Filter
Top Products
production is about using your ears, not your computer skills.
Simulation Technology
Here follows three geeky sections, so you might want to skip directly to the next chapter
on page 9.
Once upon a time, when Softube was not yet born, three guys (the hacker, the guitar
player and the professor) were involved in a research project at Linköping Institute of
Technology in Sweden, aimed at finding a model that could simulate non-linearities in
audio equipment. Non-linear systems were one of the expertise research areas at the
university, although the audible effects of the models hadn't been carefully investigated
yet. When they, in 2003, found a suitable model for audio non-linearities, it was evident
that the ear can discriminate between certain details that are very hard to discover
through purely mathematical methods, and also that the human ear couldn't care less
about other properties that the mathematical methods focused on.
The birth of this technology also led to the birth of Softube, and since then, about a dozen
of different research projects have been completed by Softube and Linköping Institute of
Technology, with focus ranging from loudspeaker non-linearities and spring reverb
simulations to novel poweramp designs and next generation compilers.
In short, the Amp Room plug-in consists of three core technologies:
1) A true physical circuit modeling, where every capacitor, resistor and component is
described in detail. In order to simulate these circuits on a DSP platform, we
developed a, now patented, simulation method.
2) A patented model for non-linearities that leads to a very dynamic and accurate
valve modeling.
3) A model of the cabinet, room and microphone using resonance modeled IIR
filters (yep, also patented), with extra care taken to assure numerical stability.
Supernormalize
The “supernormalize” feature (from the beginning the internal name of a slightly magic
component of our model building toolbox), makes sure that the output signal from Amp
Room always has a reasonable volume. From a user perspective, this means that the
Amp Room never clips the signal (unwanted digital distortion). Also, the output volume is
normalized, so even with low settings on the Volume knob in Amp Room, the output
volume will be within a reasonable level and ready for digital recordings. Compare this to
www.softube.com 7