Mac DeMarco Guitar Tone Settings

The Mac DeMarco guitar sound is one of the most searched-for tones in indie and bedroom pop, and most of the searches are looking for a box: which chorus pedal, which amp, which guitar. The honest answer is that the gear is the least important part. The tone comes from a clean warm amp, a chorus deep enough to sound a little out of tune, a short spring reverb, and the highs rolled off so it all sounds soft and slightly aged. Get those, and you have it on almost any rig.

Here is the settings-first version, then the reasoning behind each move so you can dial it in by ear.

That gets you in the neighborhood. Now the why, because the records vary and the best results come from hearing what each control is doing.

The chorus is the whole sound

If you take one thing from this page, it is that the chorus carries the Mac DeMarco tone. It is not a subtle sweetener sitting in the background. It is deep, and it is set up so the guitar reads as gently out of tune. That warble is the fingerprint. Where a lot of players reach for a wide, glassy stereo chorus, this sound wants a warmer, more analog character with the depth pushed harder than feels comfortable at first.

The trick that ties it together is tuning. He often sits a hair flat, so between the slightly loose tuning and a deep chorus, the note has a seasick wobble that sounds detuned in the most pleasant way. You can lean into this by tuning down a few cents, or just let a deep enough chorus do the work. Either way, resist the urge to make it clean and steady. The imperfection is the point.

A clean, warm amp underneath

Under the chorus sits a clean, warm, Fender-leaning amp, kept mostly clean with maybe a hint of natural breakup on harder strums. The important move here is the treble. This is not a bright, chimey clean. Back the treble off to around 4 out of 10 and keep the presence low, so the tone is round and a little dark before the chorus even hits it. A darker amp gives the chorus something soft to move, which is a lot of why the whole thing sounds warm instead of glassy.

Short spring reverb, not a wash

The reverb is spring, and it is short. It puts the guitar in a small room rather than a cathedral. Keep the mix low, around 20 percent, so you feel the bounce without losing the dry note. A long hall reverb pushes the tone into dream pop and shoegaze territory, which is a different sound. Here you want the reverb to add a little air and vintage bounce and then get out of the way.

Roll off the top and let it age

The final touch is softness. These records have a rounded, slightly lo-fi quality, like the highs have been gently worn down. A small amount of tape or lo-fi coloring rolls off the fizz and adds a hair of warmth and instability that plays nicely with the chorus wobble. Do not overdo it. You are aiming for a tone that feels a little older and softer than a modern clean, not an obviously broken cassette.

Doing it with plugins

You do not need a specific pedalboard for any of this. The whole chain, clean warm amp, deep chorus, spring reverb, and lo-fi softening, lives inside a single instance of Roomtone Amp Sim. Pick a clean amp voicing, back off the treble, bring up the chorus with the depth pushed and a moderate mix, add a short spring reverb, and dab in a little lo-fi. It is built for exactly this kind of indie clean tone, so you dial the sound in one plugin instead of chaining four.

If you want to start from something already close, Roomtone ships hundreds of factory presets, and the ones in the Bedroom Pop, Jangle Pop, and Dream Pop categories live in this world. They are starting points in the style rather than exact clones of specific songs, which is usually what you want anyway, since the goal is your part in your mix, not a carbon copy. Load one, then use the settings above to nudge it toward the exact record you have in your head.

Frequently asked questions

What are the Mac DeMarco Salad Days guitar settings?

A warm clean amp with the highs rolled back, a heavy slightly-detuned chorus, and a touch of short spring reverb. Start with a clean voicing at low drive and treble around 4 out of 10, then add a chorus at a medium rate with the depth pushed to about two thirds and the mix near 50 percent. Keep the reverb short and quiet, and play on the neck pickup with the tone knob rolled back.

What chorus does Mac DeMarco use?

The signature is a warbly, slightly out-of-tune chorus rather than a specific rare pedal. The sound comes from a fairly deep chorus combined with the guitar sitting a hair flat, so the modulation reads as pitch wobble. Any warm analog-style chorus with enough depth gets you there. The wobble matters more than the exact box.

Why does Mac DeMarco's guitar sound out of tune?

It is intentional. He often tunes slightly flat and leans on a deep chorus, so the guitar has a loose, seasick wobble that sounds detuned in a pleasant way. It is the same instinct behind cassette wow and flutter. A perfectly tuned, perfectly steady note would lose the charm.

What amp does Mac DeMarco use?

A clean, warm, Fender-leaning amp sound, kept mostly clean with just a hint of natural breakup. The recognizable part of the tone is not the amp model, it is the clean warmth plus the chorus and the rolled-off top end. That is why it reproduces well with a clean amp plugin and a good chorus.

How do I get the Mac DeMarco guitar tone with plugins?

Run a clean guitar into a warm clean amp with the treble backed off, add a deep analog-style chorus for the wobble, then a short spring reverb, and roll off some high end for the lo-fi softness. In our setup that is a single instance of Roomtone Amp Sim, using its clean amp voicing, chorus, and spring reverb together.

Does the Mac DeMarco tone need a specific guitar?

No. Single coils on the neck pickup help, and offset guitars are common in that world, but the tone lives in the processing. A clean amp, a deep chorus, a slightly flat tuning, and a soft top end will get you the sound on almost any guitar.

Chasing a similar but more modern version of this sound? Our modern indie guitar tone guide covers the pitched-down, cassette-treated side of things, and the jangly chorus tone guide digs deeper into dialing chorus for clean indie parts. If you just want to browse tones, the full Roomtone preset library is searchable by style.