ZettaiBaka

Does anyone have an idea on how one would go about recreating the soft background synth pad in this song? To me it sounds like an electric piano with some added vibrato, but maybe someone with experience in acid jazz will be able to pinpoint the sound.

Yeah, I imagine its usefulness will depend on what kind of styles you play. I like it, and I like the idea of making my guitar sound like a bow or a lute. There's an ambient guitar guy who uses it a lot! I've heard that you can do sweep picking and arpeggios with the eBow. I'm gonna get a used one off eBay for cheap

Thanks omar and Dewdman. I think I'll just get an eBow for now since that looks more fun

That eBow thing Des99 suggested was in the back of my head, but I had forgotten about it until I saw your post. I just looked it up and... WOW! I want me one of those!! Thank you and thank you Des99. Any recommendations?

I returned the Ibanez mainly because I didn't like the locking bridge and floating tremolo. It was a pain to change tunings. Yes, I believe Carlos Santana was one of the early adopters of PRS guitars. The brand seems to be universally praised. My PRS Custom 24 cost £750 here in England, which puts it in the upper-mid range of guitars. But as far as I can tell, the only difference between that and the PRS Standard line is that the Customs are made in South Korea, while the Standards are made where labour is less expensive -- possibly Indonesia. If you're considering an upgrade on a budget, maybe take a look at the PRS Standard line? Personally I love how versatile my PRS is. It's got two humbuckers and a three-way switch for those heavy tones, but you can pull out the tone knob to turn the humbuckers into single coils for those clean, Fender-like single coil tones, so you get the best of both worlds! I'm sure some other brands have this kind of switch, but that plus the reputation behind the brand is what convinced me to get my PRS. And the aesthetic of this particular guitar I only have a few plugins and most of them are quite modern, so they work fine. Except for EastWest Play, but that's aging software made by a company whose customer support doesn't even reply to repeated emails. Not dealing with them anymore :/ It's a good idea to wait at least six months before upgrading to a new version of macOS. I upgraded because I'm OCD about security holes, and I just gotta have the latest operating system, but if you have a lot of plugins, maybe you should wait.

I’ve heard good things about S-Gear on the internet. I might give it a go since my other trials have run out. Since my last post, I’ve tried Archetype Plini and Archetype Nolly, by Neural DSP. Plini has better clean tones and Nolly has heavier tones, but as far as I’m concerned I’m completely satisfied. The UI is great, and actually feels like it was designed in 2019. This basically eliminates my need for hardware amps and effects. We live in such good times! I returned my Ibanez JEM Junior for a PRS Custom 24 and I think that helped a bit with the sustain. Cost twice as much, but it’s an all-round better guitar IMO.

I hadn't heard of Torpedo Wall of Sound -- thanks, I'll give it a go. I've heard of Guitar Rig 5, but I'm hesitant to invest time in it because it hasn't been updated since 2011 and the word is it's been abandoned by Native Instruments. I've been using the demo version of TH-U Full and I've found it to be more realistic than stock Logic amps and BIAS FX 2. The only restriction on the demo is a time limit of 15 days, otherwise it's fully featured. The only downside is that I haven't found a sustain pedal yet, and I'm not sure if there is one.

I can't try this out because it requires their Softube Central app, which is in beta on MacOS and it fails when trying to download "iLok licenses". Maybe someone else can try it out and let me know how it goes...

It's poorly named and it would throw off many people who are quickly browsing for this kind of plugin. I knew there had to be a plugin for infinite sustain! I mean, it might not be as good as getting real acoustic feedback from a guitar amp, but there's a plugin for everything nowadays!

I saw that one yesterday, but I looked at the word "acoustic" and thought "Nah, don't want it to sound acoustic". Hahaha now that I looked at it carefully I was being stupid. I'll give it a try, thanks.

I was looking at this one, which looks a lot like something you would put beside the guitar and hook up to it: http://www.fernandesguitars.com/sustainer/sustainer-kits.html Maybe it's not the sustainer that you were talking about.

It is. Not sure what you mean about that big. Looking at the diagram on the website you linked, it seems to me that the Fernandes Sustainer is a system containing two sustain pickups tied to a sustainer electronics board. Am I misunderstanding this? The other day I was looking at this: Looks like that would work with distortion too! I couldn't find it at my local guitar store. I'd love to try it! If it works the same way, then there has to be a plugin somewhere that does the same thing! Ah, I see now. I was on my phone earlier and couldn't see it clearly. Hmm, the more you learn.

Thanks. I’ve heard of the sustainer, but I didn’t know it was that big. Thought it was a pickup you install inside your guitar. I have heard of a “freeze pedal” that freezes the note indefinitely. I don’t know how well that would work? Thanks for the video. I’ve vaguely heard of the tongue technique used by some guitarists, but I never associated it with Steve Vai.

Thanks for the tidbits of information, David and des99. Due to space constraints I can’t have any hardware amps, definitely not ones big enough to excite my guitar strings, so I guess my only option is to stretch the guitar note using Flex Time. Is this a common technique in production, or is it just a hack? I just want to get those looooong Steve Vai tones

I want to be able to play a distorted note or downstroke on my guitar, and have it sustain for a very long time (say, 16 bars) without fading out. Heavy metal bands seem to do this without any problem. I don't have any hardware amps, just an Ibanez JEM JR guitar and Logic Pro X. I have tried creating a feedback loop by routing the guitar to Bus 1 with delay / reverb, Bus 2 with delay / reverb, and feeding it back into Bus 1. This results in a terrible whining sound that clips over 200 dB, but no nice sustain like the heavy metal bands. Any advice would be appreciated!