March 06, 2023 Here’s a reminder to put your clocks ahead one hour on Sunday, March 12, 2023 for Daylight Savings Time. And before I get into the extremely long list of FREE download stuff related to How to Record Killer Metal and Rock Guitar (part #4) I’d like to say… Happy Saint Patrick’s Day March 17th, 2023 is Saint Patrick’s Day this year -- the wearing of the green. It is also affectionatly known as the drunkest day of the year. Even more drunk than New Year celebrations! Maybe they should make it safer by changing it to the smoking of the green. Anyway, here in the USA many folks put green food coloring in light colored beer and call it a party. I guess that’s one way to make junky beer seem more festive. At any rate, religious Lenten restrictions on eating and drinking alcohol are lifted for the day, and drinking Irish whiskey, beer (mmm, stout), or cider is an integral part of the celebration. The "drowning the shamrock" or "wetting the shamrock" was historically popular, especially in Ireland. A shamrock is put into the bottom of a drinking vessel which is then filled with beer, whiskey, or cider and then it is hoisted as a toast. “May the devil follow you for the rest of your days, but may he never catch up to you.” Slainte! Recording Metal and Rock Guitar This Zystrix posting is the fourth of a several part series designed to help a person record guitar, specifically metal and rock guitar, no matter your skill level. And the main crux is how to do an excellent job on a low budget. Please know that there are many types of gear that are glossed over or omitted here because either there’s just too much great gear to list or maybe the gear simply doesn’t pass muster with Zystrix guidelines. Although all complaints are considered, any software that has download issues or problems (ie any advertising, internet dependence, privacy issues, and so on) is flagged and simply doesn’t make the grade. Software requiring an email is OK. Last time we covered recording gear for the center of a home recording setup (to review click on the Left Arrow by the watch at the top left of this page). This time it’s FREE guitar software, virtual guitar pedals, and helpful guitar-friendly plug-ins. Next time I’ll cover pedals. Later in this series I’ll cover an engineer’s and guitarist’s approach to the instrument, gear use, old tricks, modern and popular tricks, and maybe a few you never tried. So here’s more basic gear needed for a bare bones beginning -- FREE plug-ins. How to Record Killer Metal and Rock Guitar The Ultimate Guide (Part Four) THE FINE PRINT: Zystrix is not and has never been a participant in any advertising program including but not limited to the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, Sweetwater, or any other affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to the forementioned or any other companies. There are many slick websites, but not many honest ones. Zystrix has no links associated with the sale of any products. This keeps our reviews honest, cuts out any unnecessary middle man, and keeps this website free from cookies and the influences of Google and other unethical perveyors of your digital exhaust and personal information. It’s our mantra. Guitar Plug-ins The FREE, The Honorable Mention, and The Paid In this section we’ll cover cool FREE Plug-ins for metal and rock guitar. I have tested all these and I can attest they are good. When I say free I mean free – totally. Some require nothing and some require an email. Buts that’s not much in the grand scheme, especially when snatching sales can mean so much to some. I didn’t cover everything by any means – not even close. I just covered the ones that I enjoy and that readily work for me. Am I some sort of expert? Well, not really I suppose – you be the judge. However, the insightful people who offer these plug-ins are also the people who work hard for you – they are the real heroes of the music industry. They are the ones who make the tops of lists like this one. And they deserve it. I’m sure they would appreciate someone like you throwing a little money at them once in a while, so if you get a chance, try to help out. If you have seen guitar plug-ins that should also be on this list please say something. I’m sure the unknown inventors would like that too. After that section is done the list of all the Honorable Mention stuff will be covered next. Honorable mention plug-ins means the ones that sound good but they may not quite fit into a heavy guitar sound depending on who’s playing. This includes things like different amps not particularly associated with metal or rock but still sound cool, and plug-ins tools that improve the overall sound of the recorded guitar like EQ, tape, tubes, reverbs, and so on. When it comes to guitar there’s always room for imagination. And the last item list, The Paid, will include the crippled, the internet dependent, and the paid plug-in versions for all the snobs, high falootins, and the people who don’t care either way, financially or personally. It’s nice to not have to think or work and have cool sounds just dropped into your lap. But alas, sometimes things cost more than money. Well anyway, all philosophy aside, fasten your seat-belt – this is a long list. And away we go... ----------------------------------- Cool FREE Guitar Plugins GUITAR AMPLIFIER HEAD EMULATIONS LePou Poulin HyBrit Head V 1.1A This amp head has a very convincing Marshall-like tone but the front end is a little weak and insensitive for my blood. But because of this I think it gets sold short shrift. I like the knob for shifting from 800 to Plexi; the Plexi setting is highly addictive for me. I also like the power amp knob. It adds a lot of oomph overtones. However, this amp head tends to be a beach-weakling unless used with a distortion pedal. It’s not bad then. But if you want to kick some serious sand in faces and turn this into a top-notch fire-breathing wickedly-wonderful muscle-man then try some of the various over-drives as I’ll explain later. Get this plug-in -- highly recommended. LePou Poulin Le456 If you like the sound of an ENGL amp then you’ll definitely enjoy this one. It has lots of high end and plenty of that sassy ENGL drive. It really cuts through a mix. Very nice. LePou Poulin LeCto This is a Mesa Boogie type of amp head with a tight defined overall sound and a pleasant round low end. It also goes great mixed with amps with lots of low end body. Or try this: Molotok (attack 10ms with release .5-1 seconds) to Greed Smasher to LeCto to double15-inch cab IR for some seriously angry 1960s Dual Showman sag. Your pant legs will vibrate. You’ll have trouble breathing. Satan’s Amp of Doom. LePou Poulin LeGion This amp head is billed as an Original of LePou. It has a cool overdrive distortion sound and it’s my favorite of their offerings if I’m just trying to get a great sound in a big hurry -- a screamin’ demon. LePou Poulin Solo C This is a Soldano type of amp head and it has that familiar tight sound. It also goes even better with the Heptode pedals listed below. Emissary by Ignite Amps This is a hot sounding head that (last I knew) comes bundled with the NadIR convolver (for emulating speaker cabs). If they are not still bundled then get the NadIR too because you’ll need one. I’m not sure what amp it’s emulating (Diesel? Bogner?), it just sounds good. It has a nice warm clean tone and a rockin’ distortion sound that gets even better with a distortion pedal in front of it. Excellent. KUASSA Amplifikation Lite guitar head I’m not sure what amp head this is imitating but it certainly rocks. It cleans up pretty good too, but the drive is what this amp head is all about, at least to me. The knobs seem to have a lot of throw, so it’s touchy dialing in the EQ. The sound is surprising for free -- definitely try this one. Mars JFD vers 4A3 by Vadim Taranov This is a great sounding Marshall-like head from Vadim Taranov. It’s billed as something to help you get Slash-like tones. I don’t know if it will do that for you, but it’s tied for my hands down overall favorite for getting quick and easy Marshall kinds of tone. Just plug in and go -- don’t forget the convolver and the cab IR. Ace by Shattered Glass Audio This amp has an interesting sag when it’s turned up that works in some situations like small amp experiments and blues. But it also hardens up enough to add definition to a thick guitar sound. A cool way to run this is to turn off the speaker emulation and run it through your favorite speaker cab convolver and 4x12 cab IR. Run the controls about noon or so to start and plug in your favorite distortion pedal or pre-amp emulation. When the EQ and drive is set where you like run it mixed far behind a thick compressed guitar for definition and dynamics. TPA-1 by Ignite Amps Have you got a guitar (or bass) sound that seems a little flimsy? Run it through the power amp TPA-1 to increase the heat. Try it with almost any of the guitar heads listed above or pedals and pre-amps listed below. Try it with bass guitar. Highly recommended. JCM 800 Hot Pre-amp by Mercuriall This is my other favorite for Marshall tone. This is an authentic sounding pre-amp that sounds good by itself ran through an IR convolver for cabinet tones or into the TPA-1 by Ignite Amps (tube power amp emulator) and a cabinet convolver, but it really shines if it’s run through the HyBrit head by Poulin and then an IR convolver. Run the JCM Hot Pre-amp higher in gain but low in output and treble. Run the HyBrit power amplifier section knob full for body thickness with the rest of the knobs to your liking (start with straight-up noon) with just a small amount of input distortion or drive. Running the knobs so the gain-staging works correctly is a little bit of a balancing act (use the HyBrit for the final tone decisions), but it’s worth it. It’s a great hot- rodded Marshall sound. Don’t forget a noise gate to clean it up a little. X30 Pre-amp (Sylvania/Sovtek emulations) by TSE Audio I’m told this is a copy of a German guitar pre-amp. It might be, I don’t know. But this is another nice pre-amp that sounds good by itself ran through an IR convolver or the TPA-1 by Ignite Amps and then a convolver -- it’s got a nice crunch. But it really shines if it’s run through the Poulin HyBrit head and then an IR convolver. Run the HyBrit power amplifier section knob full (for fatness) with the rest of the knobs to your liking (noon is a good start setting with the output volume low). Run the amp head input drive setting low so it doesn’t get too fizzy and choose the 100% Plexi setting. And be careful with the treble settings – run it low to off on the TSE X30 pre-amp and use the HyBrit head for final high-end sculpting. This is another example of a monster hot- rodded Marshall sound. I’d rate it better than the high-dollar plug-in versions (this includes the Power Grid Bias Amp 2, Amplitube 5, and the Blue Cat Destuctor). For added fun and experimentation try running the TSE X30 through some of the other amp head plug-ins like the LeGion, Solo C, or the Emissary. But be careful because it can get a little out of control from too much gain staging. Or try running the previous setups through the TPA-1 by Ignite Amps or the Bedroom Producers Saturator for big sagging nuts. Did I just say that? Is that even legal? Neurontube Debut by Audio Singularity This one was a last minute suggestion so I haven’t had a chance to try it, but I guess it’s a cool Soldano and Laney amp imitation. I really can’t tell you if it’s worthwhile or even if it fits into the Zystrix download matrix. You are on your own here. Let me know your thoughts if you get a chance. CONVOLVERS AND IMPULSE RESPONSES SPECIAL NOTE: Don’t forget to add a speaker IR (impulse response) via a convolver program after any of the previously listed amp head emulators or the sound will be quite harsh and mostly unusable. But you may ask, “Do I really need a convolver?” Yes, one is necessary for every amp head, pedal as an amp, and pre-amp, so get one of the following… NadIR by Ignite Amps This guitar cabinet convolver comes bundled with the Emissary amp head download (last I knew anyway). NadIR is a great free IR convolver and I would recommend it. To me it’s rated as a must-have. LeCab 2 by LePou Poulin This is another free offering and I would choose it over all the others, but I could never keep it running in a stable fashion. For some reason it crashed a lot. Maybe they’ve improved it and I just haven’t heard yet. I don’t know. (?) Pulse by Lancaster Audio It seems to work pretty good but I’m not fond of the interface. Maybe it will do OK in your workflow. There’s also one in the Reaper DAW called ReaVerb that also does a good job of running a head through a speaker cabinet IR. It’s also possible to stack IRs in ReaVerb for a cool stereo wall of sound or add a mono stack on the left and a mono stack on the right for a massive concert arena type sound. Don’t forget to check for phasing. Guitar Cabinet Impulse Responses And don’t forget to download some cabinet IRs for your convolver. What’s an IR? In this case it’s an impulse response that imitates the comb-filter type EQ representing a certain space and sound (like a guitar cabinet). There are many to choose from, so the next trick is to figure out which ones you like. I’ve tried some that famous people said were excellent but I have been repeatedly disappointed, so the sound comes down to what you like. Here are some free impulse responses you may enjoy and that I find the best. Djammincabs IRs by Zystrix This is the original free speaker cab IR emulation collection – one version for bass and one version for guitar. This is the one that started it all – the cabs the paid guys only wish they could build. Click on Pink Man top right of the Djammincabs page for BONUS cabs info. A common complaint is, “How come none of these sound like my favorite Orange-Marshall-Engl-Soldano-Boogie cabinet?” They’re not supposed to, silly, they sound like Djammincabs. A wise man once said, “Grasshopper, guitar offers two choices: sound like everybody else, or not.” Djammincabs Maxxx 4x12 by Zystrix This collection is 100% 4x12 cabinet emulations. If you like 4x12 cabinets you’ll certainly find at least one here you like. Stack them for unreal massiveness. They come with an owner’s manual to get the most out of them. Go wild, young man, go wild. There are other excellent cab IRs available for free and it’s possible to build quite a library. I have several thousand on hand. I covered this topic some time ago. Here’s the link if you are interested... The Best Free Guitar Cabinet IRs for 2022. VIRTUAL GUITAR PEDALS So let’s move on to some virtual guitar pedals that are nice to have around... The Klone by Fazertone This is the Klon type pedal copy plug-in I prefer because the other free ones just aren’t stable or are difficult to install (at least for me). This one sounds great through any of the amp head plug-ins previously mentioned. It’s also a nice added spice for the JCM Hot Pre-amp or the TSE X30 Tube Pre-amp combinations mentioned above. Try running this pedal (low to moderate boost) into the TSE X30 and then into the HyBrit and then into your favorite convolver using several cab IRs on either side. It’s wall-of-sound massive. Metal Area by Mercurial This is a cool Boss Metal Zone pedal copy for a stinging rippin’ guitar sound. Heptode Deep Crunch This pedal has a nice crunchy tone that’s can be over the top if needed. Try using this pedal in place of your favorite Tube Screamer emulation for a pleasant change of pace. Try using it without an amp head through the NadIR and your favorite cab IR for chunky rhythm guitar tones. Run the Klone through it. Run it through the LePou Poulin Solo C amp head for a tight crunch -- yeah baby. Heptode Heavy Tone This pedal is more of a smooth over-driven Soldano amp sound and lends itself more to lead solo work. Try one on for size. Run it through the LePou Poulin Solo C amp head. It works great by itself and an IR for blues too – add a compressor for even more sustain. Greed Smasher by Mercurial If you like the Mesa/Boogie Grid Slammer pedal you’ll probably like this. It’s one of my favorites. Run it mono, run it stereo, just run with it. Try running it into the Poulin LeCto and then your favorite cab IR for unrelenting Boogie mania. Stack the cabs for arena style stun. Or refer to the Poulin LeCto explaination above for more details and madness. TSB-1 Tyrant Screamer by Ignite Amps If you like the Ibanez 808 Tube Screamer you may like this one. It sounds better than the original to my ear and even has even more throw to go. Use it to tighten up your amp head over-drive tones for some chunky rhythms. TS-999 SubScreamer by Ignite Amps Here’s yet another 808 type Tube Screamer emulation. It sounds good – very good. What more can a person say? ProF.E.T. by Ignite Amps This pedal has an aggressive distortion tone that sounds superb through your favorite amp head. Be careful with the amp head front end or the gain may become unruly, flabby, and over-the-top. TSE Audio 808 Tube Screamer This virtual pedal does a great job of sounding like a Tube Screamer. It has that Tube Screamer magic and then some: mono, stereo, high and low CPU use. Honestly I still don’t get what people see in a Tube Screamer pedal; I bought a Tube Screamer new in the box decades ago, tried it for a week, and I haven’t used it since. It just sits there. But this one is pretty cool. Tubes Creamer 808 by Mercurial Does the world need another Tube Screamer emulation? Apparently so. And this one does a great job. I’m still not a Tube Screamer kind of guy, but there’s still a lot of people who are. Well, I’ll be... Try this one. R47 by TSE Audio If you enjoy the very popular and original Rat pedal style of distortion out of Kalamazoo from years ago then you may enjoy this one. I remember watching them being built in the early 1970s, listening to Charlie for gear advice, and checking out the bands working with Uncle Dirty. ProCo was where all the cool musicians hung out. But Gibson sold out, ProCo moved on, the cool clubs closed, and Kalamazoo became, for all practical purposes, a musical ghost town. Anyway, this pedal’s still got snarl, anger management issues, and it’s guaranteed to heat up the front end of any amp. Try running the volume up full and tweaking the distortion knob for a more defined amp drive. The sound is a return to the glory days of Kalamazoo. Tripp Lead by Fretted Synth Audio This is one of those strange but cool effects that is used for single note lead tones with a synthesizer sound, but it especially lends itself to easy guitar distortion complexity. There’s no need for an audio to MIDI conversion which makes it especially nice. To use it this way simply set Tripp Lead for a sound that compliments the distorted guitar sound presently used. Some basic synth knowledge is helpful. Compress and limit this sound (use the TDR Molot by Tokyo Dawn Labs explained below) and then run this sound through a guitar amp set to a nice rockin’ distortion. Roll off any defining EQ, and mix it directly behind the main guitar sound so it plays a supporting but distant background role. The main guitar sound will become much more complex and interesting, but the synth won’t be noticed. Very nice. OTHER COOL FREE STUFF FOR GUITAR Saturator by Bedroom Producers If you like the sound of tape saturation or tube warmth then you’ll love this plug-in. It makes a thin guitar sound warm and a thick guitar sound impressive. It makes an angry organ sound damn evil and an overall mix sound rich and lush. Go easy on this one, though, discretion is the key. TDR VOS Slick EQ by Tokyo Dawn Labs This is a wonderful addition to a mix bus and it makes a guitar sound great. Once you’ve got your overall guitar sound done add this for any final polishing. It sounds English, American, German, or Russian. Use the auto volume to keep the guitar from getting weak. Use it on a mix bus for subtle high-priced sounding attitude. Highly recommended. TDR Nova by Tokyo Dawn Labs This dynamic EQ is perfect for taming guitar transients in a more microscopic manner. Use it after a parametric EQ for precision and it will get control of the problem frequencies and makes the guitar sound more round and pleasant. It’s only got four bands, but I’d say it competes with the high dollar plug-ins no problem. Excellent. TDR Molotok by Tokyo Dawn Labs This wonderful compressor goes with just about anything, it adds a nice glue to a mix bus, but it’s especially cool for guitar. It helps tame down transients in a very pleasant old analog sounding way. It’s got attitude you can use. Imagine owning an original stereo Fairchild compressor from the 1960s and it runs off one evening becoming wayward for a few days and comes back home pregnant giving birth to something that, well, you don’t know who the father is, but you do know he’s one of the hairless survivors who lives burrowed beneath the Chernobyl disaster. Highly recommended. TDR Molot by Tokyo Dawn Labs Tokyo Dawn does it again. This is another feature rich, tube-like, and musical compressor that goes with just about anything. It also has built-in limiting separate from the compressor – a handy feature. If you want a maxed-out killer drum sound simply squash them and then dial in the dry mix for that finishing touch. It’s hard to believe it’s free. What’s really cool with this one, though, is the ability to compress left or right, sides only (great for taming big room guitars), middle only (great for keeping the overall in check), double mono (for two wide mix mono guitars) and of course, stereo. Loud Max by Thomas Mundt All this does is limiting but it does that job very well. It’s a great way to tame signals and help seat things (like guitar) in a mix. It is very transparent and conserves dynamics, or it will give a signal a serious haircut without the splat. It’s one of my favorites and an indispensable tool. I use it everywhere. Highly recommended. Cab Enhancer by Acme Bar Gig This is a subtle but pleasant effect that fine tunes your cabinet IR sound. It takes a little while to figure it out and dial it in. It’s one of those feel-good effects that isn’t noticeable until it’s turned off and then you want it back on again. CabSpace Reverb Library by Zystrix These are reverb IRs for emulating guitar recording studio areas like movable carpeted walls, blanketed booths, small cabinet spaces, guitar recording rooms, and open studios. Add one CabSpace for cabinet thump and breath and another for guitar space realism and complexity – arrange them from smaller to bigger. Valhalla Supermassive This has some nice echos and reverb effects that are amazing for free. The Guitar Soupy Eighth Note effect is cool for trans-galaxy solos and for fattening up rhythms in a subtle way. Valhalla FreqEcho This is a space-age echo effect that adds a nice subliminal background color to a guitar, or use it up front for a modern psychedelic vibe. Valhalla Space Modulator This one is another that’s hard to believe it’s free. It’s got all kinds of flange, chorus, doublers, reverb, and effects. It’s nice to have one around for that occasional something special -- or impossible. OSL Chorus by Oblivion Sound Lab If you like the rich lush chorus sound of the old Roland Juno synth then you will love this one. It’s got plenty of control for adding it in a discreet manner, or pour it on thick for something more liquid. Experience this 1980s synth sound once again – except this time it’s on your guitar -- and it’s free. Deelay by Sixth Sample If you like a cool delay effect you’ll probably like this one. It’s got ambiance, reverb-like stuff, analog tape effects, weirdness, and plenty of others to choose from to keep the average person busy for a while. Haunted Guitar Lite by Electronik Sound Lab If you like strange scary guitar sounds then you may enjoy this one. Use it in your next flipped-out movie project. Origin by Cymatics If you like the Waves J37 tape machine plug-in for guitar you may like this one. It can add a nice subtle tape sound complexity that makes the guitar seem more rounded, to a strange almost Hendrix UniVibe doppler type of sound, to an extreme over-the-top wow-and-flutter weirdness. It also has a Roland Juno type of chorus as an added bonus. It’s great for making a new mix sound like it’s got plesant depth or, in extreme cases, like it was recorded sloppily onto an old cassette. PTEq-X by Ignite Amps This is a Pultec EQ emulation from the radio days in the 1950s and it’s a secret sauce for rockin’ guitar. It makes the guitar sound richer, creamier, and more tube-like in a subtle way. All the rumors you heard about it are true, even for this emulation. A cool way to run it is to turn off the top and bottom toggles and run only the middle section. Make sure the ECC88 tube toggle is on. Run the bass (CPS) at 60 and the attenuation and boost both set at 6. Now set the mid frequency at about 8 or so and, once again, run the boost and attenuation at about 6. Nice. For yet even more spine tingling thrills turn on the bottom section toggle (so the middle and bottom sections run together) and set the low cut at about 150 to 250 CPS or so and the KCS at about 2 or 3. The guitar should sit in a mix a little easier now. HONORABLE MENTION GUITAR PLUG-INS There are other “free” plug-ins. When I say “free” I mean with contingencies. It’s really up to you what you will put up with as far as downloads go. Sometimes things don’t fit into what I would consider having the musician in mind. Do you need any of these plug-ins in your life to make killer recordings? No, not at all. It depends on how resourceful you are. I have tried the new Positive Grid BIAS FX and the AMP and also the Amplitube 5 and they sound great (click here to read the review from August 29, 2022). I have also tried the Blue Cat Destructor and it also has some very good sounds. It’s up to you. J-amp by Analog Obsesssion This pedal has a definite Marshall JTM-45 vibe. The knobs don’t seem to do that much but it will add that drive type of sound. I like it a little better with some compression and then plug it into a Marshall-like emulation like the HyBrit and NadIR with your favorite guitar cabinet IR for a crunchy rhythm. Convology XT by Wave Arts I got this one to work for a week. It promptly shut down and after that it was promptly power-sprayed off the hard drive. I really like the work form layout or interface it offers; it’s intuitive and simple and other companies can take a few lessons from this thoughtful arrangement. Although this plug-in offers some cool old reverb relics, it does tend to suck CPU horsepower, and it doesn’t have any sounds that can’t be had for free by a simple online search. And then you’ve magically removed all your headaches. Amped Roots by ML Sound Lab It starts out as a promising amp head. I like the built-in speaker cabinet, microphones, and pedals (similar to the Amped Stevie T). Unfortunately it contains nag-ware and momentary silence every moment or so on everything except the first head (5150?). Although there’s a work-around for everything, I guess it depends, once again, on what you are willing to put up with. This one improves greatly using your own cab IRs. Amped Stevie T by ML Sound Lab This one comes with one free amp called Djent God and has others that you can order via their website through the plug-in. The head sound is convincing enough I suppose, and it’s easy to get to a usable sound. It also has some cabinet IRs built in that are satisfactory, but you may want to try running this head through some of your own IRs. And this is another one of those plug-ins that’s somewhat of a pain but it will do. The Paid The following plug-ins, according to strict Zystrix guidelines, will not download or run. That’s just how it is. If something requires more than an email it’s not considered. Free or not. This list also includes the invitational versions for you to try so you’ll buy it maybe later. No descriptions are necessary here. Ninja by Nalex Komplete Start from Native Instruments Guitar Rig 6 by Native Instruments AmpliTube 5 CS ReValver 4 Positive Grid BIAS FX/AMP/Free Blue Cat’s Free Amp And this exciting news just in… Tonex has a new guitar pedal that has some very realistic amp sounds and it’s in the $400 USA price range. From the rumors it sounds better than the Kemper, but in some situations it may have latency issues. I’ll check it out in the pedals section coming next. To be continued… so stay tuned… I just covered a lot of stuff. I can’t believe you are still reading and held out this long. But I tried to cover all the stuff I like for a happenin’ metal and rockin’ guitar sounds. If there’s some I missed – and I absolutely know I did – please feel free to let me know. So stay tuned next time… in part five of this series we’ll continue on to a wide assortment of not- so-free guitar pedals designed and built over the years that still sound great and, unlike a lot of software, are truly portable on a pedal board for your jam rig. These sounds are very personal. That’s the beauty of pedals; they are yours to own and use for your own personal sound. And they are more responsive than software. In the end we’ll cover the two main camps or schools of thought for the studio techniques of recording metal and rock guitar. Then we’ll put guitar sounds under the microscope and, using extensive repeatable result testing, easily disprove the continuing conspiracy hypothesis of spontaneous overdrive. Whatever that is. This completed series will be available as a free PDF download after the last posting. Yes, an artist’s life can be very glamorous. I even get my own dressing room here -- two nails in the wall. Knowledge, art, and music for all…

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