iOS is getting to be a serious platform for musicians. Lots of musicians already know that, but now some amazing hardware is appearing that takes advantage of the little devices. The latest is Positive Grid’s Bias Mini, for guitar and bass, 300-watt guitar amplifier that takes its sounds from an iPhone, iPad, or Mac app.
Bias Mini guitar amp
The Bias Mini comes in two models, one for guitar, one for bass. It’s a modeling amp, which means that it uses computer modeling to recreate the sounds of historic and contemporary guitar amps, instead of using glowing tubes to amplify the signal. The little 5-pound box puts out a massive 300 Watts (or 600 Watts for the bass version), and can be plugged into pretty much any guitar speaker cabinet you like.
Photo: Positive Grid
The Bias Mini works as a standalone unit, with its own computer processors inside, but it is meant to be used with the Bias Amp app on iOS or Mac. This app lets you design an endless number of virtual amps, choosing which virtual components go inside them, from the tubes, right down to the kind of power supply. This lets you design your ideal amp sound, which you then load into the Mini via Bluetooth or USB.
Copy a real-life amp’s sound
If you’re using the Mac app, you can go even further by recording the sound of a real-life amplifier, and using the amp-match feature to model its sound.
Photo: Positive Grid
You don’t actually need the Bias Mini to do all of this. You can just hook your guitar up to your iPad or iPhone, and connect that to a speaker instead. The software versions offer the exact same sounds you’d get from the hardware. But if you’re in the market for an actual amp, this one is worth a look, and it also comes with a bunch of neat hardware features, including an effects loop for adding in your own effects pedals, MIDI in and out, a foot switch jack, plus an XLR line out, for send the output to a mixing desk, or to a venue’s PA system.
Price: $20
Download: Bias Amp from the App Store (iOS)
Price: $799
Buy from: Sweetwater
