NO joke... this is by far the most complex VST I have ever used.. a total nightmare. It should come with a warning... if you don't like programming, if you are not a guitarist or at least very knowledgeable in guitar playing styles and techniques. If you are not patient like a Buddist Monk... don't buy this software. Or get ready for days of troubleshooting and diving in manuals and watching tutorials all day long. I have been messing with this for two whole days, my chords still aren't perfect lol. But yes it sounds amazing once you master it, that can be seen in various demos. But I wish I was warned i probably would have decided to refresh my guitar playing instead of having to score such a complex vst (haven't played in 25 + years) lol. This is VST is NOT for the novice that is for sure. My biggest issue with it is the algorithm that does random stuff and is SUPER SUPER picky about note lenght position, delays etc.... which means it's very difficult to add randomness without causing a ton of artifacts and weird notes. It's just extremely hard to score a realistic guitar part. But it is very powerful, almost anything can be done with a neurosurgeon brain and loads of patience and time.

@HollowHeart-Studio

Жыл бұрын

I absolutely agree. I bought shreddage 2 when I first got into recording because I was terrible at playing guitar and couldn't record to save my life. I ended up barely using it because it was so hard to work with. Many years later, I came back to shreddage 3 and still learn new things with every track I make. I find myself sitting at the desk with a guitar and just copying my rough ideas into midi. At first it was just for demos but I actually really like the sound of Jupiter and Hydra. Now it's more me using them to expand my playing and not worry about all the real guitar maintenance my tendinitis. The learning curve is absolutely massive but could be worth it for a lot of people. I always reccomend people start by programming covers of songs before they try originals. That helps learning to navigate the features without worrying abou the creative side.

@fncalisthenics4711

4 ай бұрын

I got it and I'm coming along wayyyyy better then I thought two months in. Alot of scrapped riffs and songs but figuring out the key switches and printing off a mapped neck of a drop E 8 string to reference helps alot just to make it more believable ( making sure note grouping is close and not impossible to actually play ) and having a idea and basically just dumb your idea down and then slowly add to it and refine slowly. I'm a drummer so have limited knowledge but just picking scales and modes helps to write. Take your time and have fun don't stress but yes it's a deeeeep dive vst. Still faster and cheaper then learning guitar lol!

@karlhans6678

2 ай бұрын

What metal guitar VST do you recommend that isnt hard to master? I mostly want to do power chords.

All guitars in my tracks are Shreddage 3. Invest the time because Shreddage 3 is almost voodoo when you learn how it does what it does. It's hands down amazing.

thanks mr beast

@HollowHeart-Studio

5 ай бұрын

Our lord and savior, Mr. Beast 🙏

I bought shreddage hydra like i think 2 years ago in a sale and forgot i had it lol. I have actual guitars and a kemper that keeps me busy but ive just stumbled upon your videos which reminded me i have it and now i feel inspired to fire it up again and see whats crackin. Rock on dude 🤟😜

@HollowHeart-Studio

Жыл бұрын

That's awesome! That's exactly what I wanted to see. I had done pretty much the same thing and forgot about shreddage after I realized it takes longer to program than it does to just play a riff. One day I just was looking into midi guitar and realized there wasn't many high quality tracks out there. Then for some reason I challenged myself to copy a few of my real guitar riffs to the point where my friends couldn't tell what was midi. Now I am constantly writing and trying to do new things with it.

ILYY thanks for this vid

I got Hydra and Jupiter a couple of days ago. Some of the results are ok so far, but it seems to play things in different positions than I am writing on guitar. Overall it is showing promise. Planning to use Hydra for one pair of rhythm guitars, Odin 2 for another pair of Rhythm guitars, Jupiter for accents, Hydra for leads and Odin 2 for Lead accents/fills with Loki 2 for bass and Mjolnir for drums. I hope that the learning journey is worth it in the end. Thank you for the videos. Appreciate it.

@HollowHeart-Studio

Жыл бұрын

I absolutely love Hydra and Jupiter! The odd moves that shreddage makes without keyswitches really gives a bad first impression. Then taking the time to manually adjust what is being played, where and when is such a pain but worth the sound. The tradeoff with odin is that it's very easy to write with but extremely limited in samples. Good luck with all the writing!!

I actually ended up using the "MIDI Guitar Mode" to get full control of what strings and frets are used. As a non-guitarist, I had to find ways to aid in visualizing the fretboard and putting in the notes. I ended up building a MIDI tool for Reaper so I can place notes by viewing a fretboard-like grid; it automatically assigns the correct channel based on the string I want to place the note on (ie. channel 8 is the low E, channel 1 is the high E). You lose all the creature comforts of the "virtual guitarist", but you gain full control of the fretboard in programming notes.

@HollowHeart-Studio

Жыл бұрын

That actually sounds like a really helpful workaround for a non guitarist. I know a handful of people who have really good musical ideas but just have no idea how guitars work. I'd love to see the company offer some sort of solution for those folks. I know they've set it up for piano players but even that seems odd to me as someone that can play guitar and piano haha.

@antonm_

Жыл бұрын

@@HollowHeart-Studio Yeah, they have not really provided much by way of programming-centric features. One thing that would really help is some context on what is "realistic" in terms of hand size and speed. Take for instance the "hand size" option, it can be useful to know if a programmed chord is realistic (in terms of spread and reach) to fret given the hand size and where on the neck. Or a "hand speed" option that can validate if, given the tempo and note lengths, a move from the 24th fret to the 3rd fret is doable or is stretching the limits of reality 😅. Learning the guitar, even if I don't have plans to physically be good at it, is still necessary (and actually fun), but of course certain things are going to be hard to imagine without actually trying it out physically or actually having a chat with a real player. Consider this thinking as the opposite of learning from guitar tutorials or videos; what if I just want to try something out because I don't have an extensive chord vocabulary? Is a chord with notes on the 1st and 6th fret actually doable or does it only work with long fingers? Since programming has no physical limitations, am I overstepping physical boundaries? Or I could just be overthinking it 😅.

@Reapertips

6 ай бұрын

Woaa. that's such a nice tool, @antonm_ have you shared it somewhere?

@antonm_

6 ай бұрын

​@@Reapertips oh hey Alejandro! I replied earlier, but alas, YT did not like me posting a GitHub URL. lol. As I mentioned in my deleted reply, I have not shared this tool and made it primarily as a personal tool since a lot of the configuration and presets are hardcoded. I lament the additional work to tie a bow around it before it becomes a ReaPack or something. lol. Since it's you asking, I made the github repo public and added a ReadMe file for some context. Since I can't put a URL here, how can I reach you? I think you have a Discord right?

Awesome! I had to buy this! Hoping you can answer something for me. How can I get rid of the pickup or release noise on short notes? It's like random sounds after the noise stops. I know it's in there for realism, but I don't know how to turn that off because it's making everything sound messy. I don't hear it only on longer sustained notes.

@HollowHeart-Studio

7 ай бұрын

Absolutely! I actually edit out those noises you're talking about when I track real guitar. So, I personally only use that feature for leads. For visual reference check 7:17 in this video. Under the "advanced" tab you can see a few knobs right a in the top/middle area of shreddage. Above them it says, "release time windows". turn those knobs all the way to the left like I did here and that sound will be gone :)

Thank you for the good tips. Very useful info. But can you pls say what amp's do you use for the such solid and hard sound?

@HollowHeart-Studio

3 ай бұрын

I don't use any of these anymore but I also don't believe you can buy the amp sims I used in this. For the guitar..it was Toneforge Misha. No amp for the bass. The low end was just a cab with a custom impulse response I've had for a long time. Then the high end was podfarm 2 for distortion and impulse response I found about 9 years ago in a Facebook audio forum. Now I just use the Neural DSP amps for guitar. For bass I use either eurobass 3 or umansky bass with the built in amps. :)

Thanks for the tips. not sure if you take requests but could you perhaps make a tutorial on how you go from making a riff track from scratch using these libraries.

@HollowHeart-Studio

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for the suggestion. I am absolutely looking for ideas for future videos and that is one I've considered. To be honest, that's a very good question and I haven't really thought about what I am doing or why when I end up writing a new song.

@sammpaul

Жыл бұрын

@@HollowHeart-Studio Awesome. I'm 100% looking forward to it.

How did you get two separate channels L and R from one midi track? I have Cubase and can't figure it out. I'm sure it's something easy I'm missing

@HollowHeart-Studio

Ай бұрын

In the first page of shreddage there's little guitar icons that light up when you click them. If you click 2 of them, it will be double tracked with 1 midi track. I normally pick guitar 1 and 4. If you've done that but something is up with the routing or your midi track, unfortunately I don't know anything about Cubase. So I couldn't say for sure.

Great - no,... excellent video. For you real players out there, I'd love to hear shreddage played with midi guitar2 (Jam Origin)

@HollowHeart-Studio

3 ай бұрын

Thank you! I've also been curious about that myself. I definitely don't have that kind of disposable income haha. I feel like it would be more frustrating and expensive than buying a few guitars to work with. Still a very interesting concept if working properly. Like using an E kit to trigger drum samples

This is a great instructional video - I'm just curious, how come you only show five libraries in Kontakt - when you probably have way more? Is there some way of sort the libraries that I don't know of?

@HollowHeart-Studio

2 ай бұрын

Thank you! Actually, what you see in here is all I had for kontakt libraries. I have since removed charisma and abyss. I picked up 2 new bass libraries and a drum library. I don't kno that you can sort them but you can hide them. I hide one of my drum libraries because I rarely use it but don't want to delete it.

@ChristianSandviknes

2 ай бұрын

@@HollowHeart-Studio Much obliged for the reply! ❤

can you explain the difference between the free version of stratus free and the paid version of stratus? Thanks man is it the sound?

@HollowHeart-Studio

9 күн бұрын

I don't have the stratus, but it's the same instrument samples and sounds without a lot of features. You don't have access to notes above the 12th fret, and I believe you don't get all the articulations, but I can't recall which ones. I'm sure the site says exactly. I can confirm it's the same samples, though.

It took 2 years of learning shreddage to get anything decent 💀💀💀

@HollowHeart-Studio

Жыл бұрын

Back when I first got shreddage 2, I never got anything good out of it. I bought hydra on sale right when it first came out and I don't even recall why. I struggled to understand it and just didn't use it very much. I'd play around and make a riff here or there but once I decided to actually take the time with it, I started really enjoying the sound. It's definitely a massive learning curve.

@snesmocha

Жыл бұрын

@@HollowHeart-Studio i was like a 14 year old starting out with it too, with a crappy laptop and no guitar skills lol. now im a 16 year old with a crappy imac and slightly more guitar skills hah hah. they honestly could easily solve these issues by having more premade patches for the tact system instead of the awful default patches tbh

@HollowHeart-Studio

Жыл бұрын

@@snesmocha I pretty much went the same route but music is much more accessible than it was when I first started recording. I've honestly never bothered with the presets just because I'm only interested in the DI but from what I have heard, I don't care for the sounds much. Some of the clean stuff is interesting but I really like having as much control over the sound as possible. It does take a lot more cpu to run kontact and then all the external plugins though..

@snesmocha

Жыл бұрын

@@HollowHeart-Studio the shreddage presets are probably the worst part about shreddage in all honesty. it's just the guitar rig 5 engine under the hood

@HollowHeart-Studio

Жыл бұрын

@@snesmocha ohhhh I remember getting a free version of guitar rig with shreddage 2 back in the day and I hated it. It's nice that they put those things together but I would much rather have more time go to the DI. I would love to work with them and get the issues with repeating notes and phasing fixed.

I'm definitely gonna try setting my guitars to 1 and 4 when I get home. Ive been having bad phasing issues too. So annoying. Also, I can't seem to figure out how to get pinch harmonics to work. I try to add the note for the key switch and it does nothing. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Any suggestions? Thank you sir!

@HollowHeart-Studio

11 ай бұрын

I'd love to use the 1/2 and then 3/4 but even the newest updates or fixes that ISW recommends didn't seem to work. The 1/4 for double tracking us great. Their new update changed a lot but the version I use doesn't take a keyswitch to trigger pinch harmonics. They're triggered when you set a sustained note to 127 velocity.

@Clammiest

11 ай бұрын

@@HollowHeart-Studio OK yea I tried that too at velocity 127 and it just makes a strange "off time" note. Like it almost sounds like it's a slide in. It's so frustrating trying to figure this program out.

@HollowHeart-Studio

11 ай бұрын

@@Clammiest anything above 110 (I think) adds a rake to the note and that does lead to the actual note coming in slightly later. I normally pull those back a 32nd or 16th note to get the actual sustain to hit at the right time. I normally program everything and then render the DIs like I'm recording a real performance. Then I just edit the di manually if needed. Depending on what version of shreddage 3 and what guitar you use, it can be a pain. I love the sound of Jupiter but Hydra plays a lot better for me. So I do most of my lead work on hydra.

@Clammiest

11 ай бұрын

@@HollowHeart-Studio OK cool I'll try that. I have Hydra. Haven't picked up any other ones yet. I may just turn off some of the articulations I don't need. I mainly just do riffs and breakdowns. Not good at writing solos. Maybe that will help too.

as far as i understand you cant name notes like this in fl studio what make this daw completely uselles i dk how they got version no 21 and still dont have this simple feature

@HollowHeart-Studio

10 ай бұрын

Oh wow. I've never used FL studio but that really is such a basic quality of life feature. I've always been on the reaper train because I started mixing in high school. I couldn't afford much and didn't want to pirate anything. I'm sure reaper has flaws but I've always enjoyed using it.

@Somulo

10 ай бұрын

@@HollowHeart-Studio well since you can rename a piano roll keys its way ahead of fl studi 21 (FOR FRACK SAKE 21 EPISODE OF THIS SOFTWARE THEY STILL GOT NO KEY RENAMING OPTION)

@energytrail315

9 ай бұрын

lol@@Somulo

Oh man, logic is not cool with making piano roll labels. Fml

@HollowHeart-Studio

5 ай бұрын

Unfortunately I've only ever used Reaper. If I'm remembering correctly, I don't think logic has any form of work around.

@HollowHeart-Studio

5 ай бұрын

Unfortunately I've only ever used Reaper. If I'm remembering correctly, I don't think logic has any form of work around.

Pretty slimy using Mr. Beasts face in your thumbnail so his fans will click on your video.

@HollowHeart-Studio

10 ай бұрын

I'd be shocked if you think that my intention is to click bate Mr. Beast fans. It's a template on photopea.com that I think is extremely funny. Kind of like the chrome extension that adds him to every thumbnail is funny. Our content has absolutely 0 overlap. I'd gain nothing by clickbating Jimmy. I assure you it's for the meme. No giveaways or sponsors here lol

I've worked with this one and others, as well as heard songs generated from them. It's almost disturbing how easily it can replace an actual guitarist depending which VST you use. Some are absolutely indiscernible from recording an actual player such as myself. *In the past, I would have turned my nose up at it, but having modernized myself regularly, I no longer see an issue using a VST for a song that I composed and can obviously play on my guitars.* It's not impossible but unusual that we sound as good as an album while playing live, and as a perfectionist, many of us only seek for the commercially released song to sound as professional as possible. I'm already seeing AI generated songs as it is and there's no fighting the future of technology and path of modern humanity. I'm a virtuoso shredder, but also a 7 octave vocalist, general composer and do more composing in sequencers and synths than I do on my guitar these days. It's critical for all modern musicians and vocalists to become professionally competent in the studio with DAW's and the various types of plugins.

@HollowHeart-Studio

4 ай бұрын

Absolutely agree with you. I was against midi bass and midi guitar for a while. Midi drums made sense for anyone like myself who couldn't afford the studio time and professional mixing. Then midi bass became pretty normal for lower tuned instruments and now I find myself programming things I could just play or hire someone to pay. I still stand by "if it sounds good, it sounds good" don't care if it's 100% AI, a 6 year old programming it or an unbelievably talented group of musicians. With it being so easy to make music and release it these days, it's not about who has the most talent or the best mix. People just like what they like. So just create whatever you want and do it however you want :)