How to Create a Mind-blowing New Guitar Effect in Your DAW

Let’s check out a guitar-solo effect you’ve probably never heard before. And since you haven’t, I’ll start with two audio examples. The first sounds kind of like phantom feedback added to a note with a twist of backward tape. Here’s the process applied to a blues guitar solo.




Although this technique is arguably most effective with solos, it also works with chords and other instruments. The following example highlights the process with block-chord strikes. It’s also added to some drum hits at the end.




It’s not difficult to create this effect. Fig. 1 shows a guitar solo’s before and after waveforms. The following steps describe the implementation.

Figure 1: The top track shows the original guitar solo as recorded in Studio One. The bottom track shows the same track after being processed with this technique. The bright vertical lines show where notes were split. Reversing the shorter notes toward the beginning provided emphasis rather than the feedback-like effect.

Load or record a track with a guitar solo then duplicate it. On the duplicated track, turn off Snap to Grid.

Many DAWs have a split/knife/scissors tool. Use it to split the track at the beginnings and ends of notes with relatively long decays (the longer the decay, the more dramatic the effect). To split with Pro Tools or Ableton Live, place the cursor or playhead where you want the split. Then, type Cmd/Ctrl+E.

On the duplicated track, select a note you want to reverse (or in Ableton Live, double-click on the note). Then, choose your DAW’s reverse command:

Ableton Live: Use the Arrangement view. After double-clicking on the note, it opens in Clip View. Click the Rev button.

Bitwig Studio: Click on the Clip button > Reverse

Cubase: Audio > Processes > Reverse

Digital Performer: Audio > Apply Plug-in > All > Reverse > Select > Apply

Logic Pro: Unfold the Region Inspector. Unfold More. Check the Reverse box.

Mixcraft: Sound > Reverse

Pro Tools: AudioSuite > Other > Reverse > Render

Sonar: Process > Apply Effect > Reverse

Studio One: Audio > Reverse Audio

On the duplicated track, repeat this process for each note you want to reverse. Depending on the DAW, you may be able to select multiple notes and reverse all of them simultaneously. Then, delete the sections you don’t want to reverse.

Additional Notes

For an ethereal feedback-type effect, add reverb to only the reversed notes.

Try pitch shifting the reversed notes up an octave or fifth for novel sounds.

When used selectively, this trick is also effective with drum parts.

Reversing short notes won’t give the same kind of reversed sound. However, doing so adds an interesting emphasis to these notes.

Panning the reversed audio as it fades in animates the stereo positioning. The second audio example uses this technique.

Automatic Splitting

There are two ways to split at transients. The universal option is manual splitting as described above. However, many DAWs can automatically split audio that has well-defined transients, including Cubase (the Hitpoints feature), Digital Performer (New Soundbites from Audio Beats), Pro Tools (Beat Detective), and Studio One (Split at Transients). These functions can detect transients, vary the sensitivity of the transient detection, and split at the transients. For creating beats, this ability is wonderful (fig. 2).

Figure 2: Cubase’s Sample Editor can isolate and split transients. A standout feature is that you can audition the event between splits to verify the split placement.

For guitar notes and chords, though, manual splitting is usually faster. With automatic splitting, you may need to remove an unnecessary split or add one if the DAW doesn’t detect it automatically. You also need to make sure that splits occur at the exact beginning of the note attack and are not triggered by noise before the attack. However, for long lead lines with lots of splits, automatic splitting can be more convenient.
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