Hello everyone,

This is a new rock song trying to find a better overall glue, tying different strategies, using different compressors(Michael Brauer).Ik multimedia Comprexor , Ik multimedia Lurssen, Acustica audio Green 4 , Acustica audio Gold 4

Any feedback is appreciated.

 

Not too bad. I am not liking the guitar part it sounds like a machine IMHO.Also song to me is POP rock not rock.

 

Overall pretty balanced and enjoyable.
- Guitar lead is too robotic.
- I like the rhythm guitar that appears in the background from 1:24 ahead.
- The breaks or bridges (such as 2:05) could have something else to change the dynamics of the track.
- Drums are simple but great!

 

Indeed, the guitar lead sounds too robotic. Does anyone have suggestions on how to make it sound less so, without resorting to playing an actual guitar?

 

Well, I guess you have to program some articulations along with your MIDI notes. Vibratos, hammer-ons, pull-offs, bending up, muting. It depends on the features of your VSTi or library.

For example, these guitars by Orange Tree Samples have the programmability to change articulations upon the MIDI velocity range (Mute sound will kick in if a Note's Velocity is below 34).

 

Well, the answer lies in using any performance CCs that the guitar is capable of through MIDI. Make the notes bend imperfectly, dip out of tune a little bit, have notes slide into each other, use vibrato. Any of those things will help.

That track is from my band, and the lead guitar, and the rhythm guitars are all virtual. You just have to program it to play like an actual guitar player might play it.

 

Last edited: Jul 4, 2023

Do you have a Tremelo plugin? What other plugin bundles do you have and use regularly?

 

I do not know which guitar was used. Try OTS or Shreddage. Slide along the grid and velocity. Or you can record midi in EZkeys 2, click humanize, make a midi export and insert the resulting midi into the VSTi guitar. Then you can add keyswitches for articulations. I tried to do this and it seems good and simple: https://disk.yandex.ru/d/7BP0zcLv1Kmejw

 

I used Native Instruments Electric Mint

With Amplitube

 

If you want, I can try to make midi and wav the way I do myself.
Do you have a tablature or a midi guitar lead?

 

Guitar played thru a leslie cab has always been a favorite sound of mine. GG Audio makes a nice virtual Leslie Cab plug called "spin" which does a decent job - it's like a portable leslie plugin you can run anything you want thru. I have run violin vsts thru TH-U and then thru Spin and gotten very realistic gritty E-Violin sounds. Same with guitar vst's... However, there's no substitute for using the VST instrument articulations to make a part sound REAL.

 

You can also develop some serious "imperfections" in FF Saturn2. Midi Learn/automation can be used on almost every parameter and you can add multiple Modulations which can also be automated with X/Y,etc.

 

this is the midi file
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AvSo6wnLb6SHr39evtCnxHySVQta?e=wjBEjc

 

A lot of these Plugins sound quite artificial, maybe try reamping the clean DI signal.
Otherwise try to vary the MIDI dynamics by adjusting the intensity of picking.
In a lot of cases I instantly recognize midi guitar libraries but with a lot of editing they can sound realistic.
Anyway nothing really beats real recorded guitars in this aspect.

Edit:
Just looked into the midi file.
Main problem is not the guitar DI or the sound.
The reason why your guitar sounds so artificial is because all dynamics are set to 100 or 54.
You need to change them up and slightly change the value for every single picked note.
In a real case scenario a guitarst doesn't always pick with the exact same force, therefore your Guitar sounds robotic

 

Last edited: Jul 4, 2023

Thanks, I will try a leslie plugin.

 

The guitar sounds robotic indeed, I would pay attention to the sound of the piano too.

I think the overall song is lacking in mid-low frequencies too, maybe try adding body to both the piano and the guitar. Everything sounds too V-shaped for my taste.

Also you could try playing the guitar part on a midi keyboard, that would make it a lot more realistic, and I think that's the best thing you can do right now. You could try adding some percentage of swing to the guitar too, in case you don't have a keyboard, to make it a bit less perfect.

It has no bass, right? This song needs a bass too.

And... there could be some phase issues too? Maybe? Are you using some sort of wider or something like that?

Edit: Maybe add some saturation too, to add a bit of colour and weight overall

 

Is that an actual guitar or a pluign, voical seems to be AI i guess i might be wrong.
But to me Guitar sounds more centered and buried underneath other sounds and it needs more expression (tbh it lacks any of such sort) and well pronounced, make it a bit wide. There was a rhythm guitar somewhere, its want audible at all.
If its a plugin than a guitar (although i believe its a plugin), take time to learn a bit about emulating guitar articulations on a keyboard, or try to jot in on piano roll manually, its tedious but worth.

There are many vids and articles for this stuff,
This one Dudes channel is nice, i came to know about this here, mentioned somewhere. Quite interesting..
Could add shorts link here, so just click the link, and browse through other stuff that dude is amazing..
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RLp8ZaI-9eM

Even if u process the audio with top of line plugins, no matter what without making it realistic when recording or in MIDI, its not going to sound realistic.

 

A big part is how your notes are decaying somewhat unnaturally. I don't know if there is a gate or if the plugin is muting. In some places it could pass for a human palm mute but in others it is a guillotine.

There has to be setting for swing, randomness and timing on that thing. Perhaps in the guitar setup or playback tabs. Also it might be worthwhile changing the pickup selection if you can or to back off the tone a bit.

Outside of that remember that if there are playback dynamics (no idea) if you flatten everything with a comp too early in the process it will take the life out of it.

Also remember that it doesn't need to be a guitar. Maybe it would come out better as something else, there are just choices we make but if you really want it to be a guitar then so be it.

 

https://disk.yandex.ru/d/1YLqWFZzYrS1jQ

 

I feel that using a VSTi guitar is a disservice to your singer. Compositionally everything sounds fine, I like the space. The lead guitar notes are ok, it's just way too harsh-sounding. Mike Oldfield influenced?

If you like the sound of acoustic guitar in your productions there's really no alternative than to learn how to play one. Cheap to buy, easy to play (once you get dexterity and callouses). You only need to learn open chords, then you can use a capo up the neck for different keys.