Sun, November 17, 2013 at 1:02 PM A couple of days ago in our review we told you how we were blown away by Positive Grid's new infinitely tweakable sound engine, BIAS for iPad.
Well, if you really fancy trying BIAS but haven’t yet splashed out on the app yourself, we have one free copy to give away.
All you have to do is:
1) Ensure you follow us on either Facebook or Twitter
2) Leave us a comment below that includes
a) Your favourite feature of BIAS (hint: check out the BIAS homepage)
b) Your email address in the comment form so we can contact you if you win (don’t worry, we are the only ones who see your email, it isn’t made public)
;)
Important Info.
That’s it. You must meet both criteria 2a and 2b above or, in fairness to other entrants, we cannot consider your entry.
We’ll randomly select one of the commenters below after 1900 GMT on the closing date Wednesday 20th November 2013.
iPad Creative
Congratulations to our winner Pat! Your email is on the way.
Thank you to everyone who took part, it was great fun seeing your comments and our thanks too to Positive Grid for letting us give away their BIAS app to one of our readers.
Amp Modelling, BIAS, Giveaway, Phil, Positive Grid, epic, guitar, guitarists, tone | in Competition Fri, November 15, 2013 at 9:18 PM “…We threw out convention and focused instead on how to create the most delicious tone in as many flavors as possible. The result is BIAS...” - Calvin Abel, BIAS Product Manager
In our last post we told you about the upcoming release of BIAS and what amazing tone control was promised by the team at Positive Grid.
Well, we were invited to be in on the Beta program for BIAS and Wow! BIAS really does live up to that promise.
BIAS has now been officially released and we think Guitarists are going to love this app, especially those searching for the perfect tone,.
If you care about your guitar tone and want professional results right there on your iPad, you will run out and get BIAS now. Here's why you should:
As the above video demonstrates, BIAS makes your guitar tone infinitely tuneable to the finest degree possible. You have complete control over every part of your tone including:
The great thing is you don’t need to be a sound tech or audiophile to understand this app and dial in your perfect sound. We found it intuitive and easy to drag/tap our way to a sound we were happy with.
You can do things with this app that would take a long time to do or that would cost you a lot of money in the real world. For example, you may not bother to change a whole set of tubes or be able to switch to a different head or cabinet setup to fine-tune your sound, but you can do that in a couple of seconds with BIAS, all whilst constantly monitoring the sound as you make even tiny adjustments.
To get you started, BIAS comes loaded with 36 amp presets (28 guitar, 4 bass and 4 keyboard/vocal), including a lot of the most popular and well loved amps. These sound fantastic as they are, but they are also a perfect launchpad for building your own sound, especially as they are categorised so you have an idea of what to expect. Here’s the categories you get:
The quality of these amp models is very impressive. Positive Grid’s USP for us is the warmth that their sound engine produces in comparison to the often harsh, digital, sound of some other iOS amp sims.
The clean amps especially sound beautiful as long as you pare down the input from your guitar, but with our Epi Les Paul (no we can’t afford the real thing) the Metal and Insane amps ripped apart our speakers with the lovely, screaming yet smooth, distortion that you would hope to hear.
It is a bit embarrassing to admit, but there was a massive smile on our face as we heard these amp models for the first time, even excitedly chuckling at how awesome they sounded. BIAS really does sound that good.
It’s not just about the way your unique amp sounds either. You can completely customise the look of your new unique amp setup. You have control over every aspect of your amp’s design whether you want that traditional Marshall rock stack look or a classic Fender Tweed blues vibe, or a mash-up of both, you can do it with BIAS.
You can even change the panel style (behind the controls) and add your own custom image as the bezel for your amp head.
Once you have found that killer tone and designed your amp’s look, you can tell everyone else about it by sharing it with them on Facebook.
This is what it looks like when you share it on Facebook:
When your sound is finalised and ready to go Positive Grid have made it a one-tap operation to send your whole amp (including its unique look) over to JamUp XT (Free) or their Pro version to jam live with.
BIAS is also Audiobus compatible so you can use your unique amp sound in any app that integrates with the fantastic Audiobus platform, including GarageBand which you may already have for free if you have a new iOS device, an essential but still very welcome interaction.
Of course, BIAS is compatible with pretty much any manner of iOS instrument input device, not just Positive Grid’s own JamUp Plug. A full list of the compatible iOS audio interfaces can be found at the bottom of the BIAS webpage.
We had no problem using it with iRig, Apogee Jam, GuitarJack 2 and of course the JamUp Plug. All gave great results with only the difference between the devices themselves affecting the input levels (but that has nothing to do with BIAS).
We could go on, but it will come as no surprise that we are highly recommending BIAS for iPad.
Yes, it is on the expensive side for an iOS app at $19.99, but at the price of one decent tube for your amp BIAS will open up a world of easily achievable tone and we don't think you'll ever regret purchasing it.
You can find out more about the BIAS for iPad app at Positive Grid's website or go and grab it from the App Store now.
Plus, stay tuned over the weekend for your chance to win a free copy of BIAS - more soon.
BIAS, Phil, Positive Grid, audiophile, epic, guitar, guitarists, tone | in Audio, Music 
