Replicate my pedal board in Reaper

ijonty · September 2018

Hi folks

Totally new to Reaper so just getting to grips with it all. I'm a beginner with a 'real-world' pedal board of:

Marshall Guvnor
Tube screamer
Rat
Belle Epoque
Neunaber wet
Diamond compressor

All the potential plugins and effect-what-nots for Reaper are a bit overwhelming, so any recommendations for ones that near enough replicate my actual pedals? I figure if I just get a handful that sound like my pedals, then whatever I create in Reaper I should be able to play live.

I'm new to this, so if my question sounds like it came from an idiot, it kind of did.

thecolourbox · September 2018

I'm sure other people will chime in with better advice, but if you always have these pedals before the amp, you may be better using a USB interface and plugging the guitar into the pedals, into the interface, into Reaper with an amp Sim in there?

blobb · September 2018

Try the free version of Guitar rig. It works from within the kontact player which you add as a vst. Marshall type amp + some free effects inc. a TS type.

*Other amp sims are available.

Heartfeltdawn · September 2018

ijonty said:

Hi folks

Totally new to Reaper so just getting to grips with it all. I'm a beginner with a 'real-world' pedal board of:

Marshall Guvnor
Tube screamer
Rat
Belle Epoque
Neunaber wet
Diamond compressor

All the potential plugins and effect-what-nots for Reaper are a bit overwhelming, so any recommendations for ones that near enough replicate my actual pedals? I figure if I just get a handful that sound like my pedals, then whatever I create in Reaper I should be able to play live.

I'm new to this, so if my question sounds like it came from an idiot, it kind of did.

Right then! I'll give as much free options as possible along with some spendier options.

Marshall Guv'nor - go to SOftdrive.

https://bedroomproducersblog.com/2013/09/08/softdrive-gv-axp/

Tube Screamer and Rat - go to TSE Audio for both of these.

https://www.tseaudio.com/software/tse808

Also go to Mercuriall for their TS9.

https://mercuriall.com/cms/details_freestuff

Belle Epoque - so many options!

Echoboy Jr would do you good. $99 right now but has been on sale for $29 not so long ago and you can often find Jr and ther full Echoboy for excellent prices secondhand.

I would recommend Tritik's TK delay for more Deluxe Memory Man sounds. $49 new. I picked it up cheap when it was in pre-release and it's darn good.

https://www.tritik.com/products/tkdelay/

Free? Spaceship Delay.

https://musicalentropy.github.io/Spaceship-Delay/

Neunaber Wet -

Go through all of these...

https://www.soundshockaudio.com/10-best-free-reverb-vst-plugins/

And then download OrilRiver because it's great.

https://www.kvraudio.com/product/orilriver-by-denis-tihanov

Compressor

You can get loads of complex ones. Klanghelm for simples here...

https://klanghelm.com/contents/products/DC1A/DC1A.php

Regarding live playing: I've done it with a laptop and plugins alone. I would recommend a compressor out front going into your audio interface.Diamond worked perfectly for me on that front.

Heartfeltdawn · September 2018

NB: Personally I would go with plugins only for a while and see how far you get into them and can push then. Then add some pedals in and see how drive pedals into amp sims go.

ijonty · September 2018

blobb said:

Try the free version of Guitar rig. It works from within the kontact player which you add as a vst. Marshall type amp + some free effects inc. a TS type.

*Other amp sims are available.

So an amp sim (same as suggested by @thecolourbox), will allow me to play my guitar through my pedal board, into my focusrite interface, and hear the effects in Reaper? I'd just ignorantly assumed my pedals wouldn't work when plugged into the focusrite.

ijonty · September 2018

Heartfeltdawn said:

Right then! I'll give as much free options as possible along with some spendier options...

Thanks, that's great. One key piece of information I forgot to mention is that I'm running Reaper on Mac. Presumably some plugins are Windows only? UPDATE: Looks like the only one that isn't available for mac is the Guv'nor one. Any alternatives out there?

blobb · September 2018

ijonty said:

So an amp sim (same as suggested by @thecolourbox), will allow me to play my guitar through my pedal board, into my focusrite interface, and hear the effects in Reaper? I'd just ignorantly assumed my pedals wouldn't work when plugged into the focusrite.

It will pick up whatever sound you throw at it. It'll probably need to go through a virtual amp of some sort, preferably with a cab sim to stop it sounding too thin.

You can always set up an aux out if you want to route via your pedals.

Branshen · September 2018

Great set of pedals, I'd agree with the advice that you should plug it into your interface.

In alternative to Guitar Rig, Amplitube CS comes with a free fender and marshall amp (if memory serves) which works well as a guitar sim but u may have to fiddle around with it to get rid of latency..

https://www.ikmultimedia.com/en/products/amplitubecs/

PolarityMan · September 2018

Get helix native....its worth it

ijonty · September 2018

Branshen said:

Great set of pedals, I'd agree with the advice that you should plug it into your interface.

In alternative to Guitar Rig, Amplitube CS comes with a free fender and marshall amp (if memory serves) which works well as a guitar sim but u may have to fiddle around with it to get rid of latency..

https://www.ikmultimedia.com/en/products/amplitubecs/

I think I may need to find a step-by-step guide for how to do this, as I'm definitely a total beginner. Commenters have mentioned guitar sims, amp sims, virtual amps, and cab sims. Are some of these different names for the same thing?

So what I should be doing is installing Guitar Rig/Amplitube CS in Reaper, then I can play my guitar through my 'actual' pedalboard, into my Focusrite, and I'll be able to record a true sound from my pedals...

blobb · September 2018

Amp sim is a software model of er, an amplifier, usually with a graphic that looks like the amp in question and some arbitrary name that doesn't incur copyright claims. It will usually be paired with a cab sim - self explanatory. Guitar rig, for example bundles everything together in one plug in. So you choose an amp, a cab and then you can add effects, either: to your input signal (pedals); via individual effect sims; by using the in built fx in guitar rig or by routing the signal out of into your reaper channel as an auxiliary loop.

You can get a better sounding cab sim by using an impulse response. So you could for example run real pedals into a reaper track then apply an amp sim as a plug in followed by an IR cab sim before it hits the master out fader.

You could also run a clean signal in and apply fx/amp/cab in a single instance of guitar rig.

You could run a clean signal in, add various instances of pedal plug in (see list above), then into guitar rig.

If you run pedals straight in, they will sound like pedals straight in. No amp apart from the interface pre-amp, which is ultra clean.

I've got an amp with 'recording out' socket. I only need to add an IR cab sim plugin. My amp sound comes through (inc any pedals) but sounds a bit weedy on it's own.

Many possibilities.

Just remember that running many plug ins taxes your computer resources and you won't hear the sound until a fraction of a second after you hit the strings. If you want to record, you will capture any up front pedals on the way in. And you can't change that afterwards but you can dick about with the cab types all you want to see which works best. With a clean signal you can add plug ins and remove them as you like. Some people like to work 'in the box'.

Try it see what it sounds like.

ijonty · September 2018

blobb said:

Try the free version of Guitar rig. It works from within the kontact player which you add as a vst. Marshall type amp + some free effects inc. a TS type.

*Other amp sims are available.

Ok, so since my previous message, I've now installed Guitar Rig and Kontact, which Reaper discovered when I launched. What's the next step?

ijonty · September 2018

blobb said:

Amp sim is...

Think our last messages crossed. I posted my last one before seeing your latest one, so it looks like I just totally ignored it! Will read yours in detail now...

Branshen · September 2018

ijonty said:

blobb said:

Try the free version of Guitar rig. It works from within the kontact player which you add as a vst. Marshall type amp + some free effects inc. a TS type.

*Other amp sims are available.

Ok, so since my previous message, I've now installed Guitar Rig and Kontact, which Reaper discovered when I launched. What's the next step?

Plug your guitar into your focusrite and route the guitar signal into guitar rig. If reaper has detected the focusrite as the soundcard correctly, you just have to pick the correct input.

JAYJO · September 2018

Have a look at Reaper Mania on youtube. Kenny Gioias channel is amazing for reaper.

Branshen · September 2018

ewal · October 2018

I use my normal pedal board and a Joyo American Sound.

Jonathanthomas83 · October 2018

For Neunaber, go Valhalla Vintage Verb. It's lovely. And I get my delays from Replika XT.

ijonty · October 2018

So I've realised that I was probably asking a stupid question before. For some reason, I thought I'd read somewhere that you couldn't put your pedals straight into an interface, but clearly that was wrong. Thanks to all who put me right!

Funkfingers · October 2018

ijonty said:

I've realised that I was probably asking a stupid question before.

Not at all.

Learning any DAW software package from scratch is a time-consuming process. Simultaneously attempting to get "in house" plug-ins to exactly replicate whatever it is that you consider essential about your favourite pedals is another time-consuming process.

If you do not have hours to waste, it may prove simpler to point a nice microphone or two at your normal amp and pedals.

This approach has two major benefits: It minimises the processing power drain of multiple plug-ins. Reducing the number of options open to you saves the time that might otherwise be wasted, trying to decide between irrelevant possibilities.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Become a Subscriber!

Replicate my pedal board in Reaper

Comments