Impact Soundworks

zircon · Post by **zircon** » Mon Dec 10, 2012 4:05 pm

Our original Shreddage: Electric Rhythm Guitar library, and its expansion, Shreddage X, have been well-loved by thousands of hobbyist and professional composers, producers and guitarists around the world. Featuring a brutal, aggressive sound and incredible realism at an unbeatable price, these libraries raised the bar for guitar libraries and spawned many imitators. Now, over two years since the original release, there has been one question among our users: what's next?

Well, I'm pleased to announce that we have just released the sequel...

Shreddage II: Absolute Electric Guitar

This library builds on the innovations we made with the original Shreddage, but has been recorded, edited, scripted and programmed from the ground up with entirely new samples. We looked at the problems with current 'advanced' guitar libraries, such as over-reliance on keyswitches for basic articulations, bloated memory usage, lack of realism for rapid passages/chugs, high cost, and weak tone unfitting of heavy genres like rock and metal.

Among the host of new features and powerful scripting within Shreddage 2, the most important difference is that the library is no longer limited to rhythm playing! We sampled every fret on every string of a 7-string guitar, including the full range of articulations and even deeper sampling than in the original library. This allows for stunningly realistic LEAD playing as well as rhythm, which of course S2 excels at as well.

Sample Features

* Deep-sampling from drop G to all the way up the neck on every string
* Up to 8x round robins per articulation, per note, including up/down strokes
* Single notes and powerchords
* Sustains and aggressive sustains
* Up to FIVE LAYERS of palm mutes
* Tremolo picking and pinch squeals
* True hammer-on and pull-off recordings & scripting
* True portamento slides up to and down from TWO OCTAVES per note
* THREE unique vibrato types (light fingered, heavy fingered, whammy bar)
* Non-muted staccato notes
* Unpitched and pitched release noises
* Fret squeaks and extra pre-attack pick noise

Despite this incredible depth and breadth of articulations (7,000+ samples), the library only takes up 4.5gb of disk space, translating to about ~500mb of RAM usage - and that's before NCW compression! But we're just getting started. Check out the incredible things we did with S2's scripting.

Library / Script Features

* Fretboard monitor
* ALL articulations accessible without keyswitches
* True double-tracking
* Easily customize articulations and velocity mapping
* Quick velocity input scaling
* Built-in preset system with one-click save/recall
* Intelligent string selection w/ virtual hand/fret position
* Forced string selection and string realism controls
* Customizable hammer-on and portamento settings
* Forced stroke direction controls (down only, up only, alt picking)
* Noise volume mixer
* Release and tightness envelope controls
* Monophonic and polyphonic modes
* Screamer pedal, 'bite EQ', and compressor with sweet-spot settings
* ... and more!

Video / Demos

The following demos have been created by myself and our wonderful beta testers. We think you'll agree this really represents the next stage of evolution in virtual guitar sounds.

http://soundcloud.com/isworks/sets/shreddage-2-demos/

Price and Availability

Shreddage 2 is available now! After all this you might be worried that given the scope and power, it will cost as much as other advanced guitar libraries - $200, $300, maybe even $400+. You would be wrong.

For existing Shreddage / Shreddage X Users: $99
For new customers, introductory price: $119

Let that sink in for a minute! Oh, and...

Did we mention it comes with Kontakt Player? :mrgreen:

Shreddage 2 @ Impact Soundworks

djblap! · Post by **djblap!** » Tue Dec 11, 2012 2:46 am

Any chance there's going to be an installation tutorial?

zircon · Post by **zircon** » Tue Dec 11, 2012 2:52 am

The library installation is pretty straightforward: you just unpack the RAR files by extracting part1. Go to Kontakt, and then "Add Library". Select the folder where you unpacked the files. Done! All you have to do then is go to NI Service Center and authorize it with the serial number received in your email. Does that help?

kgdrum · Post by **kgdrum** » Tue Dec 11, 2012 3:25 am

This sounds amazing!
With that being said,a few questions.
I have the original Shreddage expanded library,maybe I'm a moron but I've never been able to figure out how to use Shreddage or any Guitar VI ,sound like these demos.
Do you have tutorials that might help someone like myself thats "guitar VI challenged" figure out how to utilize these libraries & show us how you guys actually use these?
Also is Shreddage2 meant to replace Shreddage1 expanded or are they meant to be used with each other?
Thanks
KG

zircon · Post by **zircon** » Tue Dec 11, 2012 3:41 am

Responded to this on VI:

There are some tricks to getting better-sounding virtual guitar parts. I made two videos for the original library showing some piano roll sequences:

I do plan on making similar videos for Shreddage 2 including a video walkthrough of at least one demo track like Corridors of Time.

There actually isn't a whole lot of very advanced EDITING involved, it's more about choosing the right articulation, note length, etc.

As for your last question, Shreddage 2 does have all the FEATURES of the original (plus way more), but it is a totally different + standalone library. Different guitar and different recordings. You could easily use Shreddage 1 for a rhythm part and S2 for lead, or use them both for rhythm as different tracks... it's up to you. I'm definitely going to keep using the original to beef up rhythm parts, or if I want a different tone (S2 is more full and heavy, S1 is a bit more thin).

kgdrum · Post by **kgdrum** » Tue Dec 11, 2012 3:48 am

Thanks for the great info and quick reply

djblap! · Post by **djblap!** » Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:40 am

So I fought all day with installing it in FL Studio yesterday (wasn't getting any audio).
After work today I fired up FL Studio intending to resume battle, and it came up right away.

Weird. Good, but weird.

tier777 · Post by **tier777** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 3:16 pm

Two questions:

1. Seeing that Shreddage II now works with the free Kontakt Player (if I understood correctly), does this mean there will be no Shreddage II for SFZ?

2. I bought Shreddage SFZ a mere 8 days ago. Is there maybe some sort of "grace period" upgrade offering?

Cheers,

Oliver

zircon · Post by **zircon** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 4:42 pm

1. Correct, there are *currently* no plans for an S2 SFZ. One of the reasons is simply that the instrument's script is very complex and vital to its functioning properly.

2. Shoot us an email: support@impactsoundworks.com

warfighter67 · Post by **warfighter67** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 4:58 pm

Hey Zircon, I currently don't own Shreddage bass. Is there any discount planned for owners of Shreddage 2 that plan to pick up Shreddage bass?

zircon · Post by **zircon** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 5:22 pm

It's possible, down the line... no plans right now though. If anything we might similarly develop a Shreddage Bass 2 using the same level of more advanced scripting and such, offer an upgrade for Bass -> Bass 2, and then bundle the guitar + bass like that. But really that's in the future.

Comatose · Post by **Comatose** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 8:59 pm

Which version of kontakt player does Shreddage 2 come with?

zircon · Post by **zircon** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 9:06 pm

It's authorized for the latest version, #5, which you can get on the NI website.

Comatose · Post by **Comatose** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 9:57 pm

Damn! That means system and os upgrade in the near to distant future. Love what I've been seeing and hearing so far, and I am looking forwards to purchasing S2 when I can afford it. Thank you for the info.

zircon · Post by **zircon** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 10:35 pm

Kontakt Player 5's system requirements are pretty similar to K4... in fact, we made the whole library in K4 and just switched to KP5 because NI asked us to. So from a system perspective you shouldn't have any trouble I would think?

Impact Soundworks

KVR Audio

Shreddage 2: Absolute Electric Guitar - Available now w/ Kontakt Player! Upgrade for $99/Intro $119!