Right of the back, I'm not a guitar player and will use my keyboard to play guitar sounds. Actually, I'm using the original SampleTank Free with a free Fingered 1 patch. I'm so used to working with synth sounds, that all my "usual" effects make this guitar sound too unnatural and synthetic/plastic. So, my questions is what basic effects and corresponding settings would you recommend me to make it sound clean and natural? Are there specific frequencies in ParametricEQ (FLStudio) I can use to brighten the sound? As I mentioned above, I want to use it for a simple sequence played with my midi keyboard, something similar to Jam & Spoon "Right in the night".

Thanx!

I don't often use synth guitar sounds, but on the occasions I do, there are several things which help.

1. Compression - have a little bit of attack to let through the picking sounds etc...maybe 150-300 mS might do it. Fairly hefty compression ratio depending on the type of guitar sound you want - overdriven etc I use up to 10:1 or so, but less for a cleaner guitar sound. Release depends entirely on the song feel. Threshold fairly low - you want most of a guitar body to be compressed, only the first hit left alone.

2. Eq...again it varies, but usually I find guitar stuff needs a hefty boost in the upper mids 2000-4000Hz - ish. With a reasonably wide Q setting.

3. some kind of thickening FX helps hugely.... a subtle but swirly chorus or flanger - not great mod depth, but a high-ish amount. Flangers often work better than choruses just because they add to the metallic sound better. If you can use a flanger that lets you effect only above certain frequencies, all the better. I generally bass cut (but I bass cut everything anyway) and sometimes a subtle boost in the lower mids can help presence too. Maybe 250-400Hz?

4. Reverbs - definitely I find metallic cheap grainy reverbs better than pristine quality ones for guitar (in most cases)...so just d/l most of the free ones, and you'll get a suitable low quality reverb . It just gives the impression of guitar better - spring reverbs, plates etc usually with some of the real top end rolled off. Consider that people are used to hearing guitars recorded via cabinets that often have some kind of spring reverb onboard.

5.Enhancers of some sort can help too. I like harmonic enhacers, although I might roll of the top end to cut out the really high harmonics - just 2nd or 3rd order harmonics are nice.

6. Overdrive or really subtle clipping distortion almost always help guitar, even cleaner sounding ones. Not in-yer-face, just a very subtle almost unheard-but-felt distortion to add a few harmonics. Some kind of tube/valve emulation with lowish setting will do wonders for almost any synth or sampled guitar. Ruby Tube is good, just because it is a subtle distortion.

7. Other metallicy FX can help - things like ring mods when used subtly - slot them in before the distortion and mod FX. Even a little bit reduction can sometimes do it.

8. My magic wand for any synth guitar I do is....................................

QuantumFX from dB Audio. Not cheap in the scheme of things, but good value, considering all the other things it does. It has some excellent guitar amps, cabs and complete guitar FX patches that include Eq, chorus, cabinets, grainy reverb and subtle overdrive all out of the box. I've used it for most of my dub stuff for those short off-beat chords that don't need real detailed sound, but just enough to give the effect of an 80s guitar sound. And the results often surpass my expectations - what have sounded quite unrealistic synth patches when dry, suddenly become funky metallic guitar. I don't think they do the rock'n'roll over the top fuzz thing well, but they do sublte overdriven and even clean guitar very well.

Bodilizer.

made to order for what you want.

Thanks a lot for all these suggestions!!! Definitely gonna try it this weekend.

Thanks for the tips too. Didn't know Bodilizer and get the demo now, and I'm always listening to other people's effects-handling. Idea with the reverb seems pretty cool too.