Evolution Acoustic Guitar "Steel Strings" (Introductory discount EXTENDED)

[Gregjazz]

Okay, so I quickly entered in those chords and the strumming pattern. I varied the velocities on the strums to make it more realistic, but other than that it was pretty simple. Here's the MP3:

http://www.box.net/shared/pgapdk3ed4

And if you want to see the MIDI file and exact NKI patch I used (it was based on the "Basic Strumming" preset), here are those as well:

MIDI file: http://www.box.net/shared/m4pguotsrn
NKI patch: http://www.box.net/shared/kh47tl12r1

[scadh]

Hi Steve,

Another factor to consider when comparing the pros/cons of investing in a sample library versus buying a real acoustic guitar, is how convenient it is to record. Of course, you can always get an acoustic guitar with piezo pickups so you can plug it into your audio interface via a 1/4" cable, but it's difficult to make an acoustic guitar pickup sound like an actual mic'd acoustic guitar.

Considering myself, even though I own many guitars, it's a lot more convenient to just load up the Evolution guitar sample library than it is to set up mics, test their levels, tune the guitar, etc. The time all that takes isn't very favorable in the moment that inspiration strikes and you need to lay down an acoustic guitar track.

However, if you're looking for something you can play beyond adding a realistic acoustic guitar track to your music, you would be better off buying an acoustic guitar and honing your guitar skills. It's not like you can bring Evolution Acoustic Guitar over to a buddy's house to jam, so in that regard your limited to the studio. It all depends on what you need out of the guitar.

I'll see what I can do with the tablature you attached. It looks like it uses some specific chord voicings, which can be entered into the chord definitions in Evolution Acoustic Guitar's strumming engine. Other than that, it should be pretty straight-forward to sequence.

Kind regards,

Greg

Wow, thank you so much for the unbelievably fast turnaround! That says much not only about you but also about EAG's ability to sound good out of the box without the need for time-consuming tweaking.

Excellent point about tuning, setting mic levels, etc. The only mic I own suitable for recording guitar is an NT1-A, and I don't have a booth at all. If I get a guitar, I was thinking about something like the Takamine E540 so I could avoid some of the noise and hassle of using a condenser mic.

Thanks for taking to respond to my post and for creating/posting the mp3, midi and kontakt files! I'm importing the mp3 into my Pro Tools project as we speak, and will let you know how it comes out!

Steve

[scadh]

Greg,

I imported the .mp3 into my Pro Tools project and bounced a quick .wav file of the results, in case you're interested in hearing how it came out. I applied a bit of EQ, compression and reverb and increased the stereo width. It's not going to fool any golden-ears engineers, but I'm pretty happy with it.

The mix isn't ideal because I pulled the vocals out to emphasize the acoustic guitar for this mixdown, and the vocals are far and away the most important element of this song. With all three vocal parts added back in, the guitar sounds pretty natural.

The drums and bass are also virtual instruments, so if anyone has any feedback on how those sound and/or could be improved, I'd LOVE to hear them. That's me on lead guitar playing a Danelectro 59-DC through the Guitar Rig 3 Vox AC30 emulation -- literally playing one measure at a time and comping them together! If you need proof of why I need a virtual instrument guitar, there it is...

Comments, criticisms, ridicule and everything else more than welcome!

instrumental_mix.wav
http://www.mediafire.com/?b7148v80wqtg6

Regards,

Steve

[Gregjazz]

Terrific--it sits in the mix nicely, alongside the electric guitar, bass, and drums. I love what you did with the stereo width! That's one thing I wanted to make sure when I was micing the acoustic guitar, that you would be able to widen OR narrow the stereo field without running into frequency cancellations.

Here's a cool trick that I've been using for the past few months when I need some additional warmth/body to an instrument, or even the entire track. Send your tracks (or even just the master) to a bus with a tape sim plugin in it. Set the bus to mono, and try putting a reverb before the tape sim in the effect chain. Mixed in quietly, it really adds a lot, especially to drums/bass/guitar. Most of the time I'll just use Sonar's built-in tape sim, though recently I picked up the ToneBoosters plugin bundle, which comes with the excellent Ferox tape simulator plugin.

[scadh]

Here's a cool trick ...

That is a cool trick, and I often do something similar for drums. In this mix, I only did so for the drum overheads. I use McDSP Analog Channel LE as my tape sim plug-in. However, I haven't tried the "reverb before the tape" method before, and will definitely give it a try this evening on both the acoustic guitar and drum overheads. If it's better, I'll update the .wav I posted to mediafire.

Thank you again so much for your personal attention and the time you've taken to sell me on your product. You've earned my business, and I think I'm going to go ahead and buy EAG once I've saved up a few bucks! And who am I kidding, I'll probably ending up buying a real acoustic, as well. GAS.

Steve

[scadh]

I applied the reverb/tape sim bus trick as you described it to the EAG track and agree that it does add some body/warmth. Further, I changed to a tube compressor and a better/larger reverb space, both of which helped, too.

To better showcase the EAG samples you created for me in a complete mix, I have posted a new full mix including vocals to mediafire:

http://www.mediafire.com/?h557blh0s0qbuvd

Additionally, I have updated the instrumental mix on mediafire to include the above-referenced changes:

http://www.mediafire.com/?ttdi8h79rebp9ch

Comments, criticisms or suggestions for additional improvements always welcome.

[Gregjazz]

As discussed in this thread, we've decided to extend the introductory sale for another month! Don't miss out on the $40 OFF discount on this exciting new library!

[Gregjazz]

I applied the reverb/tape sim bus trick as you described it to the EAG track and agree that it does add some body/warmth. Further, I changed to a tube compressor and a better/larger reverb space, both of which helped, too.

To better showcase the EAG samples you created for me in a complete mix, I have posted a new full mix including vocals to mediafire:

http://www.mediafire.com/?h557blh0s0qbuvd

Additionally, I have updated the instrumental mix on mediafire to include the above-referenced changes:

http://www.mediafire.com/?ttdi8h79rebp9ch

Comments, criticisms or suggestions for additional improvements always welcome.

Oops, I totally forgot to comment on this. It's sounding better and better! Really solid vocals, too! I know you probably already have this in mind, but I'd back off the volume on the backup voices a little bit so they blend in better with the other instruments, and support the prominent lead vocals. Though it's a bit of a stylistic suggestion on my part--bands like the Beatles and Queen tend to have really upfront lead vocal harmonies. Though usually they'll use a tight reverb to help unify the voices. If you put the reverb in mono (or set its stereo width to 0) that helps, too.

By the way, something that I forgot to mention when it comes to the tape sim bus trick, is to experiment with EQ as well. A tape sim will tend to accentuate the bass frequencies, but if you put a hard cutoff even up to around 100hz, you can get a really cool vintage tone--especially on drums. I'll have to post some audio examples. I recently picked up the excellent ToneBoosters plugin bundle, which has some really handy effects for stuff like this.

[PerunZG]

As discussed in this thread, we've decided to extend the introductory sale for another month! Don't miss out on the $40 OFF discount on this exciting new library!

Thanks, Greg. I couldn't afford it before, but hopefully will be able to within the month.

[Gregjazz]

Here's that tape sim bus trick on drums. Gives it a nice vintage vibe.

http://www.box.net/shared/iplm67so1p

[furrytoes]

It's Evolution Electric Guitar Strawberry--I played it in live. The MIDI data for this is included as well.

That's excellent that you've included the midi data.
Actually, I always want midi data from product demos but I've never seen anyone else make it available.

So I want you to know, this gives me much more confidence to buy the product knowing that I can achieve the sounds that impressed me in the demo. And that I have a working example of how to use it correctly.

I have a feeling that I will eventually buy most of your guitar libraries, I just need to pace myself with purchases so I can sweep them under the carpet without the "financial controller" finding out ... you're not making it easy.

[cunparis]

Steve - did you buy it? If so how do you like it?

I'm making the same decision - real guitar or a library. And which library. Not an easy decision.

[scadh]

Steve - did you buy it? If so how do you like it?

I'm making the same decision - real guitar or a library. And which library. Not an easy decision.

Sorry for the slow response, didn't notice a reply to my post!

I have not bought EAG, as yet. I wish I could afford to, but can't at the moment. I did go ahead and purchase a real acoustic guitar, which I absolutely love but still can't play for sh*t!

I bought a usedG uild GAD-50, natural finish, for $325:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/ ... ght-guitar

By the way, here's the final mix of Nowhere Man including EAG, in case you or anyone is interested:

http://soundcloud.com/steve-ainsworth/nowhere-man-v2

Won't be hearing my version on the radio anytime soon, but given my extremely-amateur status, I'm pretty happy with it! [/url]

[cunparis]

By the way, here's the final mix of Nowhere Man including EAG, in case you or anyone is interested:

http://soundcloud.com/steve-ainsworth/nowhere-man-v2

Won't be hearing my version on the radio anytime soon, but given my extremely-amateur status, I'm pretty happy with it! [/url]

I think it sounds great.

I'm curious how you did the acoustic guitar part. Did you play it on a keyboard or did you program it on the midi roll in a sequencer? Or maybe a combination of both? I'd love to hear more about this. I just want to do simple strumming and picking as an accompaniment but knowing nothing about guitar, I'm completely lost.

[scadh]

I think it sounds great.

I'm curious how you did the acoustic guitar part. Did you play it on a keyboard or did you program it on the midi roll in a sequencer? Or maybe a combination of both? I'd love to hear more about this. I just want to do simple strumming and picking as an accompaniment but knowing nothing about guitar, I'm completely lost.

Actually, I didn't do anything to the acoustic guitar other than mix it. Greg set up the chord voicings and strum patterns for me, then provided me with the finished audio files! Refer to the beginning of the thread for more details on how he did it. Honestly, I think it sounds better than my crappy playing on my real guitar. There's a cover of Margaritaville available from the same page that is linked to above for Nowhere Man. That's me playing the Guild on it. I'm happy with the arrangement of Margaritaville, but the guitar sounds thin, sloppy and perhaps even slightly out of tune! I don't regret buying it though, I love to play it -- I'm just not very good still.