Philadelphia-born indie rock hero Alex G has cemented his place as a Gen Z guitar icon thanks to the offbeat sounds and musical shape-shifting that defines his hazy singer-songwriter style – and some of his favorite tones that help shape that sound come straight from a stock Logic preset.
It can be easy to have one’s head turned by a shiny new reverb pedal, or a feature-laden delay pedal, in the quest to find new sounds, but Alex G knows firsthand that stock DAW presets can provide plenty of magic.
He’s never been afraid to mix up genres, exploring everything from nu metal to experimental Hip Hop and tapping into influences as diverse Death Grips, Bob Dylan and Aphex Twins.
Speaking to MusicRadar about his 10th studio album, Headlights, Alex G says he searched far and wide for his tone picks, but found that the best ones were right in front of him.
“There’s a plugin that I put on a ton of the electric guitars that kicked ass,” he beams. “It’s the Logic Amp Designer, and it’s one of the presets, Original Nashville. It’s on the tracks Headlights and Beam Me Up – that cool, baritone-sounding guitar thing that’s going on. We couldn’t beat it for that deep electric guitar.”
In fact, he’s always eager to get into the weeds of what Logic can inject into his music, and he’s been happy with the results.
“Usually, where I’m experimenting is with plugins on Logic, or finding weird preset keyboard sounds,” he develops. “That’s something I’ve always loved: they’re all over all of my records.
“That’s why I think of myself as a producer. I’m working it out in the software. I couldn’t go into a studio with ten songs, like: ‘Okay, I wrote enough songs for the record, now I can go record it.’ It’s like, ‘let me just record and see what happens.’”
Likewise, YouTuber and producer Nick Broomhall told Guitar World last year that stock tools often have all you need and should be explored to the fullest before giving in to GAS temptations. Polyphia guitarists Tim Henson and Scott LePage have also said that exploring presets can be a great way to ease into the digital modeler world.
Alex G and the influence he has had on the emerging generation of guitarists was recently given a shout-out by alt-rock outfit Momma, whose Allegra Weingarten said, "Alex G changed acoustic guitar for our generation in such a massive way. Not enough people admit that."
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
