Is it all worth it?

[Memory Lane Jr]

I didnt do anything with the Hd 500. Just selected an amp and used the sound out of the box (-:

I still have not been able to test out a HD500 none of the lousy shops around my area have a demo 
But I see so many stories on the net from guys/girls complaining about the HD300/500 & saying they can't get a good tone out of them & are selling it.
A lot of people say you have to do this & add external cab impulses blah blah, so I have never taken the chance to buy one., I just don't have time to shag around for weeks getting good sound...
Then you say you just  plugged in & got great tones out of the box
I need help

[VikingBlues]

Here is a recording made in reaper.

https://soundcloud.com/sologuitar-1/strictly-instrumental

Guitar is a Schecter Hellraiser c-1 Extreme
(Metall Axe - but killer playability and very nice tone - has coil split for neck pu)


DAW: Reaper (Freeware!!)
Drums: EZ Drummer by Toontracks

AMP Sounds: POD HD 500
Post Effects: Guitar Rig (Delay & Reverb for Sololines) - all other rythm guitar parts are just played through the ampmodell: ENGL Fireball without effects

Thanks for posting up this excellent sounding demo Johannes. 

You gave yourself a great backing for your lead playing there. The drums do work well - was there a lot of work to set up the patterns they used and was there much needed in knowing how drum patterns work best?

Nice work on the rhythm guitar parts - the contrast where the singing lead tone comes in at around 40 seconds is musically very satisfying. Good work making the lead so musical with that amount of overdrive - that's a brick wall I keep crashing badly into - think it's nearly a year since my last halfway acceptable overdriven guitar sound appeared on a recording.

You're doing well to be able to use a multi-fx unit and get a good sound "out of the box". I've found frustration with pretty well all the multi units I've ever tried with the continual tweaking and adjustments I've had to keep making to make the presets acceptable. The worst offender for that was one of the more pricey Boss units - ended up needing an instructional DVD to work out how to use it best - the best involved a LOT of tweaking ... good sounds at the end of the process but too much like hard work (and too complicated in all the multi function buttons and cascading menu things. 

I am tempted by EZ Drummer - though I've years of a lack of much rhythm guitar playing to overcome - I'll need oil with all that rust on my technique. 

[johannes.maas]

I didnt do anything with the Hd 500. Just selected an amp and used the sound out of the box (-:

I still have not been able to test out a HD500 none of the lousy shops around my area have a demo 
But I see so many stories on the net from guys/girls complaining about the HD300/500 & saying they can't get a good tone out of them & are selling it.
A lot of people say you have to do this & add external cab impulses blah blah, so I have never taken the chance to buy one., I just don't have time to shag around for weeks getting good sound...
Then you say you just  plugged in & got great tones out of the box
I need help

The presets are - like on most units - too fancy. But you can always start from scratch. For my recording I just selected an Engl Fireball amp with the matching 4x12 cab which is already preselected. I added no other stuff to the fx chain. In my opinion the best way for rythm guitar. Too much fancy stuff kills a good rythm sound.... So you just hear the amp modelling and no other stuff.  For the soloing I added fx in reaper with the guitar rig plugin. I added reverb and delay.

@Viking Blues: There was not much work. I start selecting different patterns and find one that suits my main riff. In this case the drums are a little bit "off" my picking pattern if you understand what I mean. I just copied the pattern repeatedly for the first part. I did the same for the second part with the soloing, there you hear a much straighter pattern. Afterwards I listen amd insert little fills - not too much just where it suits, for example if the part id like 12x4 long I insert one short fill in the middle and one at the end. Hope this helps... You always have to try out, make mistakes, and then xou get better (-:

Cheers, Johannes

[VikingBlues]

@Viking Blues: There was not much work. I start selecting different patterns and find one that suits my main riff. In this case the drums are a little bit "off" my picking pattern if you understand what I mean. I just copied the pattern repeatedly for the first part. I did the same for the second part with the soloing, there you hear a much straighter pattern. Afterwards I listen amd insert little fills - not too much just where it suits, for example if the part id like 12x4 long I insert one short fill in the middle and one at the end. Hope this helps... You always have to try out, make mistakes, and then xou get better (-:

Cheers, Johannes

Well - not wanting to waste money on something that doesn't work on my sytem or I can't understand I got hold of an electronic version of EZ Drummer Lite for £1. After struggling with the steps of ordering on the website, setting up an account, getting confirmation e-mails, downloading the software, installing, jumping through the hoops of registration and authorisation with Toontrack, and struggling with getting all my various DAWs to see the program .... it's installed and working. I also, on a roll, got GuitarRig to work with my DAW for the first time.

My nerves by then were jangling somewhat. I quickly did a drag and drop of a few basic rock patterns onto a MIDI track. Did a rhythm guitar part using GuitarRig - immediately forgot what chords I'd used but tried putting some lead and (on the last half) some bass - both through GuitarRig. It's a shambles, partly because it's so long since I played any rhythm and bass!

I take it that if I drag and drop to a MIDI track I could then edit, add a cymbal crash or whatever using the MIDI editing in the DAW.

I'll have a more relaxed play around with EZ Drummer Lite at the weekend. Obviously if it goes well I can then think of an upgrade - with more confidence that a full version will work with my system.