Recently I performed a couple of major updates on my gear. To cut a long story short, significant changes were made both on the hardware and software side.

Firstly, I was constantly struggling with the suboptimal output sound of the VST instrument I used to simulate drum sounds in Cubase (the DAW I’ve been using since the beginning) with. No matter how hard I was trying, I couldn’t improve the final drum tone beyond a certain point – and despite all the improvements, I found this particular point still somewhat suboptimal and artificial. Then someone (actually a professional musician, whose opinion I value very much) suggested me to switch to Get Good Drums. I, therefore, started to use “One Kit Wonder – Metal” from this company, and the result was immediately (without any further mixing and/or mastering) amazing. Secondly, I changed the original pickups in my LTD EC-256 guitar to Seymour Duncan’s Pegasus and Sentient passive humbuckers, which resulted in a dramatic and immediate improvement in the quality of the rough guitar sound. And thirdly – following years of using pre-programmed guitar presets – I started to experiment with setting up my own virtual guitar rig using the Bias FX2 amp-and-effects processor.

Below you can listen to a short demo sample of the basis of the new – still experimental, raw, unpolished and unmixed – guitar sound. Please let me know in the comments, how do you guys like it!