CakeAlexS
Almost anything that goes through the Overloud TH2 effect sounds like a rock guitar IMHO. Find the right guitar patch and off you go. As far as performance is concerned, well that's another matter :). I tend to wear a wig when playing...

Exactly and it is, from what I've seen, a somewhat known technique with about the best results you can get for synth based "rock" guitar. You treat it like you would a regular guitar signal. Find the cleanest, most realistic sounding guitar synth patch you can then run it through a GOOD amp sim. Just like plugging a real guitarist on a nice guitar into a good amp or stomp box into a clean amp or guitar into an amp with an effects processing loop.
 
That's why I brought up AAS Strum. I haven't used it because... well guitar has been my life for the past 25 years so I don't need it, but it has a crapload of controls and from what I've seen on some of the vids it is about as realistic as you'll get out of anything in Sonar. A lot of it is acoustic sounds but there are some more electrical clean sounds in there that would definitely be a useable clean signal emulation that could be easily processed by a good amp sim like TH2. Even still if you have ever plugged an acoustic guitar into a high gain amp or with a stomp box into an amp the tone is freaking delicious. It's the damned feedback that causes problems.
 
I used to have a semi hollow body es-335 clone that had a lot of acoustic characteristics that I would use heavily distorted and it was AWESOME... until I tried to get to stage volume. Then the feedback was just too much to deal with... not to mention all the other metal skids would make fun of me for my grampa guitar, lol... but screw them.
 
The point is that AAS strum was designed to have as much human characteristics as possible which is the most problematic part of creating realistic sounding guitar parts with synths. I could see it being quite effective at at least giving you some good quality metal gallops and heavy power chords if you a) chose the right clean sound from AAS, b) learned how to fiddle with all the humanizing functions in it, c) wrote the part like it would be play on a guitar (which should be easy as it has a fretboard input and you can punch in chords and choose from different fingering variations... I think, which is VERY important to specific tones) and d) ran it through a good quality sim.
 
Still it is NOT going to be as good as a real guitarist but for what's within the program I'm guessing it is probably about as close as you'll get.
 
I'd be interested to see how this turns out. In fact I may try some tests of this myself.
 
Cheers.

I'd rather hear a badly played real instrument than a phony baloney guitar..But that said, some metal guitar sound are so far from the sound of a guitar that it might not matter...:) 

Cactus Music
I'd rather hear a badly played real instrument than a phony baloney guitar..But that said, some metal guitar sound are so far from the sound of a guitar that it might not matter...:) 

Agreed. There is a big difference between something like Necrophagist where some of it is so processed and clean it might as well be a synth and Iron Maiden where you can almost hear the meat and sweat of it all.
 
Considering he asked specifically about palm muting though I kind of assumed a more human touch was desired... and frankly lends to a much more interesting discussion I think. I actually really want to try out the AAS plus TH2 thing but I should actually be finalizing some bass tracks today. I've already wasted my morning with an epic meatworld failure.
 
Stupid non behaving weatherstripping. Urgh.

One thing I tried once that worked better than I expected was running a sampled muted electric guitar patch (I think it is in every GM soundset) into GR5. I actually had 2 instances of GR5, then parallel processed a clone into Amplitube. It was pretty convincing...
 
Regards,
Dan
 

This doesn't specifically address palm muting but I found this video tutorial quite interesting: I can't post links yet, so please google "Convincing electric lead guitar using synthesis youtube" - the tutorial should be the first search result.

BeepsterThe most realistic sounding guitar synth in Sonar X3 is the AAS Strum thing which is mostly an acoustic sound AFAIK but maybe you could try that and run it through TH2 to see what happens.

I've been getting very realistic results using just that combination. Formerly, I used the guitar in Garratan Jazz & Big Band through Guitar Rig, but the AAS Strum through TH2 seems a bit better.

Well I just tried out the AAS/TH2 combo. Granted I didn't really fiddle much but I load an Addictive Drums metal beat, inserted AAS (first time I've opened it) as an SIT and put TH2 in the FX bin then set it to the first metal preset. I programmed some power chords in the PRV and that sounded alright and with some fiddling I think I could get it to sound rather realistic but then I tried to do some chugs/gallops/low E rides and nope... sounded like total arse. Just WAY too mechanical and I don't think any amount of fiddling could really get it sounding "real".
 
So nice fat power chords, yes. Definitely workable. Chuggy riffs? I don't think so.
 
But as I said... I only screwed around with it very briefly.

Beepster
So nice fat power chords, yes. Definitely workable. Chuggy riffs? I don't think so.
But as I said... I only screwed around with it very briefly.

 
It doesn't take that much effort to learn to play power chords and do some chunking incorporating palm mutes.
There's so much nuance when playing a guitar.  
Sometimes it's just easier to play the real thing and be done with it.  
Far less tedious... and the time you spend expands your abilities.
Coming to guitar later in life, even though I'll never be a top-notch player, I enjoy the time spent and the challenge.
 
 

Thanks to all the replies and answers.
 
The video suggestion from user Hemul shows the answer.
Its very Simple, just use Dune CM (i've tested some other, this seems to be the best for this) and run it through TH2 or GuitarRig. Works very good for me.
 
Btw. i can play guitar and would be able to play it direct but its not always possible or handy at all.

Jim Roseberry

Beepster
So nice fat power chords, yes. Definitely workable. Chuggy riffs? I don't think so.
But as I said... I only screwed around with it very briefly.

 
It doesn't take that much effort to learn to play power chords and do some chunking incorporating palm mutes.
There's so much nuance when playing a guitar.  
Sometimes it's just easier to play the real thing and be done with it.  
Far less tedious... and the time you spend expands your abilities.
Coming to guitar later in life, even though I'll never be a top-notch player, I enjoy the time spent and the challenge.
 
 

As a loooong time guitar addict and a "teacher" who has been able to get complete beginners band/stage ready with a couple short lessons on bass/guitar* I completely agree. It was an interesting experiment though. I think the real problem was with AAS as sim really. It did well with the chords but the single notes... not so much. It's not quite as realistic, even on it's own, as I thought it would be. Still cool but there are probably better options as far as MIDI guit signals to pump into a sim.
 
* I've literally done this multiple times. A band I know will have a friend they REALLY want to play with them but they have never played an instrument before so they send them to me. I give them a run down on how to hold the instrument, pluck it, some basic formations, how to communicate with the band and some exercises to strengthen their hands/technique. I ALWAYS tell them they need to keep coming back for a while to really get the full benefit but the buggers end up doing well at practice, get some gigs and then just roll with whatever I first showed them until they come to their own style and conclusions.
 
It sucks because I basically put myself out of repeat business in the first couple lessons. lol
 
But yeah... the basics are TOTALLY easy with the right info and a good attitude.
 
Cheers.