darhall davies heinrik
Chris Richard
I own guitars, but due to very bad tendinitis, I don't even attempt to play anymore and guitar is very important to my productions. For loop based rhythm guitar instruments, I find NI's Session Guitarist line is the cream of the crop. They have a fairly well designed user interface, and a dead simple workflow. The sound of the included loops are very good. I don't always love the preset amps and effects and will instead use other plugins, like Guitar Rig and Ampliitube, for that. I find, when I'm feeling inspired to record a song and need a basic rhythm guitar strumming pattern, I'll go through my Session Guitarist and Evolution strumming presets and use the one that fits best. I have no patience to create my own strumming patterns when I'm feeling inspired or have a musical idea in my head I want to lay down.
The downside is that after you record a track with Session Guitarist -- or any loop based VST instrument -- you can't customize it, because it's a loop pattern. You can't make the strum on the and of 4 be muted or whatever you like. Either you accept the loop as is or you use another loop with a different pattern.
Session Guitarist's single guitar notes (solo player) are nowhere near the level of realism of the Evolution guitar line (due to the result of detailed sampling and sophisticated scripting combined with physical modeling), so Session Guitarist is relegated purely to the role of rhythm guitar strumming when I'm in a hurry and need something fast and it has a pattern that does the job. Often, I'll replace it with something I can make my own, so I'm largely using it as a sketching tool or placeholder. But it has a place among my tools.
I love Noir to the point where it's my favorite piano library (it's made by Galaxy Instruments). I think some of their other piano libraries are pretty nice. I rarely see anyone praise NI Studio Drummer or the Abbey Road Drummer series, but I think both are good to excellent if you work with them to create your own presets. My go to for acoustic drum kits is Superior Drummer, but I prefer those NI libraries to AD2 and I own all but 4 or 5 kits for AD2. As I mentioned above, I like Session Guitarist line, which is made by e-instruments, for looped strums.
I compeletely agree and I bet every regular user of the library can relate. I largely use keyswitches, automation and editing my midi notes until I get results I want. I suppose it's the result of using a loops-based approach, but I think NI could do a bit better than the present system. I only use Session Guitarist for strums and really wish they wouldn't put licks and riffs in. I use Evolution for any single notes, riffs, and licks, and most of the rhythm guitar parts. I don't to use stock licks or riffs, I have my own ideas. How about you? How does it fit into your workflow?
FTR, I'm so hardcore at using this stuff, I have given input to several different guitar developers of libraries I use. But Orange Tree Samples' Evolution even has a good deal of my input in it. 15 years ago, I went to this young Kontakt developer, who just came out and released a few libraries -- I think two bass libraries (one electric, one acoustic) and one electric guitar library. He had been working doing Cinesmaples libraries before that. I sent him an email with my bio, telling him that I was a former musician, but my work is marketing and business strategy and includes product development work, and that I have some very strong ideas on how to make the ultimate guitar vst. The result was the Evolution line. So that's pretty much, my ideal guitar library/vst and I'm incredibly picky about guitar libraries (drums, piano and electric too, as I was trained on piano, organ, guitar and drums, and have experience playing glockenspiel back in Jr high!). If I had more patience I would create 100 strum presets in Evolution -- I've been begging for more strumming presets! But until I spend the time to make those, I'll be using Session Guitarist. It has the instant gratification factor, but I loathe that I'm using loops that I didn't create and can't edit to change it to exactly what I need. But it does fill a role. When I'm eager to put an idea down, a use one of the basic strum patterns and work on the rest of the song.
Did you watch a video for Evolution that shows you how to use the strumming engine? If you commit a solid 20 minutes to watching the video where Greg shows how the strumming engine works, you'll understand it. It's definitely not as easy to figure out as Session Guitarist, but once you understand it, you'll retain it. Basically, go to the screen, put your left hand on the appropriate keyswitch and your right hand on a chord and it plays a pattern.
I've definitely given Greg (the owner of Orange Tree Samples) my feedback that if Evolution contained more patterns I wouldn't bother with Session Guitarist. But even when I do use Session Guitarist, I use Evolution for single notes, riffs and leads. If you click on my SoundCloud link, all of the songs I share use Evolution for single notes, leads, riffs, and strumming, but some do have a section where I left a Session Guitarist pattern strumming in. Cover songs like "Can't Get It Out of My Head," "I Am the Walrus," and "Video Killed the Radio Star." I'm pretty sure that my cover of Lennon's "Cold Turkey" is just Evolution played live and the strumming was done in real time by using strumming keys. If the strumming pattern is pretty simple, I like using the strumming keys so that I can change up chords, throw in single notes or whatever I like in real time.
Yes, it IS tedious. But if you want a realistic guitar strum, that's the way it is. I do my edits in PRV to get the strums sounding right. it IS possible to get a very realistic guitar strum from OT and AmpleSound, but it helps to be a guitar player so you can know some of the nuances and detail.
Yes. There have been users who've posted in this forum about using Evolution with MIDI guitar. If I didn't have tendinitis that makes playing the guitar painful -- also, if I didn't suck at playing guitar! -- I would absolutely be using a guitar MIDI controller with Evolution guitar and bass libraries. You should reach out to Orange Tree Samples to find out more. It sounds like it might be a much more enjoyable way for you to record your guitar parts.
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PICKED PATTERNS AND MELODIES FOR ANY PRODUCTION
Perform with your pick of two powerful KONTAKT instruments: A pattern-based instrument packed with 194 authentic picking and strumming patterns, and another primed for playing or programming in your own melodies. Each instrument is based on a carefully sampled 1973 Martin 00-21, played by a studio-session veteran and recorded through a mix of boutique and vintage microphones and high-end outboard gear.