Cakewalk Audio FX 2 Amplifier and Tape Simulation
For Windows 95/98/NT
Real-time, 32-bit DirectX audio plug-ins
Get The Tone You're Looking For!
Looking for a way to warmup your digital audio, but can’t afford to spend thousands
of dollars on vintage analog or tube gear? Now you can with Cakewalk Audio FX 2.
Created by precise measurement and analysis, Cakewalk Audio FX 2 uses advanced processing
algorithms to apply the classic sound and warmth of several different vintage guitar
amplifiers and analog tape decks to your digital audio.
Best of all, these plug-ins allow you to get all of the good things associated with
vintage gear, such as their distinctive sound and warmth, without the problems and
undesired effects that older equipment often has.
Cakewalk AmpSim
Cakewalk Audio FX 2 includes two simulator plug-ins:
Cakewalk AmpSim
Add that guitar amplifier sound to your audio, from light crunch to
overdrive distortion. You can choose the amp model, speaker cabinet and other parameters.
AmpSim has the following controls:
Drive: This parameter controls how much amplification the signal receives
prior to the distortion circuit and hence it controls, roughly, the amount of distortion
that will be applied.
Presence: This is a filter, similar to a highpass in nature, with a cutoff frequency around 750 Hz, which reveals more of the high-frequency portion of the post-amplification signal.
EQ: These three controls provide gain adjustments for Bass (Hz), Mid (kHz ) and Treble (kHz). Each of these filters has a wide bandwidth and allows you to alter the timbre of the processed signal by adding or subtracting gain from those frequency bands.
Output Gain: This control allows you to control the overall output volume of the plug-in, after the amplifier and speaker processing.
Amplifier Model Selection: Cakewalk AmpSim provides
access to eight different amplifier models that can be used to alter the timbre of the
signal. Each of these models will cause a different interaction between the Drive,
Presence and EQ controls corresponding to the differences in the actual amplifiers that
they represent. Also, each amplifier model has different overdrive/distortion
characteristics. These include:
Solid-state Clean, Solid-state Distortion, Fuzz 1, Fuzz 2, British Crunch, British
Overdrive, American Lead, and American Rhythm.
Cabinet Type: This pop-up list allows you to simulate the effects of a speaker enclosure on the processed audio, choosing from one of the following cabinet types: 1 x 12", 2 x 12", 4 x 10", 4 x 12", and bypass (none).
Open Back: This control allows you to alter the speaker cabinet simulation so that the back of the ‘virtual’ speaker enclosure is open or closed, thereby altering the frequency response of the processed audio in the same manner as it would be in the real world. Closing the back of a cabinet will increase the bass response, especially on frequencies below 150 Hz.
Off-axis: Adding to the accuracy of the simulation, we have provided a ‘virtual’ microphone placement option. When selected, this option simulates the way amplified sound is colored by the position of a microphone relative to the sound source (a loudspeaker in this case). This effect is generally an enhancement of mid-high frequencies (above 1 kHz), but varies depending on the amp model and speaker cabinet selected. When this option is not selected, no coloration will occur.
Bright: Choose this option to add a high-frequency boost
to the processed audio. This is analogous to the brightness switch found on many guitar
amplifiers, and provides a method of altering the timbre of the distortion produced by the
amplifier model.
Cakewalk TapeSim
Make your audio sound like it was recorded on analog magnetic tape,
accurately simulating the saturation and natural warmth that is found on older tape decks
- without all of their inherent problems.
TapeSim has the following controls:
Input Level: This control allows you to alter the gain of the audio
entering the ‘tape machine’, before the Record Level control, providing
sufficient gain to the Record Level control.
Record Level: The Record Level control allows you to set the amount of signal that will be recorded to tape, acting the same as it would on an actual tape machine. Increasing the level of this control will cause the ‘tape’ to be saturated with signal, which will cause distortion to the audio signal.
Warmth: This parameter controls the amount of non-linearity (ratio of output level to input level) in the tape saturation portion of the plug-in. With added warmth, the saturation/distortion effect is much more pronounced especially at higher record levels.
Tape Speed: Just as the tape speed in an analog tape deck
will determine the quality and timbre of the recorded material, this parameter affects the
behavior of the plug-in in the following ways:
1. It affects the amount of high-frequency attenuation (loss). As the tape speed
decreases, more of the high frequencies are lost. 2. It changes the tape EQ curves that
are being applied so that they are correct for that speed. 3. It changes the tape hiss
characteristics (the frequency components of the hiss shift higher as the tape speed
increases).
EQ Curves: These are the standard equalization curves that are used in professional analog tape machines, which are essentially highpass shelving filters that boost the high frequencies prior to the signal being recorded on tape. In the analog world, these filters are mostly meant to compensate for the roll-off (loss) of high frequencies due to various factors in the recording process, including the thickness of the tape, head-gap loss and other factors. Just as this roll-off is dependent on the tape speed, so are the EQ curves. For example, at 30 ips (inches per second) the EQ boosts less and at higher frequencies than at a lower tape speed (such as 7.5 ips).
Added Hiss: This parameter controls the amount of noise that is added to the signal after the tape saturation phase, simulating the high frequency hiss that is inherent in magnetic tape recording. It is important to note that changing the tape speed will affect the frequency spectrum of the hiss just as it does in actual tape machines. The greater the tape speed, the higher the frequency component of the noise. Since hiss is often an undesired effect of the magnetic recording process, we have provided the ability for you to remove it by lowering this control to 0.
Output Gain: This control allows you to increase or
decrease the output level of the processed audio, after the effect has been applied.
Why DirectX Audio Plug-ins?
Cakewalk Audio FX 2 is a pair of real-time audio processing plug-ins for
Windows 95/98/NT 4.0. All Cakewalk Audio FX plug-ins are Microsoft DirectX-compatible,
allowing you to use them with any digital audio software that supports DirectX including
Guitar Studio, Home Studio 7, Professional 7, and Pro Audio 8.
Cakewalk Audio FX 2 plug-ins use 32-bit, floating-point processing, providing you with
fast, precise, mono and stereo audio effects. Cakewalk Audio FX 2 can be used as real-time
effects during record or playback, or used to render audio tracks as off-line edits. So
you get maximum editing flexibility whether you're mixing tracks at home or in the studio.
While many different audio plug-in platforms exist today, Microsoft DirectX is the true
open standard for audio plug-ins on the Windows platform. This means that you are not
limited to a single manufacturer's proprietary format. DirectX is supported by the
industry's leading manufacturers of digital audio software, giving you a wide range of
plug-ins and host programs from which to choose.
For more information: cakewalk.com