RG

Guitars in electronic music aren’t anything new. While some producers take pride in creating tracks using real guitars, nowadays you don’t really need a guitarist if you want to add such sounds to your compositions. No one is saying you shouldn’t, but keep in mind that there are also many well-designed audio plugins that give you the possibility to experiment and eventually achieve the sound you want.

Today, we’re going to take a look at RG, a plugin designed by Rob Papen.

Whereas other “guitar synths” try to emulate electric guitars realistically, RG does things the Rob Papen way, meaning that it’s a plugin designed with a lot of creativity and outside-the-box thinking that somehow caters to the needs of the electronic music producer.

Make no mistake about it, RG (which stands for rhythm guitar) sounds authentic. You can choose between six electric guitar models, with their sounds having been carefully sampled. Playing them is made extremely easy by the synth’s sequencer, which can be considered its central element. For each chord, you must also select a “hand movement”: a downstroke, an upstroke, a ghost stroke, or a glide.

Once you have your guitar groove, you can use the “synth part” of the instrument to modify the sound. You have 14 different filters to choose from, and they can be further adjusted using an LFO and envelope. You can use pitch bending, as well as a pitch LFO, an amp, and a 5-band EQ. In the FX section, you can use up to three effects simultaneously from the 22 available.

There are many other modulation options and features to explore, but for now, it’s safe to say the RG is a very well-designed synth that can really help you integrate spectacular guitar sounds into your composition.