Yes...and don't forget to read the online manual :

AGM acoustic: http://www.amplesound.net/en/tutorial.asp

AGG electric : http://www.amplesound.net/en/tutorial-e.asp

Take a look at the Strummer interface of both:

I was checking the manuals out and noticed that and thanks for confirming.

Y'all are crazy. The strumming (and everything else) sounds amazing. I want!

I agree. If I played one of the demo songs for any of my friends and family (without showing them the video of course), none of them would have any idea that it wasn't real guitar.

The point isn't what your friends and family think of it... they could probably care less whether there's even a guitar there or not -- that's not the focus of their listening. instead, the VSTi/sample/whatever has to convince (or "fool") other musicians. If not, then why all the over the top machinery to try to make realistic sounding guitars, saxes, basses, etc. in the first place? We could just be using naff ca. 1995 proteus patches for everything.

When musicians listen to music they often zone in on bizarre minutiae like: the pop of the snare, the tone of the lead guitar, the grittiness of the Rick bass line, etc. etc. Trust me, your friends and family don't care about the freaking "tone of the lead guitar" unless they are also musicians.

Reall world case in point: I saw a pretty good cover band in a bar recently and the drummer had this reaallllly nice sounding snare that just gave off a world class snare sound... it sounded so good that during their first break I was compelled to go up to the drummer and tell him how freaking awesome his snare drum sounded. Oh, and his drumming was off the hook too, yada yada , but I couldn't get over that snare drum.

If I heard a tune with the strumming that is in the "Return" demo, the musician in me immediately says: something not right about that rhythm guitar, sounds like a VSTi. It just doesn't sound natural to me, just like most horn players can pick out synthy/fake/sampled sax and brass, etc. If it's executed properly with the VSTi, then your brain doesn't pick up on it. But you could say the exact same thing about being able to hear autotune -- if done properly, a vocal chorus shouldn't sound like a freaking synth pad, unless you're really trying to use autotune for effect. Fake sounds, it's all the same topic.

That is not to say that such a demo song is bad. Just that the sound of the strumming could be much improved with a better sample, a real guitar, etc. ... or just plain better execution with the existing tool (as in this case, IMO). I could also say the same thing about a muddy/non-impactful/fake-sounding sampled bass... or drums... or the real flaccid tone of a real lead guitar, for that matter.

Just my O, of course.

This sounds amazing, I just listen to the demos again.
I'm downloading the AmpleGuitar G demo right now so I can get familiar with the interface.

The strumming is really great in those demos.

That surely is a very subjective view. It really depends on for whom (if not only for yourself) you are producing your music. If you are producing music not for "normal" people, but for other musicians, that's of course legitimate, but it's quite likely that you are an exception.

Personally, as a user, I am mainly interested in whether an instrument sounds "good", not necessarily natural. And anyway, if you're trying to make a virtual instrument really sound "the same" as a "real" instrument, playing or programming it will probably get so complicated that it is not much less of an effort than learning to play the real instrument as such.

Well, from the point of view of "good" sound: I thing this library does sound very good (judghing from the demos). And it sounds natural enough to "fool" (if you think that this is "fooling") the broad majority of listeners. Which is probably something that the majority of potential users will be content with.

The fact of the matter is that everyone in this thread knew that they'd be listening to samples before they ever hit the play button. Say what you want, but your brain knows this ahead of time and is therefore automatically going to search for shortcomings in the sound. The true test would be if you just happen to hear these tracks mixed in with other songs you're just casually listening to, without any pre-conceived notions (i.e. I'm about to push play on this soundfile/Youtube video and listen to a song created by a sample library and judge how realistic it sounds). In that real-world case, are you suddenly going to stop and go, "wait a minute, something is really strange about the way that guitar sounds?!?" Some of us likely might, but would most of us pick up on it if we weren't being forewarned ahead that we need to concentrate on the strumming of the acoustic guitar in this next song to see if it sounds realistic?

is there an audio example available of hard/loud/compressed strumming. the reason is, i'd like to hear how "sloppy" it could sound if need be.

OK, listen to the following demo and tell me what you think of it... what's the first, second, third, etc. thought that just pops into your head while listening...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6CDK6uJOg8


This is an extreme example, but if I can get honest thoughts on it I think it'll prove a point...

". what's the first, second, third, etc. thought that just pops into your head while listening..."

midi

Great song, just like the Ample Guitar M demos, great songs.

no, not really. i set those demos on autoplay and went on with my other business. i always do that with sample libraries - turn on the demo, and turn my mind to something else, and see if something sticks out as odd even if i'm not listening closely enough. strumming did.

Jason,
This is how good your Ample Guitar M is right on.
The subject was 2 other guitar sample libraries (which I have both and a couple of more) then yours was mentioned.
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/814689-vir2-a coustic-legends-ilya-efimov-acoustic-complete.html

You had one and only one thought while listening? I don't doubt that you thought the song was ... er... "great"... but I have a hard time believing that's the only positive, negative, or indifferent thought you had.

FWIW, I don't mind the song... it's a bit of a late 80's Beverly Hills 90210, call-up-the-LA-studio-musicians-we-have-a-TV-theme-song-to-r ecord type of song... but overall it's a good, if not very ambitious, product demo. Actually, pretty well executed! I quite like the "lead guitar" stuff at the end, and the change at 4:09... ... but those are by far not my only thoughts during and after listening. And I simply don't believe the only thing that occurred to you over 4 minutes and 35 seconds was "this is a great song, period, next demo please!".