Electri6ity

[Kosh42EFG]

Here is a new song by Javi Perera featuring the Electri6ity LP with F-Tuning (Drop-F!!!).

Listening to that, my desire to buy Shredage has evaporated... I just need to tweak my Electri6ity more to get that "metal" sound happening for me...

Very nice track, even if I have no knowledge of the meaning of the words... I wonder what else is MIDI rather that real (strings? choir?)...

Thanks for sharing...

[Dreambliss]

It's been a while since I visited here so I figured I would drop a line and say that Electri6ity rocks. Thanks again Ben for making my life complete, lol.

Here's the final version of my song "Starless Night":

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11540065/Dreamb ... 0Night.mp3

I finished it about four months ago. I finally got the guitar tone how I wanted it... nice and crunchy. Took me a while to learn Electri6ity, and I still have lots more to learn, but I've got the hang of it for the most part. I got side tracked by other (non-music) projects but trying to get back into music again. I rotate my hobbies more than I change my underwear it seems... lol

[zombiekiller]

Hey everyone.

I just purchased Electri6ity and I am having a hell of a time getting it to work. I have read the manual multiple times, and watched all the tutorial videos, but things are just not behaving at all like they should. I think there is something drastically wrong with the keyswitch settings on my installation. In the attached screenshot, I have just clicked the Reset to 88 Key standard layout. It shows that B#0 is assigned to the LEGATO mode, but down on the keyboard at the bottom, B#0 is not shaded, and pressing B#0 on my midi controller or playing the note from the piano roll has no effect. The same goes for all the other keys that say they are assigned, but are not shaded on the keyboard.

If I try to change the key that any of the keyswitches use, the newly assigned key has no effect, and doesn't show on the performance page when pressed. Also lots of the other standard keyswitches don't work. None of the 6 Pick String keys do anything, and holding the FX key allows only 4 of the playing keys to make a sound, while no other playing keys produce any sounds whatsoever.

Has anyone else experienced this behavior with Electri6ity, or have any idea what's going on here?

I'm running Logic Pro 9.1.3 on Mac OS X 10.6.6.

[Kurari]

-zombiekiller

I had a lot of the same problems you did. I was constantly having to reset kontakt. In the end I only tend to use Electri6ity's articulation keyswitches only if the midi pitch tricks don't work.

As for the defined single string hits I don't really see the point in them. originally I thought it would let me define what string the note was played on but it doesn't seem to work like that and it just hits the string openly.

In all honesty I would suggest writing your stuff in Guitar Pro or importing it into Guitar Pro and then do the articulations and have it save out the midi. A lot of artciulations are pitch based so the midi can control Electri6ity. Then just mess with the few things midi can't emulate. But I just realized you're on a Mac which I don't think you can get guitar pro for. But I only say use guitar pro because it has built in technuiqes and can do the midi for them far easier than you can manually.

Either way this program takes a lot of time for everyone and there are things that could be improved upon. It took me about 9 hours straight to get my palm mutes alone to a "metal standard" that was considered realistic for metal playing.

Heres a Protest the Hero Cover I did the other week to see how quickly I could turn a full song digital.

Protest the Hero - She Who Mars the Skin of Gods
http://www.n9n3t33n.com/mp3/mars.mp3

Drums: SD 2.3
Bass: SR 5
Guitar: Electrici6ity LP Custom
[Guitar Rig 4 & Ampeg SRT amp sims used]

[Kurari]

-Kosh42EFG

Shreddage is limited. I'd say the only thing Shreddage outdoes Electri6ity in is their metal palm muting which is pretty spot on out of the box. With Electri6ity it takes a lot of futsin around to get the same type sounds. But even with Shreddage being a "metal" guitar library You'll find with the low tuning they axed the higher notes which means solo's get cut off and you end up pulling tricks just to get that range. Other things the split keyboard in shreddage is annoying and requires additionally editing your midi's. Other than that Shreddage is 16 bit as far as I can tell. So the sound quality just doesn't even come close.

I was using shreddage as a writing guitar due to its low memory usage but in the end the quality just cant cut it. So if you looking for something to mess around with and write with then shreddage is fine, but if you want industry standard sounding guitar that can not only match any guitar but can play it "better" than a real person than Electri6ity is your golden ticket.

With that being said I understand Shreddage has an "expansion" pack out now but still realize they may have added more but the quality is still the same.

I'm hoping Vir2 comes out with an expansion for metal. Something featuring some active EMG 81's, drop tune scripting, and metal palm mutes out of the box without having to dedicate a multi just for proper metal palm mutes. But those are just a few of my wishlist items for Vir2. ATM I'd just be happy with better scripting for octive slides or slides of any nature more than 1 string.

[Kosh42EFG]

As for the defined single string hits I don't really see the point in them. originally I thought it would let me define what string the note was played on but it doesn't seem to work like that and it just hits the string openly.

Now I actually use these key switches a lot... Usually I have Electi6ity set to mute mode (possible called silent mode?), so when I play a chord it doesn't sound, and then use the six single string keys to do a finger picking pattern. Think REM - Everybody Hurts.

If I want to control which string a note plays on, I just have a MIDI automation lane open to the CC that controls the string selection (helpful if you want the tonality of a certain string as a real player would play it - CC#32 according to the online manual). My latest use was a D-minor pentatonic based solo I wanted played up and down the same frets rather than up and down the neck as it did in default. A bit of a faff, but worth it in my mind.

And cheers for the info on Shreddage, definitely off my shopping list now...

Kosh

[progtronic]

-Kosh42EFG

Shreddage is limited. I'd say the only thing Shreddage outdoes Electri6ity in is their metal palm muting which is pretty spot on out of the box.

I went ahead and purchased the Shreddage X update.. hoping it would at least add new samples down to the A flat, as advertised. Ends up they are just stretched down from the original B samples. So, I figured, whatever.. and repositioned everything to my liking, and stretched the lowest notes all the way down to the low C.

While I was tweaking things under the hood in the new X patches, I noticed stuff like sample regions not being properly positioned. A few samples just spilling over into nothingness.. and went ahead and fixed that stuff as well, while I was at it.

Like I said before.. the whole Shreddage (and now the expansion) package seems really thrown together in a hurry, without much care taken to clean up and organize the patch designs.

Was also looking forward to the new legato feature.. which (unlike Electri6ity) forces you to put the whole single note region into a mono mode. Sucks, because I like to be able to trigger 7ths in the midsts of rapid note sequences.

Pinch squeals and the new vibrato samples are sampled with the actual vibrato performance, as opposed to a scripted (time synced) pitch bend.. so if you want to use them out of a certain range of BPM's.. you're S.O.L. I like to input vibrato with a pitch wheel myself.

The new harmonic samples have no vibrato.. but they are so weak you couldn't really pass them off as pinched notes.

So anyway.. I payed around $70 now for all this Shreddage stuff, and will try to work it in to my project somehow, so I don't feel like it was a complete waste of cash.

-Kosh42EFG

I'm hoping Vir2 comes out with an expansion for metal. Something featuring some active EMG 81's, drop tune scripting, and metal palm mutes out of the box without having to dedicate a multi just for proper metal palm mutes. But those are just a few of my wishlist items for Vir2. ATM I'd just be happy with better scripting for octive slides or slides of any nature more than 1 string.

Yeah.. I really want some 7 and 8 string guitar.. guitar samples, for those insanely low, death metal styled riffs and chords. Even if it was just a three guitar "Extreme Metal" package.. I'd totally buy it.

I've been creating chord slides in Electri6ity, with the single note slide, forced articulation. Requires plotting in a few dozen notes in a row (at a really high rate) into the sequencer.. but it works.

[Kurari]

Electri6ity goes pretty low. I have a song "illuminate" that is tuned to "F" and it comes out insanely clean. I'd say a real low tune guitar couldn't make the notes so clean.

As for the chord slide thing...

The last song I post uses that technuiqe because whoever tabbed it in guitar pro did it that way. I remember opening the midi in my daw and thinking "wtf". But using the pitch mod too much can have undesired effects when tryng to shoot for "exact realism".

But yeah as you get used to Electri6ity you find short cuts and work arounds.

[progtronic]

Electri6ity goes pretty low. I have a song "illuminate" that is tuned to "F"...

How did you tune down that low? the lowest maximum, built-in tuning in Electri6ity is C. Anything below that is reserved for key-switches.

*edit*

ahh I see.. the overall tuning thing.. I'll give that a try. would prefer actual samples that low though.

[Godseyse]

I hope it isn't too late to post in this thread... but I have a question and a suggestion that I think the developers at Vir2 should consider!

Is there going to another update to Electri6ity any time soon?
I would love to see a few things addressed... Honestly, Electri6ity is so complex I lost interest soon after I purchased it, mainly because I couldn't get it to do what I want. Even Prominy is more user friendly than Electri6ity. From the hundreds of Midi CC#'s to the Velocity Sensitive keyswithes, it's simply too much.

I can see how this would be great for keyboard players, but for those who write their music from tab software, I almost think it's not worth the effort.

Don't get me wrong, I think Electri6ity sounds great and I would love to actually use it, but I feel limited. Electri6ity is a complex instrument, it's obvious it can achieve complex and realistic results, but it can't let me specify the string the note is played on? When I saw the "String Keyswitches" I thought that this would solve most of my problems, but I couldn't get them to work, am I doing it wrong?

Determining the frets the notes are being played on is nice, but once again that would benefit keyboard players more than it would me and other guitarists I'm sure. The guitarists wrote the music, they know where that note is supposed to be played. I don't want a smart engine telling me how to play my own music.

The tuning also throws me off when I watch the fretboard monitor because all my music is drop tuned.

Please fix the tuning and the String Keyswitches, and I may be able to actually start using Electri6ity for real.

Actually I think it would be VERY awesome if you guys released instrument patches that were more suitable for Guitarists writing music in tab software for "rapid" sequencing. Like assigning the most common articulations to a velocity range, like Legato, Palm Mute, Sustain, and Harmonic. For all of the other articulations, keyswitches would be fine. Using a Midi CC could control the picking strength.

Assigning a "smart" hammer-on/pull off articulation to lower velocities would be great, use overlapping notes to create a slide, and use a Midi CC to activate a polyphonic chord mode.

Fix the String Keyswitches so we can determine exactly where the note is being played, and find a way for the chord mode to respond to the String Keyswitches. For example, assign the root note in a chord to the string that is activated (by the String Keyswitch) and using your guys' smart engine it would automatically base the other notes around the position of the root note, I hope that makes sense.

Do any other guitarists using Electri6ity think this would be a good idea? I for one think it would be amazing for us who spent hours or days writing our next big hit in Guitar Pro. I'd prefer not to spend another week tweaking Electri6ity and adding all these various keyswitches and Midi CC's just to hear some decent results.

I'm not disatisifed with my purchase by any means, I am still glad I purchased it even though, right now, I don't use it as much as I'd like to, but I know in the future these problems will be addressed and I'll be just as happy as the day I recieved it in the mail.

[Kosh42EFG]

Electri6ity is a complex instrument, it's obvious it can achieve complex and realistic results, but it can't let me specify the string the note is played on? When I saw the "String Keyswitches" I thought that this would solve most of my problems, but I couldn't get them to work, am I doing it wrong?

As per my previous post:

Now I actually use these key switches a lot... Usually I have Electi6ity set to mute mode (possible called silent mode?), so when I play a chord it doesn't sound, and then use the six single string keys to do a finger picking pattern. Think REM - Everybody Hurts.

If I want to control which string a note plays on, I just have a MIDI automation lane open to the CC that controls the string selection (helpful if you want the tonality of a certain string as a real player would play it - CC#32 according to the online manual).

[Godseyse]

I read the manual and that's what threw me off. Are you using the Midi CC# 32 to actually pick which string, or are you just using the Midi CC# 32 to turn on the String Selection, and then using the String keyswitches to choose which string to pick? I don't recall them ever mentionioning using both at the same time in the manual. that's probably why I couldn't seem to figure it out.

I'm going to play around with it some more.

I still think it would be a good idea to have patches more suitable for us guitarists.

[Kosh42EFG]

I use CC# 32 to pick which string, not the key switches.

I only use the key switched in mute mode to finger pick chords.

[progtronic]

I just posted a ticket at Vir2 support, but thought I'd post this here as well.. in case anyone else is having this Electri6ity/Kontakt problem.

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Electri6ity/Kontakt problem:

Electri6ity 1.1: Recent patch saves (before the latest Kontakt version), are crashing the new Kontakt 4.2.3.4914 update. I load up a recent, pre-Kontakt-update patch.. hit a key on my midi keyboard, or in the Kontakt window.. to hear the patch, and *poof*, it crashes. This happens in Kontakt standalone or inserted as a VST in Sonar or Reaper.

If I call up a stock patch from Electri6ity (which takes a while as it re-verifies the samples) it works fine. If I re-save that, and then reload it.. it work fine. But.. if I call up one of the crashing patches and re-save it, then reload it.. it still crashes. Was hoping re-saving the problem files would be a quick fix, but the issue is still there with those problem files.. even after a re-save.

My only alternative now, is to call up stock Electri6ity patches, re-enter all the patch data into each page (for each instrument), then re-save each patch individually.. and/or each Sonar file session.

I'm not having this problem with any of my other Kontakt based instruments.

Hope you guys can come up with a quick update fix, or alternate solution for this problem. My project is at a standstill at the moment because of this issue.

-----

That's it. If anyone else has a solution, or fix, that would be great.

[zircon]

Just saw some posts about Shreddage here and wanted to clear up a couple things:

I went ahead and purchased the Shreddage X update.. hoping it would at least add new samples down to the A flat, as advertised. Ends up they are just stretched down from the original B samples.

This isn't accurate. The original library was recorded at low C, stretched one whole tone to Bb (which sounds indistinguishable from a recording at Bb, I might add.) The expansion is recorded at Bb - one whole tone lower - stretched to Ab.

While I was tweaking things under the hood in the new X patches, I noticed stuff like sample regions not being properly positioned. A few samples just spilling over into nothingness.. and went ahead and fixed that stuff as well, while I was at it.

We have a number of beta testers who go through all our libraries thoroughly, but some stuff like this inevitably falls through the cracks. It happens with almost any developer. If you've found an error like this, you should email us (support@impactsoundworks.com) so we can fix it. A slightly mismapped zone isn't going to affect your overall experience, however. If nobody caught it, I don't think it was a major bug.

Like I said before.. the whole Shreddage (and now the expansion) package seems really thrown together in a hurry, without much care taken to clean up and organize the patch designs.

This isn't true. As I said above, we test our libraries thoroughly. Both the original Shreddage and the expansion took ~12 months or more to produce (which, given the total # of samples, is quite a lot.) We wouldn't have gotten multiple perfect or near-perfect review scores if we didn't pay attention to the quality of our sounds. We also wouldn't get so many emails from producers, composers and guitarists who have told us that Shreddage replaced their other guitar libraries for rhythm writing if we didn't have a quality library.

Still, if you feel like you could do a better job testing samples, let me know - we're always looking for good testers

Was also looking forward to the new legato feature.. which (unlike Electri6ity) forces you to put the whole single note region into a mono mode. Sucks, because I like to be able to trigger 7ths in the midsts of rapid note sequences.

Why not email us and make a feature request? We design features like the legato/portamento the way the majority of users seem to be working. This is, for example, why we ditched the design of having a huge # of patches in favor of a handful of consolidated patches that include all articulations. The person who created SX's legato functionality has written scripts for countless other libraries, and while this is the approach he also recommended, I'd be happy to talk to him about enabling features like this.

Pinch squeals and the new vibrato samples are sampled with the actual vibrato performance, as opposed to a scripted (time synced) pitch bend.. so if you want to use them out of a certain range of BPM's.. you're S.O.L. I like to input vibrato with a pitch wheel myself.

There's nothing stopping you from inputting vibrato via pitch wheel. When we tried making the modwheel-based vibrato LFO-generated (as opposed to recorded) the result was unsatisfactory, but again, if you simply send us an email we can help you out, for example customizing a patch with that functionality.

The new harmonic samples have no vibrato.. but they are so weak you couldn't really pass them off as pinched notes.

That's because they're not pinched notes. They're traditional guitar harmonics.

So anyway.. I payed around $70 now for all this Shreddage stuff, and will try to work it in to my project somehow, so I don't feel like it was a complete waste of cash.

I'm glad that you don't feel like your money was wasted, but I really encourage you to contact us if you have problems with our sounds. Besides the personal support we can offer, I'm recording narrated YouTube tutorials to help people get the most out of the sounds. So, if for example you want to mock up a particular riff, shoot me an example and I can show you how to do it. I can guarantee that if it's a rhythm riff, Shreddage can do it and sound better than any other library.

Even with that said, I have much respect for Ben and Electri6ity. Between him and Greg at Orange Tree, I'd say they have lead performances completely covered. That's why Shreddage + SX are rhythm-only. We realize that there are already great libraries around for playing lead parts, and there was no point in releasing something redundant. What we thought we could improve was rhythm playing, and so that's what we focused on. In fact if Ben asked, we would be happy to collaborate on an "Extreme Metal" type expansion for Electri6ity and share some of our sampling/editing techniques which, as I believe demos show, are top-notch for rhythms.