Plug-In Guitar effects... favorites

[Guitar Zero]

Looking for plug-ins for adding tremolo, reverb, chorus, etc to electric guitar tracks. Any really good ones that can make you cry?

[badhorsie777]

Betabugs' "monstachorus" is a great chorus (and free!)

I have all the amplitube2 stuff (Hendrix, Ampeg, original, no Metal - not my style) and they're incredible. I got into em in a group buy esoundz had a while ago, but there's a couple great deals straight from IK right now - best thing you can do for your guitar tone, imo. Blending some ampeg to a DI bass track is phenomenal. Same with layering a vox with my real-life twin reverb, or any combination of real and fake (and all fake sounds great, too - just use cabinet impulses instead of the built-in cabinets, and it's a killer tone, all around). I use LAConvolver on the mac to host my cabinet impulses (again, free).

For reverb, the amplitube reverbs are sick, but I also picked up Classik Studio Reverb in the same group buy, and I don't care if I ever get any more reverbs. With what little reverb gets into most styles of music, I can't tell a difference, and for more exposed parts that really "feature" reverb, the CSR hall and plates just kill. For the money, it was easy between this and something like Altiverb (very beloved around this forum, for good reasons - very realistic, and the orchestral crowd is practically all using Altiverb.)

Tremelos are a personal thing - the amplitube stuff is really nice, but if I want a very exposed "just perfect" thing, my twin reverb has the best tremelo in my house. I just did a track for a guy the other day, doing a sort of Bonnie Rait (sp?) slide thing with tremelo, and in the name of speed and tweakability, we threw up amplitube 2, used a really clean fender with the tremelo pedal, and it was gorgeous.

Amplitube will getcha so very very close for all your needs for effects (I have presets with no amps, just pedal and rack effects for that very reason - to use with real amp sounds). Alternately, there are great free plugins that I use all the time - monstachorus, the AUMatrixreverb (built in to all macs) on highest quality is great, and a ton of more creative effects are out there. Hope this helped. I got really wordy

In Him,
Matt

[ghetto3jon]

i love Audio Damage Reverence for guitar reverb. it's a fun, unique plate for $39 that doesn't require a bunch of CPU power. win win.

[mjlaudio]

The Bundle is great......especially pitchblender and time blender for weirder stuff.

[Guitar Zero]

Originally Posted by badhorsie777

Betabugs' "monstachorus" is a great chorus (and free!)

I have all the amplitube2 stuff (Hendrix, Ampeg, original, no Metal - not my style) and they're incredible. I got into em in a group buy esoundz had a while ago, but there's a couple great deals straight from IK right now - best thing you can do for your guitar tone, imo. Blending some ampeg to a DI bass track is phenomenal. Same with layering a vox with my real-life twin reverb, or any combination of real and fake (and all fake sounds great, too - just use cabinet impulses instead of the built-in cabinets, and it's a killer tone, all around). I use LAConvolver on the mac to host my cabinet impulses (again, free).

For reverb, the amplitube reverbs are sick, but I also picked up Classik Studio Reverb in the same group buy, and I don't care if I ever get any more reverbs. With what little reverb gets into most styles of music, I can't tell a difference, and for more exposed parts that really "feature" reverb, the CSR hall and plates just kill. For the money, it was easy between this and something like Altiverb (very beloved around this forum, for good reasons - very realistic, and the orchestral crowd is practically all using Altiverb.)

Tremelos are a personal thing - the amplitube stuff is really nice, but if I want a very exposed "just perfect" thing, my twin reverb has the best tremelo in my house. I just did a track for a guy the other day, doing a sort of Bonnie Rait (sp?) slide thing with tremelo, and in the name of speed and tweakability, we threw up amplitube 2, used a really clean fender with the tremelo pedal, and it was gorgeous.

Amplitube will getcha so very very close for all your needs for effects (I have presets with no amps, just pedal and rack effects for that very reason - to use with real amp sounds). Alternately, there are great free plugins that I use all the time - monstachorus, the AUMatrixreverb (built in to all macs) on highest quality is great, and a ton of more creative effects are out there. Hope this helped. I got really wordy

In Him,
Matt

Wow, thanks Matt. That gives me plenty to chew on for awhile.

[Crankitup]

Anyone know of any good reverse reverb plugins?

[chrispick]

UAD-1 Roland Space Echo
Audioease Altiverb

[badhorsie777]

Originally Posted by Guitar Zero

Wow, thanks Matt. That gives me plenty to chew on for awhile.

no prob. this has been my area of obsession for over a year now - home production, specifically of el. guitar tones. My presets go with me to the studio I freelance at, and I just finished the third album where it was amplitube (my presets) -> LAConvolver (hosting cabinet impulses pulled from guitarampmodeling.com) and that's it. I did a christian band's whole album that way, with great results, some country work, and a lot of gospel. Some local band even wanted to cover Collective Soul's "Shine" and I nailed that tone, something that made the client very happy. The delays are really nice in there, and the pedal effects are really nice, also.

*in case you're confused - there's a growing number of bands who don't play their own parts in the studio. That's where folks like me swallow our bile and play on albums with good to terrible songs, making the "artists" sound wayyyy better than they are. For this application, especially, being completely "ITB" (in the box) is a requirement. I don't want to drag my stuff down to the studio to overdub a part because they didn't like the tone - so if it's all amplitube, the engineer just lowers the gain on my preset. It does take a LOT of work to get the amplitube stuff sounding natural, so if you go that route, let me know ( mjgarwood@gmail.com ) and I'd be glad to get you some of my preset "starting points" and cabinet impulses that I use.

In Him,
Matt