Music Gear Review: IK Multimedia Fender Collection 2

Part of IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube Custom Shop, Fender® Collection 2 for AmpliTube 4.1 for Mac & PC’s is an officially certified library of rare and vintage Fender guitar and bass amplifier models from the ‘50s to the ‘60s—the nascent days of handmade Fender amps. These models sound like the amps that first came out of Leo Fender’s garage in Fullerton, CA way back.

You get all of the tweeds amps from the ‘57 Custom Series including: the ‘57 Deluxe, ‘57 Champ, ‘57 Pro, ‘57 Twin and the ‘57 Bandmaster. And just to sweeten the deal, there is a good model of an original 1953 Bassman and a 1965 Blackface Super Reverb amp.

AmpliTube 4.1 runs standalone and also as a plug-in for Mac/PC. The standalone version has an 8-track recorder, 4-track looper and you can have two fully configurable rigs running with up to 32 simultaneous effects!

I’ve been using AmpliTube and Fender Collection 2 more in my mixes and I am most impressed with it! Without owning all these amps and cabinets, it is fascinating to use and hear impossible amp/cab combinations. This is a whole other layer of flexibility especially useful when searching for unique guitar sounds either in a mix or when playing live.

So I am happy to recommend the Fender Collection 2 running in the latest 4.1 version of AmpliTube.
The Fender Collection 2 sells for $149 downloadable at ikmultime dia.com/products/fender2. AmpliTube 4.1 sells for $149 downloadable at ikmultimedia.com/products/amplitube4. You may also buy a bundle of AmpliTube 4.1 and the Fender Collection 2 for $229.

BARRY RUDOLPH is a recording engineer/mixer who has worked on over 30 gold and platinum records. He has recorded and/or mixed Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hall & Oates, Pat Benatar, Rod Stewart, the Corrs and more. Barry has his own futuristic music mixing facility and loves teaching audio engineering at Musician’s Institute, Hollywood, CA. He is a lifetime Grammy-voting member of NARAS and a contributing editor for Mix Magazine. barryrudolph.com