Amplitube X-Drive Review (bought and unboxed)

For this review, I simply unboxed the pedal, hooked it up and tested each existing preset, making minor tweaks along the way.

While you can create a ton of your own presets, I was able to get through roughly 20-30 presets straight out of the box. We'll get into the details of my experience in this full AmpliTube X-Drive review.

In this section we've built a simple table with the rest of the pedals from the AmpliTube X-Series. You can use this table to check pricing for each pedal, and to browse product descriptions via the orange Sweetwater buttons. 

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Otherwise, just enjoy the review.

One of the coolest things about the X-Drive is how the presets and banks are already setup, in that they give you a nice progression from soft to heavy distorted tones, often within each series of presets.

For example, you have three Orange models that progress like this:

• Orange 1: Light gain
• Orange 2: Medium gain
• Orange 3: Heavy, high-gain

A lot of the banks, which come in sets of three, give you this progression already dialed into the pedal. For the most part, I didn't feel a need to tweak or change the presets that much.

And as we already mentioned multiple times, it seemed to be the high-gain models that gave the best results.

Most distortion models sound distinctly thick, and bass-heavy.

I even had to dial bass back on several presets, especially when recording.

This makes the X-Drive more accommodating of heavier tones, which I was perfectly happy with. Those looking for bluesier, more subtle distortion settings might have to do some additional tweaking.

I'd loosely grade each category as follows:

• Metal/Hard Rock: A-
• Blues, moderate gain levels: B-
• Fuzz/Octave: C

To be fair, this is my own interpretation of the sounds and is certainly subject to my own gear and setup. But I also think it's fair to say this pedal has some pretty distinct strengths and weaknesses, especially since I tried to just let the presets speak for themselves.

Overall, the sound quality of this pedal is solid, especially given the wide scope of distortion sounds it attempts to cover.

Control and Versatility

The front panel of the X-Drive has a control scheme similar to an amplifier with drive, volume, and a three-band EQ. However, it's important to point out that this is not a preamp or amp replacement pedal.

It's a distortion pedal or digital distortion modeler that's not meant to substitute for an actual preamp and power amp. 

Here's a list of all eight knobs on the front panel:

• Parameter (setup)
• Drive (gain control)
• Bass
• Mids
• Treble
• Volume (output)
• Model
• Preset

When you make changes with these knobs, the shift is displayed on the LED screen in numeric form, which is extremely helpful for dialing in more nuanced tone qualities.

The simplest way to navigate the algorithms is to use the preset knob on the right side of the pedal. Turning it will cycle through the factory presets, which covers a variety of all 16 emulations.

If you want to cycle through banks, you can press the left + center button to go down or the right + center button to go up.

Within each bank the three buttons function as three different preset selections.

Again, I didn't really feel the need to tweak anything given the scope of the presets that were already programmed into the banks. However, once I did start playing around with the EQ and the speaker cabs, I found there was plenty of flexibility if I wanted to deviate from any of the presets.

After awhile it gets a bit redundant, because there are only so many different ways distortion can sound.

But I would argue that whether you just want to use the presets or you want to custom-dial your own tone, the X-Drive is perfectly capable of accommodating both approaches. 

We should also mention here that the X-Drive supports a couple of external control options:

• MIDI in/out
• Expression pedal control

Depending on how you want to set up your rig, these options can provide additional ways to control the X-Drive. The simplest setup would be some kind of MIDI controller that allows you to bank and cycle through presets more easily.

If you just use the X-Drive pedal, you'll have to switch between banks and then select your preset.

A MIDI controller would essentially take out that middle step.

Good fit for modern distortions?

I've noticed that it's harder to find a good modern distortion pedal than it is to find bluesy or vintage overdrive-style pedals. So I was surprised when I was able to get so many solid metal and hard rock tones out of the X-Drive, even when using non-metal presets like the Orange 3. 

To be fair, not all of the high-gain algorithms were appealing to me. 

Some of the fuzz settings, particularly when an octaver was added, were just too busy and chaotic.

But for getting that smooth, punchy, and percussive distortion, the X-Drive gives you a lot of real estate to work with.

I should also add that recording these sounds produced good results as well.

While there is certainly some noise to deal with (not surprising at higher gain levels). It was surprisingly quiet, even with the drive knob cranked and the metal presets active.

So I'd argue from personal experience - the X-Drive is a great option for recording metal-style distortion tones.

Good fit for vintage distortions?

On the lighter gain side, the X-Drive still has a lot to offer.

There are plenty of blues-style overdrives, lighter distortions, and even a simple booster that you can use for more mellow tones.

However, it's important to add that digital modelers like this often have trouble with subtle overdrive and breakup that's typically handled by a tube amp. It's more difficult to model and potentially less satisfying than what a real tube amp can produce.

For that reason, we often recommend staying away from digital modelers when it comes to overdrive or vintage distortion sounds.

While some of those sounds are decent in the X-Drive, its strength is on the modern end of the distortion style spectrum.

Value

While there aren't a ton of comparables for the X-Drive, we believe the asking retail of $300 is reasonable and low enough to keep it in the high-value category.

As we mentioned, the most notable comparison that comes to mind is the Line 6 Distortion modeler from years past, which isn't in production anymore.

Here are a few larger-scale distortion pedals that you could use to compare:

• Friedman BE-OD Deluxe Dual Overdrive: $280
• Blackstar Dept. 10 Dual Distortion: $300
• Wampler Gearbox: $270
• JHS Sweet Tea V3 Overdrive: $345

Again, this should not be confused with preamps, which are often lumped in with the distortion pedal category and are typically more expensive.

However we see that compared to the distortion pedal market - the X-Drive is right where we'd expect. Not only that, but it does a lot more than most of its competitors. For example, the Friedman BE-OD is just a dual overdrive, while the X-Drive can produce 16 different types of distortion before you even get to tweaking and cab models.

Now, could you argue that pedals like the BE-OD and the Gearbox sound better? Sure, in some cases.

But when evaluating the value of the X-Drive, we'd have to say that $300 is a perfectly reasonable price point for this stompbox, given how much it can do and how flexible it is.

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