The TL;DR is: A basic Synth Pluck with a hint of velocity modulation drives an IR VST that adds that guitar-body tone. Then I distort the high end a bit to make the pluck feel more physical. Lastly, I do multi-band compression to tame the lows as most IR samples I tried for the body blew the lows into the stratosphere.

Here is the processing in order:

1. Synth Patch: Saw Pluck (Saw wave w/ a filter set low & a decay envelope modulating the filter positively & velocity modulating total amplitude as well as velocity modulating the envelope’s effect on the filter. Amp envelope is a decently long decay and a low set sustain)

2. IR VST: LSP Impulse response stereo IR Sample: Djembe from https://fokkie.home.xs4all.nl/IR.htm#claustrofobia

3. When you pluck a string I’m pretty sure it distorts if you pluck hard. That’s why I add Density from https://www.airwindows.com/ I ended up using the settings: Density: 1.179 Highpass: 0.703, Out Level: 1.0, and Dry/Wet: 0.2734 This adds the harshness needed to make the pluck feel physical. The sound works without this, and sounds more like a clean electric-jazz guitar tone.

4. Then I put that through another IR Sample: Walkman from https://fokkie.home.xs4all.nl/IR.htm#speakers I use dry/wet at 58% here. I don’t remember why I did this, it may just be for taste. I think it sounds fine without this, but I like it a bit better with it.

5. Multi-band Compression The lows are unmanageable right now. If you tried playing the sound before this step, I’m sorry for your ears. To tame the lows I used just two bands of LSP Multiband Compressor. The cross-over is set at 300Hz. Only band 1 will compress. The ratio is set at 1.53, and that’s all I changed from the default settings.