Cool Plugins I Discovered + Tips For Newbies Options

[sammetal92]

Beware, long post

I came across a few very good plugins yesterday but I was too lazy to try them, so I was warming up (after getting the advice from my previous thread ) and I thought why not try some new stuff for my tone So I tried them, and they sound awesome! And that's a pretty rare thing for me

Oh and I also discovered something for myself; I don't really need Gain on my amps to get distortion... I was recording metal with my amp sims and I just put them on the dirty channel with the gain at 0 and I swear it was still distorted as hell but the hiss/noise was significantly less. So just as a tip for people just getting into recording, do not set the gain at full, just turn up the volume of the amp on the dirty/OD channel and see if it works for you, and if it doesn't, increase the gain slowly, never turn it all the way up, it'll just be a pain This is especially true for rhythm guitar recording because (according to me) we layer our guitar tracks, so it makes them sound more full and more powerful. Adding more gain makes you lose your tone.

Onto the plugins then!

Before I start, some of the new people who are interested in some home recording and music production came to me for advice, and the common opinion among all of them was that the paid plugins are always way better than free ones. Not true. I use Guitar Rig, Amplitube 3 (paid) and Overloud TH2, and while they are of really good quality (especially TH2, I love it), any tone that paid plugins can give you, you can get that tone with free plugins. The only difference is, paid plugins come with a lot of presets, and some of them like the ones I discussed above, are all-in-one, amps, pedals, EQs, cabs etc. To be honest, I've gotten better tones with free plugins and less experimentation than using Guitar Rig. Feel free to comment if you disagree

The Classic Tone Bundle - AcmeBarGig

If you're into classic rock and stuff, this thing comes packed with amp heads and is meant to provide tone similar to old school music. I'm into classic rock, so this was a treat oh and its free, the whole bundle. Get it here: http://www.acmebargig.com/downloads/classic-tone-bundle/

Preampus Metal Bundle - AcmeBarGig

This bundle consists of all of AcmeBarGig's Preampus Metal amp heads (and weirdly, I'm using one of them and it doesn't require an impulse loader... hmm I don't know). I've only tried one of them, and its amazing! You have a separate "Drive Amp" with that amp, which colors the drive. Also comes with loads of presets to get you started. I'm expecting the others to be the same, will check them out once I'm home again, the bundle is free. Get it here: http://www.acmebargig.com/downloads/preampus-metal-line

RedShift Pickup Replacer - AcmeBarGig

Okay this is the plugin that caught my eye. Pickup replacer? Really? But yes, it works amazingly well, it has EQ settings of 16 or so pickups that you can put at the very front of your effects chain. I love the Dimebag pickups and the "Invasion" one. I just put this on top, put a low pass at 100Hz or so, put an expander and then use one of the Preampus metal amps, and it works really well!. Free also! Get it here: http://www.acmebargig.com/downloads/redshift

Cabinet Enhancer - AcmeBarGig

This is an impulse loader with a lot of stuff that generally impulse loaders don't have (at least the ones I tried didn't ). These features are supposed to "add a new dimension to Impulse Response files, adding back some of that live sound that gets lost in generation." Well, it does sound pretty epic and way better than some of the impulse loaders I've used, so I guess its great Free! Get it here: http://www.acmebargig.com/downloads/cab-enhancer/

Aftershock (Delay) - AcmeBarGig

I'm not a huge fan of delay, I just use a subtle amount of delay just to round off my tone and to get that little filled up live sound quality. I haven't tried this yet, but since all of the other AcmeBarGig plugins are so wonderful, why wouldn't this be? Free free free! Get it here: http://www.acmebargig.com/downloads/aftershock/

Pro-Q Equalizer - FabFilter

This is the only paid plugin, and they offer a trial version, which I'm using. This is like your regular EQ with some colors. But the thing that makes it special is it can isolate any amount of frequencies. Meaning you can put a boundary around the frequencies you want to hear, and it'll let only those frequencies through, all the other frequencies will be muted Useful when you want to find a particular frequency range to be either made more prominent or less. Trial available here: http://www.fabfilter.com/products/pro-q-equalizer-plug-in

I will post a clip of me using some of the plugins I discussed and their settings plus my effects chain after I get home

Feel free to ask, disagree or agree with me I'm just a beginner in the music production field and I try to help all other new people out, so I can use all the help I can get

EDIT: Here's the settings I used on the sample at the bottom of the post:

Lead Guitar:



Rhythm Guitars:



Here's the sample:

https://soundcloud.com/sam-ryan-stormrage/new-amps-soundtest

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This post has been edited by sammetal92: Jan 15 2014, 08:45 PM