updated 2019-07-29
This is one of those posts that was halfway in the middle of being modified when I got interrupted and abandoned it. So let’s see if there’s anything salvageable in it:
sometime in 2015
Well, this is already 5 or 6 years old and there has been much progress in this field….the last version of the below was dated dec 2010.
Introduction
I’m not much of a guitar player, and the guitar I have is of equal quality. So, can using VST guitar plugins make the proverbial silk purse out of a sow’s ear? Yes and no.
Here are some notes about a few demo and freeware versions I’ve used. Your mileage will certainly vary, but at the least it may be something for you to consider.
Also remember that many of these are continually being worked on and improved, so the versions I’m writing about are probably already obsolete as you read this.
Native Instruments Guitar Rig
My collaborator pointed me at this; the best part being that the demo version (5) sounds great even though it is very limited in the number of components you can select. Somewhere along the line I found an offer for this for $99. It’s still (in 2019) my best software guitar processor.
Amplitube (version 3 or 4?)
This may have changed but this was a real ripoff because for your $200 you got one or two amp models, one cabinet, and a handful of distortion and other processors. The NI product have nearly a complete library of models and processors.
To be fair, the few modules I was able to experiment with in Amplitube did sound great.
Line 6 (www.line6.com)
I liked the POD but ultimately I couldn’t get the sounds out of it I wanted. Maybe my problem. In any case they now have a software only version, the demo is worth checking out.
Studio Devil BVC (www.studiodevil.com)
+ VST
+ Free version for eval! (BVC variant)
+ Cheap
Pretty nasty distortion tool which can border on shrill. A little of this goes a long way.
ReValver (www.alienconnections.com)
Free versions of this commercial product can be found that have a subset of its entire feature set. This is the ultimate tweaker tool. You have a tool box full of preamp and amp models and processors you can wire together into a virtual rack, sort of like the Reason model. In each device you can actually get in and edit it as though you were actually modifying the device’s electronics. Very powerful and capable of great sounds.
Not using it so much now in 2015 since the NI Guitar Rig 5 does everything it does.
♥ Dirthead 0.80
My favorite single processor. May require a little EQ to tame the “honkiness” you can get from a cheap guitar.
- FREE!
- Three levels of distortion
- “Cabinet” switch is useful and adds good sound
- Simple to use, stable, extremely light CPU footprint
- Did I mention FREE?!
Voxengo Tube Amp
Voxengo BoogeX
After tinkering with these a lot, it became clear that they often had one or two great characteristics, but alone didn’t do the trick. This is where Ableton’s Rack paradigm comes in handy. It’s simple to create a Rack which is a layer of several of these tools. I have Racks that parallel three or four of them, usually Dirthead, Studio Devil and Boogex. Another channel with a Live Utility device allows you to add some clean signal.
Then you can map Macro controls to easily tweak the amount of contribution to the entire sound from each device.
Then I got a job…
Hallelujah and amen. Once I managed to get an income again (not through music…that’s not ever been anything in my life)–after some research I splurged on my guitar. First I paid an expert (Moze Guitars) to set up and intonate (is that a real word?) it. I replaced the pickups with EMG active pickups at great expense…the idea was it would be much more hum resistant. Not so sure about all that.
In any case, it’s a hell of a lot more fun to play now.
I decided my trusty DigiTech RP100 was due for retirement, so after some research I ended up with the Korg Pandora PX5D. That was OK for a while. It was cool how small it was – like pocket sized. Finally I replaced it with a Line 6 Pod XT.
As of 2019 that’s gone too. I have Ableton Live and NI Guitar Rig set up for short enough latency I can actually play guitar parts in real time. But if there’s ever any problem, I bounce the arrangement without guitar to a WAV file, move that to the Zoom R8 and play through that unit’s guitar modelers. That way I don’t even need to turn on the computer to work out guitar parts.
The short story is that it’s a great little unit but since this page is supposed about software I’ll write about these things elsewhere.
Last updated 3 Dec 2010
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