Audio Ease's Cabinet is an inexpensive piece of software designed for emulating guitar amplifiers. I can't say that the installation process was hard at all as it only took a small amount of time and was a simple step by step process. The interface of the software is really simple as there isn't anything out of the ordinary going on here. You've got parameters for mic level, narrow/wide, bass, spring reverb, room mic, and room damp. It has a lot of different types of amp and cabinet combinations to work with, including those made by Marshall, Fender, Orange, and Mesa. Of course these aren't exact replicas, but it is definitely cool to have amps that you know in the mix here. I don't think that a manual is necessary, although I haven't seen it so I can't say for sure if it would be helpful or not.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

I'm currently running the Audio Ease Cabinet plug-in on a Mac Book Pro that has a 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of RAM. I have a Pro Tools LE system, running 7.4 with a Digi 002R audio interface. Thus far while using the Cabinet plug-in, everything has run smoothly within this configuration. I definitely haven't had a need to try and max it out in terms of how many I can run within a single session, but so far I've been comfortably able to run a few without a problem. As long as you have a decent system where you are currently able to run some plug-in in, I think you'll be fine here.

OVERALL OPINION

While certainly not the best sounding amp modeling software that I've used, Audio Ease Cabinet definitely has a lot to bring to the table. It is very easy to use and offers up a pretty diverse array of tones. However, without a doubt the best feature of the plug-in is how cheap it is. It makes the plug-in available to anyone with a home studio and software. I'd absolutely recommend checking it out for anyone looking to expand their plug-in arsenal in a home studio environment.