As a new piece of gear is dragged into the chain window, the available cable destinations light up to guide the user. The previous versions’ set of eight routing combinations is replaced by four main chain types: single, two-way split, three-way split and (dual) parallel. It may have taken IK Multimedia some time to get here, but they have created a skilful balance of comprehensive visual feedback and simple, intuitive editability.

The drag-and-drop signal chain portion of the interface is where the real ‘at last’ comes in. To help keep the GUI tidy, you can filter the gear sidebar to only show items in your collection, saving unnecessary dialogue boxes and trips to the Custom Shop. To further this new sense of spaciousness, both the standalone and plug-in windows are user scalable, rendering many amp and pedal controls squint-free. Skeuomorphic representations replace drop-down menus for gear selection. The interface appears less crowded, despite there being more control immediately available than before. Visually Amplitude 5 gets off to a great start. The lower bar pulls together the input/output levels, tuner and sequencer related controls, doing away with the old input noise gate, which is no great loss.

The ‘gear’ is now arranged by type and sub-category (clean, crunch, lead, etc.) in a sidebar to the right. The most apparent change served up by Amplitube 5 is the switch to a split-screen, drag-and-drop interface with the modules/gear above and the routing chain below. The fifth iteration of Amplitube is the most significant since its first revision around 15 years ago.

Amplitube 3 no presets folder