| Once you have learnt some chord progressions and | | | | your amp, or just plug in headphones and practice. |
| riffs and you are beginning to sound like a guitar player | | | | Guitar FX 3 is a cool software that has not been |
| it will be time to start getting yourself your own | | | | updated for years but it is good and it is free. Just do |
| individual sound. These days guitar players can add | | | | not expect it to work if you are using Vista and you |
| effects to their playing in many ways. It used to be | | | | should make sure you have plenty of RAM. To get |
| necessary to connect to an amplifier but now their are | | | | started you just plug your guitar into the microphone or |
| guitar plug ins and software to give you all kinds of | | | | line in. It offers a big range of presets plus you can the |
| effects. You can apply distortion, sustain, wah-wah, | | | | tabbed menus to create custom tones which can be |
| chorus, flanger, reverb, delay effects and listen to the | | | | saved as presets. You can apply distortion, wah-wah, |
| results in your headphones without disturbing your | | | | noise gate, compressor, flanger, reverb, chorus, delay |
| family or neighbors. All you need is a sound card. | | | | and some of other filters. |
| The effects software that many guitarists think is the | | | | Another free effects program is Audacity. Audacity is |
| top of the range is Native Instruments Guitar Rig 3. It is | | | | a free, user-friendly audio editor and recorder for |
| expensive but good. It provides guitar and bass | | | | Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating |
| effects by modeling many popular amplifiers, cabinets, | | | | systems. With Audacity you can record live audio, |
| microphones, and effect pedals. It has twelve guitar | | | | convert tapes and records into digital recordings or |
| and bass amps, and a matched cabinet module gives | | | | CDs, edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files, |
| you real classic sounds. The Guitar Rig software has | | | | cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together. You can |
| faithfully modelled stomp boxes, distortion and volume | | | | record from a microphone, line input, or other sources |
| pedals, eighteen guitar and six bass cabinets, four | | | | and create multi-track recordings. You can change the |
| rotary speakers and nine microphones - all based on | | | | pitch of your music without altering the tempo, or |
| popular vintage gear. A great feature of this effects | | | | vice-versa plus Audacity lets you remove static, hiss, |
| software is the drag and drop interface for mixing | | | | hum, or other background noises. The guitarist can |
| your sound. Just choose an amplifier from classic | | | | alter frequencies with Equalization, FFT Filter, and Bass |
| Fender, Marshall, and Mesa Boogie amps, select the | | | | Boost effects. Other built-in effects include echo, |
| size of your cabinet and play around with the | | | | phaser, wah-wah and reverse. |
| forty-four effects. | | | | Just so you are not left looking for the guitar effects |
| The Line 6 Pocket Pod Guitar Multi Effects Processor | | | | software using redundant URLs I have left it to you to |
| has over three hundred onboard/portable tones and | | | | search using the product names. Some of the |
| over 3000 presets. Battery-powered and about the | | | | software that you need to pay for is available on a |
| size of a tuner, Pocket POD is a portable guitar | | | | trial basis or you might find it for less money on ebay. |
| effects solution. You can use it for effects in front of | | | | |