VST MEGATHREAD: It's just so much easier to reach for a sawtooth

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > No Music Discussion > Musician's Lounge > VST MEGATHREAD: It's just so much easier to reach for a sawtooth

Declan MacManus: Sep 1, 2011; damn i'm really in this bitch

Does anyone know of a free Mellotron VST? I want to experiment with the sound a bit but I'm not ready to commit money.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2012 17:15

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 21:31

Declan MacManus: Sep 1, 2011; damn i'm really in this bitch

Thanks for the suggestions. I don't have my recording rig set up out here but I'm definitely going to try all of these.

# ¿ Dec 13, 2012 00:34

Declan MacManus: Sep 1, 2011; damn i'm really in this bitch

Radiapathy posted:

I don't know anything that does a realistic lead guitar, but for rhythm parts, MusicLab's products are pretty good. They have two electric (RealStrat, RealLPC) and one acoustic (RealGuitar) package.

It's sample-based, in that they record all of the most used guitar chords, but you actually trigger all the individual strums and articulations. It also comes with a bunch of MIDI files that have rhythm patterns you can use, and you can of course write your own.

I have owned both RealStrat and RealGuitar for a few years and never really spent the time to learn them. But there are some impressive demo videos around that show how much you can do with these things.

Kontakt 4 and 5 actually have a sort of watered-down version of this in the factory library. I can't remember the name of the instrument, and weirdly, mention of it was removed from the Kontakt 5 documentation even though the instrument's still there. But basically it's a RealGuitar-like scripted guitar with a bunch of chords where you control the strumming. I don't remember whether it does all the articulations that RealGuitar can do though.

If I remember right the Kontakt guitar was fairly easy to use. RealGuitar is well-designed, but there are so many chord possibilities that you need to do some pretty complex fingering to get the right chords. (This is a plugin where some music theory knowledge can be a big help.)

EDIT: Some videos from the official site.

This shows what it looks like to strum your own chords:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMtbFDdsPaU

This shows what it's like to use it with MIDI patterns, including a lot of the real-time variations you can do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYZmsb-lcgA

And this dude totally shreds on a piece written for two guitars:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6dsTZ0hEaw

That sounds as good as I've heard a MIDI guitar sound but I really feel like it'd just be easier to emulate a guitar with a distorted organ rather than trying to sample it with a keyboard. Even that guy sounds kind of stiff.

# ¿ May 6, 2013 03:23

Declan MacManus: Sep 1, 2011; damn i'm really in this bitch

Even if his own DSP is a bunch of hot air and he himself is a douche, he brings up a lot of valid points.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2014 02:42

Declan MacManus: Sep 1, 2011; damn i'm really in this bitch

Razzled posted:

Has anyone found a great VST for copying a Metallica-esque heavy distortion sound?

I tried SimulAnalog and the BOSS DS-1 isn't heavy enough even with tweaking I feel.

Depends on what era of Metallica you want, really. There are more JCM 800 clones than you can shake a stick at, so take your pick and dump the mids to about 2 while cranking your treble and your bass around 7. Then throw a tube screamer clone in front of that for tightness and ta-da, Metallica with Burton. For the later stuff, you'll want a Mesa Boogie clone (I think they use Dual Recs now but I can't remember) with similar settings. Then just tweak/EQ until you're happy.

E: Can't vouch for it but try this

E2: Actually, what kind of setup are you working with right now?

Declan MacManus fucked around with this message at 22:21 on Feb 23, 2014

# ¿ Feb 23, 2014 22:18

Declan MacManus: Sep 1, 2011; damn i'm really in this bitch

Razzled posted:

I basically have no idea what I'm doing. I have an electric, which I plug into a Roland audio interface which connects to my computer. And then I open my DAW (Ohm Studio) and record. And then throw VSTs on top of a rack to change the sound from just a standard guitar.

Oh, okay. Well, I don't want to overwhelm you too much with recording stuff, so what I will say is that you want to pay attention to what your cab sims are and experiment with mic placement (which any guitar sim worth its salt should let you play with).

Here is a handy chart to give you some guidelines for equalization (which is necessary to make your guitars sit well in a mix). If your current VST doesn't let you mess with that stuff, I think Amplitube has a free version that you can mess around with. I will say that from listening to samples on the SimulAnalog website that I'm not a huge fan of how it sounds, so that could be the problem. Here are better sims that might get you closer to the sounds that you want.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2014 00:40

Declan MacManus: Sep 1, 2011; damn i'm really in this bitch

renderful posted:

Also hope that the iLok servers never go down like they did for 2 months last year. Then you own't be able to use your poo poo.

Signed respectfully, an audio professional who will NEVER touch anything which requires a dongle.

Cubaaaaaaaaaaaase :argh:

# ¿ Feb 28, 2014 16:41

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 21:31

Declan MacManus: Sep 1, 2011; damn i'm really in this bitch

HollisBrown posted:

I cannot believe that the Plugin Makes are still clinging to Ilok. It adds overhead to developing and maintaining plugins, and not only does it not stop piracy, it actually encourages it.

I dunno, I think people are super excited to buy a whole new suite of software and probably Cubase or whatever else if they misplace or damage a 3 inch piece of plastic

# ¿ Oct 4, 2014 19:04

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