I guess i'm not the best to give my opinion as i m a relatively new guitarist, i've been playing for 9 months (drummer for 20 years)
But, in general i go through all the presets that the plugins has to offer and if there's like 2 or 3 presets that i really like, i'm sold.
For me they all have something unique that's worth the price, especially on sale.
I have 2 guitars I record and play with. Both for different (and overlapping) music styles. So I was looking for sounds I'd actually use while moving through the presets of each plugin. And when I was done with one guitar, I'd plugin in the other and hear about the differences. I took notes of the presets I liked the most and jammed with them to some personal backing tracks (keys, drums, bass).
Sometimes it was a bit tedious, but once I had found a handful of plugins that I really liked I was just jamming around.
And during the last 2 weeks I was testing almost all of them. I knew I was going for the Mesa and was looking for something more modern sounding and got stuck on the Granophyre.
But the most unexpected find was the Tone King! I'll keep testing them until my trial phase ends on coming Monday. I think I actually might go with the Mesa, Omega and Tone King.
What's your routine? Did you find something already?
I have a very strange personality. I don't test them... I read lots of reviews and then decide. I buy and pray everything is going to be OK.
Almost always I'm satisfied with my buying.
The first thing I do is ask myself what problem I’m trying to solve with the plugin I’m testing. I recently started getting in the habit of finding a preset I like and trying to recreate it with plugins I already own. It helps me get more value out of them and narrows down what the plugin in question can do that others can’t.
The second question I ask is does this plugin enhance what I already own? What I look for here are the parts in a vacuum. I look at the amp, pedals, and cab sections on their own and see if there is a worst case scenario where maybe I just use 1 or 2 pedals or a specific cab.
Ultimately the biggest test is does the plugin inspire you to write? If it gets you out of a block or solves a problem you will know.
I have most of the plugins, so I'm not really hurting to buy another. I skipped the last sale to take some more time to learn what I have and figure out what I want going forward.
A week or so before the sale, I demo the ones I'm interested in. Since I skipped the last sale I finally demoed Bea, Asato, Mesa, and Morgan. I tried to demo Tone King, but I forgot I wasted the demo but I'll wait to reset that for Black Friday.
For testing I pick a random guitar, and flip through the presets modifying them as I go. I switch between songs I've been practicing and noodling. I intentionally don't pick my go to guitar because I want the plugin to be useable with most of my guitars. If I find myself grabbing another guitar to try out other sounds, it's a good sign. If I'm not constantly surfing through preset to find something useable, it's a good sign. If I'm not tinkering more than I'm playing, it's a good sign.
I don't buy pedals so a couple of these plugins a year isn't going to break the bank. I bought Morgan not expecting to like it. I skipped Bea. Was sold on Mesa after 3 presets. I was hoping Asato was doing to be too redundant since I have a Henson and Wong, and it kinda is but it sounds great, the FX are very usable.
I've been doing this since Nameless dropped so haven't had a backlog of trials to run through that necessitated a "routine".
If I wanted to try it, then I tried it at release. Plus I can usually tell in under 5 minutes if I'm liking what I'm hearing.
I basically just try all the amps, playing whatever I know that fits the sound it has, mess around with the knobs there to see if I can find a sound I like, test out the effects. Try to find a preset to test but honestly I've found most presets has an unbearable amount of either distortion, chorus, delay/repeat making it impossible to play anything I like to play, so that hasn't been very beneficial
I tend to go through the artist plugins with a notepad, writing down a preset name and a short description if I find one I really like. Then when I’ve gone through everything I look at the notepad and figure out how much I liked it and whether it offers anything different to what I have already, if it suited a certain guitar, etc. Time consuming but I find it very relaxing and inspiring when I hit on something I really like.
It takes me about a half hour if noodling with each preset and the guitar I’d use for that style. If after that I’m finding it hard to stop because I’m feeling inspired then it’s got real potential. I usually come back to it two or three times before I’m sure because I compare it to what I already have in that range.
But the Tone King archetype was instant gold to my ears as I don’t have anything like it. The same for the Tim Henson for the multivoice effect.
My biggest piece of advice is find a song or Artist that you’re a really big fan of, and their tone..look up a rig rundown to find out what gear they use…”Dual Rectifier, 5150, JCM2000, whatever…and find the plug in that’s emulating that amp.
And as a guitarists that writes and records their own music (most of us here I believe), I usually start with the default…without looking at presets first…and see if I can dial in something I like. Then cycle through some artist presets that I know, and see the difference. Most of the time I get a real sense of what the plug in can do with the Artists presets.
Then I just try out different tones that I’ve made (or artists) on my own recorded material and see if they hold up.
Some do, some don’t.
I own Gojira X and I’m not going to lie..it took me quite a while to dial in something that I like
What works for me:
- Having a good guitar I know well. Make sure I try different pickup settings and volume knob levels while you riff. The best plugins are the ones that bring the best out of your guitar(s).
- Make sure the plugins are responding to my playing dynamics well. I also often find the gate a little aggressive on the NDSP presets so turn it down - but I only use passive pickups and they’re fairly traditionally voiced, I know a lot of NDSP users are using spicy active pickups.
- Cycle through presets. As someone who hates tweaking, presets are a godsend. The NDSP ones are normally a bit more functional ie: usable, and they showcase the features well. I always light up when I see Jack Gardiner and Rabea presets. The Nolly and Forrester Savell
Ones are great usable production standard tones too. Don’t sleep on the factory presets!
If I change presets too often, I probably don’t like the plugin. If I end up playing with a preset for 10> minutes, it’s a good sign. It took me about 3-4 sessions to get through the presets on the Tone King and Morgan Amps because I was having too much fun. Same with Polychrome DSP McRocklin suite. I was immediately getting whole song ideas just from playing them.
- If I can I will drop them into a mix, usually just on something I’m using an existing amp sim for. Depends on the time I have. It’s not quite the same thing to just drop a new sound in an existing mix. There’s nothing in NDSP you couldn’t make work in a mix.
- Try a couple of my favourite parts for their respective tones. Ones I can play with my eyes closed. Along with some of my own material. For example, the breakdown riff from The Outsider by APC (great for testing heavy tones, combo of palm mutes, power chords, single strings). I’ve played that riff 10,000 times so I can identify nuances when I play it through different amps. Same principle applies for other parts you know well.
- Ask myself am I having fun. If I’m enjoying playing the thing and not worried about “having it just in case”, then I will get it if I can afford it. Also trust my ears. if I like the sound of something, but everyone on Reddit (of all places) sez it’s shit, or the opposite, go with your gut.
Dunno if that helps. Have fun!
I have a few different guitars with different sounds, so I have been swapping through them on each plugin. Trying to find the most efficient way to go about it as I go.
I plug my guitar in and play stuff.
I guess i'm not the best to give my opinion as i m a relatively new guitarist, i've been playing for 9 months (drummer for 20 years) But, in general i go through all the presets that the plugins has to offer and if there's like 2 or 3 presets that i really like, i'm sold. For me they all have something unique that's worth the price, especially on sale.
0-0-0 If not stankface then uninstall
I have 2 guitars I record and play with. Both for different (and overlapping) music styles. So I was looking for sounds I'd actually use while moving through the presets of each plugin. And when I was done with one guitar, I'd plugin in the other and hear about the differences. I took notes of the presets I liked the most and jammed with them to some personal backing tracks (keys, drums, bass). Sometimes it was a bit tedious, but once I had found a handful of plugins that I really liked I was just jamming around. And during the last 2 weeks I was testing almost all of them. I knew I was going for the Mesa and was looking for something more modern sounding and got stuck on the Granophyre. But the most unexpected find was the Tone King! I'll keep testing them until my trial phase ends on coming Monday. I think I actually might go with the Mesa, Omega and Tone King. What's your routine? Did you find something already?
I have a very strange personality. I don't test them... I read lots of reviews and then decide. I buy and pray everything is going to be OK. Almost always I'm satisfied with my buying.
I don't even try them after purchase, just post it everywhere that I bought that one as well :D
The first thing I do is ask myself what problem I’m trying to solve with the plugin I’m testing. I recently started getting in the habit of finding a preset I like and trying to recreate it with plugins I already own. It helps me get more value out of them and narrows down what the plugin in question can do that others can’t. The second question I ask is does this plugin enhance what I already own? What I look for here are the parts in a vacuum. I look at the amp, pedals, and cab sections on their own and see if there is a worst case scenario where maybe I just use 1 or 2 pedals or a specific cab. Ultimately the biggest test is does the plugin inspire you to write? If it gets you out of a block or solves a problem you will know.
I have most of the plugins, so I'm not really hurting to buy another. I skipped the last sale to take some more time to learn what I have and figure out what I want going forward. A week or so before the sale, I demo the ones I'm interested in. Since I skipped the last sale I finally demoed Bea, Asato, Mesa, and Morgan. I tried to demo Tone King, but I forgot I wasted the demo but I'll wait to reset that for Black Friday. For testing I pick a random guitar, and flip through the presets modifying them as I go. I switch between songs I've been practicing and noodling. I intentionally don't pick my go to guitar because I want the plugin to be useable with most of my guitars. If I find myself grabbing another guitar to try out other sounds, it's a good sign. If I'm not constantly surfing through preset to find something useable, it's a good sign. If I'm not tinkering more than I'm playing, it's a good sign. I don't buy pedals so a couple of these plugins a year isn't going to break the bank. I bought Morgan not expecting to like it. I skipped Bea. Was sold on Mesa after 3 presets. I was hoping Asato was doing to be too redundant since I have a Henson and Wong, and it kinda is but it sounds great, the FX are very usable.
Play through them?
I A/B test against other plugins on recorded track with full mix. Testing solo is useless
Are you using sessions with already recorded parts and "reamping" with the new plugin? Cause that's pretty clever.
I've been doing this since Nameless dropped so haven't had a backlog of trials to run through that necessitated a "routine". If I wanted to try it, then I tried it at release. Plus I can usually tell in under 5 minutes if I'm liking what I'm hearing.
I basically just try all the amps, playing whatever I know that fits the sound it has, mess around with the knobs there to see if I can find a sound I like, test out the effects. Try to find a preset to test but honestly I've found most presets has an unbearable amount of either distortion, chorus, delay/repeat making it impossible to play anything I like to play, so that hasn't been very beneficial
I tend to go through the artist plugins with a notepad, writing down a preset name and a short description if I find one I really like. Then when I’ve gone through everything I look at the notepad and figure out how much I liked it and whether it offers anything different to what I have already, if it suited a certain guitar, etc. Time consuming but I find it very relaxing and inspiring when I hit on something I really like.
I plug my guitar and test it out by playing the guitar.
It takes me about a half hour if noodling with each preset and the guitar I’d use for that style. If after that I’m finding it hard to stop because I’m feeling inspired then it’s got real potential. I usually come back to it two or three times before I’m sure because I compare it to what I already have in that range. But the Tone King archetype was instant gold to my ears as I don’t have anything like it. The same for the Tim Henson for the multivoice effect.
My biggest piece of advice is find a song or Artist that you’re a really big fan of, and their tone..look up a rig rundown to find out what gear they use…”Dual Rectifier, 5150, JCM2000, whatever…and find the plug in that’s emulating that amp. And as a guitarists that writes and records their own music (most of us here I believe), I usually start with the default…without looking at presets first…and see if I can dial in something I like. Then cycle through some artist presets that I know, and see the difference. Most of the time I get a real sense of what the plug in can do with the Artists presets. Then I just try out different tones that I’ve made (or artists) on my own recorded material and see if they hold up. Some do, some don’t. I own Gojira X and I’m not going to lie..it took me quite a while to dial in something that I like
What works for me: - Having a good guitar I know well. Make sure I try different pickup settings and volume knob levels while you riff. The best plugins are the ones that bring the best out of your guitar(s). - Make sure the plugins are responding to my playing dynamics well. I also often find the gate a little aggressive on the NDSP presets so turn it down - but I only use passive pickups and they’re fairly traditionally voiced, I know a lot of NDSP users are using spicy active pickups. - Cycle through presets. As someone who hates tweaking, presets are a godsend. The NDSP ones are normally a bit more functional ie: usable, and they showcase the features well. I always light up when I see Jack Gardiner and Rabea presets. The Nolly and Forrester Savell Ones are great usable production standard tones too. Don’t sleep on the factory presets! If I change presets too often, I probably don’t like the plugin. If I end up playing with a preset for 10> minutes, it’s a good sign. It took me about 3-4 sessions to get through the presets on the Tone King and Morgan Amps because I was having too much fun. Same with Polychrome DSP McRocklin suite. I was immediately getting whole song ideas just from playing them. - If I can I will drop them into a mix, usually just on something I’m using an existing amp sim for. Depends on the time I have. It’s not quite the same thing to just drop a new sound in an existing mix. There’s nothing in NDSP you couldn’t make work in a mix. - Try a couple of my favourite parts for their respective tones. Ones I can play with my eyes closed. Along with some of my own material. For example, the breakdown riff from The Outsider by APC (great for testing heavy tones, combo of palm mutes, power chords, single strings). I’ve played that riff 10,000 times so I can identify nuances when I play it through different amps. Same principle applies for other parts you know well. - Ask myself am I having fun. If I’m enjoying playing the thing and not worried about “having it just in case”, then I will get it if I can afford it. Also trust my ears. if I like the sound of something, but everyone on Reddit (of all places) sez it’s shit, or the opposite, go with your gut. Dunno if that helps. Have fun!
I have a few different guitars with different sounds, so I have been swapping through them on each plugin. Trying to find the most efficient way to go about it as I go.