 This video is a guide to help you connect your IDCore amplifier to Blackstar's Architect software via Windows PC or Mac, for deeper tone shaping, additional functionality and information on generating a log file for customer support. All IDCore products can connect to a Windows PC or Apple Mac and will all function as displayed in this guide. In order to connect your IDCore amplifier to any PC or Mac, you will need a USB Mini B to USB Type A or Type C cable. This cable is not provided with your IDCore amplifier. Plug the USB Mini B end of the cable into your IDCore amplifier and the USB Type A or C end into your computer. We recommend plugging the USB Type A or C end directly into a main USB port on your computer for the best connection. With the cable connected, you can now power on your IDCore amplifier. Now open the Blackstar Architect software, which you can download from our website. Upon launching your IDCore amplifier and with Architect open, a pop-up may appear advising you to upgrade your amplifier's firmware. We advise that you update your IDCore whenever a firmware upgrade is available. If you opt out of upgrading your firmware, the update can be accessed by clicking the Open Settings Panel button in the top right-hand corner, selecting the About tab and clicking the I button located next to the version description. Here you will find the update and your amplifier's current version. Architect gives you access to every setting assigned to a physical control on the amplifier, as well as additional controls and settings. You can adjust the voice, gain and volume using your computer mouse or trackpad and these changes within the software will apply to your amplifier. One note here is that the volume control is a universal control. You will see that under equalization, there may be a greater number of changeable parameters than on your physical IDCore. Every IDCore that you connect to Architect will show these EQ controls, but not every IDCore will have a physical control to match. Alongside these EQ controls, you will find Resonance and Presence controls. Underneath the voicing and EQ controls are the 12 stereo effects, as well as the tuner and noise gate. Here you have greater control over the effects parameters than you do on the physical IDCore unit. One thing to note here is that when you have your IDCore connected to Architect and you change a physical control on the amplifier, that change will be represented in real time in Architect. However, when you change a control within Architect, this will not be physically represented on the amplifier. On the right hand side of the screen is Cabrig Lite. Cabrig is our next generation speaker simulator software. A Lite version comes as standard with all IDCore products and is monitored via the 8th inch stereo jack output and the multi-channel USB output. Using Architect, you have control over the speaker cabinet configuration, microphone choices, microphone access and EQ and level controls. In the top right hand corner of each panel of the Architect window, there is a dice that generates a random selection of the controls within that panel. You can use this to randomly generate tones. Once you are happy with your tone shaping with the Architect software, you have the option to save your settings. When you select the save current patch button, you are given three choices. You can either save patch to device, which will save your patch to the amplifier. Save manual mode settings, which will save all settings for controls that are not on your amplifier's top panel, such as your noise gate settings, so that when you switch to manual mode, those hidden settings are not restored to the default setting. And save local patch, which will save your patch settings to your computer. You can save up to six patches to your device and as many as you like to your computer. You can also save Cabrig Lite settings to your IDCore amplifier. These settings are stored separately from your main patches. Once you are happy with your chosen settings, simply click the save Cabrig Lite to AMP and your Cabrig Lite settings will now be stored to the outputs described earlier. If you have patches saved to your computer, or you have downloaded patches you want to load onto your amplifier, you can access these by clicking the show the patches library button in the top right hand corner. This will display three different dropdown menus. Device patches shows you the six patch slots on your IDCore. If you right click on one of these slots, you have the option to rename that patch or load in a patch you have saved. Local patches shows you all the patches you have saved onto your computer. Right clicking on a patch shows you lots of options, such as save to device and rename. There is also a show file option, which locates where on your computer this patch has been saved. This can help you with your file management and where to download and store patches you have found elsewhere. Finally, the backups dropdown menu shows you any backups of your IDCore settings and patches that Architect has generated. Backups can be generated when updating your unit's firmware. If you require support for your IDCore product, we advise that you use the Architect software to generate a log file and send it to customer services. Customer services can then use the log file to identify your amplifier's issue more effectively. To generate a log file, locate the open settings panel in the top right hand side of the Architect window. In the general tab, there is a create log file on startup slider. If the slider is to the left and displaying as white, you need to turn on the setting by clicking the slider, which will move it to the right and change the color to red. If you had to turn the setting on, you will now need to close the Architect software and reopen it. This will save the setting and generate a log file every time you open the Architect application. If your create log file on startup setting was already turned on, then your Architect software has already been generating a log file on startup. To locate this file, click the show logs button at the bottom of the general tab. On Windows and Mac, this will take you to a hidden folder where your logs are stored. The file piles for finding this folder on both Windows and Mac are displayed on screen now. Sending your log file to customer services, along with your own description of the issue, is the most effective way of helping our service department diagnose your issue. Here are some tones I've generated using an ID Core 10 V3 and Architect. I am playing a Fender Strat with single core pickups.