Positive Grid has announced that BIAS FX for iPad – a new amp-and-effects processor – is now available. A desktop version is also in development.
BIAS FX offers a huge collection of newly developed, high-definition pedal and rack effects are included: gate, boosters, overdrive, distortion, fuzz, equalizers, tremolo, phaser, flanger, chorus, octaver, compressors, delays, spring and plate reverbs.
Here’s the official intro video:
Here’s a tone walkthrough, featuring Steve Booke on guitar:
Here’s a video demo, featuring Jordan Rudess on Geo Synthesizer on the iPad:
Features:
- Intuitive operation
- Component-level simulation, ‘analog-like’ sound quality
- 12 classic BIAS amps, import any amp models from BIAS AMP
- 25 effect pedals with new sound-processing algorithms
- 5 rack processors
- Full integration with BIAS AMP gives you control over designing your own fully customized amps
- Dual signal path and dual amp processing
- Splitter switches between and combines dual signal paths, adjusting the level and frequency range for each path
- Live View mode lets you recall any preset with a single tap and toggle on/off any single effect or category of effects
- Pedalboard View shows all the effects and amps in the currently loaded preset at once
- Global Settings optimizes BIAS FX’s output to sound the best in any environment—including sending to a mixer, amp head or combo or stack power amp—by letting you EQ and selectively deactivate the app’s preamp, tone stack, power amp and cab separately for each destination.
- Inter app audio routing engine lets you insert other compatible audio apps in any place in your BIAS FX signal path
BIAS FX is available now for US $29.99 in the App Store.
Don’t know why they didn’t just update the JamUp Pro up. Looks pretty much like the same thing!
I will wait till price drop.
It is funny… it is all the same hardware running these iOS instruments. Merely different bits of code telling that hardware to do things in different ways. But it is all exactly the same hardware. Like homogenized milk, only with different flavorings mixed in. Nestle’s Quick music.
Also, any time you see promo copy in quotes (“analog-like”) is when you know they want to say something that no one can disprove and especially not not be challenged in court. My Chevrolet has “Ferrari-like” acceleration, especially if I push it off of a cliff.
Disliking iPad are you? Too good for it are you?
🙂
Yes Yoda.
Welcome to the modern world. This has been going on all around you for a long time, and not just with computers. “General purpose” electronics are a good thing.
gridsleep
FYI – We generally put vendor statements in quotes when they are subjective statements (like ‘analog-like’) vs objective statements (It has 5 rack processors).
There’s actually a lot more variety in the world of software synths than hardware synths, because software synths are not constrained by the physical and cost limitations of hardware synths.
There are tons of software synths that do things that are impractical as hardware. Additive synthesis is just one example of an approach to synthesis that is a better ‘fit’ for doing as software vs hardware.
I’m not suggesting that software is better than hardware – they both can sound great. But to dismiss software synths as being ‘homogenized’ suggests a lack of knowledge of whole worlds of synthesis that are only practical with software.
Yep, all those virtual instruments on my computer sound pretty much the same, cause they all got processed by an Intel CPU and are output through the converters of my Presonus interface….
That’s as ignorant as saying every television show has exactly the same actors in it because they all come over a cable onto a flat screen TV.
You might as well say music is all made of the same notes and it all sounds the same with that kind of logic.
It’s not all the same hardware. What A/D-D/A convertors do you use? What mic pre? What do you plug your instrument in to? Instead of plugging the iPad headphone output in to your Behringer POS-2000 mixer try an Apogee Duet for iOS to experiance a HUGE improvement in sound quality. Makes the iPad a seriously Pro audio device.
Not knowing how it magically works I can’t speak for “different bits of code” but at least I can appreciate all the talent, skill and endless days that go in to creating a superior product and the good coders earn my money. I own JamUp and Bias and I probably will be buying this new product. Of all my (many) amp sims I find their stuff to have the most “character”. One thing I have been hoping for is stereo effects.
It’s funny how all those hardware synths use the same components…circuit boards, resistors, transistors, wires, capacitors, ICs, pots, etc. No wonder they all sound the same! And guitar amps – wires, tubes, etc. I know that a Fender Twin sounds exactly like a Vox 30. Even violins – a 300 year old Strad uses essentially the same components as a $200 student model coming out of a Chinese factory last year – wood, strings, tuners, bracing so they must sound exactly the same.
It’s what is done with those components, whether it’s circuits, wood, or code; not the fact that the same basic components are being used. A really good softsynth sounds better than a poorly coded softsynth because of the talent going into the code.
Bias is a excellent guitar amp sim but it lacked FX. The previous solution was to use JamUp with your Bias amps but there was generally some quality loss when doing this and JampUp was not available for Bias Desktop. So this is the solution. I’ll be using it sometimes when it comes out for OSX.
I bought JamUp Pro, and then I bought BIAS, and then I bought some IAPs in JamUp Pro. Then Positive Grid released a thing with the same purpose as JamUp Pro, but with a different name and perhaps a whole different cross-compatibility structure than JamUp Pro.
I hope their next move is to update JamUp Pro so that it gets at least some of the functions and improvements of BIAS FX. But I won’t hold my breath.
You’d think they’d at the very least offer a discounted price for people that invested so heavily in JamUp Pro.
Also, the graphics layout looks a hell of a lot like ToneStack to me!
They just released an FAQ on this, and there isn’t any mention of an upgrade/crossgrade or special pricing at all. They all but confess that JamUp Pro is pro at all, and that they had to build something from the ground up that was better. Cheezy move.
BIAS FX could be a great app, but I’m not going near it– at least not until they offer it for a fraction of the price for folks who bought JUP and/or BIAS.
Maybe if they hold a 60% off sale in December I’ll pick it up. No way will I buy it before the Auria Pro upgrade (which, BTW, WILL offer a discount for current owners)
I´ve sent a question about the jamup owners and why we should buy the pedals and fx all over again, since we´ve spent a good amount on Jamup and Bias.
They´ve answered the following:
“Positive Grid Support (Positive Grid)
May 8, 08:01
Hi ,
Thanks for writing to Positive Grid support!
JamUp is still a great app and you don’t lose any of that.
If you choose to move to BIAS FX, a brand new product using
the best possible sound quality, it is recommended to use
BIAS FX effects for example, for the best experience.
Hope that helps.
Best Regards,
The Positive Grid Team
Support @ Positive Grid”
So, apparently we have a good app, with some money spent on it, but we cant expect anything else.
Everyone should understand the high cost of development. But anyone who may not be rich and is not a successful musician may have bought Jamup for personal enjoyment and will feel bad that a new product has been released by the same company with no price break for them. It’s only good business. There are incredible apps out there that are much less expensive for what the are. Bias Fx might be at the top of the game right now but people will not forget the company’s lack of compassion. You have to make people feel good about using a product beyond how good it is. That is called human nature. If I make a lot of cash I may just buy it but I will not forget.