Eleven Rack Turns Guitarists Onto Digidesign
By Paul Dakeyne
| Posted in Music Technology
Eleven Rack is the name given to a revolutionary new recording and effects processor that has been announced today by Digidesign, and it could be about to change how guitarists look at their sound, not to mention how they record it.
How so? For starters, the innovative Eleven Rack marks the first time that Digidesign – the company that blessed the world with Pro Tools software – has seriously addressed the guitar community. That’s reason enough to pay attention. More impressive still, however, is the company’s belief that Eleven is about to rid us forever of ‘lacklustre’ amp modeling. Add to that the recording capabilities of this wittily named rack and you could be forgiven for getting excited.
Eleven uses what Digidesign is calling a ‘tone-cloning’ system coupled with a custom True Z input to give guitarists the impression of playing through a full rig, while offering a long list of tones from classic amp emulations through to world-class effects. That applies whether the processor is used live or for recording at home – though we’d recommend trying both.
Eleven boasts a combination of onboard Pro Tools software coupled with a high resolution DSP powered interface to deliver professional standard recording into your home set-up, freeing up your computer to give you zero latency tones and effects, plus a combination of dry and processed signals on every recording, allowing you to re-amp later without the worry of repatching cables.
Then when you’ve finished producing your masterpiece at home you can take Eleven out on the road with you, using exactly the same tones you’ve used in your recording while you’re on-stage. Never again will a song sound less polished in the venue than on the EP you’re selling at the door. It even acts like a live rig, with MIDI controllers and expression pedals available to give you on-stage control over a vast array of effects from vintage wahs to delays.
The result is a product with the potential to change how guitarists work, from the bedroom to the stage. We can’t wait to plug into one and find out whether it really does turn our performance up to Eleven.
Tags: amp emulation, audio interface, effects, guitar model, Guitars, stomp box