How To Use Shreddage Virtual Instruments For Modern Metal

Let's talk about programmed guitars. For years, getting a virtual guitar to sound even remotely convincing was a massive pain. You’d spend hours sequencing a riff only to have it sound like a cheap keyboard from the 90s. But now, with hyper-realistic libraries like Impact Soundworks’ Shreddage series, writing and producing heavy music in the box has never been more powerful.

But here’s the thing: just owning Shreddage 3, Hydra, or an older classic like Shreddage 2 isn’t a magic bullet for a killer guitar tone. It’s an incredibly powerful tool, for sure. But like any tool, from a high-gain amp to a complex EQ plugin, the real magic comes from how you use it.

We're going to break down how to get the most out of Shreddage, treating it as both a writing aid and a final production element, and figure out where it fits in a pro-level workflow.

What Makes Shreddage a Go-To for Metal?

If you’re not familiar, the Shreddage series is a line of virtual guitar and bass instruments for the Kontakt Player. They’ve become a staple in metal and rock production for a few key reasons:

• Deep Sampling: They didn’t just record a few notes. They captured every possible articulation: palm mutes of varying intensity, pinch harmonics, tremolo picking, power chords, scrapes, slides, and more. This depth is what separates a sterile MIDI track from a breathing performance.
• Engine & Interface: The Shreddage 3 engine is built for heavy music. You can customize the picking behavior, an essential feature for realistic chugs, and easily map articulations to keyswitches on your MIDI controller.
• Built-in Effects (TACT): The included Console gives you a full suite of amps, cabs (with IR loading), and pedals. It’s a solid all-in-one solution for getting a good tone right out of the box without needing external plugins.

These features make it an insane asset. But before you even think about final tones, let’s talk about its biggest strength: writing.

Using Shreddage as a Songwriting Powerhouse

Forget about it as a substitute for a real guitar for a moment and think of it as the ultimate writing tool. This is where it truly shines, especially for home studio producers.

• No More Noise Complaints: Need to lay down a riff idea at 2 AM? You don't have to set up mics, crank a 100-watt head, and wake up your neighbors. Just open your DAW, load Shreddage, and start programming.
• Instant Riff Auditioning: Quickly sketch out song structures. Try a riff in Drop C, then instantly switch to Drop A without picking up a single tool to adjust your guitar's setup. This freedom to experiment can lead to more creative ideas.
• Building a Solid Demo: Program tight, consistent guitar tracks that serve as a rock-solid foundation for a drummer or vocalist to track to. A well-programmed guitar demo is infinitely more inspiring to work with than a sloppy phone recording.

Using Shreddage this way removes the technical barriers to getting your ideas down, letting you focus entirely on the composition. Once the song is written, you can either re-track with real guitars or push the virtual instrument to its absolute limit for the final mix.

Making Shreddage Sound Real: Programming & Processing

Alright, you’ve written a killer song with Shreddage. Now, how do you make it sound like an actual guitarist tearing it up in the studio? It comes down to two things: the MIDI performance and the signal chain.

It All Starts With the MIDI

A static, perfectly quantized MIDI performance is the number one reason programmed guitars sound fake. You need to introduce the human element.

• Velocity is Everything: Don't leave all your notes at the same velocity (usually 127). Vary the velocity on your palm mutes to create a sense of groove and dynamics. A real guitarist doesn't hit every chug with the exact same force. Slight variations make a riff breathe.
• Embrace the Articulations: Use those keyswitches! Throw in a pick scrape before a new section, a slide into a big chord, or a pinch harmonic squeal at the end of a phrase. These little details sell the performance and break up the monotony.
• Kill the Robot Grid: Avoid hard-quantizing everything to 100%. Either dial back the quantization strength in your DAW (to around 85-95%) or manually nudge some notes slightly ahead of or behind the beat. This mimics the subtle timing imperfections of a real player locking in with a drummer, which is a key part of any professional editing workflow.

To Amp Sim or Not To Amp Sim?

The built-in TACT amp suite in Shreddage is great for sketching and can even work in a final mix. But you're not locked into it. One of the best ways to get a unique tone is to bypass the internal amp and cab and use your own chain of plugins. This is where your personal taste comes into play.

A killer signal chain might look like this:

1. Shreddage 3: Load your chosen instrument (like Hydra for 8-string chugs) but bypass the Amp and Cabinet modules in the Console. You're just using it for the raw DI signal.
2. Your Go-To Amp Sim: Feed that DI signal into your favorite amp sim. Whether it’s the Archetype: Gojira from Neural DSP, STL Tones ToneHub, or a Bogren Digital amp paired with your favorite impulse responses for metal, use the tools you know and love.
3. Post-Processing: Now you treat it just like a real recorded guitar. This is where the real shaping happens.

Bus Processing: The Secret Sauce

Just like with real guitars, you’ll want to send your double- or quad-tracked Shreddage parts to a guitar bus for processing. This glues them together and makes them sit in the mix. This is also where you can widen your guitars using stereo imagers and other techniques.

EQing Programmed Guitars

The same principles for a real guitar apply here. You’ll want to carve out space and tame harshness.

• High-Pass Filter: Get rid of useless low-end rumble. Set a high-pass filter somewhere between 80Hz and 120Hz, depending on the tuning and how it interacts with the bass guitar, a crucial step for overall mix balance. For even more precise control, multiband compression can be used to control low-end on guitars.
• The Mid-Scoop: The classic move. Make a cut somewhere in the 300-500Hz range to clean up muddiness and make space for the snare and vocals.
• Tame the Fizz: Programmed guitars, especially with high-gain amp sims, can have nasty high-end fizz. Use a narrow bell curve on an EQ like the FabFilter Pro-Q 3 to find and notch out those harsh frequencies, often found between 4kHz and 10kHz.
  For a deep dive into these techniques, check out our guide on EQing modern metal guitars for max impact.

Compressing the Guitar Bus

A little bit of compression on the guitar bus can tighten up the performance and add punch. A VCA-style compressor, like an SSL G-Bus emulation, with a slow attack and fast release can add that professional "glue" without squashing the dynamics.
You can learn more about how the pros use compression in our comprehensive guide to metal compression secrets.

Don’t Get Lost in the Sauce: The Plugin Mindset

It's easy to fall into the trap of "Plugin Acquisition Syndrome." You think buying the next big virtual instrument or amp sim will solve all your tone problems, but this can lead to the problem with modern metal guitar tone: sounding just like everyone else. But the truth is, your skills matter far more than your tools. Shreddage is an amazing instrument, but it won't fix a weak riff or a poor mix.

Some of the best producers in the world, including many of the Nail The Mix instructors, could get a crushing guitar sound with stock plugins and a more basic sampler because they have mastered the fundamentals of arrangement, automation, EQ, and compression.

Don’t worry that everyone is using the same tools. You could give ten producers Shreddage and the same Neural DSP plugin, and you'd get ten completely different-sounding tracks. Your unique taste—the riffs you write, the way you program the MIDI, the subtle EQ choices you make—is what defines your sound, not the software you use.

Take It to the Next Level

Reading about these techniques is one thing. Watching a world-class producer actually apply them in a real session is another.

Imagine seeing exactly how pros like Will Putney, Jens Bogren, or Nolly Getgood program MIDI, dial in amp sims, and use bus processing to make virtual instruments sound massive and indistinguishable from the real thing. Inside Nail The Mix, you get exactly that. Each month, you get the raw multi-tracks from a huge metal album and watch the original producer mix it from scratch, explaining every single decision.

If you’re ready to see how these concepts are applied in a real-world mix, check out our massive catalog of Nail The Mix sessions and see what it takes to turn great tools into a phenomenal record.