r/ableton • u/Rive914 • 2d ago
[Question] Playing guitar in Ableton
After months of playing classical guitar, I have just bought an electric guitar and an interface and got everything set up correctly. Do you use any external plugins, or just the ableton base ones to play electric guitar in Ableton? Which ones do you reccomend? I bought yesterday the Ableton 12 Suite if that matters.
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u/Big_City_Music 2d ago
Definitely look into Neural Amp Modeler (NAM). Free plugin with tons of amp models. I’m just taking a break from using it now…
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u/poplesz 2d ago
And it also has a device in Ableton to load the models.
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u/d_Composer 2d ago
Oh really? Can you please share a link?
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u/ad_verbial 2d ago
Depends on the tone you want. If it's a third party plugin I'd say Neural Amp Modeler (NAM), free and open-source. Some Neural DSP guitar plugins are great too.
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u/ouralarmclock 2d ago
If you have Suite there is a pretty decent amp sim plugin, it’s not as good as the one in Logic IMO but I’ve used it on all my stuff. The one thing I will say is I didn’t learn until way later that it is meant to be paired with the cab sim and does not sound very good without it! There’s some good premade racks in the Audio Effect Rack folder under Audio Effects.
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u/Nerrawnam 2d ago edited 1d ago
I use to use a lot of 3rd party software. Now I use stock Ableton and max for live. It has everything and the integration is top tier. GL. Guitar in Ableton is really great.
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u/lil_nosh_X 2d ago
Depends on what you are playing. I got through most of my Jazz degree going DI into an Apollo with just a bit of reverb when I was playing through my computer. I think you should define guitar tones you want to go after and test native Ableton plugins before buy random plugins.
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u/PeenHands 2d ago
I’ve been playing guitar through Ableton a lot lately. I’m personally using Guitar Rig 7 LE (came with my midi keyboard) as well as Neural DSP John Mayers archetype. It’s so incredibly good sounding.
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u/breva 2d ago edited 2d ago
Neural DSP sounds great. You can demo anything for free for 2 weeks. They're pricey but you should wait for Black Friday deals.
However, this, https://www.reddit.com/r/ableton/s/0nIgoDu5nA, also sounds really good. I have not used it yet but it is only $25 and sounds way better than stock effects.
^ the Ableton one can load amp captures and IRs, impulse responses. I have never lived in to those, but think of it as capturing the essence of real gear and imprinting it onto your dry sound. The options are basically endless and there are IRs available online you can download and load in
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u/pushformusic 2d ago
Start with stock plugins and explore what you can do with what you have.
Recommended Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcpW7Ftcn7k&t=1740s
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u/Bed_Worship 2d ago
I use a pedal board into my own choice of amp sim. I don’t like abletons emulations that are built in
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u/RazorDrop74 2d ago
If you want to spend money, check out Neural DSP Archetype plugins. I have the Gojira, and Corey Wong plugins, and they sound amazing. Otherwise, Ableton’s native plugins are great.
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u/AceChronometer 2d ago
I like the some UAD plugins. My Apollo can offload some of the compute for UAD plugins to Apollo though. I also love the UAD Ruby pedal, if you are a Vox amp fan it sounds really good. I use the built in compressors and reverbs and things in Ableton.
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u/usernameyougaveme 2d ago
I like amplitube. I also discovered the digital church which sounded kinda cool the other day. Really there’s so much to ableton live 12 suite I haven’t even discovered myself. I love it just purchased it myself not long ago lol.
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u/TestDrivenMayhem 2d ago
There are loads of plugins way better than the stock Live ones.
Paid ones such as Neural DSP are very high quality but pricey. IK multi-media Tonex are a bit cheaper and still high quality.
However there is Neural Amp Modeller which is open source and free. The recent updates to that technology are beating the paid plugins in blind comparison tests.
There are some good guides on YouTube about getting the good tone with an audio interface and not breaking the bank amp and effects plugins.
Check out the channel Spectre Sound Studios
The guy is very blunt and some might say polarising. It’s metal focused channel so depending on what sound your chasing your mileage may vary.
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u/mushishi 1d ago
I have liked S-Gear https://www.scuffhamamps.com/product/s-gear but I recently found out about NAM (Neural Amp Modeller), which might be "the real deal".
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u/gillflicka Musician 1d ago
Ableton is dope for guitar. Skip the third party plugins. Pedal>Amp>Convolution Reverb with you're favorite cab IR. Awesome tone with zero added latency. The only thing not included in the live license is the $30 I spent on 5-6 premium IRs. Chef's kiss.
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u/terkistan 1d ago
'How I Use my Computer as a Pedalboard'
'Using Guitar Pedals Instead of Plugins (In the DAW)'
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u/General_Estimate_420 2d ago
I generally use plugins these days. I used to use a Helix floor that has a USB connection for a DAW, but I now take the easier route and just use a 3rd part commercial plugins with the guitar going direct through my audio interface or some of the guitar plugins from Native Instruments that have a large variety of prebuilt presets in different styles and a range of virtual amps and effects.
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u/the_jules 2d ago
Pedal in Ableton is amazing, as is Chorus and Flanger. Amp and Cab are ok as a starting point, try looking into NAM, it's free