KVR Audio

Fredrikgroth · Post by **Fredrikgroth** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 10:42 pm

Strange question, huh?

But anyway, you guys that record rock / hard rock / metal, what plugins do you ALWAYS use?

Vocals: I always use Voxengo Voxformer on all my vocal tracks. It's excellent... has great EQ, a 2 band compressor, gate, de-esser and more. My main reverb is GlaceVerb... does not sound too natural, but is the best reverb I've heard for clean metal vocals. I also use the sonitus delay that came with sonar. Works great.

Bass: I line my bass guitar through a DI-box. Then I use Voxformer for compressing, eq & saturation/distortion. After the Voxformer I have the (free) Rednef Twin plugin for speaker simulation. Works & sounds great!

Guitars: I usually record 4 rhythm tracks... two with my V-AMP, and two with the EXCELLENT JCM900-plugin from Guitar Suite (often in combination with one of the stomp box plugins).

Drums: Waves Audiotrack on everything. Works ok, I probably only use it because old habits die hard. GlaceVerb on snare and toms.

Now, let me know what YOUR essential plugins are!

And btw; here is a pre-prod demo of a song for our next album. The only difference from my descriptions above is that it does not have any Guitar Suite JCM900-tracks; all guitars are V-AMP. Click here to listen: http://www.storyteller.nu/2005/2005groth3voc2.mp3

Rock on!

Fredrik Groth
http://www.storyteller.nu

Juan Sanchez · Post by **Juan Sanchez** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 11:52 pm

Sounds good, I take it you like Yngwie. What did you use for the choir sounds, my top plugin's are Uad-1 Pultec-pro, 1176LN, LA2A, From Sonar the Sonitus Multiband, the PSP Vintage Warmer,Voxengo I like the CurveEq and the Soniformer and for verb I like the GlaceVerb and Dreamverb.

Take Care, Juan Sanchez

neverwhere2012 · Post by **neverwhere2012** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 11:56 pm

can't live without the UAD plugins for metal. the UAD 1176 on the 4 buttons mode and cranked is where it's at for vocals. i also think, honestly, i won't be able to live without tritone's hydratone eq either. valvetone is quite nice as well.

Fredrikgroth · Post by **Fredrikgroth** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 11:58 pm

Thanks Juan.

The "choir sounds" are real vocals, 6 or 8 tracks with the same singer. Voxformer in stereo mode on the choir sub, LOTS of compression, prescence boost and highpass EQ. Lots of reverb as well.

duke4e · Post by **duke4e** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 10:23 am

wintage warmer on snare, kick, guitar, bass guitar, vocals and final mix,
izotope trash on guitar,
fruity equalizer on cymbals,
final mastering with har-bal

mondo tormento · Post by **mondo tormento** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 12:20 pm

Drumkit From Hell right? I recognize the snare sound and I have to say I think it sounds a little too 'flat'. But a great recording Fredrik! Have you tried BFD from FXpansion? It sounds more natural than DFH I think.

Fredrikgroth · Post by **Fredrikgroth** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 3:14 pm

mondo tormento wrote:Drumkit From Hell right? I recognize the snare sound and I have to say I think it sounds a little too 'flat'. But a great recording Fredrik! Have you tried BFD from FXpansion? It sounds more natural than DFH I think.

Yep, it's DFH version 1. It works ok for me, even though you're right about the snare sound.

Haven't tried BFD, but I think it's a little too "big" for me. I need to keep it simple.

Hellbilly · Post by **Hellbilly** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 3:24 pm

Excellent sound you have created there. The guitars sound very good to me and i really envy you

Unlike mondo, i think the drum sound is great and fits the music very well.

Would it be ok that i emailed you some day to get some more in depth tips on your sound? I'd really like to acheive some good "virtual" metal like you have

Fredrikgroth · Post by **Fredrikgroth** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 4:43 pm

Hellbilly wrote:Excellent sound you have created there. The guitars sound very good to me and i really envy you

Thank you.

As I said; they are all V-AMP. I used to have a POD but didn't like the sound so I sold it.

Hellbilly wrote:Unlike mondo, i think the drum sound is great and fits the music very well.

Thanks again.

Hellbilly wrote:Would it be ok that i emailed you some day to get some more in depth tips on your sound? I'd really like to acheive some good "virtual" metal like you have

Why not take it right here instead of by email? I will try to answer any questions you might have.

/Fredrik

donkey tugger · Post by **donkey tugger** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 4:51 pm

Hoo, thats a big old skool metel sound, not my thing at all, but impressive sound!

I'm a coming from a more indie type of direction but I do like to do a bit of, ahem, rokkcking out now and again.

Vocals - Blocksfish + Spitfish, tiny wee bit of fruity reeverb, retrodelay on backing vocals, or main vocal if it's that type of song. Classic chorus on bv's too. Haven't tried all this gumf on me new AKG mics yet mind. Lazy!

Bass - still using samples at the moment, can't beat the comp and amps in sampletank 2, though sometimes I'll use MDA combo too.

Geetars - JCM 900, Cortex, Tubebaby, X-Amp, use em all depending on what sound I'm after. Blockfish is a top compressor for the old clean and acoustic geetars

Drums - Fruity reverb, H20 on kick and snare, and perhaps sometimes blockfish on the for the biiiig sound.

Anyway, this be one of me more recent more 'rokk' dirges with said plug-ins;

disillusion

dimitar · Post by **dimitar** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 5:04 pm

"donkey tugger"

jshonuff · Post by **jshonuff** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 5:05 pm

The slayer 1.5 and 2
ravity S and r
edirol

Har · Post by **Har** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 5:05 pm

For guitar and the guitar half of my Stick, I usually use a SansAmp GT2 along with wah and volume pedals, then straight into the board and soundcard and a ton of various plugins. From there, depends on the tune; for cleaner Strat sounds, I tend to like the Sonitus compressor and delay, along with the mda Detune for when I want more of that kind of Robbie Blunt style Strat sound, or with a touch more overdrive for maybe more of an Alex Lifeson kind of tone. For reverb, I usually jump back and forth between the Sonitus reverb and the Lexicon Pantheon, depending on what kind of color/flavor I'm after for the song I'm working on. I've also been experimenting with various Leslie sims like the B4's for when I want that swirling effect (I'm also getting ready to pick up a tube-driven Hughs & Kettner Rotosphere Mk. II for this as well, for live stuff).

For heavier sounds, the SansAmp GT2 cranked definitely kicks hard, sometimes boosted a bit further with one of the SimulAnalog Guitar Suite plugins
Also, I've recently started experimenting by supplimenting that with the FrettedSynth Guitifier plugin...it's great for giving a warm, edge-y tone ranging from just-on-the-edge amp overdrive to even more heavier tones.

For really nasty, ratty fuzz/distortion, I love using putting the SmartElectronix Cyanide2 plugin into the formula as well....adds just the right kind of pain.

For bass and the bass side of the Stick, I use the SansAmp Bass Driver DI: I find it perfect for adding an SVT-style "weight" to the tone, and I love how you can power it using phantom-power right from the board instead of a wall-wart.

Then , once into Software Land I usually like using either the Sonitus Compressor (excellent on the Stick), endorphin, PSP Vintage Warmer, or SmartElectronix H20 for compression depending on what overall sound the song I'm working on at the time calls for.
The Guitifier plugin works great on bass as well: I used it on the Stick-bass on the tune I did with Kriminal, "XACTO", for a semi-Korn style bass tone.

Drums: usually DR-008 and whatever samples sound right for the song I'm working on.

dimitar · Post by **dimitar** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 6:12 pm

donkey tugger wrote:Hoo, thats a big old skool metel sound, not my thing at all, but impressive sound!

Drums - Fruity reverb, H20 on kick and snare, and perhaps sometimes blockfish on the for the biiiig sound.

Anyway, this be one of me more recent more 'rokk' dirges with said plug-ins;

disillusion

Hi Dude! Pls if you have "free" time to spend...
Pls tell as more about the drums and guitars
Some EQ settings , drum kits brands...

I like your sound very much...very full in mid-low end

Great job!

Thank you very much!

Dimitar

donkey tugger · Post by **donkey tugger** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 7:09 pm

dimitar wrote:
donkey tugger wrote:Hoo, thats a big old skool metel sound, not my thing at all, but impressive sound!

Drums - Fruity reverb, H20 on kick and snare, and perhaps sometimes blockfish on the for the biiiig sound.

Anyway, this be one of me more recent more 'rokk' dirges with said plug-ins;

disillusion
Hi Dude! Pls if you have "free" time to spend...
Pls tell as more about the drums and guitars
Some EQ settings , drum kits brands...

I like your sound very much...very full in mid-low end
Great job!

Thank you very much!

Dimitar

Are you sure?

Ok, here's a few pics of effects settings and stuff;

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bennyleeds ... guitar.jpg

(Cortex>eq>stereo enhancer)

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bennyleeds ... guitar.jpg

(jcm900>eq>stereo enhnancer)

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bennyleeds ... guitar.jpg

(mda combo>eq) this one I used on 2 guitar tracks panned hard left and right (mda combo does stereo, yay!), to beef up the riff wit ha bit of fuzz.

drums are a sampled kick from an old alesis sr-16, snare from manytone acoustic drums and toms, hi-hats, cymbals from sonic reality acoustic drums eRom. Settings were like this;

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bennyleeds ... /drums.jpg

for the kick, snare and toms (it's actually the blockfish 'fat drum loop preset, driven quite hard), with the compressor after the reverb (to get that sucking kind of sound on the verb

). Hi-hats and cymbals are on another channel completely dry.

Errr, is that what you were arfter?

(oops, forgot to mention that the guitar is my shite washburn 'superstrat'; back pickup with 3 year old strings on; may slightly effect the eq that!

)

What's your essential metal/rock plugins?