VST Amp Rack can get you a nice clean(ish) Fender sound but, unfortunately, matching SRV’s playing style is entirely up to you!
Some software amp sims can struggle with clean guitar tones — is Cubase’s stock VST Amp Rack up to the challenge?
The plug‑in marketplace is awash with more guitar‑rig simulations than I care to count, but might you already have what you need in your DAW? Cubase’s stock VST Amp Rack (included in Cubase Pro, Artist and Elements) is not only easy to use, but also very capable. To demonstrate this, I thought it would be fun to try and create something inspired by a couple of classic clean (well, clean‑ish) guitar tones. So, with a few suitable audio examples to accompany us along the way (available on the SOS website: https://sosm.ag/cubase-0225), let’s get started.
Jimi Meets Stevie Meets John
Inspired by Jimi Hendrix (think ‘Little Wing’), and a source of inspiration for countless others not least John Mayer, it doesn’t get any more classic than the glassy cleans of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s ‘Lenny’. In a hardware world, the most obvious choice would be a Strat‑style guitar into a Fender amp — unless you have a superstar budget, in which case perhaps a Dumble amp. In practice, though, plenty of combinations can work, and the key element is finding the sweet spot for the amp’s input gain. This needs to be set just high enough that the dynamics of the playing can control: the sound is super‑clean when played softly, but becomes lightly overdriven when the playing is harder, as the valves start to generate more harmonics.
So, let’s assume you have a suitable guitar that’s equipped with single‑coil pickups. Can VST Amp Rack get us in the right ballpark? It certainly offers a number of Fender‑inspired amp models. The other obvious element of SRV’s ‘Lenny’ sound is a healthy dollop of a fairly expansive reverb (more ‘hall’ than ‘spring’?), and again the plug‑in ought to have us covered here.
The first screenshot (above) is a composite created from VST Amp Rack’s virtual amps, mics and post‑effects tabs, and shows the key settings I used to capture the essence of the overall sound. I picked the Tweed amp model and its associated cab, and to my ears it does the Fender clean sound very well, but it would also be well worth you experimenting with the Blackface or Deluxe models.
Note that your mileage may vary depending upon the output of the pickups on your guitar, just how hard you play, and your gain staging. At first, I found that I had to crank pretty much every control on the amp to get the Tweed model to start to overdrive when I played more forcefully! Of course, in the virtual world, you can easily fine‑tune the input gain of your DI signal: you can use your audio interface’s instrument preamp gain to drive the amp model harder, or to back things off a little. You could also look to the gain at different stages inside the plug‑in. For instance, you can put the Overdrive pedal into the Pre‑Effects section, set with a low gain, and then set the Level control so that it provides a ‘clean boost’ that drives the amp that little bit harder. However you achieve it, finding that ‘just about to go into overdrive’ tone is based on getting the right balance between the input signal level, the amp’s gain/volume controls, and how hard you play. So do be prepared to experiment.
The cabinet and microphone choices are perhaps secondary elements to the overall sound in this case. I simply went with a position nearer the speaker edge and backed away from the speaker slightly, as I felt this let the sound ‘breathe’ in a more natural way than when positioned right up against the cone centre.
Finally, to emulate the other key element of the tone, I added both delay and reverb effects in VST Amp Rack’s Post‑Effects section. The delay is not actually doing a great deal here: with a short delay time setting, low feedback and low mix settings, it’s just there to give the faintest of slapback‑style effects. In contrast, the reverb’s Type and Mix controls have been adjusted to add a very healthy dollop of ambience to the sound. The Type control lets you move between Studio, Plate, Room and Hall (which was my choice here), while the Mix control allows you blend in less/more of the reverb effect, as required. I constrained myself to creating the complete tone inside VST Amp Rack, but you could, of course, add the reverb as a send effect using one of Cubase’s various studio‑style reverb plug‑ins if you wanted further options.
The audio examples that accompany this workshop step through each of the stages involved in creating this tone, and explore how changing the input gain influences the clean/overdriven balance. Obviously, I’m no Steve Ray Vaughan, and the result is not identical to the iconic original, but it does capture the essential characteristics of the sound in a way that lets you explore that mood and playing style. Incidentally, for comparison, I also provided three more examples of the same tone that I recreated using well‑known third‑party virtual guitar rigs. They do all have their own character but, importantly, the version captured through VST Amp Rack is not shamed by the comparison. For a stock plug‑in, that’s really impressive.
On The Edge
For my second example, I chased a sound with the overall character of U2’s The Edge, as heard on their classic track ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’. This is also a clean(ish) tone that results from a Strat‑style guitar being plugged into a finely balanced (in terms of the input gain) tube amp. However, The Edge is all about sound design and, in this case, the ‘iconic’ element is delivered as much by his use of effects as it is the guitar/amp combination.
Getting close to The Edge with dual delays in the VST Amp Rack’s Post‑Effects section.
The second screenshot shows the settings I ended up with. At this time, The Edge was noted for his use of Vox amps, so I’ve picked the British Custom model (and matching speaker cabinet) in VST Amp Rack. Again, I’ve dialled in the gain and master volume controls so that the amp is pretty clean when the guitar is played more softly (for example, arpeggiated chords) but starts to break up when played more aggressively (strummed chords). There is perhaps more obvious contrast here between the ‘clean’ versus ‘overdriven’ elements of the sound, and maybe that’s a characteristic of the amp choice. Again, experimentation is required to find a sweet spot where the dynamics of the sound feel right with your guitar choice and playing style.
In the Pre‑Effects section, a Compressor has been added to provide a little additional ‘always on’ sustain to the sound, while an Overdrive pedal is available as an optional extra. The settings are designed just to add a little extra push to the overdriven element of the sound as and when required, rather than pushing things into full‑on distortion.
It’s in the Post‑Effects section that the magic happens, though. A Reverb has been included but this is set to add only a very modest amount of studio‑style reverb. The key element of the sound is achieved through the use of two delays, each with a different delay time. VST Amp Rack’s effects selection includes three different delay options, and in this case I combined the Tape Delay (which has a nice analogue‑style sound) and Delay (a bit more clinical) pedals in the Post‑Effects section.
In terms of the feedback and mix settings for both delays, I aimed for about three repeats before the signal fades away — the best way to set this by ear is simply to isolate each delay in turn as you tweak the controls. The fun part is then setting the delay times for each pedal using their respective Delay (time) controls. I used Beats mode (engage the red LED next to the Delay knob) so that the delay times sync to time divisions based on Cubase’s tempo. In this case, I set the Tape Delay to quarter‑note repeats and the Delay time to dotted eighth notes.
It’s a classic combination: whether you play an arpeggiated chord/note pattern, or a very simple rhythmic strummed part, the result sounds almost instantly Edge‑like. Incidentally, it would have been nice to have these delays panned left and right, but although VST Amp Rack does support dual amp signal chains (check out the Configuration page), the signal is summed again before reaching the Post‑Effects section! If that bothers you, you could always use delays outside of VST Amp Rack — Cubase has plenty to choose from. Finally, with plenty of ‘space’ added by these effects, I didn’t feel the need for additional ‘room’ from the microphone position, so I simply placed the virtual mic right against the cone edge.
VST Amp Rack stood its ground very well when compared with some popular third‑party amp emulations.
I’ve provided a similar set of audio examples that step through the development of the VST Amp Rack configuration. It’s a super‑cool sound, but it’s also one that requires you to play ‘with’ the effects, by which I mean that if you overplay the part then the dual delays can soon get a bit messy. Again, I found that VST Amp Rack stood its ground very well when compared with some popular third‑party amp emulations.
No Pain, No Gain
As these examples hopefully demonstrate, Cubase’s humble VST Amp Rack is perfectly capable of generating some very usable clean(ish) guitar tones, and it can do so with the minimum of fuss too. So, that’s the box ticked for clean tones. What of the higher gain options, I hear you ask? Well, that’s a topic I might well return to another day. Until then, may all your cleans be sparkly, courtesy of VST Amp Rack!