We are kicking the year off with a real treat. This month we direct our focus towards our one-stop-shop for guitarists and bass players (of course, it can certainly add some interesting spice to your keys, beats or vocals as well).

Stark was awarded App of the Year when it was released and has been hugely popular and used across a multitude of genres ever since. This Pick of the Month also comes with a nice update for the iOS version – Stark can now be used standalone – just plug your guitar into your iPad via an audio interface (or something like iRig) and use it as your go-to practice amp – no DAW needed! And for that reason, this month only, we're cutting 40% off its price on AppStore as well!

Gustav Ängeskog laying down some awesome bass-grooves enhanced by Stark - Amp Simulator.

Fitting the guitar in the mix

We had a chat with professional guitar player Tobbe Fall about what he feels is the most important things to consider when mixing guitars?

"It's essential to fit the sound in the mix. You always need a direction – a position of a sound. Accomplishing a great sound that blends in can be quite difficult with virtual guitar amps because they don't really have a position. But STARK has features like different room textures, size control and stereo widener for the cabinets, that makes it much easier to fit the guitar in the mix. Of course you can set up your own reverbs and rooms and stuff but using Stark is a much simpler way to do it... and it just sounds so good. I even use it for reamping drums and keyboards sometimes."

A few examples of Tobbe Fall playing guitar through different Stark settings.

Check out Stark for iPad here: