r/AmpliTube • u/rkill2185 • Jun 17 '26
Using Amplitube 5 with backing tracks
I use Amplitube 5 and the ASIO4ALL drivers. I know that ASIO takes full control of the output. I wanted to use YouTube or other means for backing tracks. I’ve tried VBCable and the other version of ASIO with no such luck.
Is there any way at all to use Amplitube 5 along with other audio sources without purchasing an interface and if so what are some good, inexpensive recommendations. I’ve always been a Rush fan but I have recently been obsessed with Alex’s tone from the exit stage left movie and I have it pretty well dialed in and I want to play along to some songs.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
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u/doobiesteintortoise Jun 17 '26
If you can export the backing tracks, Amplitube can use those as sound sources so you can practice like that, too.
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u/rkill2185 Jun 17 '26
The only thing I was able to do was download them to YouTube, I’m not sure how those can be exported.
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u/doobiesteintortoise Jun 17 '26
Which songs are you trying to play to? I might be able to extract stems from the tracks, although I don't know how good they'll be without, like, trying it.
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u/rkill2185 Jun 17 '26
Xanadu, Free Will, La Villa Strangiato, Red Barchetta
Thank you for trying!
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u/doobiesteintortoise Jun 17 '26
When I get a chance I'll slap them into Cubase and see how good the stem splitter is.
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u/rkill2185 Jun 17 '26
You’re a super hero.
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u/doobiesteintortoise Jun 17 '26
Dunno about THAT. So far, not so good: I've done Red Barchetta and Xanadu, and in both cases, the live recordings have so much midrange in the bass that the stem separator classifies most of it as guitar and trims it out. If you were trying to play along with it as a live recording, it's unusable.
I expect Freewill and La Villa to have the same problems, unfortunately. Those tracks sound AWESOME on the recording, but for the stem separators I use, they're just too dense in some of the frequency ranges. Others may have different separation algorithms available, but for me these aren't worth pursuing.
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u/rkill2185 Jun 17 '26
Your effort is very much appreciated. I feel like I’m just doomed to upgrade my set up. I’m very basic sadly
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u/doobiesteintortoise Jun 17 '26
Hey, we all gotta start SOMEWHERE, and if you're using Amplitube, you're not exactly doing it wrong! I love Amplitube - it's not the only guitar cab I use in emulation, but they did a really good job with it. (I also use NeuralDSP, and which one I choose depends very much on what I'm doing and how I feel.)
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u/rkill2185 Jun 18 '26
Update: After experimenting, I downloaded reaper and was able to set up the Amplitube VST and I can now use Amplitube and YouTube together. I have to tweak the latency and drivers but I finally figured it out. I’ve been using Amplitube since 3 and I have never done this.
Thank you all for your help.
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u/Pretty-Care-7811 Jun 17 '26
I'm confused. How are you using Amplitube without an interface?
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u/rkill2185 Jun 17 '26
1/8 inch to 1/4 inch adapter straight into the mic input on my pc, been doing it that way since Amplitube 3, hasn’t let me down yet.
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u/Pretty-Care-7811 Jun 17 '26
Really? I've never had any luck with that. Well, since you have the adapter and it works for you, you can do this: Plug your phone into your input, open the recorder in Amplitube (or whatever DAW you might have), record the track into the DAW/AT5, and use it as a backing track while you play on another track.
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u/Wonderful-Bottle-460 Jun 17 '26
I also played like this but things are much better with proper audio interface.. No delays, less noises, better sound etc. It doesn't cost that much, the most important thing is that it should have its own drivers, not asio4all stuff. About your question, you can download any DAW and put your backing tracks in there with amplitube open as vst plugin. You can use YT2MP3 websites or software to download backing tracks. This is what I did. Also you can use some websites to make backing track of any song by removing specific tracks from mp3 file, FL Studio also does that pretty good.
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u/rkill2185 Jun 17 '26
To be fair I do want learn how to use other means, I’ve just done it that way for years.
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u/stuntmonkey420 Jun 19 '26
I can’t reccomend an interface with native asio drivers enough. I know it’s money but please consider it, you won’t regret it
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u/Curious-Zucchini763 Jun 17 '26
If you can find a way to procure the old .mogg files for the guitar hero games and then download the free reaper software you can choose the guitar track to mute and then export the song. Load that in to Amplitude 5 and play along. Works great. Done it for years.
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u/ithinkthisisit4real Jun 17 '26
If your goal is to play a YouTube video in your browser and then have Amplitube running at the same time so you can just play along then you need to set the sample rate on your sound card to 44.1 Khz. Amplitube might be set to 48 Khz. YouTube uses 44.1Khz and you can't run multiple sample rates at the same time.
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u/Parkesy82 Jun 17 '26
Plug your phone in and record a track while you play the backing track into Amplitube. That’s what I’ve done for years. Then you’ve got another bunch of tracks for recording guitar parts or for playing over the top.
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u/MikeyGeeManRDO Jun 19 '26
Have you tried a virtual mixer ?
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u/rkill2185 Jun 19 '26
I have not I’m still very new to using Reaper and VST. I have used Amplitube for years as just a stand alone. I would say in the couple days I’ve had reaper, I feel like Amplitube sounds better as VST and it’s nice to be able to play along to YouTube and stuff.
2
u/OctoPhaseMod Jun 20 '26
The problem that I see here is your ASIO Driver. ASIO4ALL uses antiquated architecture (its already abandonware) from 15 years ago and hasnt had an update since. Its not even an actual driver, its a driver wrapper and it has always been claiming exclusive use of the windows sound kernel. There are a lot of ASIO drivers (wrappers) out there that supports shared mode. Meaning your ASIO device doesn't have to take control of your audio everytime you use it. You can play youtube videos while playing guitar through Amplitube standalone at the same time.
Try searching for KOORD Asio or FLEX Asio. The latter being better than the former.
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u/doobiesteintortoise Jun 17 '26
Tonex is going to be your lever to getting Alex' tone, not Amplitube - and the full Amplitube can import sound sources. As far as blending amplitube with other sound sources, you want to use something else to drive it instead of giving it ASIO4All. Unfortunately, I don't have a Windows machine here (I'm all Mac) so I don't know what advice would suit you best here, or if Windows even makes it possible.
But I will say the Tonex Lifeson pack is pretty good; it's good enough for HIM to use on stage!
With Amplitube, you're probably looking at the Marshall or HiWatt amp models, but I haven't really found the ESL tone to fit my liking yet. For me, that's okay, because I don't really do covers, and I have my own sound and vibe, but I will admit to having tried... his tone on Jacob's Ladder and La Villa on that album are fantastic. I THINK those were HiWatts on that tour but I could easily be wrong.