A midi guitar under 50$.

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Hi all! I'm a freshman in High School who's been producing music for around 2-3 years and played piano for 9. The guitarist for my band recently quit, but I want to keep producing music in the progressive metal/fusion genre. Any recommendations for midi guitar plugins similar to Impact Soundworks Hydra or Ample Hellraiser under 50$? I know this is a stretch, but I'm fairly positive that someone on these forums may have a good vst in mind.

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This is a good time for you to learn guitar.

Honestly, no sample-based electric guitar is going to sound right. I don’t know why, but sampled electric guitar is uniquely artificial sounding among all sampled instruments.

If you’ve been playing piano since you were 6 or so, you should be able to learn guitar pretty quickly. You’re not too old to learn if you start now.
THIS MUSIC HAS BEEN MIXED TO BE PLAYED LOUD SO TURN IT UP

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+1 to the above, but I'd add that programming guitar is a fool's errand. It's a huge time sink, because to get something usable takes a lot more time to program than just playing the part. Add to that the fact that in order to really program convincing guitar you need to understand how to play guitar, and it's a catch 22. By the time you know what you need to know to make the programmed guitar sound convincing, you've already learnt how to play that part and don't need to sink *any* effort into programming.

It takes 3 minutes to play and record a 3 minute track on a physical guitar. Even if you record three takes, that's ~10 minutes. It'll take an awful lot longer to program the same part, while also getting unconvincing results for your efforts. So instead of sinking all your time into learning to program believable guitar, just sink that same time into learning to play guitar. It'll pay off immensely in the long run while also making you a better all-round musician.

Sure, you'll get better initial results with a plugin, because you'll suck at guitar when you first start out. But it really doesn't take long (a few months maybe) to reach a point where you can play decently enough to do basic backing tracks. A couple of years of daily practice (even 5 minutes a day goes a long way), and you will be able to play pretty well. With a little bit of editing of your takes to mask any issues you should be able to play most parts by then, and you'll only get better and better as time goes by.

If you choose the programming route, you'll still be taking a long time to get that 3 minute part sounding halfway decent after a few years at it. Yes, you'll be better at it, and presumably quicker too than when you first started, but it'll still be so much less efficient than just playing the part. We're not talking slightly less efficient, but orders of magnitude less efficient.

Now, if you need instant results, just get a new guitarist and save yourself the frustration that is programming guitar parts. It's just not worth the effort, and you should invest that effort to something that will actually pay off in the long run (like, erm, learning to play the guitar).

I'm sure that someone will come in here and point out that you *can* program convincing guitar parts and post some examples. And that is true. But that example still took way more time and effort to create than simply playing the part in a few minutes.

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Oh, and you might want to change the topic title, as a MIDI guitar is a physical instrument that sends MIDI data similar to a keyboard. You are asking about using a guitar plugin.

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Editing guitar tracks can go a looooong way. Just ask DragonForce.
THIS MUSIC HAS BEEN MIXED TO BE PLAYED LOUD SO TURN IT UP

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sjm wrote: Fri Apr 02, 2021 11:11 pm Oh, and you might want to change the topic title, as a MIDI guitar is a physical instrument that sends MIDI data similar to a keyboard. You are asking about using a guitar plugin.
um, sorry for my ignorance, but how do you change the topic title?

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IIRC, you edit the first post.

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There is a pencil icon at the top of your post when you are logged in. Click it and then click the “Full editor view” button. You will then be able to change the subject line under “Subject:”

I would change it to something like “Electric Guitar VST for metal under $50.”

Or better still, visit the Guitars forum here for advice on your first guitar.
THIS MUSIC HAS BEEN MIXED TO BE PLAYED LOUD SO TURN IT UP

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I play guitar parts in Live with the orange tree samples libraries and get great results. They are a bit over your price range but the guy does sales often. It's what I would recommend if you go the vst route. The impact soundworks guys (who make great stuff too) had a free version of one of their guitars available. Maybe it is still available. Even if you do go the sampled route, you should learn a bit about chord voicings and such for guitar. If you know what a guitarist would do then it makes it much easier to translate to keyboard/ midi. Good luck.
Don't F**K with Mr. Zero.

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Have a look at the Indiginus guitars, all reasonably priced at $59, electric and acoustic...and can compete with more expensive VST's
https://www.indiginus.com/
need to be used with Kontakt, which may be a drawback for you...

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My advice , get a NEW GUITAR player for your band and learn to play guitar and bass yourself as well .

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I would recommend getting a nice cheap guitar as well as a decent sample based guitar. If you wait for sales and such you could have both for around 150 bucks. This will allow for programming / playing parts while you learn the fundamentals of guitar. These two things will compliment one another. Honestly you can get to the point of playing rhythm parts(by far the hardest parts to program) in drop D or some such in a very short amount of time, while playing more intricate parts with your keyboard.
Don't F**K with Mr. Zero.

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lol - the guy is looking for a good guitar VST and people go "learn how to play guitar." :roll:

OP I can't speak to Impact Soundworks Hydra or Ample Hellraiser, but the Ample Lite series are very good IMO and oh btw free. The Orange Tree and Indiginus plugins as mentioned earlier are also good.

You DON'T need to learn how to play guitar to get some good guitar sounds on your tracks.

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mixyguy2 wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 3:45 am lol - the guy is looking for a good guitar VST and people go "learn how to play guitar." :roll:
So he's 14 or so, and he wants to produce prog metal. Prog metal, like anything in the metal genre, requires more than just "some good guitar sounds." Guitar IS the genre. If you're doing metal with a VST keytar and a sequencer, you're what they call a "poseur."

A couple years from now, is he more likely to look back and say, "I'm glad I learned how to play guitar," or "I'm glad someone recommended me a VST plugin"?
THIS MUSIC HAS BEEN MIXED TO BE PLAYED LOUD SO TURN IT UP

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jamcat wrote: Fri Apr 23, 2021 1:07 am So he's 14 or so, and he wants to produce prog metal. Prog metal, like anything in the metal genre, requires more than just "some good guitar sounds."
And? ANY genre requires more than just "good sounds." Nobody is saying otherwise.
Guitar IS the genre.
No, a guitar is an instrument, not a genre.
If you're doing metal with a VST keytar and a sequencer, you're what they call a "poseur."
That's what I call "ridiculous." You can get good results playing a "keytar"...hell you don't even need that, just a keyboard, a good plugin, and the know-how to play like a guitarist (which you would need with a guitar too). He's recording music, not playing in some teeny bopper band trying to impress people with how cool he looks. When someone listens, they won't care how he got those sounds, just that it sounds good.
A couple years from now, is he more likely to look back and say, "I'm glad I learned how to play guitar," or "I'm glad someone recommended me a VST plugin"?
Probably Door #2 as not everyone has the time, interest, and/or ability to learn how to play guitar, which clearly appears to be the case here....otherwise, he probably wouldn't have asked this question in the first place.

If you don't know the answer to the question, that's OK, just say so...or just don't say anything vs telling him he should do something he clearly isn't interested in doing and oh btw isn't necessary.

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