How Many People Are Using A Virtual Capo in "Real" Applications

[GuyJames]

My Baritone guitar is getting setup at the moment so I had to use the V-Capo for this demo soloI’m working on. It doesn’t sound bad in the mix but compared to a real baritone it does glitch a bit and have a kind of hollow feeling to it.

 

[Joel.Brown333]

I have one song that I use it on. It works fine. Although it gives me the feeling of standing further away from my amp. Meaning, the latency is almost perceptible.

 

[Keybi]

Never. I have a real CAPO and several guitars with different tunings.

 

[Geoff L]

One of the bands I play in tunes down a full step for all songs. Currently I keep two guitars set-up and tuned for that, but have been considering using standard tuning and dropping the tuning with a virtual capo. I'd love to hear personal experiences from anyone who has done this in a real gig situation.

I have a preset set-up this way that I use for practicing/learning songs. There are definitely artifacts I can hear, but I'm guessing these may get washed out in the larger band context. We play 80s and 90s hard rock / metal so mostly very gainy or processed cleans for everything.

I do it for a number of things where it's down a semi tone and I can't be bothered to retune a guitar, works just fine for me.

 

[AlGrenadine]

I use it very often and it works good for me

 

[TheloniusJ]

My Baritone guitar is getting setup at the moment so I had to use the V-Capo for this demo soloI’m working on. It doesn’t sound bad in the mix but compared to a real baritone it does glitch a bit and have a kind of hollow feeling to it.

I had the same experience with the baritone actually. We do a couple of Mark Lettieri tunes and I was using my Whammy pedal to drop down to baritone tuning, but once I bought a real baritone, I abandoned that approach.

BTW: Great tone and feel on the clip. I don't think I've seen anyone rocking a Suhr baritone either. Bad ass.

 

[RLD]

One of the bands I play in tunes down a full step for all songs. Currently I keep two guitars set-up and tuned for that, but have been considering using standard tuning and dropping the tuning with a virtual capo. I'd love to hear personal experiences from anyone who has done this in a real gig situation.

I have a preset set-up this way that I use for practicing/learning songs. There are definitely artifacts I can hear, but I'm guessing these may get washed out in the larger band context. We play 80s and 90s hard rock / metal so mostly very gainy or processed cleans for everything.

I think you'll get better results with the down tuned guitars.
I use the virtual capo live for 1/2 step down occasionally, but would not want to use it for every song.

 

[Sambeard]

I play in a volbeat tribute and most of their songs are in D standard. I don’t like guitars set up in that tuning, so I use the virtual capo every live gig with them. Sounds great and no one hears it in the mix.

So I love it

 

[chrisjnyc]

One of the bands I play in tunes down a full step for all songs. Currently I keep two guitars set-up and tuned for that, but have been considering using standard tuning and dropping the tuning with a virtual capo. I'd love to hear personal experiences from anyone who has done this in a real gig situation.

I have a preset set-up this way that I use for practicing/learning songs. There are definitely artifacts I can hear, but I'm guessing these may get washed out in the larger band context. We play 80s and 90s hard rock / metal so mostly very gainy or processed cleans for everything.

Just started using the VC for a few songs in drop C sharp... half step down. Sounds good to me, normally I would swap guitars or retune.

 

[State of Epicicity]

With the artificats, keep in mind the Tracking setting makes a big difference. I keep tracking at zero because that avoids artifacts when using vibrato. If you mess with all the settings, including the high and low cut, you might find that the Virtual Capo really outperforms any other pitch device. I had a Whammy 5th gen for a while, but I prefer the Virtual Capo after I fine tune it properly.

Sometimes I assign a momentary control switch to the pitch block bypass, so it engages when I need it.

 

[TSJMajesty]

With the artificats, keep in mind the Tracking setting makes a big difference. I keep tracking at zero because that avoids artifacts when using vibrato. If you mess with all the settings, including the high and low cut, you might find that the Virtual Capo really outperforms any other pitch device. I had a Whammy 5th gen for a while, but I prefer the Virtual Capo after I fine tune it properly.

Sometimes I assign a momentary control switch to the pitch block bypass, so it engages when I need it.

I messed with the settings, but I don't really know what I'm doing.

What's the best settings for playing 4 steps down, clean tone, slow arpeggiated riff?

Like this: https://www.songsterr.com/a/wsa/dream-theater-untethered-angel-tab-s447941t0

 

[State of Epicicity]

I messed with the settings, but I don't really know what I'm doing.

What's the best settings for playing 4 steps down, clean tone, slow arpeggiated riff?

Like this: https://www.songsterr.com/a/wsa/dream-theater-untethered-angel-tab-s447941t0

As a rule I keep tracking at zero because to my ears it sounds most natural that way, with the other setting at Fast. For a downtuned slow arpeggio, I think the key is probably the high and low cuts, and that depends on your guitar and the rest of the chain. This is totally just my experience, but I've found that the high and low cuts in the Virtual Capo are what can make it sound right or not. I've found that if I raise one, I often raise the other.

I can't get back to the unit tonight, but if you want to post a dry recording of you playing that arpeggio section along with the preset, I'll try to set the Virtual Capo in a way that sounds natural.

 

[TSJMajesty]

As a rule I keep tracking at zero because to my ears it sounds most natural that way, with the other setting at Fast. For a downtuned slow arpeggio, I think the key is probably the high and low cuts, and that depends on your guitar and the rest of the chain. This is totally just my experience, but I've found that the high and low cuts in the Virtual Capo are what can make it sound right or not. I've found that if I raise one, I often raise the other.

I can't get back to the unit tonight, but if you want to post a dry recording of you playing that arpeggio section along with the preset, I'll try to set the Virtual Capo in a way that sounds natural.

I still haven't learned how to record on a DAW yet, but thanks for the offer.

 

[State of Epicicity]

I still haven't learned how to record on a DAW yet, but thanks for the offer.

I recommend placing the pitch block right after your input block in this situation to get the most natural sound.

When I can play again, I'll look back at the seeings available on the Virtual Capo and I'll play that tab and see what I do to make it sound good with my guitar.

The only problem is I only have one functioning guitar right now, and I have a stacked single coil in the neck. If you're playing one of the Petrucci models, that'll of course have a way different resonant frequency and output in the neck. Although you can't send a dry track, if you want to send a preset, I can start with that. Also, do you have a DAW? If so, it's probably just a few steps to get a dry track. I use Reaper, and I could guide you how to record a dry track with it. If you have some other DAW, I'm sure someone on the forum could guide you on how to do it. Plus there's the free one, Audacity, and there are many tutorials for it.

Either way, the big thing I've find is really to try to focus on what's missing or what sounds wrong in the pitch shift; focus your ears forensically with your guitar playing in a loop and just see what effect each parameter has. Sometimes the effect of the shift can warrant a little change in the output level of the pitch block. Maybe it lacks definition, so you'd want to raise the high cut to open it up, and I've often find that raising the low cut in that case usually helps a ton. The opposite is also true, that if you find yourself lowering the low cut, you'll probably want to lower the high cut too.

Another good approach is to try A PEQ before and / or after the pitch block, to balance the frequencies just perfectly. You can get surgical with that and change a muddy pitch shift into something powerful and cool.

I had ignored the high / low cut part of the pitch block for a long time, and I world fight unnatural tones because of it. I would even tone match my straight guitar signal to help, but once I started really messing with the high and low cuts, I didn't feel the need to tone match at all.

 

[State of Epicicity]

I messed with the settings, but I don't really know what I'm doing.

What's the best settings for playing 4 steps down, clean tone, slow arpeggiated riff?

Like this: https://www.songsterr.com/a/wsa/dream-theater-untethered-angel-tab-s447941t0

Okay, I just got to mess with this. I don't know this song. I think EQ is essential here. In the YouTube video on that site, it was documenting the recording of that song in the studio, and you can see how perfectly Petrucci is timing his acoustic with his electirc. On my guitar, I had to roll back my volume and tone knobs on my single coil neck, Virtual Capo Shift -4, Pitch Tracking Fast, Tracking 0.00, Low Cut 36.87, High Cut 4276.4, into the most crisp amp I could think of the Wrecker Rocket, which to me is a ghost note free AC30.

On one of the Petrucci models I would massively lower the output, with a PEQ in front of the Pitch Block, really sucking out the mids too and altering the "effective" resonant peak of your neck pickup to get closer to the acoustic chime. I used to have various humbuckers in the neck of my guitar, and I made my own single coil simulations with PEQ blocks, which I saved as block libraries. I actually still have those libraries, so I've included a zip folder of them here for you. I'd try these and see if any gets you close starting out, but you'll still need to tweak the frequency centers, boosts/cuts, and Qs by ear until it sounds right. If I remember correctly, I would use a 20dB cut in the level on most of these blocks. Some of them won't have as much of a level cut, and those are ones I designed to work with my riding of the volume and tone knobs on my guitar.

You could try this preset if you want, and maybe put a PEQ block right after the input to try these libraries.

The big things here are definition, girth, "naturalness", and latency. I think you can EQ in the definition and girth. The unnaturalness for pitchshift downtuned arpeggios comes, to my ears, when the tone is too mid-congested. The definition just goes away, and the top notes of the arpeggios get lost in this shitty "mid smog." So, you just clear that up with a parametric, now you're left with the latency. There's a hair of latency you just can never get around with pitch shifting, so the best course is to monitor in a way where you're not perceiving your live room pick attack so strongly.

Anyway, I hope some of this helps get you where you want to go with it. Best of luck, and let me know if you have any thoughts or questions. This worked well for my guitar, but, like I said, your guitar might need totally different frequencies altered to get the best effect.

 

[xykhron]

I have all my guitars tuned to B and my main band plays in C, so my presets have an on/off switch to activate the virtual capo or the advanced whammy when I need it.
The cool thing is that while I am in B, my band mate's guitars are in C, so for the main band, I have to use the virtual capo, but we both play in another band which tunes in B, so in that I do not use the VC, but my mates uses it to go a semi tone down.

 

[Gasp100]

One of the bands I play in tunes down a full step for all songs. Currently I keep two guitars set-up and tuned for that, but have been considering using standard tuning and dropping the tuning with a virtual capo. I'd love to hear personal experiences from anyone who has done this in a real gig situation.

I have a preset set-up this way that I use for practicing/learning songs. There are definitely artifacts I can hear, but I'm guessing these may get washed out in the larger band context. We play 80s and 90s hard rock / metal so mostly very gainy or processed cleans for everything.

I'm using it regularly on every gig (~6x or more a month). There are artifacts, but head to head vs. my Digitech Drop it blows the Drop away (IMHO).
Band backline, FOH, IEMS, gig volumes the Drop can work even with clean tones which are required for me but the VC is MUCH better.
I even use it tuned a half up for songs where the damn country cats tune to F in the studio and use a real capo live!

 

[Tommymo]

I found it sounds very artificial and I still think there is some latency with this effect

 

[TSJMajesty]

Okay, I just got to mess with this. I don't know this song. I think EQ is essential here. In the YouTube video on that site, it was documenting the recording of that song in the studio, and you can see how perfectly Petrucci is timing his acoustic with his electirc. On my guitar, I had to roll back my volume and tone knobs on my single coil neck, Virtual Capo Shift -4, Pitch Tracking Fast, Tracking 0.00, Low Cut 36.87, High Cut 4276.4, into the most crisp amp I could think of the Wrecker Rocket, which to me is a ghost note free AC30.

On one of the Petrucci models I would massively lower the output, with a PEQ in front of the Pitch Block, really sucking out the mids too and altering the "effective" resonant peak of your neck pickup to get closer to the acoustic chime. I used to have various humbuckers in the neck of my guitar, and I made my own single coil simulations with PEQ blocks, which I saved as block libraries. I actually still have those libraries, so I've included a zip folder of them here for you. I'd try these and see if any gets you close starting out, but you'll still need to tweak the frequency centers, boosts/cuts, and Qs by ear until it sounds right. If I remember correctly, I would use a 20dB cut in the level on most of these blocks. Some of them won't have as much of a level cut, and those are ones I designed to work with my riding of the volume and tone knobs on my guitar.

You could try this preset if you want, and maybe put a PEQ block right after the input to try these libraries.

The big things here are definition, girth, "naturalness", and latency. I think you can EQ in the definition and girth. The unnaturalness for pitchshift downtuned arpeggios comes, to my ears, when the tone is too mid-congested. The definition just goes away, and the top notes of the arpeggios get lost in this shitty "mid smog." So, you just clear that up with a parametric, now you're left with the latency. There's a hair of latency you just can never get around with pitch shifting, so the best course is to monitor in a way where you're not perceiving your live room pick attack so strongly.

Anyway, I hope some of this helps get you where you want to go with it. Best of luck, and let me know if you have any thoughts or questions. This worked well for my guitar, but, like I said, your guitar might need totally different frequencies altered to get the best effect.

Dude! Thanks for all that. Gimme til this weekend to mess with this. And I may take you up on helping me use Reaper.

 

[skolacki]

Not playing professionally at this time, just jams with friends. I like the VC and use it quite a bit at stock settings. It sounds a bit processed but I like it, its almost like transparent drive that adds some color. In a mix it’s less apparent. If I was gigging I wouldn’t hesitate to use it for songs that needed a retune.