PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production Creating Distortion in Guitar Audio Recording

I record my guitar as an audio track into a BIAB song by plugging it directly into my computer. BIAB let’s me add reverberation and I can add some effects like echo using a stomp box hooked up in between. What I can’t get is distortion or even crunch. Running the sound through the overdrive channel on my guitar amp first, produces too much volume for BIAB to handle.
Has anyone come up with a good way to do this?
Thanks.

There are a ton of distortion plug-ins available. Google/Bing distortion vst and you will find a ton of them. Many are free.

Here is a site that list some of the free ones:

https://thehomerecordings.com/best-16-free-distortion-vst-plugins/

Most all, if not all, amp syms also have usable effects. If you have the free Amplitube I believe it has a distortion effect.

Thanks MarioD. How do you hook them up to get the distorted sound into BIAB?

You would use it as an effect after you recorded your guitar. I don't do these kind of things in BiaB, I do them in my DAW, so someone else will have to give you step by step instructions.

i record in RB as its a lot easier to my way of working. but if you have amplitube (it comes with BIAB)use the fx insert to choose amplitube as your plugin which you can do with the mixer in BIAB. record your guitar first then open amplitube which comes with an interface where you can choose which pedals to add. there's a tube screamer or similar, delay and chorus. you can also choose amp and cabinet simulations.

from my days as a guitarist, i'd suggest you add the distortion first then the time based effects like echo, delay and chorus later - there are pedals to do that in amplitube - rather than as BIAB fx up front.

I believe if you look you should find that you have Amplitude in with BB. It is essentially a guitar sim. I've never really used in in BB..... I do have it in my DAW, Sonar, and it lets you apply all sorts of different amplifier models and pedals to the sound, and the one I have has different cabinet and speaker models too.

You can use that to make a clean guitar into practically anything you want.

If that doesn't work for you for a variety of reasons, you can google search ACME BAR GIG and get their free amp sim for guitar.

Alastair,

Try This

Depending on your recording setup, also - you could record amp signal and direct signal simultaneously. That way you can always add a vst amp later. Be mindful of potential phase issues though. If you want only one source I'd advice using the amp signal.

Wow! So that’s what Plugins are! Silly me.
The echo, flanger and tremolo sound fine. Distortion isn’t as good as my amp can produce but it’s workable.
Thanks you all for educating me.

You might want to try some of the free distortion plug-ins I mentioned earlier.

are you using amplitube? it produces better distortion than the BIAB audio fx

No. Where do I find Amplitube?

ok, i think this is how you do it. amplitube comes with biab as a vst. do you already use vst plugins? you access them the same way you do any plug in BIAB or RB. IN RB click on the fx button next to the solo or mute buttons on the track in the tracks window, or on the fx button at the top of the channel/track strip for the relevant track in the mixer. In BIAB go to the plugins tab of the mixer and each track has two lines - the name of the track/instrument and another with a drop down menu above it.

sorry if you know this already. in both cases the fx plugin window opens and you choose the plugin you want. however, you will probably have to add amplitube as a vstplug in.

scroll to the bottom of the list and select add vst plugin and then you will find a windows explorer window opens for you to find the plugin. if your installation is the same as mine you'll need to navigate to your main local drive (usually c for most of us), select programfiles[86] and then scroll down to find the vstplugins folder which being alphabetical is one of the last ones! open it up and select amplitube.dll

amplitube should then open up in the plugins window. you then select pedals, amps and cabinets

there are some presets but some of us have had difficulty getting them to load - try selecting the browser button in the top row and see if you have any - the names are fairly descriptive and they will populate the plugin to give you an idea of how it works.

if you haven't got any presets creating a patch is no more difficult than programming a multi fx pedal.

select stomp A and then go down to the bottom - there are spaces on the fake wooden floor with selector arrows. press the down arrow to cycle through available pedals. then if you need to add another pedal move to the next space along.

once you've done the pedals, choose the amp and then the cabinet. you then get a rack to set up which allows you to add more digital fx there and then but pedals, amp and cabinet are enough for me.

there's all sorts of magic with vsts - there are special files for the pedals, amps etc but they are hidden away and amplitube.dll finds them with no effort on your part. good luck and come back if you have a problem.

play around have fun! once you've added amplitube it will always be there in your drop down fx menu but you'll have to add it separately to BIAB and RB.

Thanks Bob. Most helpful! Yes, the overdrive is much better using Amplitube.

FWIW I find myself using Fretted Synth stuff quite often.
Freeamp Full and Helian Bass make things quick and easy .. but have a lot of granularity available

They are older, but also pretty intuitive and easy to get up and running.
https://rekkerd.org/fretted-synth/

Note that all versions of freeamp were different. Some seem to play nicer on a given system than others .. trade off for the cost I guess.
I've only tinkered with the Freeamp and Helian Bass tools .. there's a lot more on this page.

Here are some ideas;
1: Record your amp by putting a microphone in front of it. You would also need an audio interface or at least an adaptor to connect the mic to your computer. Before I started using an dedicated interface I had a small Behringer 5 channel mixer connected to my sound card input. That worked.
2: If your amp has some type of line out jack you could put a DI box with an attenuater switch in between. Live Wire Solutions SPDI has worked for me. Or use a Behringer GDI21 which has great reviews.
3: There are many decent digital FX pedals that do a decent job of amp, over drive and distortion emulation. My current choice has been Zoom G1 Four on the Fender Deluxe Reverb setting. The output on the G1 Four is a single mono or stereo output. I can record straight to my sound card (although I often don't) with a simple cable and an adaptor at one end.
4: Record direct as you have been and use any one of the many and often free plugins such as:
SimulAnalog (various plugins)
Voxengo Boogex
Silver Spikes Ruby Tube
Acme Bar Gigs Whisper Tube
Blue Cat Audio BC Free Amp (2 thumbs up for this one)
MSaturator by Melda Productions (can adjust 2nd and 4th harmonics)
Amplitube 3 or 4.

Thanks Tobias. Sounds like I have many options.

Not sure if this works inside BIAB but the free Voxengo Boogex (or other amp emulator or even distortion/overdrive FX) followed by the free Voxengo Stereo Touch on the Guitar Cabinet preset actually works/sounds great.

Hi AlistairLC
I have also been looking at the same thing. I had heaps of trouble getting anything out of Amplitube but that’s just me.
I downloaded Native Instruments and their Guitar rig is worth a look. Most of the effects you can only use for 30 minutes at a time (unless you purchase) and then reload but there are plenty freebies than create plenty of distortion and other effects.
On the up side there are plenty of other instruments to play around with.
Cheers

Or Freeamp from FrettedSynth, which comes in various flavors and offers some unique tempo based options for delays and chorus, etc..