GEAR-Guitar Effects & Amp Rack

GEAR is a complete guitar rig for iPad and iPhone: neural amp captures (NAM v2), cabinet impulse responses, an effects grid with no block limit that you route yourself, sixteen instant Scenes in every preset, and MIDI control deep enough to run an entire set from a foot controller. It was built by a gigging player and played live throughout its development.

AMPS AND CABINETS
Load neural amp captures (NAM v2) and/or your own cabinet IRs. Free-tier rigs get exactly the same audio quality as the full version — nothing is watermarked, shortened or timed out.

A GRID, NOT A CHAIN
As many blocks as your rig needs, on a grid with real parallel paths, patch-bay splits and merges, per-block bypass you can put on a footswitch, and per-path latency compensation so parallel amps stay in phase. Over sixty blocks: overdrives, fuzzes, compressors, EQs, wahs and filters, delays, reverbs, chorus, phaser, flanger, tremolo, pitch shifting, a looper, and IR loaders from two to eight slots.

SCENES
Sixteen gap-free sound changes inside every preset — verse, chorus, solo — each with its own block states and levels. A level matcher measures your Scenes and evens them out instead of guessing.

BUILT FOR THE STAGE
Performance Mode shows what matters at a glance — preset, Scene, tempo, tuner — and can mirror your footswitches so you can see what your feet see. On iPad Performance Mode floats over other apps. Reserved MIDI controls for tuner, tap tempo, Scenes, looper, whole-rig capture and recall, and more work out of the box with any controller, wired or Bluetooth, and up to four expression pedals.

GEAR runs on iPhone too, with the same grid editor, presets, Scenes and MIDI as the iPad: a smaller screen, not a smaller app. Presets sync between your devices through iCloud or any cloud folder. I built the iPhone version as a backup in case an iPad fails at a gig, and it has since become a full second rig.

MORE
• Tuner with a large, readable display
• Metronome with tap tempo and count-in
• Looper with reverse and half speed
• Multiple outputs, including a mono-rig mode for a single amp
• Record your dry input for re-amping in a DAW later
• iCloud sync of presets between your devices, and one-tap backups
• Preset import and export

FREE, THEN ONE PURCHASE
GEAR is free to download and play. The free version gives you one row of twelve blocks, one amp capture and one IR loader, a selection of drives, dynamics, delay, modulation, EQ and reverb, and four Scenes — at full quality, for as long as you like. A single in-app purchase unlocks everything: every block, the full grid with no block limit, all sixteen Scenes and banks, MIDI, the looper, the metronome, sync, backup and recording. Buy once; it is yours on every device signed in with the same Apple Account.

REQUIREMENTS
An audio interface: any class-compliant USB audio interface (Lightning or USB-C) with an instrument input, for the guitar in and the sound out. GEAR needs no particular make or model and nothing made for it specially — the same generic interfaces every recording app uses. A MIDI foot controller, wired or Bluetooth, is optional — but it is where GEAR comes alive. You can explore every screen without an audio interface, but your guitar needs a proper input — a built-in microphone will not carry an electric guitar signal.

GEAR connects to no servers and collects no data.

Support: gear@helixprojects.co.uk
User guide, hardware suggestions and getting-started notes: gear.helixprojects.co.uk

We welcome suggestions and are looking to do regular updates as ideas come in.