Does a vintage guitar still sound “vintage” when going thru software amp simulation? What if audio plug-ins were available back in 1977? Let’s find out in this fourth episode of the “Rig Of The Day” series!
The day this ’77 Gibson Les Paul Special Double Cut arrived at the office (a limited edition with this special sunburst color), I could not wait and plugged it into an audio interface to check it out. I recorded this quick & dirty demo, all takes using a single Axiom preset, with a few modifications (actually the same preset that we ended up using as a basis for Allen Hinds’ guitar tone – see details below).
The guitar feels and sounds great so you do not need much virtual gear to get many sounds out of it, as long as the amp simulation respects the character of the guitar, which is fortunately the case with Axiom :-).
Double Cut Special
So, how does the guitar sound in this demo? Does it still feel vintage although going thru plug-ins? Check it out and tell us what you think!
Guitar Tone Details
There are a couple of guitar tracks in there. For the Intro Univibe tone, I have used the PolyVibe plug-in in front of the virtual amp. On rhythm tracks the delay is off, while on some of the lead licks you may hear the “Ping Pong – Tape” Late Replies preset:
It is mostly the same amp for all tracks (a custom amp preset based on the “Text Chug” factory preset) , in most cases the only adjustments to the tone are made with the guitar’s volume pots to get less distortion. Except for the more gainy tone, which uses a different amp variation (modified “Jump Dist” factory preset).
Reverb has been adjusted for each track using the macro controls at the bottom of the preset, and no extra reverb was used globally. That’s about it for guitar tones!
Other Gear
Although it’s not 1977 anymore, all instruments are human-played. Here is the extra gear used:
– Bass Guitar: a 1998 Fender Precision Bass California (run into Blue Cat’s Axiom too, with a few adjustments to the stock “BMan Guitar for Bass” preset).
– Drums: played on Roland V-Drums, triggering two instances of the Addictive Drums plug-in by XLN Audio loaded into PatchWork, as described here.
And at the end of the chain lies the Protector limiter plug-in with 150ms release time, extra DC filter on, 10ms lookahead and smooth 6 dB knee, to increase loudness a little bit and even out levels.
