![]() ![]() The knobs aren’t precise, you need to stop playing to change the settings, and you’ll rarely be able to replicate the same thing twice (at least not with any level of accuracy). Things like delay throws and echoes can be extremely tedious to get right on a physical guitar pedal. Tweaking your pedals before, during & after recording is not only possible – it’s encouraged. ![]() ![]() If you’re all about control from start to end – automation is what separates the men from the boys when it comes to guitar tone. If you love tweaking pedals on your board to experiment with new sounds, but you haven’t tried it in a virtual rig yet, I can’t even begin to explain the flexibility you’re missing. The pedals in virtual amps run the full range of options as well: overdrive, reverb, delay – even wah pedals can be found in Toneforge. Could you imagine having each of your guitar pedals modded by a guitar tech to exactly match your amp’s sound? Instead, virtual amps are loaded with pedals that don’t just sound good on their own, but have been tweaked to specifically match the tonal characteristics of the amp. With virtual guitar and bass rigs, we know that the amp alone doesn’t make up the tone we’re after. When’s the last time you were shopping for an amp and the sales guy offered to throw in a bunch of free pedals? I tend to lean toward the latter when looking for new sounds – there are so many bundles out there filled with exotic and hard-to-find cabinets. These IRs can be anything: from sessions you’ve recorded that you captured your own IRs from to IR bundles from the web. With built-in Impulse Response loaders, virtual guitar rigs give musicians the flexibility to use their own IR collection instead of the on-board models included with the plugin. Rather than settle for “the best option at the time”, why not leave yourself the flexibility to swap out for a different cab whenever you want ? I know that people are after the natural dynamics that come with a good guitar cabinet, but when you’re talking about high-end equipment, most guitarists are only going to have one or two of those at their disposal. They’re designed to sound great in stereo or mono, but bring a whole new meaning to “ wall of sound” when stacking stereo double-tracked guitars. Tools like Toneforge Guilty Pleasure are made for big, anthemic guitar tone. Instead of fighting to get a wide, full-spectrum guitar tone by micing up two speakers (or two cabinets if you’ve got a true stereo rig), why not use something that’s been designed for stereo use from Day 1? While the additional speakers are great at adding volume in a live setting, the studio is where you should be capturing the pure, unadulterated tone you’re after. This is the reason you see so many engineers micing up a single speaker with multiple microphones, even on something like a 4 x 12 cab. The resonance and cancellation between the speakers (and the cabinet itself) are enough to drive an engineer insane. If you’re trying to capture two speakers from the same cabinet, you’re going to be dealing with some extreme phase cancelation and unwanted muddiness. Micing up two speakers on a guitar amp can be a nightmare. So the next time you’re working with guitars, bass, or anything else you might want to send through a guitar rig, keep these five freedoms in mind: 1. Once you start growing outside of a traditional amp’s limitations, you’ll realize that a virtual amp adds flexibility that you could never achieve a standard tube or solid-state amplifier. It all starts with the realization that your amp sims don’t conform to the same rules as a regular guitar amp. A virtual guitar or bass rig is one of the most powerful tools in a professional producers toolbox when they know how to use it.
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