

To get an edgier sound that falls somewhere in-between, a few tips to make the most of this VST include using some external effects before using this VST. Similarly, an almost-clean sound will work well through here, especially if you’re just looking to give your dry signal a little treble boost or a bit more presence.

Of course, your natural response to creating a sure-fire success in your sound is to crank the overdrive to full if you’re going full-metal, then this works a charm in Amp Designer. There are a few overdrive settings that give off pretty good results and can allow your DI’d guitar (or any other instrument if you’re feeling creative) to sound cool enough, but going manual is your best bet with this VST. There are a few amp simulation sounds already built in, and let’s be honest, they aren’t brilliant. It looks pretty basic and has the typical Logic layout, but with a little practice, you can really use it to your advantage. It’s a free plugin that comes built-in to Logic Pro X and offers a range of amp simulation sounds. If you’ve got access to Logic Pro X, its likely you’ll be pretty familiar with Amp Designer. I’ll alternate between high quality VST’s available from external sources, and VSTs you can find that come with Logic Pro X for free. It’s important to understand that these plug-ins are all of very different quality, so I’ll talk you through some great and readily available VSTs.

Similarly, you can use VSTs to create effects that can be used to change the sound of live instruments you have recorded, or even the sound of the VST instruments you’re using. They’re a useful tool for anyone’s home studio. You can create the sound and performance of an instrument without having to play the instrument. This means you can have instruments (such as samplers and MIDI) created within your DAW, some of which can be incredibly accurate and of high quality. A VST is Virtual Studio Technology, an audio plug-in software which integrates software synthesisers and effects in DAW (Digital Audio Workstation).
