PRO Guitar Tones with GarageBand Amp Designer (GarageBand Tutorial) 

‼️ FREE 6-Step PRO Mix Checklist: www.thebandguide.com/6stepPROmix ‼️

Well done. I was stumbling around inside Amp Designer and not getting very far, but your description of the various controls has given me a lot of new things to experiment with more constructively.

Nice one. Thank you so much for the tutorial!

This is a great tutorial. Very informative and helpful. As you have demonstrated, the first and most important step in starting to find your sound is to record a few bars on a loop and then adjust the parameters, amp heads and so on while you play it back.

Love your tutorials! I personally start almost all of my new sounds from the brown amp (simulates the JCM900). I believe it's perfect for hard rock/skatepunk sounds but I normally use it to pump the mids, then I normally use a plexi amp like the vintage british to get more squeak and high-range in the mix. I normally pan the two and adjust the volumes of the tracks depending on my needs. It's a technique I learned in the studio, and it helps guaranteeing a complete range of frequencies in your guitar sounds. Oh, I'm talking about the overdriven/distorted sounds.

Brute-force approach is the best to start with until you get to know all the equipment and settings. Thanks for the video!

This is great thanks!

Awesome Thanks!

Amazing tutorial thankyou very much

Thanks dude! Exactly what ive been looking for. Ive been happy with my tele tones, but I feel like im fighting my PRS the whole time. This will help me to get the right sound. Keep up the good work!

Great tutorial TY

Very nice and simple tutorial... thanks!

Once again, awesome methodology & best practices tips! I actually love British Amp Clean right out of the box. I will typically use that with a Hagstrom HIIN with a Dunable D90 neck pickup, and rarely feel the need to tweak it. For distorted sounds, I struggle with finding anything I like, so will definitely use the approach!

THANK YOU DUDE

This video helped me a lot cheers!

I recently bought my first macbook for recording demos at home, your vids really helps. Liked & subscribed :)

Thank u very much for this guude

Just want to say your videos are incredible! I went down the rabbit hole and watched like 3 hours worth of them and I feel like I have learned soooooo much. The way that you define a repeatable approach is game changing! Thank you so much!

Excellent tips Colin! This process for me has always been a bit daunting and this helps better navigate it. Personally, I've always been partial to that Stadium Spread tone for leads. I'll dial back the reverb some, but I really like that one for lead tones. The jury is still out on good rhythm tones. But this process will help!

Now that riff is stuck in my head. Thanks 🤪

I love the Orange Amp and usually choose that on my Line6 too for live performances. Mids High, Bass Low and Treb at 1 o’clock! I’ll use both the clean and crunch depending on my song.

Great tutorial. Do you use Impulse Responses like the ones you can get from ‘Own hammer’? I would be interested to see how you would use something like that in GarageBand. 👍

I need some help. I am using GB for iPhone and I can’t get my guitar to have any more tone than a neck pickup sound. I really want a bridge pickup sound but I can’t figure out what I need to do! Thanks!

Do you know what it means when you can hear the processed guitar sound (like a distorted amp plugin) PLUS the clean signal at the same time?

I have a Fender Strat, can I run the guitar through the GB amps and pedals to hear the effects while practicing a song and listening through headphones without disturbing everyone in the house? I have MacBook Pro, UA Volt4, and Yamaha Studio Monitors. Thanks for all the info and support, I have not found anything better than this for Garage Band!

When I record distorted tones using the GB Amp Modeler, I always find the resulting track difficult to sit in a mix due to the enormous dynamic range of the DI'd sound wave. Do you do anything special to deal with that issue?

The end result for this guitar tone, is what I expect without dialing in.

:) Your facial expressions are a giveaway on the amps and cabinets that you like. Great video as always Colin. Just wondering what are your thoughts on Tonebridge, given that it's a free plugin.

The compression in general on the Gb guitar + amp signal is so limiting. Is it just baked in and no way to back it out. Tried shutting down/eliminating compressors prcessibg the signal, but... No joy. Pick a melody and the notes, especially treble side get squashed immediately. I guess I was just hoping for a less processed, more valve-like airy voicing to the amps. Any advice?

can we use MainStage for guitar too? thank you for sharing

I do Garageband videos on my channel and your tutorials have been helpful. Thank you!

Okay I'm new to this so you got to help me out do I have to buy the program or can I go on my computer and download a m p designer

I'm using the the brand new mac mini I just purchased garageband 10.4.6 do I have to download the apple plug in. I do not see that anywhere in my garageband

Thanks so much! My dumb arse didnt even know there was an amp designer

The problem I have is that when I try to record the guitar track it only records from my michrophone meaning my breathing and surroundings is in there and the guitar track gets all echoey… Please if someone can help me with this I’d be really greatfull!

Do they have backing tracks I do a lot of practicing at the house on different songs so I don't know if they had a backing track for like ZZ Top or whoever you like you know

Thanks Colin - could you do a Bass Amp Designer tutorial? I think the bass amp options are more limited, and the tone I’m getting is way brighter than what I’m looking for.

Cool beans.

Clean twang (007) (Dick Dale) (Ventures) is eluding me !

Pla can u make a tutorial on how to make professional cover songs pls god I hope u reply and say yes that would make my year pls

You can also change the type of eq and reverb on the amp head by clicking on the labels on the head.

Great video! I think garageband tones are amazing, considering it is for free. They are actually what is keeping me from using other daws even if for mixing...there is some clear limitations (ok, logic is always out there I know...)

Thanks for this. How about hissing? When I plug in my guitar there's a perpetual hiss in the background that's only eliminated if I touch the strings or bridge. It's amplified if I'm using high gain. Some amps have a louder hiss than others. Generally, the more gain the amp has, the louder the hiss. It doesn't sound like a 60 cycle hum. Just a hiss. Now when I start playing loud, and start strumming, the sound of the strings kinda mask it, but if you listen closely, the hiss is still under the guitar sound and it never goes away. It's really annoying if I want to record the cleanest sound possible. I've tried other amp sims, like Bias, and Amplitude and they are all the same. I've also tried using a noise gate, but I really have to make the threshold higher to the point that it's unplayable because of latency. Some amps are more forgiving, but again, it's all the same when I start playing, the hiss is always in the background. I'm using a humbucker. Is this normal and is this something that I just have to deal with? How do pros get such a clean sound? Any tips for this?

Awesome video and very informative! Does anyone have any suggestions on guitar amp settings for modern pop-punk like Machine Gun Kelly? I've been following these steps and getting close to the sound with the sunset head, but can't seem to get the tone as close as I'd like. Thanks!

After 3 years of beat making on fl studio I’ve transitioned to playing guitar and now I use garage band as my main daw… I never saw this coming 😅

I use the presests 'Heartbreaker' for lead/ solo stuff (with tweaked overdrive for the solo's) and Chickin' Pickin' for the rhythm stuff. Then I mess with the mics, I like an SM57 top right on the 'amp'

this dude does loads of wavey hands haha. great videos though

I cant get a good sound off the amp designer, the signal is just too noisy . It sounds like an ungrounded cable

Need to use IRs cabs.. impossibly hard otherwise

For the life of me I cannot find this in Garageband.

Interesting possibilities, but they all sound like a microphone attached to bed springs with an 8 yo jumping up and down.