Hey rocker sexies, I've been creating and producing rock music (not metal) in my home studio for a while, with guitar, bass, analog synths, treating the sounds in a purely digital setting. And I was wondering which amps, compressors, FX, EQ, limiters, reverbs, etc. are for you essential for the genre.

-Edit-

I have a Moog Matriarch and sometimes I filter the guitar and bass through it, I also have the Julianna chorus pedal of Walrus audio, also a SE electronics TNT preamp for my ribbon mic though I can use it for my other instruments. My guitar is a squire classic vibe 70's thinline (semi-hollow) Telecaster, my bass is a cheap PJ Ibanez gio, also I have an Korg ms-20 mini. My audio interface is an Antelope Audio zen-go

 

Last edited: Oct 7, 2022

Any compressor, FX, EQ, limiter, reverb can be essential for you. It's not genre specific. It's producer and taste specific.

 

I find Amplitube or TH-U by Overloud to be best for amp modelling. check out the Ample sound plugins if you want instrument emulations.

EZ drummer or Addictive drums for uh, drums :D

 

But what kind of rock?

Rock'n'roll? rockabilly? acid rock? art rock? glam rock? progressive rock? psychedelic rock? soft rock? blues rock? country rock? folk rock? jazz rock? pop rock?...

The instruments may be very different. For example I would not use the same instruments for rock'n'roll and rockabilly than for country rock and folk rock or for art rock, progressive rock and psychedelic rock.

Not the same drum kits. Not the same bass emulations, not the same guitar emulations, not the same organs and keyboards, not the same echoes, reverbs, effects, stomp boxes...

 

Honestly go for real gear, cabs and analog pedals for FX (small stone / mxr / boss) - if you don't want to sound like cheap library stock music. I've found quite a bit of gear at thrift shops. But for mixing/mastering, Waves / Kilohearts / FabFilter goes really far.

Oddly enough, I've used the free VST "MonstaChorus" on acoustic parts, it just has this weird quick flavor I like.

 

Last edited: Oct 8, 2022

Tonex seems to be the best sounding amp replacement out there in vst format.

For drums i recommend BFD3. There is not another drum vst that comes closer to real/raw recorded drums than this! (greatest expansion libraries IMHO are: modern retro, black album drums, darkfarm and wooden snares)

A great reverb is the LX480 v3 by Relab. It sounds great in almost every situation.

Fabfilter plugins are more than you will ever need

Console emulation/channel strip check out SSL native

If you need a plugin that has many uses you could get virtual mix rack,. Some like it,others don't. I believe it does the job done and it sounds good.

And lastly you could use nebula libraries, but i mention it last cause if you are fresh in home producing/recording world, you may get confused by it.

 

Well I do alt rock, indie rock, new wave, punk-rock (even with touches of hardcore), folk-rock, sometimes funk-rock, and all in between

 

rock and purely digital setting are not compatible, sorry.
You need gear to get a good rock sound .
No, hardware is not best than software (for other music genre) ... but if you have a vintage fender guitar , please do no conect to a di box.
else . . . you kill the rock.

all people said about horrible sounds in actual rock . . .
Maybe is because this, 4 friends tryn' to make a ep at home with no money and only plugins.
its sad!
the spirit of rock is dead. You need a great studio, a stupid and egoist producer and a toon of hardware . . .
and lots of not legal sustancies in blood ha ha ha ha

rock with plugins is roborock . . . sorry, its my point of view.

 

Nonsense. Imho. I've made rock in the box with no live instruments. I've made rock on a Portastudio. Rock is vibe and good riffs. It has nothing to do with sound, production or equipment. If someone can't rock with whatever life puts in front of you or supposedly because of it... that's sad to me.

Go watch Tenacious D for lessons in how to rock under all conditions

 

Last edited: Oct 7, 2022

I have a Moog Matriarch and sometimes I filter the guitar and bass through it, I also have the Julianna chorus pedal of Walrus audio, also a SE electronics TNT preamp for my ribbon mic though I can use it for my other instruments. My guitar is a squire classic vibe 70's thinline (semi-hollow) Telecaster, my bass is a cheap PJ Ibanez gio, also I have an Korg ms-20 mini. My audio interface is an Antelope Audio zen-go.

I added that to the post.

 

You can make rock recordings with plugins, but you need to use real guitars as input devices, and then mimic the analogue recording chain.

 

Last edited: Oct 7, 2022

Unless you're say, EL&P and you can rock with no guitars at sll

 

Stock plugins in your daw will do just fine. You have enough equipment. Just missing a drum plugin, it seems (but even then samples and a sampler wiil do). I agree with Trurl statement, even more so if you are into indie, alternative, post punk, lo-fi. I have recorded rock songs with just a cheap guitar, a cheap mic, a rat pedal and a boss drum machine into my daw using just stock effects to process everything (about the drum machine: sisters of mercy, NIN, godflesh... don't they all rock?)

 

Last edited: Oct 7, 2022

Not to mention all those 1st generation black metal bands... cheap mics and a 4-track, if that.

 

- For bass I find Kuassa Cerberus useful (I use it for all kinds of Rock and even Metal),
- for GTRs PA bx_rockrack can keep up with the pendant from Neural DSP Fortin Nameless while being more performant,
- for dirty compression I can recommend Kazrog True Dynamics and PA V76U73 (FirComp 2 is a great clean compressor),
- a clipper (will work fine on snares & toms and their reverb) like Apogee SoftLimit (free) or SIR Audio Tools StandardCLIP (pretty versatile),
- for downward compression or a gate SIR Audio Tools StandardGATE (for taming GTRs noise floor or cutting reverb),
- for analogueish EQing maybe PA Millennia NSEQ (M/S, L/R option) or DDMF 6144, both with proportional Q (which I prefer) and their different shelf slope complement each other pretty well,
- a reverb for gated sound (too many to pick one),
- for dynamic EQing (to tame occasionally occuring boominess or harshness) I'd try free TDR Nova first.

And of course the usual purely digital suspects, but these are not Rock specific.

Oh, and welcome to THE forum.

 

I will say that for drums I'm in club Toontrack, but GetGood Drums has some great stuff as well and might be easier if you already use Kontakt. I also like Neural DSP (Nolly, Gojira) for guitars, and for fake guitars (Shreddage 3). But it's all a matter of personal taste! Find sounds YOU LIKE. Take some time to audition a lot of stuff (you're in the right place) find some sounds that speak to you and then worry about writing big riffs.

 

I picked this up for free a couple of days ago, and I'm liking it so far.

 

Last edited: Oct 7, 2022

As @No Avenger mentioned, a dynamic eq is very very useful (free tdr nova also comes to my mind), on guitars and bass (I use it mainly to control the low end).
Amp sims and pedal vsts, I like them!

 

It is curious that in a forum where practically everything is talked about digital, purists of the analog come, the reality is that it is not so much the gear so that a production sounds real, but how it is treated, you can sound plastic with real gear mid 90 2000 metal example , and natural with plugins my recommendation is for guita neural dsp guitar superior drummer fabfilter pack and valhala pack that would be the basics to be able to make a good production that if you have to learn when to use something and when not, then for more advanced there are other things

 

satriani does not think the same