Is there a Guitar VST that can do actually decent rhythm guitar?

[donkey tugger]

FWIW, Strum GS-2 sounds a lot better (IMO) when run through Revalver 4's ACT Input Shaper with an acoustic guitar Target Profile. The individual ACT modules aren't very expensive, and they can be demoed prior to purchase.

G

In a similar vein, when I'm using acoustic libraries I always like to add a touch of acoustic guitar impulse responses, usually from one of these;

https://www.3sigmaaudio.com/acoustic-impulses/

Adds a nice bit of resonance

[Hink]

A tad harsh on the AAS strum there - it does take a bit of work and the presets are not great. The acoustics are, shall we say, useful in a background context as you can get some percussive strummed sounds. Not suitable for anything upfront. The electric stuff when paired with the right amps sims (and good use of velocities/articulations/automation can be quite good. I did replace the distorted riddim guitars (and others) in this with real ones eventually, but to me the AAS ones in this don't sound too bad (I can tell, your discerning musician could tell, Johnny man in the street, mebbe not...). The solos are of course real - it would take some programming to make it sound that bad... Everything else programmed with various libraries on laptop whilst away with work.

http://www.bennyleeds7.myfreeola.uk/theman-demo.mp3

[Daimonicon]

Samples have come a long way, great. But with samples/plugins for a guitar, bass or drums there’s one thing you can’t get and that’s the human feeling. It doesn’t matter how well it’s programmed. It will always lack that human feeling and energy that makes a instrument to come alive. Don’t get me wrong I’m all for sampled instruments but they can never replace a real guitarist, bass player, drummer etc. Search for a good guitarist and there are thousands of them. Search for a good drummers there are fewer of them. Search for a good drummer who can, or others who can record drums for them,that can compete with commercial songs, there are very few. The reason so many, including me, use drum plugins. Search for a good bass player who can play both good and tight, good luck. Most bass player sucks bad. So yes we can count us lucky technology have come a long way. If you still decide to use guitar sampled guitar plug-in don’t program notes on the grid very often. Most guitarist hit’s a little before the grid and on some notes a little after. Another problem with guitar sampled instruments is a guitarist never hit the strings with the same force on every note/chord. Something that can’t be fixed with velocity to make realistic.

[sjm]

My personal, horribly uninformed opinion, is that in the long run, it's quicker to learn to play guitar than it is to spend the hours of tedium programming it. At least, it's a lot more fun. All my very personal opinion as a guitar player of course. I have programmed guitar in the past, and I've always hated it. It takes 3 minutes to record a 3 minute song live, and 3 hours to program something that still sounds fake after all that work.

I know that doesn't help the OP. Especially not if you need the guitar sound now, not in 3 years when you can actually play well

[wagtunes]

My personal, horribly uninformed opinion, is that in the long run, it's quicker to learn to play guitar than it is to spend the hours of tedium programming it. At least, it's a lot more fun. All my very personal opinion as a guitar player of course. I have programmed guitar in the past, and I've always hated it. It takes 3 minutes to record a 3 minute song live, and 3 hours to program something that still sounds fake after all that work.

I know that doesn't help the OP. Especially not if you need the guitar sound now, not in 3 years when you can actually play well

Exactly, which is why, for the life of me, I don't understand why people insist on making comments like these. I've been playing guitar on and off for many years and still prefer to just program the darn things because I'll never be good enough to play the licks that I want to get down on the track. So imagine how somebody feels who has never picked up a guitar in his life. How exactly does this help him NOW?

I think we all get, myself included, that real guitar beats fake guitar but ONLY if you can actually play. If not, it's pointless to state the obvious. What the OP is looking for is essentially the "best" of all the "sub par" options.

Learning guitar is simply not an option at all.

At all.

[bill45]

I always had trouble using AAS stuff with anp sims.I always got unwanted release noise.
I edited both AAS and amp sims.GS 2 demo and String studio.

[bill45]

A tad harsh on the AAS strum there - it does take a bit of work and the presets are not great. The acoustics are, shall we say, useful in a background context as you can get some percussive strummed sounds. Not suitable for anything upfront. The electric stuff when paired with the right amps sims (and good use of velocities/articulations/automation can be quite good. I did replace the distorted riddim guitars (and others) in this with real ones eventually, but to me the AAS ones in this don't sound too bad (I can tell, your discerning musician could tell, Johnny man in the street, mebbe not...). The solos are of course real - it would take some programming to make it sound that bad... Everything else programmed with various libraries on laptop whilst away with work.

http://www.bennyleeds7.myfreeola.uk/theman-demo.mp3

This sounds pretty good.Slightly mechanical on the repeated notes though.

[donkey tugger]

A tad harsh on the AAS strum there - it does take a bit of work and the presets are not great. The acoustics are, shall we say, useful in a background context as you can get some percussive strummed sounds. Not suitable for anything upfront. The electric stuff when paired with the right amps sims (and good use of velocities/articulations/automation can be quite good. I did replace the distorted riddim guitars (and others) in this with real ones eventually, but to me the AAS ones in this don't sound too bad (I can tell, your discerning musician could tell, Johnny man in the street, mebbe not...). The solos are of course real - it would take some programming to make it sound that bad... Everything else programmed with various libraries on laptop whilst away with work.

http://www.bennyleeds7.myfreeola.uk/theman-demo.mp3

This sounds pretty good.Slightly mechanical on the repeated notes though.

Cheers, yeah I didn't really spend that long on the programming given a lot of the parts I replaced later. Looking back I did actually keep the AAS parts, but low in the mix underneath the real guitars for thickening. Actually do that a lot, as the more mechanical programmed parts can act as a nice counterpoint to my sometimes, shall we say, 'wayward' playing.

[sjm]

Exactly, which is why, for the life of me, I don't understand why people insist on making comments like these.

Because it's a discussion forum, so we, erm, discuss stuff.

Learning guitar is simply not an option at all.

At all.

I'm sure it is for some people who might be following this thread or stumble across it in future.

[jacqueslacouth]

My personal, horribly uninformed opinion, is that in the long run, it's quicker to learn to play guitar than it is to spend the hours of tedium programming it. At least, it's a lot more fun. All my very personal opinion as a guitar player of course. I have programmed guitar in the past, and I've always hated it. It takes 3 minutes to record a 3 minute song live, and 3 hours to program something that still sounds fake after all that work.

I know that doesn't help the OP. Especially not if you need the guitar sound now, not in 3 years when you can actually play well

Exactly, which is why, for the life of me, I don't understand why people insist on making comments like these. I've been playing guitar on and off for many years and still prefer to just program the darn things because I'll never be good enough to play the licks that I want to get down on the track. So imagine how somebody feels who has never picked up a guitar in his life. How exactly does this help him NOW?

I think we all get, myself included, that real guitar beats fake guitar but ONLY if you can actually play. If not, it's pointless to state the obvious. What the OP is looking for is essentially the "best" of all the "sub par" options.

Learning guitar is simply not an option at all.

At all.

You know what Wags? I totally disagree with you here. I listen to demos I cut with my band over 20 years ago and the guitar playing was, TBH, bordering on horrible. The thing is, it is still obviously real guitars being played with love and passion and a lot of overly ambitious enthusiasm. It is music that lives the spirit of rock 'n' roll, the rebellious nature against the system....and in spite of the technical limitations of the players, it still has a certain musicality that is sadly lacking in the domain of programming for music.

And to put it in a synth context before I offend somebody by talking about guitars again, I would rather watch/ listen to a group of lads (or lasses) banging away on their synth keys and Synsonic drum pad making errors in timing and melody than watching some twat DJ bouncing around behind his laptop fist pumping the air to his meticulously programmed set.... I'm old school like that

[wagtunes]

My personal, horribly uninformed opinion, is that in the long run, it's quicker to learn to play guitar than it is to spend the hours of tedium programming it. At least, it's a lot more fun. All my very personal opinion as a guitar player of course. I have programmed guitar in the past, and I've always hated it. It takes 3 minutes to record a 3 minute song live, and 3 hours to program something that still sounds fake after all that work.

I know that doesn't help the OP. Especially not if you need the guitar sound now, not in 3 years when you can actually play well

Exactly, which is why, for the life of me, I don't understand why people insist on making comments like these. I've been playing guitar on and off for many years and still prefer to just program the darn things because I'll never be good enough to play the licks that I want to get down on the track. So imagine how somebody feels who has never picked up a guitar in his life. How exactly does this help him NOW?

I think we all get, myself included, that real guitar beats fake guitar but ONLY if you can actually play. If not, it's pointless to state the obvious. What the OP is looking for is essentially the "best" of all the "sub par" options.

Learning guitar is simply not an option at all.

At all.

You know what Wags? I totally disagree with you here. I listen to demos I cut with my band over 20 years ago and the guitar playing was, TBH, bordering on horrible. The thing is, it is still obviously real guitars being played with love and passion and a lot of overly ambitious enthusiasm. It is music that lives the spirit of rock 'n' roll, the rebellious nature against the system....and in spite of the technical limitations of the players, it still has a certain musicality that is sadly lacking in the domain of programming for music.

And to put it in a synth context before I offend somebody by talking about guitars again, I would rather watch/ listen to a group of lads (or lasses) banging away on their synth keys and Synsonic drum pad making errors in timing and melody than watching some twat DJ bouncing around behind his laptop fist pumping the air to his meticulously programmed set.... I'm old school like that

I can appreciate that. But having been on the abuse end of the...

"Your playing sucks!"

"Can't you keep a steady beat?"

"Your voice is like nails on a chalkboard"

"Please do us all a favor and do something else besides music"

when listening to my "playing with passion or whatever you want to call it" I finally decided that I would do what I had to do in order to make my songs at least sound presentable.

So yeah, maybe this works for you. But I prefer not to be told to give up music because I can't sing and can't play guitar worth shit.

[tonedef71]

... than watching some twat DJ bouncing around behind his laptop fist pumping the air to his meticulously programmed set....

Thank the Muses for when good ideas/inspiration strikes...

For anyone who is looking (or knows of anyone who is looking) for a hip, provocative new artist name, I just did a quick Google search, and the moniker, "Twat DJs", is still available.

Snatch it now, before someone else takes it.

[braj]

I don't think Strum is amazing, but hen you understand how to use it, it is simple to enter in the strokes you want in the piano roll, nudge these around so it doesn't sound robotic, and get a good facsimile of a simple guitar rhythm part. But it is a stand is, not a replacement if the guitar is subtle. I use it all the time and really appreciate its simplicity vs a couple others I have tried or owned. I just got Reason and was trying out one of the RE guitar Sims there and decided to keep using Strum, I honestly don't want to sift through a load of presets for my Strum patterns, writing it in the piano roll I pretty organic to me, similar to programming a drum machine pattern.

[wagtunes]

Exactly, which is why, for the life of me, I don't understand why people insist on making comments like these.

Because it's a discussion forum, so we, erm, discuss stuff.

Learning guitar is simply not an option at all.

At all.

I'm sure it is for some people who might be following this thread or stumble across it in future.

Except how does this help the OP and his problem?

It's like the one thread I opened up asking for a Sax emulation that could sound like the sax on this one Billy Joel song. While some tried recommending some options as far as VSTs (One was actually excellent but you had to buy a whole package that I didn't want) some people of course had to say...

1) Learn sax

2) Hire a sax player

How does this help me if (1) you know it's years to learn sax and (2) I have no money to hire session musicians each time I want to do a song.

I end up getting frustrated and infuriated. Imagine if EVERYBODY here told the OP to learn guitar. How do you think he'd feel? I know I'd be throwing my PC out a window I'd be so frustrated.

I thought the main purpose here is to help each other as much as possible when they have a problem. The OP needs a VST solution. He doesn't have time to learn guitar and probably doesn't have the funds to hire a musician.

So for once can we just focus on helping the OP?

[jacqueslacouth]

I can appreciate that. But having been on the abuse end of the...

"Your playing sucks!"

"Can't you keep a steady beat?"

"Your voice is like nails on a chalkboard"

"Please do us all a favor and do something else besides music"

But I prefer not to be told to give up music because I can't sing and can't play guitar worth shit.

Yep, had all of that, beer glasses thrown at me (thankfully my reflexes were sharper then), coins thrown (and it was not in appreciation of our playing)... I liked hecklers, at least you felt they were listening, but I always kept the Sex Pistols in America in the back of my mind....The Swindle continues