Hey guys, in this video we’re going to look at the Overloud TH3 Guitar Amp Simulatpr plugin
that is included with Cakewalk by BandLab.
We’ll cover how to use it, and some examples of the sounds we can get out of this plugin.
This tutorial will be very focused on how to use this guitar amp plugin, so if you’re
not familiar with Cakewalk, we recommend also checking out our tutorial series on that as
well.
Let’s start by opening a new project.
The first thing we need to do is enable the Overloud plugin, since it doesn’t always
enable by default in Cakewalk.
Go to the utilities menu at the top and select Cakewalk Plug-In Manager.
Switch the Plug-in category to VST3 Audio Effects.
At the bottom, check the box that says Show Excluded.
Select TH3 and press Enable Plug-in.
If you don’t see TH3 here, it’s probably already enabled and we can skip this step.
Next we need to add an audio track that will process the guitar amp simulation.
Right click on the blank track area and select Insert Audio Track.
Drag the bottom to expand it.
Set the input to the input your guitar is on, and in my case input 1.
Arm the track for recording and press the input monitoring button to hear the guitar
track.
All we need to do now for setup is add the plugin to the track.
Press the plus button for the FX section and add TH3 under Audio Effects and Guitar.
With the setup done, we can get into how to use the plugin itself.
The left side has banks of presets and we can select a bank at the top, then select
a preset to use as our sound.
Let’s select a preset and start with how to use the plugin.
If we click the presets button at the top left of the middle section, we can hide and
show the presets.
The middle of the top is for the zoom of the signal chain, and the right is for the components,
which allows us to add individual parts of the signal chain.
To add a new component to the signal chain, drag and drop it into the part of the signal
chain where you want it.
To remove a section, right click on it and remove it, or replace it with something else.
If we zoom in on our signal chain, we can easily adjust the individual controls.
It’s designed to be very intuitive.
You can turn parts on and off by clicking on the power button for amps, or clicking
to press down on the pedal.
From there, all the knobs are click and drag to change their settings.
For the microphones, we can double click on them to change the microphone and click and
drag them around to change the microphone position.
The bottom left gives us a way to split our audio signal, which we can use to do things
like apply different effects like delays to the left and right panned sections, and then
we can control how they’re mixed back together after.
The bottom right is a tool to allow us to navigate through the signal chain really quickly.
On the top left, we first have our level meter.
If we click that, it has a guide to help us to adjust the level on the audio interface
to get the guitar where it needs to be.
Next are a few of the master controls for stereo, sensitivity, gating, EQ, reverb, and
delay.
Live mode just makes it quicker to make changes without prompts.
The middle has a tuner that we can activate by clicking on the tuner button, and we can
also mute the guitar here.
The BPM can be adjusted by double clicking, tap tempo, or locking it to the host.
Last, we have the volume output for the plugin, since we want a good level, but don’t want
it to be clipping.
There is a looping tool, but this can be difficult to use when you’re working alone, so I prefer
to use something with a foot controller, or just build a loop in Cakewalk.
The top menu gives us a few settings for activating the demo version of Overloud TH3, which is
what comes with Cakewalk.
We also get MIDI controls for our effects and pedals, automation, the manual, and some
info about the plugin.
Let’s now go over what we get included in this plugin.
The Overloud TH3 plugin that’s found in Cakewalk is actually a demo version.
It is functional, but there are limited amps and effects compared to the full version.
We get access to 15 amplifier heads, 12 cabinets, and 15 effects pedals or rack units, all of
which have adjustable controls.
We also have 3 microphones that can be used with the cabinet.
Thanks for checking out this video on using the Overloud TH3 guitar amp simulation plugin
in Cakewalk by BandLab.
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