3:54 pm

Re: Amplitube Through Speakers vs Headphones

Postby garfy » Mon May 11, 2020 8:39 am

Hi Sandro and welcome to the forums.

I'm afraid you've found yourself locked in the battle where things will sound different dependant on the playback device. This is not a glitch.

With headphones you have the sound being basically pumped directly into your ears, without being interfered with by the room you're in, or crosstalk from your right earphone into your left ear and vice versa.

With speakers you get the sound of the room being excited and sound bouncing around, along with both ears hearing frequencies at different times etc and that's even before you take into account the quality of the speakers (and headphones) themselves. Also, a full range studio-grade monitor is going to sound different to laptop speakers etc.

The trick (just as it is when mixing a full recorded song) is to find the balance where your preset sounds pretty good on everything you play it back on. That's the holy grail. ;)
System Specs: 2012 Mac Mini 2.6 i7 & 2015 MBP 2.2 i7, 16GB RAM
macOS10.15.7 Logic 10.6.1 Reason 11
Various IK, NI, Waves, Softube, Eventide, XLN software
Focusrite 18i20 x 2, Novation ReMote 25SL
garfy
Moderator
 
Posts: 2132
Joined: Thu Oct 20, 2011 6:09 pm
Location: Comfy chair, UK

Re: Amplitube Through Speakers vs Headphones

Postby Sandro153 » Mon May 11, 2020 10:05 pm

Hi Garfy,

Thank you for your welcome and reply to my add.

Yeah I knew it was going to be something like this, I was just wondering how you guys deal with that.

Thanks :D
Sandro153
 
Posts: 14
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2015 3:54 pm

Re: Amplitube Through Speakers vs Headphones

Postby sandeep32 » Tue Aug 25, 2020 7:30 am

OK so I asked someone on my facebook about it, they mentioned MP3Gain. According to their site, the program can help with "peak normalization", which is the same thing as I was asking about as far as I understand.

But I still am curious, and don't know who to ask about this:
How does normalizing/adjusting the AmpliTube of a file affect the volume of different files through headphones versus speakers? I ask, b/c someone claimed it would be different, I'm still curious about getting good headphones but that is hard to believe about the difference, but can't find any specific information about it.

Could anyone answer please?
Last edited by sandeep32 on Mon Aug 31, 2020 12:45 pm, edited 2 times in total.
sandeep32
 
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2020 7:28 am

Re: Amplitube Through Speakers vs Headphones

Postby dlgebert » Tue Aug 25, 2020 6:28 pm

sandeep32 wrote:OK so I asked someone on my facebook about it, they mentioned MP3Gain. According to their site, the program can help with "peak normalization"

All "normalizing" does is find the loudest transient "peak" in an audio track, file, etc., and adjust that peak to the maximum (digital zero) and adjust everything else by that amount. Since the peak is the loudest point, nothing else will "clip". This can make a quiet track much louder, but then you start to lose the dynamics when everything is at a similar volume. Generally, the highest peaks will be with snare drums and other sound sources like that. In my opinion, using a brickwall limiter is a better option to increase volume on a track and stop transients from clipping. Use with caution so you don't lose the dynamic feel of the instruments.

sandeep32 wrote:How does normalizing/adjusting the AmpliTube of a file affect the volume of different files through headphones versus speakers?

I believe you are referring to the ampli-tude of a track or file? The dash was intentional because IKM is changing ampli-tude to Amplitube if I don't put the dash in the word... :shock:

If you're using an "app", like MP3Gain maybe is, it probably does this processing in realtime while the track is playing is my guess, but changing the ampli-tude of a file, either in realtime as it plays, or by altering the actual file, will not change any other files unless they are all changed at the same time using the same app. Most commercial music is already so compressed and limited that normalization won't make much of a difference with those kinds of files.

If you're looking for an app that can guarantee your music will sound great on headphones or any external speaker system, there is no such thing and no one can guarantee that. People make alot of money doing mastering for studios, and even with very expensive monitors and experience, they can't make this guarantee. Lots of bands release albums and are criticized that the album is overly processed or compressed and they end up remastering it. I know that happened to Rush with their Vapor Trails album.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vapor_Trails

Also, Metallica was criticized that their Death Magnetic album was overly compressed.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Magnetic
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_range_compression

What you're asking for is more art than science, and no single app, plugin, preset is guaranteed to sound great in every situation. If a touring band is lucky enough to be able to afford a good sound guy, they spend alot of time trying to get best sound because every venue is different, and depending on how big the crowd is, room dynamics, etc., can affect how good a band will sound on any given night, even when playing in the same venue.

Dave
User avatar
dlgebert
 
Posts: 371
Joined: Sun Dec 01, 2013 11:51 pm

Re: Amplitube Through Speakers vs Headphones

Postby Fels0014 » Thu Aug 27, 2020 4:30 am

Similar issue:

I'll play/record with headphones running through the iRig HD2's headphone jack. After dialing in a tone and committing it to Garageband, I'll listen back without the iRig (direct from iPhone, same headphones) and the tone EQ changes dramatically. Much more treble (way more than during the session) so I end up chasing the right "dull" tone to guess my way to a good mix. Anyone else see this issue?

I realize it could be lots of things: iPhone's onboard EQ kicking in, bluetooth vs. wired, etc. Any tips?
Fels0014
 
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2020 2:52 am


Return to AmpliTube Guitar Amp & FX modeling