SIGNIFICANT BITS
February 2008

by Sean N. Henderson

PC AS STOMPBOX

In the process of tinkering with Live 6 Lite and sequencing, I realized that none of the programs will perform simple stomp-box style effects for a plugged-in instrument.

M-Audio makes a USB interface and software combo called 'JamLab'. I like M-Audio's stuff a lot, but wasn't going to add yet another audio interface when I just bought the M-Audio MobilePre USB audio one, so I went hunting for a freeware (beer and speech) package that would do the trick. I don't play guitar that often any more, despite having a brand new Gibson SG with P-90 pickups.

Nothing found competed on a par with any commercial amp-stack type packages such as Amplitube or JamLab. I did find a couple of programs that would suffice if you had an electric guitar handy that you like to noodle on while coding or doing other computer work.

The first program I checked out was GNUitar, version 0.3.2. This program runs in Linux and Windows. Under Linux, it uses the JACK audio server. Under Windows, there's a choice of MME or DirectSound. No ASIO drivers, unfortunately.

The latency (delay) on GNUitar was so bad under Windows as to put it in the toy or novelty category. It is definitely not ready for prime-time, but then the version number sort of indicated that. It does let you save several settings in a file to load back in later. The effects available with the package tested included two distortion effects, delay, reverb, wah-wah, pitch transposition and others.

Besides the latency, GNUitar, had much noise from the distortion effects that wasn't easily mitigated by either the noise gate effect nor adjusting the sample rate or similar system settings. It did have a pleasant flanger and chorus sound. There were also many 'clicking' noises. All of this is disclosed in the package's forum or documentation.

The next package I tried was CP GFX version 0.1.0. Again, this is a Linux/Windows application with some prebuilt binaries. On Windows, this program uses the ASIO drivers, and thus near-zero latency. Again, the distortion effects generated a huge amount of background noise, but this was easily handled by the noise gate effect.

Curiously, only one preset can be saved on CP GFX. However, the sound quality was so good, and I experienced near zero buffer overruns, segfaults or other craziness, that this program could easily be used in a production, especially if it gets to the 1.x.x stage.

Lacking from the current packages effect list is plain old delay. I tend to use delay more than reverb, so this omission was bothersome for my tastes. The reverb algorithm was really good, however, and easy to control. I also liked the gain structure and got plenty of level with the program and could adjust the output level after each effect stage—a nice touch!

So what is the use of these programs? Neither will replace a real amplifier, stomp box, rackmount multi-fx or the like. However, CP GFX is just what is needed, if, as in my situation, you just want to toy with some guitar effects for a bit without having to buy and deal with commercial licensed software.



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