First time poster. I have had some luck with locating “.dll” and putting them in the Plug In Folder in order to get more options in the Audacity Effects menu.
In trying to find these .dll and VST stuff, I stumbled across these free virtual guitar amps. I realize I am in way over my head, as I am not even sure I have the equipment to support using these. The instructions say something vague like "copy and paste the .dll is your VST host plug in folder or something. I’m sure it makes sense to people who know a lot about this stuff, but I am a noob.
Example: http://nickcrowlab.blogspot.com/ I would like to use these amps and experiment with them to see what they are like. I get about as far as downloading the .zip file and that’s it. I extract it and they have the .dll files and some stuff, but then what? In my fantasy world, I imagined that there would be a .exe file that will run the program with the pretty UI graphics of an interactive amp (like the images on the blogspot site).
How do I get these to work?
P.S. I realize these aren’t directly related to audacity, but my next step/question would be, “When I do get these virtual amps working, how can I record the sound that is being produced in audacity?”
I realize that this might not make any sense, but hopefully this first post will help generate a discussion where you all can assist me. Thanks!!
It’s not particularly vague - it says (for the “Nick Crow 7170 Lead” effect): " Installation: Put the “Nick_Crow_7170_Lead.dll” files in the VST plugin folder of your host."
The easiest way to “install” these plug-ins (without having to worry about any special “VST folders” is to put them in the Audacity plug-ins folder.
If you’re using Windows (are you using Windows?) there will be an Audacity folder in the “Program Files” folder.
I would highly recommend using Audacity 1.3.12 as the old 1.2.6 version has very poor support for VST plug-ins.
The Audacity 1.3.12 program folder will be called something like “Audacity beta Unicode” (if you also have Audacity 1.2.6 installed, there will be another folder that is just called “audacity” - ignore that folder, it’s the “beta” folder that you need).
In the Audacity beta folder there will be a sub-folder called “plug-ins”. Put the dll files in there.
Open Audacity and go to “Edit menu > Preferences > Effects” and put a tick in the box that says “Rescan VST Effects next time Audacity is started”.
Close Audacity and then open it again.
The VST effect will now be listed in the Audacity “Effect” menu.
To use these effects in Audacity, record your guitar, then select the track that you have recorded and apply the effect (select it from the Effect menu and click OK).
Audacity does not support “real-time effects” so you cannot apply the effect while you are recording - Audacity effects are always applied to the recorded track after it has been recorded. (some other audio programs, such as Reaper, Cubase, Sonar and others" support real-time effects, but Audacity doesn’t).
I was able to put the .dll file in there and apply some effects.
Can anyone post a link that has some good electric guitar effects? I am hooking my guitar into my cpu directly via a cable with a male end (that goes in my guitar) and the other end is a USB. I can run it through my amp, but my amp is a small cheap Dart 10 that has no effects (just volume, gain, voice, and an overdrive toggle). I am looking for other effects that a nice, more expensive amp would have.
This final question doesn’t have anything to do with Audacity, but maybe you guys can still help. I am wondering if it is possible to use those Nick Crow Lab guitar amps with direct response as to how the sound is affected by the amp. (Basically use my computer + speakers + virtual guitar amp = guitar amp). Can I plug my guitar into the USB port on my computer, open up some “virtual amp” program, and turn the knobs to adjust things on the “amp” and when I play the guitar, the noise comes through my speakers? Or is this something I would have to upgrade to some expensive soundcard and buy some expensive software for the “amp”.
You need a VST Host program that supports real-time effects.
Have a look here: http://www.hermannseib.com/english/vsthost.htm
Alternatively, there’s (non-free) programs such as Reaper, Cubase, Sonar and others.