i've recently published an article with some interesting freebie guitar multisamples and VSTs:

http://bedroomproducersblog.com/2011/12/03/free-sample-shoot out-7-best-free-guitar-and-bass-samples/

perhaps you'll find some of those useful.

Cheers will check Pettinhouse guitars out. I also lisened to the AAS Strum plugin. Sounds pretty awesome too.

Time for a bump.

I use shreddage and I think it is very good for rhtymic metal or hardrock riffs, despite the relatively low price.
However, I am looking into other alternatives for brutal metal sounds atm and am glad for any first hand experiences with other libraries or plugins.
Last edited by darsho on Fri Feb 24, 2012 2:46 am; edited 1 time in total

I have AAS Strum! Acoustic Session and Sugar-Bytes Guitarist, I like them both for different reasons, Strum is great for well, basic strums and the midi file library is well-organized, but the timing in general seems a little weird in mixes, which can be fixed by rendering to audio and nudging as needed. Guitarist is really cool, very flexible and really orients me as a guitar player to what is going on musically. I think right now it is my favorite plugin, and with a good amp plugin it really sounds authentic. It is easy to program as well (at least for me) and I find myself writing my progressions in it before working on the song in my DAW. You can use its internal sequencer and sync with your host if you like, and run it as a stand-alone app too, again for songwriting that works great for sorting our chord progressions.

Audiffex plugins sound like real amps basically and have user friendly and simple interfaces.. check em out at their site oh and look at vids on you you tube i think you'd be happy!

http://www.audiffex.com/

I'm using Electri6ity and Guitar Rig 5 Pro for my latest Death Metal project.

All the tunes on my youtube page are using this combo as well (GR4 & 5): http://www.youtube.com/user/Progtronic

Latest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-cQLeom1ZI
Last edited by progtronic on Fri Feb 24, 2012 8:37 pm; edited 1 time in total

Xhun Audio have something up their sleeve which should be really good. I think it's called IronAxe.

i've recently released a list of free guitar amp sims:

Free Guitar Amp Simulator VST Plugins!

Agreed! I am really liking my Sugar-bytes Guitarist too. The weak point with Guitarist is its built in effects. DI straight out to your favorite amp sim, and you've got a VERY powerful, VERY flexible, AWESOME sounding instrument. Note: When listening to the samples on the Sugar-bytes web site, listen to the strum quality and chord variety, not the effects. All of the samples on their website are straight from Guitarist, and don't truly demonstrate how awesome it sounds with a good amp sim, or how easy it is to do really realistic guitar.

Oh Yeah, and it also doesn't use C/R or dongles--just a simple serial code.

--Sean

I just bought Strum Electric and it is fantastic, a huge step up from Acoustic Session, and am now considering selling Guitarist, mostly to simplify my workflow, not because Guitarist isn't majorly cool. But the Strum instruments have a huge upside in that you can use regular piano chords instead of the mapping of chords to keys like Guitarist, I am finding it easier to make a progression with simple piano chords in the piano roll on one track, then send that to Strum (both acoustic and electric, and tracks with Catanya on them), create a midi strum sequence for the strum tracks, make a bassline and piano chords on tracks with Catanya patterns, and if I change anything in the progression, it will reflect automatically in all of the tracks. Guitarist probably will be on the auction block once the 'no sell' period is over. Strum does lead work too and sounds fantastic even without any external amps, and seems to use less memory overall. If I can find a better way to integrate Guitarist into this workflow it may stay but it seems redundant at this point.

No problem. You've got to work with what works for you. I actually like being able to set up my chords ahead of time to exactly what I want them to be, and then play them on the keyboard if needed (using just one key). It gives me great flexibility, along with being really easy to use. As you mentioned, setting things up ahead of time may be a downside, but the added flexibility is a huge up.



...that and I can't play a keyboard worth squat , so the ability to play entire chords/progressions with just one key comes in really handy.

--Sean

yeah I'm not knocking Guitarist at all, I get great joy watching the little steampunk-esque interface do its thing and that helps a lot to feel I know what it is doing, just I'm trying to figure out workflow that works for me and so sharing that experience. It may stay, and for pure writing it is cool because within its sequencer you can switch between different chord positions and see what works with what, easily try out different things, it is an excellent tool just a different flow from the way Catanya works and that is becoming a big part of my system. I'm not musically talented nor have terribly creative ideas so these automated tools are great relief. Strum also has a nice big chord display to show what chord is in play, which I do wish Guitarist had. Guitarist is deep though and I'm certain I'm not making the most of it.

Yeah, sometimes I wish there was a little less steampunk and a little more chord display too--for instance, I'd love to have the 24 presets represented as piano keys and MIDI note letters/numbers rather than a little steampunk light that just turns on/off when the particular key is being used. Overall though, I like the extreme flexibility that the program offers. That's a big plus to me.

By the way, I didn't understand how you are using Catyana with Strum. Isn't Catyana an arpeggiator?

--Sean

I'm using Catanya and Strum with the same chord progressing midi file, so on one track I have my master chord progression, and it is used as a send to Strum, which has just the 'strum' midi on its track. On another track I'll have Catanya with a bass guitar patch, with it's own rhythm defined by Catanya. Same for piano, organ, or whatever tracks I want to add, all being driven by that one chord progression. So the guitas, bass, piano and other instruments will all follow that chord progression, and if I want to change anything I just change that one progression and it is instantly reflected in the other tracks. Then it becomes a matter of just programming the strum rhythm, and the Catanya rhythms, and making it all work together. The tracks can then be rendered to midi or audio easily when I'm happy with them, then move on to the next segment. I am still figuring it all out but I worked for a company that did software automation so I am basically doing what their tool did, abstracting out the chords so it doesn't have to be edited in 5 or 6 places when some change is required.