After only playing an acoustic guitar for the last 32 years I’ve recently invested in MG2 & a Squier Strat. Although my first steps into the DAW world is clumsy and a little overwhelming - the fog is clearing :-).
The easiest part of the process has been using MG2 as a midi controller. On the other hand I thought getting a good guitar tone would be like riding a bicycle but it has been oddly elusive so far.
Around 40 years ago my favourite sounds came from an Electro Harmonix Micro Synthesizer pedal & a Roland Space Echo (RE-201?). And the music I listened to was pretty typical for that time rock, prog & fusion etc.
What I’m hoping for is, 1) clean, 2) slightly overdriven & 3) lead sounds as a foundation then experimenting and branching out (once I understand the processes a little better).
Any pointers, hints, links, suggestions or presets to getting a full/rich/warm guitar sound using vst(s) would be great.
Is this the right place for this kind of question?
Tone is personal, and MG2 has only a simple tube amp sim aboard.
But there are tons of ampsims out there, a small list of free ones is here: https://www.jamorigin.com/plugins/#freeamps
+1 on the Kuassa freebie. Excellent amp sims for the money. If you find the freebie to your liking, I’d highly recommend checkout out his Vermilion amp sim. And it’s on sale at the moment for $19.50. A very good deal.
A rather complete and free amp solution is AmpliTube Custom Shop.
Can be a real labyrinth, but just using and tweaking presets is valuable. Amplitube custom shop Demo
Paul. On reflection my question was a little foolish - tone is very personal, and dependant on the context too.
I guess most electric guitarists already have a developed sound and use MG2 to access the broad range of non-guitar sounds.
In which case I’m probably working backwards. Guitar as midi controller then having to learn how to make it sound like a guitar.
@TheMaartian. Kuassa Vermilion is pretty amazing and the price is definitely attractive.
@Herold. I picked up the basic Amplitube 4 at a recent sale but quickly cast it aside due to being put off by the “missing elements” pop up messages. Had mistakenly thought it was predominately a shop front-end :-/. Revisiting it now after deleting all the many non-functioning presets.
The good news is although my inexperience in the digital music world makes learning frustratingly slow - I’m making progress. Adding a slight overdrive boost before the amp and then adding subtle LR delay + reverb makes playing the guitar feel more connected to the sound/tone coming out of the headphone/speakers. (Particularly when using fingers instead of a pick)
Again, thank you for the feedback.
PS. Guitar Rig 5 has a demo version of something called a Harmonic Synthesizer which mimics my long dead Electro Harmonix Micro Synth pedal.
Consider using MG2 deep fx which are really interesting for sculpting your sound.
I love particularly deep expressor and use it in most of my patches.
And there are a lot of free and good quality plugins for guitar treatment or fx, and of course the same for the synths.
Have added your deep fx/expressor tip to my must investigate list
I know by using MG2 as a basic midi controller I’m currently only using a fraction of its potential.
As a fledgling in the computer music-tools world … I’m just happy to have developed the capability to put ideas into a DAW then be able to jam and/or build them from there. Mastering, recording techniques, effects & sound sculpting is on the todo list but remains beyond my grasp for the moment.
After watching a Jacob Collier logic session breakdown - I aspire to making my workflow look so natural
