Jazz Tone in Reaper with Stock Plugins

[fep]

I set out to do this. The plugins that come with Reaper are very computer efficient, so if you want to run an amp sim and not use very much of your computer resources....

[grahambop]

Thanks for that fep, I haven’t really looked at the reaper amp sims much, I’ll have to have a play with them!

[Liarspoker]

Cool Frank, I basically do the same thing but I tend to experiment with my guitars and the different amps. It takes time!

The stuff you do with the reverb was new to me so thanks very much.

Please keep making more Reaper videos.

[GuyBoden]

Very instructive, a very nice warm sounding Tele, I'm currently using Linux with Ardour7, but Reaper has a Linux compatible version, so I might give it a try.

What's you fav Plugin?

I'm having a lot of fun with the Chow Matrix vst plugin.

Chow Matrix Free listed here, this demo video has some great multitap delay sounds too:
https://chowdsp.com/products.html

[grahambop]

I have just tried all those amp sims, but to be honest I prefer the sound I got just recording my guitar direct into Reaper with a little reverb. All the sims seem to add a little harshness or take off some of the smoothness of the natural guitar sound, for me. However this doesn't surprise me, I have never really found any amp sims I like much for jazz guitar.

But mainly that is because my 175 seems to record really well direct, with a very good mellow jazz tone, I have always found that. If I was playing a Tele, then it might well be a different matter.

Usually I just record with the line out signal from my DV Little Jazz, that works very well.

Anyway it's interesting to try this out. (The one model I thought worked reasonably ok for me was the Fender Bassman.)

[Liarspoker]

(The one model I thought worked reasonably ok for me was the Fender Bassman.)

That's interesting Graham. I had a query for Frank and he responded by making this video ( very kind).

Anyway in my message to Frank I also mentioned that the Fender Bassman was best for me.

I found it interesting that Frank used the Mesa Boogie so I'll give that a try when I can.

[grahambop]

I think Frank said in the video that he rolled the tone right down on his tele, that would make quite a difference I suspect. I don’t do that on my 175, I usually leave the tone knob right up or just rolled off a little. It’s already got a ‘dark’ tone, it just doesn’t need it taken off.

[fep]

To me the Bassman and the Mesa sound pretty similar. As far as liking one over the other, it may have to do with the different guitars we are using and our right hand technique and of course personal tonal preference.

If my Tele tone knob had numbers on it I'm guessing I had it at about 3 on a 10 scale. My volume knob was at about 7. On the tele I like to start the tone at 0 and work my way up to where I like it. If I start on 10 and work my way down, it's such a long way to go before I hear much of a tone change.

[rpjazzguitar]

My experience is like Graham's. I go into my usual pedalboard to add some reverb. I understand that I can't undo the reverb but I never want to. It sounds better to me than the plug-ins. From there it's into the Focusrite. If I process the sound it's to EQ the guitar so it sits in the mix better. I've done it for comping tracks but I can't recall doing it for single note tracks.

I've tried going pedalboard to amp (different ones, including a Boogie) to mic to Focusrite (to get the sound of the mic'ed amp) but I didn't hear enough improvement to bother.

I could set it up to get one track with reverb and one absolutely clean/dry but I've never bothered and never wished I had.

[grahambop]

I use the template feature in Reaper. It took me quite a long time to get the hang of all the settings I like to use, e.g. a bit of compression, a send to a separate track for the convolution reverb (which can also be used as a reverb send for any additional tracks) and so on. So once I’d got all that lot set up, I saved it as my default template.

So now all new projects just pick up the template, saves a lot of time.

[fep]

I use the template feature in Reaper. It took me quite a long time to get the hang of all the settings I like to use, e.g. a bit of compression, a send to a separate track for the convolution reverb (which can also be used as a reverb send for any additional tracks) and so on. So once I’d got all that lot set up, I saved it as my default template.

So now all new projects just pick up the template, saves a lot of time.

I believe you're using the Project template feature (there is also a Track template feature). That's a good way to be efficient.

The use of the convolution reverb in a bus is good to minimize the strain on your computer. Those reverb IR's do use resources and if you get a bunch of them going on various tracks you can run into pops and clicks if your computer can't handle all those instances.

Here is a project where I have 14 tracks using the convolution reverb (a choir type of thing). All routed to a bus so there is only one instance of the reverb running on the project.

[fep]

Very instructive, a very nice warm sounding Tele, I'm currently using Linux with Ardour7, but Reaper has a Linux compatible version, so I might give it a try.

What's you fav Plugin?

I'm having a lot of fun with the Chow Matrix vst plugin.

Chow Matrix Free listed here, this demo video has some great multitap delay sounds too:
https://chowdsp.com/products.html

That video is so cool. Reaper's ReaDelay does the multitap with panning and different delay times but doesn't have the LFO or diffusion of the Chow Matrix Free. It is amazing what you can get free.

Hard to say what is my favorite plugin. The always used ones are, ReaEq, ReaComp, ReaVerb, ReaXComp, JS master limiter, JS Volume/Pan Smoother, JS Loudness Meter/Peak/RMS/LUFs, all of which come with Reaper. Non-Reaper plugins I use are EZDrummer3, and from Air Music tech the instruments Mini Grand, DB33, Xpand!2, and Velvet.