Best VSTi Guitar for Rock and Metal

Discussion in 'Rock, Metal' started by SoundWizard, Mar 7, 2014.

  1. SoundWizard

    SoundWizard Newbie

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    Is guitar rig enough for rock and metal or do you guys think it's necessary to get ministry of rock 1 and 2 and V-metal as well? Thanks in advance.
     
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  3. duskwings

    duskwings Platinum Record

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    guitar rig plus impulse response cabinetes and u r fine for the guitar sound
     
  4. MMJ

    MMJ Newbie

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    guitar rig is the worst one there is try ignite amps nrr-1 or anvil free vst others on guitarampmodeling.com
     
  5. Vaijj

    Vaijj Platinum Record

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    Well, kind of depends on what kind of sound you are after... and most of all will you or someone play "real" guitars??
     
  6. Studio 555

    Studio 555 Producer

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    @ Jonathan,

    Something in your question leads me to some trouble (as stated by 'Vaijj' as well)... *yes*

    Are you looking for 'Amp Simulations' (as can be 'GuitarRig 5') to be played the 'regular' way with an Electric Guitar (plugged into it), or a contrario, are you looking for 'Rock/Metal' Sounds to be played with a MIDI Keyboard (in this case, 'Ministry of Rock 1&2', or Prominy 'V-Metal' will do the task).

    Nevertheless, below you'll find some suggestions. Hope these can help you in some way... *yes*

    First case :

    You want to play with an Electric Guitar (the 'regular' way). In this case, you can use most of the 'Amp Simulations' available (these more or less oriented toward 'Rock/Metal' Sounds as desired). Most of them possess 'Hi-Gain' Amps (or Preamps) simulations in their options, as well as several 'Stompboxes' that you can use to drive, distort, saturate,... the Amps/Preamps even more ! :guitarhero: :headbang:
    You can also use Individual Stompboxes (as VST Plugins) in front of these 'Amp Simulations' to drive them (or if you like the sound/color of a particular Individual Stompbox). Among these available, you should to have a look at some 'Mokafix Audio' Stompboxes available (among others as well !).

    Second case :

    You want to play with a MIDI Keyboard. In this case, the 2 mentioned Libraries may be perfect... You'll get 'Heavy Metal' Sounds via your MIDI Keyboard (thanks to the great Samples/Sounds provided within these 2 Libraries).

    Optional suggestions :

    You want to play with an Electric Guitar, but you want to absolutely get the Sound Quality of 'Ministry of Rock 1&2' or 'Prominy V-Metal.
    Well, you can use their respective Sounds via a 'Guitar MIDI Controller'. You can try 'Jam Origin MIDI Guitar' (certainly one of the most accurate at this time, among the cheapest one).
    Of course, if your playing technique is like the 'speed of light', maybe you'll encounter some troubles due to the fact that 'Jam Origin MIDI Guitar' could be unable to accurately recognize some note(s) you're playing at a particular moment (if played very fast), but for most of the 'regular' Power Chords and some Solos, it will certainly suit you... *yes*

    You can also decide to make/play your Music in MIDI, then use any 'Amp Simulation' (e.g. 'GuitarRig 5', 'AmpliTube3', 'Peavey ReValver MKIII.V','Overloud TH2',... ) to process the played/written MIDI Notes, but in this case these 'Amp Simulations' must be loaded as 'VST Plugins' in an 'Audio' Track. Most of the DAWs nowadays give you the option to create an 'Instrument' Track (which use 'MIDI' Notes, but is also 'routed' to an 'Audio' Track as well). This way, you play/write your 'MIDI' Notes, then these are played (and processed) through your desired 'Amp Simulations' and the output is in Audio form.

    A last comment about the choice of your 'Amp Simulations'. Apart the well-known 'All-in-One' as can be 'Guitar Rig 5', 'AmpliTube 3', 'Overloud TH2',... several Individual VST Plugins can be of great help for you to try as mentioned by 'Johnston Jackston' with the 'Ignite Amps' Models. Some 'AcmeBarGig' can also suit you well, as well as 'LePou' Amps, 'Nick Crow' Amps,...
    Moreover, most of these are available for FREE :wink: and sound as good as these of 'Big Companies' ! *yes*
     
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  7. SoundWizard

    SoundWizard Newbie

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    Thanks everyone. I do not play guitar. What I am currently doing is playing samples of rock guitar from kontakt factory library and using guitar rig for effects. I do not currently have money for ministry of rock 1 and 2 or v-metal. I just need to know is kontakt factory library + guitar rig enough to get that rock/metal sound? I also use all the scarbee bass and studio drums.
     
  8. cs2014

    cs2014 Noisemaker

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    Can you also share your presets or projects?
     
  9. Iggy

    Iggy Rock Star

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    I would strongly advise against buying Ministry of Rock 1. I purchased it back in 2006 for the "bargain basement" price of $495 as one of my first sample libraries/VIs. Some of the lead sounds -- the Ibanez 7-string and the LPC -- don't sound too bad, but the power chords are terrible (and the LPC is actually buggy; one of the notes sounds like they accidentally stuck an eight-bit Ensoniq guitar sample in it). The set includes a J-160 acoustic, but it's chords and mutes only, no lead/solo articulations. Only the Ibanez and I think the other Les Paul feature an amped version and a DI version; the others either have two different amped versions (one matched amp for each side of the stereo field, but not "doubled") or a mono amped version. The basses are also, inexplicably, double-amped, which would be fine if either one of their amp selections worked in a mix. The drum kits aren't too bad, but they're all very, very limited. Even the default kit in EZDrummer 1 has more to offer. The only standout is the Telecaster, which is fully realized in both chord articulations and lead sounds, and really sounds great, but it's not worth what is now a $395 asking price just for that alone. Adding insult to injury, around the same time, I picked up a long-discontinued "Nick Phoenix Guitar & Bass" Akai sample library CD for about $20 for SampleTank, only to discover that about two-thirds of the sounds in Ministry of Rock 1 were just remastered versions of those sounds! It seems like they might have resolved a few things in Ministry of Rock 2, especially with making sure all the guitars and basses feature an amped and DI version, but after my experiences with the first one, I moved on to better things.

    My main guitar VIS these days are the MusicLab Real series, which are all incredible and Electri6ity for Kontakt, which sounds great, although I'm still struggling with learning how it works. For rhythm guitars, I have one of the Real electric guitars on one side of the stereo field and Electri6ity on the other. They're both DI only (though Electri6ity comes with some amp/stomp scripting, if you don't have an amp sim), so you're free to run them through whatever amp sim plug you want. If you're looking for something even easier to use, there's Shreddage (X) and that new Goth library, which has guitars, basses drums and loops of all three. Goth is amped-only, but it's designed to give you that "nu-metal" sound right out of the box.
     
  10. cs2014

    cs2014 Noisemaker

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    Yeah Electri6ity is a very detailed VSTi
     
  11. Catalyst

    Catalyst Audiosexual

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    If you're using Electr6ity make sure to get the 1.1 patch from the developer website which gives you extra additions such as sympathetic resonance a very important feature for a guitar.
     
  12. Iggy

    Iggy Rock Star

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    My only issue with Electri6ity is figuring out how to actually play it. For the longest time, I thought my computer wasn't fast enough, or that it was some sort of an issue with Kontakt, because sometimes, playing it as I would play any other guitar VI, I would get weird sounds, monophonic (one key only) sounds or inconsistent sounds. I'm slowly beginning to realize, especially after poring over the user's manual in-depth, that you have to hit a keyswitch or trigger key for everything. There's a POLY mode keyswitch and a SOLO mode keyswitch, and you have to make sure it's in POLY mode to play chords. Also, although you can play chords and it detects chords in POLY mode, you have to (I think) simultaneously hit the "down/upstroke open chord strum" trigger keys in order to trigger an actual strummed chord, and then you can just hit the trigger keys by themselves to continue the strumming (same goes for palm mutes). SOLO mode is for when you want to simulate hammer-ons and pull-offs, although there's also string detection, so you can theoretically do the same thing in POLY mode by working on the same "string" ... then, there's also legato mode. It's a lot of head-screatching and frustration, but when (and if) you work it out, it sounds beautiful, and you have eight different DI'd electric guitars with the exact same articulations you can cycle through to find the best one to use quickly. And the "doubled" mode is incredible for rhythm guitars without fudging with your actual MIDI track.

    By the way, the 1.1 update, unlike ProjectSAM or other companies, is available right on Vir2's support page with no hassle, along with their user manuals and video tutorials.
     
  13. Catalyst

    Catalyst Audiosexual

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    Yeah Iggy that's correct. Vir2 has some resources on their site that you can download. Check it out.
     
  14. cs2014

    cs2014 Noisemaker

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    Yeah i know, i pored over user's manual in depth too before and with 1.1 update program gives more realistic and natural sounds. Keyswitch system is very useful but its advantage is that it requires at least 61 keys MIDI controller or real keyboard. Can you share your projects or presets too that you've made with Electri6ity?
     
  15. Iggy

    Iggy Rock Star

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    Still working the kinks out of using Electri6ity (and hoping I get there soon, because I definitely need it!). Up until this point, I've been using RealLPC/RealStrat for rhythm and leads. Unfortunately, the one thing the Real instruments don't have is any onboard way to double rhythm guitars, like Electri6ity or Amplesound's guitars do. I've had to duplicate my rhythm guitar MIDI tracks, take one of them and humanize it, which can take hours, if you have a lot of keyswitches to re-edit or stuff that the Humanize function winds up mangling ... and even then, it's not even close to perfect (you can easily overdo it and wind up with a doubled rhythm guitar track that's too loose or not loose enough). Again, I'm hoping to use both Electri6ity and RealStrat/RealLPC together for rhythm guitars and get a decent and unique doubled tone without the hassle of trying to humanize MIDI tracks, or, failing that, just Electri6ity. However, for leads, RealLPC or RealStrat pretty much blows everything else out of the water.

    The keyswitches in Electri6ity aren't an issue for me, because I wind up dropping them in via the MIDI graphics' editor, but I can't imagine using it live ... seems like a nightmare! I have a 61-key controller and will eventually have a weighted 88-key controller, but I'm not a decent-enough keyboard player to even remember, let alone use all the keyswitches and triggers.
     
  16. cs2014

    cs2014 Noisemaker

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    Ok, can you share your projects that you've made with these plug-ins (Electri6ity, AmpleSound etc.)? Amplesound is very cool, their acoustic guitars are best i think. Yeah there are a few of plug-ins which are good as acoustic guitar (Pettinhouse, AcousticSamples, Ilya Efimov etc.). And i love Ample Sounds' electric guitars' clean tone too especially. Sorry for the late reply
     
  17. Iggy

    Iggy Rock Star

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    I'd love to, but that would kind of kill the anonymity vibe we all have going on here. :wink: As for what I've used, so far, it's only been RealStrat and RealLPC (and a little bit of RealGuitar), and I've done some tracks with Ministry of Rock 1 that I wasn't happy with. I'm still figuring out Electri6ity and while I tried out Amplesound's VIs, the only thing I like about them is their humanization and doubling engine -- the actual sounds and articulations are pretty lousy, in my opinion. I know people who swear by Amplesound's stuff, mostly people who are heavy into acoustics and jazz-sounding guitars, but they don't sound right to me, and the articulations and FX are all particularly lacking. If they (or another company) married Amplesound's scripting with RealGuitar's sound quality and sample pool, it would be the guitar VI everybody would use.
     
  18. cs2014

    cs2014 Noisemaker

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    Ok thank you for the reply
     
  19. .: HAMIN :.

    .: HAMIN :. Guest

    I use Dracus and ezmix think its the best virtual djent tone ever.
    let me know if u want to reach that tone (john browne style)
     
  20. Xupito

    Xupito Audiosexual

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    Great comment. It's no surprise AmpleSound specialty are acoustic guitars. RealLpc and RealStrat sounds great for their small sample size. I would say (ans so does HIFImidi youtuber himself being self confessed AmpleSound lover):
    Best VG for live playability: RealStrat, RealLpc
    Best VG for scripting: Amplesound

    And for me, for metal the most balanced VG: Shreddage. But still hard to script compared to the other two companies.
    For metal lead guitar Prominy V-Metal is hard to beat but very hard to script, has barely evolved its Kontakt engine (huge con in all Prominy products)
     
  21. subGENRE

    subGENRE Audiosexual

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    Ive used pretty much everything mentioned here in the past. But for metal, these days Im liking Dracus from Orange Tree Samples raw into the Mesa Boogie sims in Bias
     
    Last edited: Dec 8, 2016
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