Guitar effects

hmm... sorry guys im not getting it.   My fault...Im not asking the question the right way.   Start again.
 
Plug your guitar directly into your audio device , play and record.  You now have a track with a clean guitar.  Now add in some plug in effects such as chorus.
Now... start again.   Plug in your guitar directly to the audio device.   Insert a chorus plug in into the track.
Can you now play the guitar and hear the chorus effect as you play?  

Agentcalm
Now... start again.   Plug in your guitar directly to the audio device.   Insert a chorus plug in into the track.
Can you now play the guitar and hear the chorus effect as you play?  

Absolutely. 
 

Agentcalm
I'll download some plug ins first such as amp sims, reverb etc.  
 

Not sure what version of Sonar you have, but you may have a number of existing FX-chains and amp sims you could work with already.
 
Cheers 
 

Be prepared to be a little disapointed by "emulations" of some guitar stuff. Fuzzes, overdrives, distortions and wahs/filters in particular. Many "emulations' aren't very close to what they are supposed to sound and respond like. Guitars are also a very touch-sensitive instrument and many emulations just aren't.

And be prepared to put much more work in to get a decent sound than you would have to with a "conventional" guitar setup.

Give it a try though, the emulators do seem to work OK for many people. My particular hangup with them being that I can set up a chain of stuff that's supposed to be accurate emulations of the hardware I'm used to and it doesn't come close. The Amplitube Mesa Boogies, a couple of their Fenders and Scuffham's amp emulations are the ones I've found to be the most natural in sound and feel.

chuckebaby
You record a dry track and use FX during the mixing stages. In most cases now a day, most home studio users are recording dry DI/line level guitar in to an amp sim and then adding FX later.

Good to have dry guitars tracks to experiment with some FX and amp sims after recording, but when creating/improvising solo's, hooks, even some rhythms, you really need the FX applied, amp sound and volume levels while playing, as it affects the way you play and inspires some of the sounds that you create which you may not create playing/listening dry, and many sounds you can't easily reproduce later by simply adding FX, (say like expressions and feedback), I guess splitting the signal and recording both the dry and wet on separate tracks would be ideal. I do usually record direct, (not mic'd), from amp using MESA CabClone, and rarely monitor the electric guitar Im recording through the DAW/Amp Sims/FX, and studio monitors or headphones, although have done so to experiment with some of the FX chain presets sounds, not saying its a bad thing if you're getting sound you want without latency issues. If I do want to record/monitor dry electric plugged directly into audio interface or often with acoustic guitar I would be monitoring direct signal from audio interface mixer not going through DAW. 
 
Otherwise not sure if its feasible/safe to route guitar through AI/DAW/FX and out into a guitar amp to make use of DAW FX through a guitar amp? (I guess you'd need to convert line level back down to a mic/instrument level or the amp would need to have a line input available?).
 
Cheers     
 

Hi John.   Just on the point you were making about the need to lay the guitar with the effects in real time rather than later.  Thats exactly what i want to do and for the reasons you mentioned.  Its pointless trying to play a solo on a clean guitar with the  aim of adding distortion later.  
By the way its working great so thanks to all fro the above suggestions.
Hi T   Thats a great idea of using the amps DI to go straight to the DAW.  I could mic the amp and use a DI at the same time.   Very cool.  
Space cowboy suggested Revalver and Amplitude so I'll go search for those and start playing around.   Up n runnin guys.  Thanks again. 

Agentcalm
Hi John.   Just on the point you were making about the need to lay the guitar with the effects in real time rather than later.  

Yea, we're on the same page there for sure, and glad you got it working. I would like to try to use some of the plug-in FX routed to my guitar amp, just to hear how they'd sound, also would be easier adjusting FX setting on screen rather than getting down on floor adjusting hardware pedals. (getting older its harder to get back up, LOL). Im thinking I could do it as an external send, as my go to amp also has external send and receive connections, another "to-do" item. Honestly though I haven't really even touched my hardware FX pedal board for years since I got a Mesa-Boogie amp, typically I can get the sound I want from it alone and its output is my dry track, (may also be cuz Im getting older to, LOL). But do often add extra or special FX's, in Sonar production, so splitting and recording a dry guitar signal track simultaneously is a good idea to have as a reference track, however not sure a simple Y cable splitter is best option.
 
Cheers  

You could try Re-amping too, dry recorded signal out of DAW to amp, record back in with mic but you need a re-amp box for that,
https://www.sweetwater.co...CaDv6N-QRoCr-sQAvD_BwE
 
just another suggestion in case no one has put that out there yet

space_cowboy
The Amplitube package is great.  More versatile sounds than most of the other plug ins.  Revalver is good too and you can run VSTs from inside it.  That means my Sound Toys stuff is available, and it is excellent for delays, chorus, phasing....  And I like the TH 3 thing Sonar includes.  Guitar Rig sounds thin to me.  I had some Wave amp sim but never liked it.  Ditto on Vandal.  Never tried Studio Devil.  
 
I really love the Universal Audio amp sims, but you have to own a UA card or interface to run their plugins.  
 
One thing to think about... 6msec of latency is equivalent to standing about 6 feet from your amp.  You can shoot for lower latency, but I am not sure below 6 is buying you much.    

Yes, AT4 is really good.  I find any RTL under 10ms to be perfectly fine for real-time monitoring guitar tracks.

Reamping can sound great but only if you have amps worth recording and mics worth using.

FWIW I'm in the process of converting the TH2-based CA-X amps to TH3. Not sure when the updated versions will be finished, but they'll be available when they are.

almeister
You could try Re-amping too, dry recorded signal out of DAW to amp, record back in with mic but you need a re-amp box for that,
https://www.sweetwater.co...CaDv6N-QRoCr-sQAvD_BwE
 

Great, Ill have get one or something similar, asumme the dry recorded signal, could actually be the live guitar plugged in to AI (with input echo on).
 
Cheers