Creating MASSIVE Guitar Tones using Amp Sims

1. Introduction: Hey, guys, welcome to another class. Today. We're gonna be making heavy tones with AMP. Sims, so high gain tones are notoriously difficult to create with AM simulators just because they're a little bit more complex by nature. So therefore, it's harder for software to emulate. But there are some tricks that we can dio to make them sound a little bit more realistic and sometimes even a little bit better than what in normal high gain AMP could do. Uh, also using high gain AMP. Simms is great because a lot of the time you have a lot of options of different Sims that can get really, really close. And if you think about it, amps seems, or just a couple 100 bucks, sometimes most and those high gain amps or some of the most expensive on the market. So you've got $10,000 worth of amps in your arsenal on this software, and these tricks will show you how to get it just close enough to where you won't even really miss it, miss having the ah, the the real thing. So the first video we're gonna dive into is having a great D. I track 2. Getting the Best Source: So I have a D I track from my friend's band. Comfort betrays their kind of an old school metal core band. Ah, these guitar tracks came out sounding pretty cool, so I figured, Why not? Let's give Ah, let's give this a shot for a tutorial. Ah, play back What? We have kal CS sound and did so the first step toe having a great d I is the guitar itself . So you want to think about this just like as if you were Ah, you know, tracking your guitar with a live amp, you're gonna want to have a really great strings that are fresh, brand new if possible. Ah, a new pick or at least one that's not worn down. Ah, guitar with good pickups that set up well, you know, all the basics of general guitar tracking, you're gonna want to make sure that all that's accounted for, because just because we're going in with software we have the ability That's weak stuff does not mean we have the ability to fix those things. So make sure that that is all accounted for. Um, after that, you're gonna want to make sure that the level of your d I is sitting right. So I found that kind of like negative nine negative. Six is a good area to have your signal averaging out at like in logic. That's where it starts to get in the yellow. So, uh, I'll play you back where this is sitting so you can see it's kind of just hitting the yellow there. Um, in reality, I could have had this probably hitting even a little bit more. But this is definitely good if it's any lower than where I'm having it. It's kind of the equivalent of you playing into a live amp with the volume not turned down a little bit. You know, if you think about it that way, you just want to find the balance here so that it's calibrated right to hit your amps. Um, the way that it was designed to. And I'm sure a lot of different AM sims are designed differently. But from all the ones that I've used, and I've used a lot of them having them around, that area is always the sweet spot. So after you have that, you're gonna want to make sure that it's edited right. You know, cut out any gaps between notes. Uh, add your fades on the end of things and just make sure it's nice and clean before you start testing out a tone. Uh, and then, honestly, you should be good to go. Um, of course. Make sure using a good d i box if you don't have a ah, the solid pre amp with instrument or D I input. They have some great just stand alone passive and active D I boxes. That would be great to invest in If this is something that you look, uh, seems like you're gonna be doing a lot in the future. Ah, well, just make sure that you have, uh, low noise and just a really clean signal toe work with so that when you are sending it through your simulated amplifier, you're not amplifying distorting noise and buzzing hum and all that fun stuff. So next thing we're gonna do is load up the amps. Um 3. Tweaking the Amp: all right, so there are a lot of different options of what you can have. Um, one of my favorites for high gain is an AMP called Emissary by ignite amps. At one point in time, this was free. It probably still is, Um, but if not even if it's money, even if it's 100 or $200 I just by this thing, it sounds so amazing. It's I think I could be wrong, but I think it's emulating a 51 50. But, um, whatever it is, it just sounds like the epitome of what a high Gain AMP should sound like, in my opinion. So, uh, the one problem with this thing, though, is let me play it back. Yeah, sorry if that was loud, but it sounds terrible right off the bat. But that's because there's no cabinet loaded. So a lot of AM seems have built in cabs. In fact, most of them do, um, I'm 50 50 but, um, if yours doesn't have a cab, you're gonna need other software. Uh, like I use re cabinet. And this is a cabinet loading software. It uses things called i ours or impulse responses of cabs and, um, that you can get impulse responses and just load them in here like where it says import ir , or you can use the built in ones that they have. I really like the built in one's on re cabinet. That's got, um so let's just start with this. This is modeling a mesa four by 12 with an sm 57 in the center of the speaker. Pretty standard stuff. So I'm just gonna close this out for now. And, ah, we'll just start shaping our tone with that cap. So let's hear how the sounds just default, all right? Not bad. Sends a little weak, little thin. Um, so they're things that weaken dio outside of the AMP. To fix this so classic thing to Dio is to add a over an overdrive pedal before they am. Um, even more classic is just using a tube screamer. So I don't know if this is actually emulating a tube screamer, because there's a couple other notches here, but it kind of accomplished. This is the same thing. So where the settings are right now is where I like to start. I like to start with the drive all the way down the tone and the level at 12 o'clock. And this, even though the drive is all the way down and the levels kind of just in the middle there, um, it does a surprising amount of tone shaping just by being on, uh, you'll hear the mid range is a little bit more focused. The low end is tightened up a little bit. So I'm just gonna turn this on and off while we're playing it back and you'll hear the difference that it makes. Yeah, so you can hear it gives it kind of like a wetter sound and add some sustain onto it. It sounds great. So, um, from this point, I feel like we can start adjusting the gain level that we want. Uh, So before I start touching the gain on the amp, I'm gonna just the level output on the tube screamer. Also, you'll notice that I'm doing this pretty much with every knob. I'm gonna be turning it all the way up and all the way down. And that's just so I can hear the extremes of what each parameter can dio Um, I I like Teoh like when we get into the e que. I want to hear what it sounds like with the high mids, for example, all the way up so that I know really clearly what the center frequency of that is. Ah, so I know what I'm cutting or boosting is clearly as possible, but we'll get into that. But just know that that's really what I'm doing with each knob. It's just really hearing the extreme of what it can dio before I make a decision. All right, so that sounds cool. It just needed, like, a little boost just to get some really good sustained and the right amount of gained without being too overwhelmingly distorted. You know, we still want the pick, attack, clarity and all that. So finding a good balance with the gain is really important. All right, so we've got our to scream were pretty much set where we want to go. So next let's get some just basic eq Ewing. Um, we're going to come back and adjust the EQ you on the amp after we choose the cab and you'll see why. But let's just get an idea of what we want. - All right, so so far, Uh, I turned this deep switch on because I really liked how that filled out the low end, and it made it sound a little less thin. Uh, I did the same thing. Kind of like with loam is here. It boosted that up to accomplish it, being less thin sounding. Let's see the way. - All right, So these also really good in, like, the same position here. I turned off the bright switch over here, um, because it was sounding a little harsh to me, but I still felt like it needed some clarity, so I thought Okay, well, if I turned the bright switch off, then I can probably turn the trouble knob up. And that shifted the focus off where the high end was in the amp. So Yeah, Other than that, I messed around with this shape switch. And, um, this basically is shifting the focus of the mid range. When I switched it down, it sounded a little too scooped, like a sounded nice, but I felt in a mix it might not cut through a swell. So, uh, I'm just gonna leave that where it was. Um, so after that, there is the depth in the presence. Um, let's see what those do. - Oh , yeah. So the depth definitely gave this tone some body that that sounds great. Um, the presence I like how I was able to boost that, but it didn't make it sound. More heart should just made it sound more in your face. Both of these just made it sound more, uh, more present. Really? Um, okay, so that's a good starting point again. We're probably gonna come back in two week. A lot of this, but ah, let's choose our cab and our mike next. 4. Choosing a Cab: All right. So we, uh we got our pedal like our overdrive pedal figured out. We have got a basic dialing in of the amp and the e que. So next let's open up re Cabinet and let's start experimenting with different caps. So re cabinet has a bunch of different cabs. Uh, they have stuff in, like, 1960 which I think is like a marshall 1960 a. Ah, oversized. Like I said, it's like a mesa four by 12. Ah, tangerines like an orange for by 12. Ah, a lot of different options. I don't even know what a lot of these are, to be honest, um, but that's not even important. But the cool thing with this is you can just sift through a bunch. So let's just start at the beginning here. Let's start kind of getting an idea for what some of these different cabs will sound like so drastically different. The cab is honestly, probably one of most important parts of your tone. Um, because if you think about it, it's it's the speaker. It's the thing you're actually hearing, right? Eso the the AMP is. It's giving you the characteristics right? It's giving you this the overall shape of the tone. It's giving you the gain structure. It's giving you the characteristics. But the cabin is what you're really hearing, so this is a really important decision. So for a high gain tone, we're just going to stick with the four by 12 there a little bit. They have a little bit more low end in them. There will be fear. Ah, the two By twelves. There's only a couple options. The vintage combos, those those are good for, like, rock stuff or less high gain stuff where you want more of a mid range focus or a little bit more open of a sound. But we wanted, like a tight, Ah, heavy tones. So four by 12 so way to go, Um, so these all sounded really different. So if you're anything like me, you're gonna get option paralysis and think, Oh, my God, they all sound so different. Which one do I want? Uh, so before listening for a cab, I think you should ask yourself the question, like what I want? Do I want that? Choose one reference like we used to like we used this oversized to build our tone here. And let's listen back to this and think, What would we want different out of this tone. So for me, I like how edgy and bitey it is. But I wish it had a little bit more of a low end beef to it. Um, And when we were sifting through, I remember this ogre had ah, incentive. Really nice with the Lohan. So let's compare those two. All right? So, yeah, it's a little bit better. Um, I remember that being a little beef here, but let's listen, Let's listen through them again. Just kind of really quickly and see if with that in mind, thinking more present low and which one nails it. I think this Listen, this guy, uh, ego, where I think it's how you pronounce it, um, crushing way beef here. But we had a compromise, right, because now that bitey nous is gone, well, the cool thing is with ah, something like re cabinet or many other ir loaders, um, or even just different amps. Seems you can load up either two different cabs or two different mikes, and you can blend different tones together. So let's see how it sounds blending that first cabinet that we used the oversized with this same Mike. Same position. I'm just gonna slowly bring this one up. Of course. Got louder. But this cab, the qualities of this cab really filled out what was missing in the qualities of this cab. And now together they're forming this perfect blend of tones. So that's an option. Um, it's not like this is Theo. Only way that you can solve it. But this again is a trick. Teoh make things sound bigger and a little bit more realistic with what you can do in a studio. 5. Mic Selection: next thing that we can do is mess around with the microphone. So let's go back to just one cab. I'm just gonna meet this guy and go back to our the one that we were building the tone with . And let's start experimenting with what these different Mike's condo's. So we've been using an SM 57 which is the industry standard. But, uh, this software has a lot of different Mike's that we can choose from. It has won 21 which is a ribbon microphone, which sounds a little bit more mid range e ah, 409 which is a dynamic like the 57. Same with the 4 21 but different characteristics. Um, And down here there are, ah, condenser mikes like a Norman you 87 which can have a little bit more low end and less high mids. So let's start with the 1 21 and listen to how much of a difference thieves make. So yeah, not as big of a difference is switching out the cab itself, but enough to change where the focus of the tone is. So I listening through these I still really like between the 57 the odd ICS I five. So it's kind of a B, those two. I like the i five cause between these two, the 57 was like a little, little nasal earlier. So, uh, yeah, let's let's stay with the I five. That sounds pretty cool. Um, let's do the same thing with this guy. All right? So our goal with this cab was low end, right? So we should choose a Mike. The best represents that. So the 1 21 is very low end heavy. It's like, almost like it's all low end. Um, And the 4 21 was very focused on the low mids, too. So let's maybe those two, definitely the one. So anyone a sense school. So let's turn this one down and slowly turn it up until we have a good balance of the two. All right, that sounds great. Not too much. When I came up in this area, it was a little too muddy. And then when I was like down here, it was almost not even noticeable. So this sounds like a good balance. All right, so the last thing that we can do on here is changed between on and off axis. Where, um if you see it, it just switches them. Like to be at, like, a 45 degree angle against the cab, which offsets some of that direct. Ah, the director. That could be a little fizzy and stuff. Um, that can sound cool. Uh, and they're definitely good uses for that. But for our purposes, we're just gonna leave it on axis. Same thing with the mic distance. You can change it. How, How far away it is and the further away you get, the less proximity effect there is. And that is basically the closer you get to a source, the more low and build up there is. And, ah, because we want the sippy, beefy guitars. There's no reason for us to stray far away from the cab, so let's just keep it close. Ah, so that pretty much wraps up picking cabs and Mike's And next, we're just gonna add on some final touches to really make this sound great in the mix 6. Finishing Touches: So next red. After getting the cab, I like to add an e que I just like to use a regular digital leak. You like this because, ah, it has a lot of tools, like analyzers. And you have a lot of bands to work with. But also, you can get these really surgical narrow bands, which is great for what we're about to do. But I like to work from the outsides inward. Uh, so let's start with a ah, high pass. I'm gonna leave it, Leave the analyzer on and let's see where the loath. All right, so it starts sloping down around 100 which is normal. I don't like to do it right at 100 because 80 Teoh 100. There is still some, uh, good beef in there that will want in the mix. So let's started 80 with our like, low cut and see what that does kind of turn it on and off. All right, so 85 seems good. Anything higher them that I started to notice some Lohan being taken away, and we don't really want to take anything away from the guitar sound we just got We just want to clear up the low end in the mix, cause there's some rumblings down here that we don't want, uh, taking any space away from the bass guitar, the kick drum. So same idea. But with the high end now, a lot of people like to ah, cut pretty far down. I've seen people to 6000 hertz, 9000 hertz. But if we're trying to get realistic with this tone, this is where all the air is in the cabs. Right? Um, so we don't want to take that away, because then it's just going to sound more and more fake. Right? So let's start around 15 and can do the same thing. Let's just lower it until we feel like something is being taken away. All right, So once I hit 10 I noticed that stuff was getting kind of muffled. So, uh, I felt like 13 was a good spot to put that. So we've cleaned up our low inner high end nexus. We gotta find the whistle tones. These are things that you probably don't even know. That there, there until you search for them and cut them out. Their little risen resonance frequencies. Uh, in the high mids here between two and five K, and they you don't really hear them. But they are. Eventually, if you left the men, it would give you ear fatigue big time. So the way to find them is you get a really skinny band and you don't want to boost it all the way up here cause everything sounds bad when you boost it that high. You just kind of want to like like I to do 12 db 12 to 15. Uh, just enough so you can hear it clearly and again. Everything is going to sound kind of bad boosted like this, but they're going to be some that are just straight up resonating and are louder than others and those of the ones that you're gonna want to cut out. So we just boost and we sweep around. Yeah, here, that here there was a lot louder. So what I like to do is bring it back to zero, stop bringing back to zero, listen to it again, flat. Uh, and then from that point, slowly start to bring it down. Just until, uh, it doesn't sound horrible anymore. Um, you don't want to completely suck it out because, uh, it's still a part of the tone. It's just it happens to be louder. And it's, uh, it's just really resonating at that frequency. So we're just gonna cut it out a few db until it sounds balanced. Yeah, so minus eight. And I widened it just a little bit because, um, it didn't feel like it was accomplishing as much like if you bring it down 10 d b and it doesn't feel like it's doing anything, but you're pretty sure that that's a bad one. Uh, just try widening it just a little bit and see if that helps. Um, so there's probably a couple more because there's so much gain. So let's just keep sweeping and see if we can find anymore way right away. 33. Uh, okay, uh, or 3.3 K is for whatever reason, notoriously, always bad. So that's a good starting 0.33. All right, so, to me, this area sounds pretty cleaned up. I can hear some fizzy nous that we could probably get rid of, So let's see what's going on over there. Yeah, there it is, just Yeah, we don't need that. So again. We probably could have cut this with the low cut, but I think it sounds a little bit more natural to just do a notch like this and still keep it like, not completely cut it out. Um, but just lower it a little bit, so it's not as annoying. But that air, um, is still there, So it sounds realistic, all right, so there's probably some mid range we could cut out and some low mids we could tame. Um, but for the most part, this is a good starting point. Let's turn this EQ you on and off so you can hear how much of a difference in even just these little cuts can make humongous difference. That's why I said, like, this almost seems like part of the tone creation to me because the's air so distracting. It's so necessary to cut out thes uh, little whistle tones and clean up. The book ends here, So once that's done, your tones pretty much done. There's a couple things if you have the tools available, Teoh to make it sound a little bit more riel. One thing I like to do is add some tape saturation this one's by Slate. And ah, I just think this as a little bit of warmth and analog character to it to make it sound a little less digital. So I'll turn this on and off. You can really hear it. Ah, just in the chugs just in the low end of the chugs. It sounds a little bit. Be fear. Uh, it almost sounds like a little bit more like somebody's picking the guitar, So I love that. For that reason, Slate also makes um, pre amp emulators that can help at the beginning of the chain and stuff. Um, another cool trick if the song calls for it is just adding a little bit of room reverb just to make it sound like it's being recorded in an actual room. Um, let's see what Rock Guitar Room sounds like. So you could probably hear that really well, especially if you're wearing headphones, but very subtle. But it gives it a sense of space. It doesn't sound like it's just was recorded directly into a computer. It sounds like we kind of Mike bet up in a room, Even though it's super quiet. It's just subconsciously your brain puts that gets hard in a space now as opposed to just being a signal in a computer. All right, So thank you for watching. I hope you guys learn something. I'm gonna provide this D i For you. Uh, and I would love to see what tones you guys come up with. And if you could tell me Ah, the steps that you took the software they used. If you came up with any tricks of your own to make it sound more realistic or heavier, I would love to see what you guys are doing. Uh, but thank you so much for watching again. I hope you learn something and send me a message if you have any questions or if I could have explained something any better for you. But yeah, I'll see you in the next class. Thank you.