Sonar 7 PE , What Plug In does 7 PE have for great guitar tone manipulation?

O.K. so I bought a new SM57 and I am going to start all over with recording my guitar thru my Tremoverb, Mesa Boogie tube amp. 


I am not liking the tone I got before so I upgraded to a better mic. 


I will try all different positions for the mic, according to all the best practices evident from online research. My question is this. Does Sonar 7 PE have it's own plug ins that emulate speaker cabs or whatever to get a real good tone?


I am new to this and in the past I would just mic the cab and hit record on my tape machine and I would get an amazing Nuno Bettencourt tone or maybe better said is a thick, punchy, articulate, musical, percussive guitar sound for my gain tone and a chimey, bell, piano tone for my cleans. 


I mean I really got a great tone and it sounded great on external equipment like the car stereo or house stereo. This required no eq or plug ins of any kind. So I am lost, as it was either blind luck or the process that produced that great guitar sound. 


It may be as simple as my cheap crappy mic. Now that I am using a Motu 8Pre and Sonar I am really getting the "garbage in/garbage out" scenario, whereas the tape method was more forgiving.


It may be as simple as a new mic, which I have and will use this weekend, and placement.


But for now with all digital equipment I can't get it, or at least not yet, as I have not plugged the SM57 yet. Any advise on plug ins internal to Sonar or EQ'ing methods would greatly help. Thanks.


I am not looking for metal or anything like that. If you are familiar with Extreme's "Waiting for the Punchline", then you know exactly what I am looking for.


It is a very organic, roots rock based sound that is probably one of the most overlooked albums out there for guitar purists.


And yes, I know I am a hack and don't have a million dollar studio, but going from a cassette that had a killer guitar tone with NO effort at all, to Sonar, Motu etc. and having a crappy sound is just not acceptable, so I need your help, thanks.

Ditto ^^^

No need to upgrade your microphone, you already have the most widely-used industry standard for this application.

Amp and speaker sims are a great convenience, but they never quite get there (in most peoples' opinion) like a real amplifier moving air can.

Thanks guys.

You all are in alignment with your suggestions, and I have to agree with you.

I didn't know much about plug ins and I still don't, but after a conversation with a friend, it sounds like the opposite of what I am looking for.

I guess IF I was to use plug ins they would only have a place in my studio for application such as reverb, delay etc. 

I certainly don't want to use anything related to "modeling". I have a great amp and tone. Now I need to get that into a good mic.

Once I figure out the proper placement and I think that will solve my problems. Using a cheap crap mic does fall right into the "garbage in/garbage out" scenario, so I am confident this will work.

I also think, learning from failing miserably at it, that I should NOT increase any specific or individual frequency gain on any EQ, and instead reduce the unwanted frequencies that do compliment the tone I seek and then push the dB up a pinch to compensate for any loss in level.

Again, I am a newbie (10 weeks into this), so please chime in with your opinions and thanks.

Happy Holidays to all of you and oh by the way I think my wife might be wrapping a Sennheiser e906 to put under the tree.

Oh Boy! Wouldn't that be nice, as I have seen online all sorts of varying techniques using multiple mics.

I know...I know I would rather have expensive mics that cost thousands of dollars, but this is in my budget. 

I have a home studio and not a Hollywood studio, so don't laugh if I get excited about the SM57 or e906 etc. 

Thanks again! 

Thanks Rain.

And yes, I agree. 

Oh, and I am reducing gain, as this will get me a more musical tone and less blotto or garbage, thanks man.

Glad you're getting that tone you wanted. And with a second mic, it'll probably be twice as much fun. :)

O.K. here we go.

What if I want different effects on the same track to occur at different times?

For example: for a lead guitar track I want the first 15 seconds to have delay and then on the remaining 15 seconds I want reverb?

How do I control the effects in this way?

Thanks.

Here's that thread - http://forum.cakewalk.com..aspx?&m=1302521&mpage=2 It's based on Guitar Tracks software, but the principle is the same.

Thanks JamesG1213.

I will give this a go.

So essentially if you have three different reverbs (settings of the reverb, etc.) and you wished to apply them to any track, you just create a bus for each reverb and assign accordingly.

Then control the on/off, intensity, sweep, tails etc. using the Write Automation feature when adjusting those parameters in real time for each application or instance.

I say this only in theory, as I have never done this and am just kinda throwing it around in my head to wrap my brain around it.

So lets say you want to add reverb to a guitar track for the first 30 seconds. Then for the remainder of the track you do not want it.

I would start write automation to record what I am doing.

I would start the track with the reverb on.

I would then ?? then do what to turn it off ?? Do I adjust the send on the bus to zero.

Do I hit bypass on the Sonitus reverb.

Do I turn the mix level of the reverb to zero on Sonitus.

Maybe I should start with going to the thread you gave me.

Thanks again, I so excited to try this, but a little confused.

Thanks again, I am such a noob.

Nice one.

I read the post you gave me.

True or false?

My Sonar 7 Producer Edition is set up with a Master bus.

I then create a separate bus for drums and guitar (for now).

I route the Master bus to my sound card (Motu 8Pre).

I route both bus's I created to the Master bus.

This is the correct way to do this.

Thanks.

Thanks.