PD Space Guitar Synthesizer Forum

Well, a distorted bass is "grainy", it has low frequency fluctuations n the spectrum: crossmodulaton causes low frequency components that at their turns spike overtones.. A rough sea with bigger waves, not definable by a signel snapshot. That is also why looping works better before distorting.
The hold function in SG freezes the spectrum at a fixed spot, when the RETRIG is triggering for a GRAB TIME period. There is also a frequency stability requirement builtin, to prevent transients to enter the hold.
I'd have to make the freeze cycle through a number of frames, to make the hold sound natural..
Many freeze pedals use stitching in the timedomain, like you try with retrospective recording. That is an easier way and sounds a bit better than the old EHX freeze, but you'll hear the stitching frequency shine through.
But thanks for the input! holds are technically fascinating, 'll think a bit about it.

Quote from: lwi on Mar 29, 2026, 05:36 PMThanks for the tips, but it doesn't quite achieve the sound I'm looking for.

You have mentioned somewhere that the plugin expects a clean instrument signal, I now see why.  My incoming 'dry' signal that I want to hold is not clean at all... it's a beefy bass with some distortion.  The shaper does strange spectral things with it.

In my setup I split the signal from a bass into 2 signal paths:  one path goes through a pedal board for a typical rock/metal bass tone.  The other goes to Space Guitar for an octave-up distorted tone to emulate a fake guitar à la Royal Blood, this is my main usage for Space Guitar. The hold function for this application works very well.  I wanted to be able to hold both signal paths independently, but I will need another solution for the 'bass' part.

But I don't want a reverb that has a hold function, more like the EHX Freeze pedal.  This is apparently hard to find.

I'm gonna try to do this with Loopy Pro using retrospective recording to a very short loop with crossfades, but I don't expect it to sound like I want it to.

If you were so inclined, Space Guitar's hold function as a stand-alone plugin would be an amazing tool.  I haven't seen any existing plugin that does this.

Cheers and keep up the good work!

Thanks for the tips, but it doesn't quite achieve the sound I'm looking for.

You have mentioned somewhere that the plugin expects a clean instrument signal, I now see why.  My incoming 'dry' signal that I want to hold is not clean at all... it's a beefy bass with some distortion.  The shaper does strange spectral things with it.

In my setup I split the signal from a bass into 2 signal paths:  one path goes through a pedal board for a typical rock/metal bass tone.  The other goes to Space Guitar for an octave-up distorted tone to emulate a fake guitar à la Royal Blood, this is my main usage for Space Guitar. The hold function for this application works very well.  I wanted to be able to hold both signal paths independently, but I will need another solution for the 'bass' part.

But I don't want a reverb that has a hold function, more like the EHX Freeze pedal.  This is apparently hard to find.

I'm gonna try to do this with Loopy Pro using retrospective recording to a very short loop with crossfades, but I don't expect it to sound like I want it to.

If you were so inclined, Space Guitar's hold function as a stand-alone plugin would be an amazing tool.  I haven't seen any existing plugin that does this.

Cheers and keep up the good work!

Hi Iwi,
Tha is correct: only the shaper signal can be hold.
To hold normal guitar pitched guitarsounds,
- you can set the BLEND somehere in the middle to get a balance between dry and hold guitar.
- CHROMATIC should be gray, (OFF)
- Upper row "ATTACK", "DOUBLER", "TRESHOLD" should be set to 0, THRESHOLD all the way to the left.
- Lower row "HX OFF"   TREM/DETUNE/VIB to OFF

You can send both the dry and the shaper guitar through its own AMP, by selecting  appropriate mode in SETUP tab, top row to the left.

Feel free to question everything, I'm here for it!
Best, Paul

Quote from: lwi on Mar 28, 2026, 06:07 PMI want to make a simple preset that holds the dry signal when the CC is triggered.

I set the shaper to blend=0 and turn off every other effect (amp, fx, cabinet, etc..).  When I turn on the HOLD function, no sound is held.  Is this normal?

If I add some synth signal (shaper blend > 0), that part of the signal can be held.

If I set the blend to 100%, I can't seem to dial a dry neutral tone with the shaper, there is some chorus-y phase-ish sound that I can't get rid of (the FX section is off).

I'm currently using the beta iOS version from testflight through AUM.

(Aside from this, what a great app you have made, the octaver alone is much better than a 300$ EHX micro/nano/pico POG)

I want to make a simple preset that holds the dry signal when the CC is triggered.

I set the shaper to blend=0 and turn off every other effect (amp, fx, cabinet, etc..).  When I turn on the HOLD function, no sound is held.  Is this normal?

If I add some synth signal (shaper blend > 0), that part of the signal can be held.

If I set the blend to 100%, I can't seem to dial a dry neutral tone with the shaper, there is some chorus-y phase-ish sound that I can't get rid of (the FX section is off).

I'm currently using the beta iOS version from testflight through AUM.

(Aside from this, what a great app you have made, the octaver alone is much better than a 300$ EHX micro/nano/pico POG)

I'd still love to see some starter presets that are close to some known sounds. I found some great tutorial videos on the Korg Wavestate that works for Native, I wonder how close we could get on PD Space Guitar. Is anyone good enough with the interface to get near these?

Quote from: pipelineaudio on Feb 12, 2026, 10:34 PMOk, this is crazy, last night I spent three hours playing with PD Space Guitar, and finally went to bed after I was frustrated I wasn't quite getting the sounds I wanted.

Today, I went to work and grabbed my Mooer E7 pedal, so I could work back and forth to compare and get the sounds where I wanted hopefully.

When I compared the two, I already liked the sounds I had gotten out of PD Space Guitar last night more than the Mooer pedal. I still have a ways to learn, but surprisingly happy with it now

Thanks for your feedback!
The thing is ofcourse that the direct synthesis algorithms in SG don't deliver normal bread and butter keyboard synth sounds, vice versa the SG sounds can not be done on a normal synth or with midi.
The goal for SG is to create space for imagination, without loosing the direct connection to the guitar itself.

Ok, this is crazy, last night I spent three hours playing with PD Space Guitar, and finally went to bed after I was frustrated I wasn't quite getting the sounds I wanted.

Today, I went to work and grabbed my Mooer E7 pedal, so I could work back and forth to compare and get the sounds where I wanted hopefully.

When I compared the two, I already liked the sounds I had gotten out of PD Space Guitar last night more than the Mooer pedal. I still have a ways to learn, but surprisingly happy with it now

Could we get some presets covering basic synth sounds you would normally see as the bread and butter patches on recordings or at shows? I am beyond stuck. Sort of getting there but can't really make it all
The way.

Supporting NAM and with improved attack handling, this low latency polyphonic guitar synth covers sounds that no other plugin delivers*.
It is the wildest concoction of dsp fx in both time and frequency domain ever!
(*This is ofcourse just the personal opinion of me, the developer, I'm just a 1 person enterprise, and the whole thing is build using my poor brain, no AI or anything)

PD Space Guitar 3 - beta 2.0.94
iOS:
https://testflight.apple.com/join/gHe6ZWUc

windows VST3:
unzip and place the folder "PD Space Guitar.vst3" in
C:/Program Files/Common Files/VST3
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Fobe32wpCfjEPJFW_BtNjTNUbdGWIpwl/view?usp=sharing

macOS VST3 installer:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WoRcJJjHvUvfvY9soo5MKU6Yxgth-LCy/view?usp=sharing

macOS Audio Unit installer:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LDQm0YFCXWwtO1Mj4_8LDf7Myiv6jFiR/view?usp=sharing

HI, I think we allready contacted on FB. To be complete here my response there:
"
Ballpark JUMP sound:
1) SHAPER :use full BLEND
2) set HX to SAW, SENSE to 0
3) dial up the MIN to have a bright enough color
4) in AMP: turn the GAIN up to compress the tone for more straight sustain.
5) in SHAPER: set treshold to avoid stringnoise
"