Eleven LE Review

Last week I picked up the "Digidesign Music Production Toolkit 2" which features a bundle of plugins, virtual instruments and software upgrades for Pro Tools LE and M-Powered.

One of the plugins included is an RTAS guitar amp emulator called Eleven LE which is a similar product to that of IK Multimedia's amplitube and Native Instruments guitar rig 3.

The first disadvantage has already been made clear, because it is an RTAS; it is unusable in any other DAW apart from Pro Tools. Upon opening the plugin, its visuals quickly remind me of Amplitube and it is just as easily used. You have the choice of 16 amp models, which emulate several classic amps from the last 50 years, including: The Vox AC30, Marshall JCM, Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifiers and more! Having played through all of these amps in real life, I can say that the representation of them is fair.

You have the choice of 7 different speaker cabs, all with different characteristics, from 1x12's to 4x12's. You can choose 8 different types of microphones to be placed on or off axis; the suggested models include Shure's SM57, Sennheiser M241, AKG 414 and more. To top it off, there is a noise gate which to me is genius, so many of these types of plugins create incredible amounts of hum when using distortion and it’s about time something was done to combat it.

So with all these features, you're asking - is it actually any good?

Yes and no, the sounds I was able to get with my Fender Telecaster were very satisfactory if you’re hoping to do a quick demo to show band mates. The tones are probably not good enough for a commercial recording though but if you’re looking to build your first demo with your band at home where you do not have the location to crank your amp, this is the next best thing to try. The presets which come with the plugin are decent - with a little bit of experiment with the amps I easily managed to find tones I was happy with.

Here are some audio examples I worked on last night, comparing the plugin for different styles of music.

Hard Rock/Metal - mp3 876kb

Here are the settings I used for the Rhythm guitars (click to enlarge)



Here are the settings I used for the lead guitars



Pop Punk - mp3 658kb

Guitar settings



Pop Rock - mp3 544kb

Rhythm guitar



Lead Guitar



Pros:

• Good range of options which you can customize to come closer to the sound you want.
• No integrated hardware needed.
• Excellent if you do not have an amp, or neighbors that appreciate loud amps

Cons:

• Only available for Pro Tools systems.
• Tones are not realistic enough.
• CPU usage is a little too high over several tracks.

Overall, this is an excellent tool which I will be using to get down ideas, but sadly, that’s all I'll be using it for.

More info and audio samples can be found here.

RRP £250

Jamie x