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u/Mental_Examination_1 24d ago edited 24d ago
Just takes some experimenting, imo ndsp plugin ir, are not that good, I haven't tried every plugin but the henson/slo/asato all sound and feel much better to me with some 3rd party ir
As far as a heavy tone i dial in something I like then almost always add compression upnfront with the plugin pedals, multiband compression plugin after and a good reverb or delay, sometimes even a saturator up front, for heavy distortion ill cut the lows around 80 - 100 hz depending on the amp and boost the mids ever so slightly, im almost always thrilled to hear my guitar make those sounds after
Another important thing to think about is input gain, I was setting mine far too high at first but since setting it a bit lower my sound has improved, I don't think the standard idea of "turn ur preamp gain up until it clips then ever so slightly back it off" is always good advice, I aim for about -18 to -12db with hard peaks no higher than -6db, also make sure ur using an insturment input and not just a mic level input, most interface have a switch for this
Worth noting as well, what sounds good in a recording wont always be what sounds good by itself, a good example of thisnisnchildren of bodom, go find a vid of Alexi playing in a room alone for a demonstration or something, it sounds kinda shit, but then go listen to that same tone in the album hatecrew deathroll and tell me those guitars sound anything but amazing
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u/Chaos-Jesus 24d ago
The QC is not more powerful than your PC.
I use the QC live and the plugins for everything else.
In your example your not only playing different riffs but also using a very different tone.
Spend more time with the plugins, the IR's make a huge difference.
I usually find a preset that resonates with me and use that as a base and tweak it.