Guitar Rig 2, Pod XT, Amplitube..

[dzach]

I've been using GuitarRig 2 at home for awhile now simply because of ease of use and budget, however nothing beats using my real amp in the studio. You can get stuff sounding pretty good in GuitarRig, but it's always gonna have that digital, kinda lifeless sound to it.

If you have the money, get a nice tube amp and a cool sounding mic (SM57 works fine, but they sound pretty generic on guitars IMO).

Also, whoever told you to put a HP filter at 400Hz on your guitar is crazy.

 

[TerraMortim]

Cool!
But i would like to hear your take with some heavy metal kinda distortion if you could record that?
So i can hear if you can make it sound magic and if so..explain short what to do..
Cause on another forum someone told me guitarist sometimes use guitar rig2 in the studio instead of there racks..so it must be possible to make it sound somehow realistic...

Logic Pro's Guitar Amp Pro is nice for heavy metal distortion. Sometimes you have to mix and match plugins in the chain. Use one for distortion another for amp and speaker modeling. Also, from what I find, the bass guitar helps more in the monster tone of the guitar than the actual guitar (even in real amps). try fudging with the patches a bit too. They are a good start, but sometimes better results can be achieved by doing your own presets, and with guitar rig, once you get the hang of it, it's actually pretty quick and easy to program. Also, instead of using those fakie stereo patches, try overdubbing lots of guitar tracks of the same thing, panned differently with different amps, sometimes even different software. It's hard to get a heavy sound with only one of those plugins. Something like say for example... 2 guitar rig 2 plugins panned about 40 maybe 45 each way with a really saturated distorted sound (2 different ones, but with somewhat similar charactor to keep it balanced) . then say two of Logic's Guitar Amp Pro panned 33 each way, and an Izotope Trash down the middle. PSP vintage warmer doesn't hurt either, it can fatten up the guitar tracks just crank the knee way up and give it a bit of gain, then mess with the attack and release untill the guitar tone kills your grandmother. ALso, post plugin EQ is a MUST. Just treat the plugin as if it's pre computer. Effect everything after it in the same way that you would if you recorded an amp right off the floor.

Hope this helps! =)

 

[TerraMortim]

Also, whoever told you to put a HP filter at 400Hz on your guitar is crazy.

I dunno about that. I know it's not so cut and dry (it's different on every recording of guitar. I ususally do mine a bit lower than 400, but it varies) but generally you would want to cut some of the lows out, to leave room for the bass and ultimately the kick. The ultra lows on guitar will just muddy your mix, mask the bass and make it difficult to get any punch with the kick. By keeping those frequencies full boar, you might think it's a heavier guitar sound, but in the long run, it's the play the guitar and bass do off the kick and snare to really give things a groove. It'll most likely take away from the impact you're wanting. You can end up chopping quite a bit more than you would think off of the low end before encountering any thinning of tone. Just play with the cutoff untill it sits just below the thinning of the sound, but certainly it would be a good idea to use a cuttoff at least somewhat, even if you only cut very lows. It couldn't hurt to make room for other madness in your song.

 

[Andreasl84]

So yesterday i picked up my Pod XT again and man it might be able to make it sound pretty sweet...It got more of that "twang" to the sound that i need for heavy metal stuff but when i bought it back in 3years or whenever it was i didnt know much about equalizing and how to use it for real...These last days i have finally understood how to use it...I think..