Help In Choosing Strummed Guitar Instruments.

[synthmagic]

Thanks everyone. I looked into the Strum GS-1, but the AudioMidi site is out of stock. The Poetic Acoustic Guitars might be an option, but a high priced and couldn't find a demo of the strum patterns.

I've sent a note on the Ilya Efimov site to confirm that their Strum product will do the fingerpicked strum, e.g. if I play a Cmaj7 chord, I would get the guitar sample to play C E G B as individual fingerpicked notes and ideally with variations if the chord repeats, e.g. C B G E.

I'll see what the reply says. For 99 Euros, it seems fairly priced and I like the ability to play various chords on my MIDI keyboard and have the Strum program interpret the chord to how a guitar player would play it.

I have only good things to report about Orange Tree Evolution acoustic guitar instrument.
Gorgeous realistic sound and great Kontakt scripting.

[lingyai]

I've been trying to research this forum to see if there exists samples like the guitar strumming, but using fingerpicking variations.

Unfortunately, as an amateur keyboard only player, I am really bad at trying to play guitar samples to sound realistic and only get limited time to be able to practice getting better at it. I'm currently using the guitar strumming samples and really like the ability to sequence them using chords.

What I would like to do is to get the same principle as strumming, but use fingerpicking variations of a chord, e.g simple arpeggios, 3-5 string variations of playing a chord, etc.

Can anybody comment on whether chord fingerpicking instead of strums is available and what products? I believe someone mentioned a product (Real Guitar?) that might do it, but can't find a site to check on it.

Thanks in advance.

RealGuitar's arpeggiation works as you describe. Tha sampling is not as good as Orange Tree Sample's but it's quite decent, and it is much easier with RealGuitar to get some wonderfully expressive fingerpicking pretty easily (i.e. by just holding down chords). It has a large library of fingerpicking and strumming patterns. (Caveat: can be moody in Sony Acid Pro 7)

A demo version can be found here

http://www.musiclab.com/downloads/trial/

Here is a very quick sketch I did -- kind of primitive, actually, but gives you an idea. Note that starting around 0:52 I applied delay

http://soundcloud.com/st-josephs-social ... -should-be

Let me know by the way if you ever hear back from Ilya Efimov -- I've emailed him three times and never heard back

[cfcboc]

What I would like to do is to get the same principle as strumming, but use fingerpicking variations of a chord, e.g simple arpeggios, 3-5 string variations of playing a chord, etc.

RealGuitar's arpeggiation works as you describe. Tha sampling is not as good as Orange Tree Sample's but it's quite decent, and it is much easier with RealGuitar to get some wonderfully expressive fingerpicking pretty easily (i.e. by just holding down chords). It has a large library of fingerpicking and strumming patterns. (Caveat: can be moody in Sony Acid Pro 7)

A demo version can be found here

http://www.musiclab.com/downloads/trial/

Here is a very quick sketch I did -- kind of primitive, actually, but gives you an idea. Note that starting around 0:52 I applied delay

http://soundcloud.com/st-josephs-social ... -should-be

Let me know by the way if you ever hear back from Ilya Efimov -- I've emailed him three times and never heard back

Thanks for the info. The Real Guitar example is almost exactly what I am looking for. Ideally, the fingerrpicking pattern would vary automatically to give a mor human playing feel, but I'll check it out and experimaent with the demo.

BTW.. Yes I received good responses from Ilya Efimov including followup questions and responses. I think it might be best to use the "Ask a question..." link in the web site. That may get priority ttreatment.

I am still interested in Efimov's StrumGuitar package, as he said it will indeed do the fingerpicking, although there is no demo that I can access to validate it.

And special thanks for your included composition, which really does demonstrate the fingerpicking aspect of RealGuitar!

[lingyai]

Thanks for the info. The Real Guitar example is almost exactly what I am looking for. Ideally, the fingerrpicking pattern would vary automatically to give a mor human playing feel, but I'll check it out and experimaent with the demo.

BTW.. Yes I received good responses from Ilya Efimov including followup questions and responses. I think it might be best to use the "Ask a question..." link in the web site. That may get priority ttreatment.

I am still interested in Efimov's StrumGuitar package, as he said it will indeed do the fingerpicking, although there is no demo that I can access to validate it.

And special thanks for your included composition, which really does demonstrate the fingerpicking aspect of RealGuitar!

You're quite welcome. Again, while Orange Tree's sampling is amazing, for really bad keyboardists like me who want nice-sounding but "assisted" strumming and arpeggiation, RealGuitar is the most playable guitar VSTi I've tried (have also tried offerings from Pettinhouse, Indiginus and AAS -- these are also very worthy, but not as good as RealGuitar in this respect, imho.)

Note that my sketch doesn't really do a great job of showcasing RealGuitar. It has loads of patterns (I only used one) and allows you to semi-randomise velocity by +/- a specified amount for more realism (which I didn't do, I think).

By all means, try the demo version. It only has a few strumming and arpeggiation patterns but enough to give you an idea. You'll also want to check how well it gets along with your DAW. I've heard it works well in Reaper (which I don't use).

Efimov's site says his instrument can play RG patterns. But as you say, there's no demo available to see how well it does this, or how easy it is to use. I actually did try to reach him through his site as you suggest... dunno... busy guy I suppose.

Anyway, best of luck. If you ever do get Efimov's instrument, please let me know how you get on with it.

[cfcboc]

Lingyai wrote: <RealGuitar's arpeggiation works as you describe. Tha sampling is not as good as Orange Tree Sample's but it's quite decent, and it is much easier with RealGuitar to get some wonderfully expressive fingerpicking pretty easily (i.e. by just holding down chords). It has a large library of fingerpicking and strumming patterns.>

Lingyai (or anyone else with an opinion!)

There is a bundle special going on at Musiclabs on RealPC, RealStrat, & RealGuitar for $199 for all three products. Looks like it may be because they are announcing RealGuitar ver 3 for July.

Based on the value of these products, is this a good buy for the strumming effects? The upgrade to version 3 will be free if you buy now. Not sure what the upgrade will provide vis a vis the current version for strumming needs, but maybe some better samples? (since that seems to be a big complaint!)

My second choice is the Ilya Efimov STRUM engine (both electric and acoustic for 149 Euros), so welcome any opinions on best choice for strumming work.

[lingyai]

Lingyai wrote: <RealGuitar's arpeggiation works as you describe. Tha sampling is not as good as Orange Tree Sample's but it's quite decent, and it is much easier with RealGuitar to get some wonderfully expressive fingerpicking pretty easily (i.e. by just holding down chords). It has a large library of fingerpicking and strumming patterns.>

Lingyai (or anyone else with an opinion!)

There is a bundle special going on at Musiclabs on RealPC, RealStrat, & RealGuitar for $199 for all three products. Looks like it may be because they are announcing RealGuitar ver 3 for July.

Based on the value of these products, is this a good buy for the strumming effects? The upgrade to version 3 will be free if you buy now. Not sure what the upgrade will provide vis a vis the current version for strumming needs, but maybe some better samples? (since that seems to be a big complaint!)

My second choice is the Ilya Efimov STRUM engine (both electric and acoustic for 149 Euros), so welcome any opinions on best choice for strumming work.

1) In my opinion -- and no, I am not a fanboy or sock puppet -- that is a hell of a good deal; thanks for alerting me to it; usually I don't buy things under time pressure, but having used RG for around a year, I'm going for it.

2) Other opinions:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan08/a ... lstrat.htm

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun10/a ... eallpc.htm

3) Most importantly -- your opinion

Scroll down about halfway down this page

http://www.musiclab.com/downloads/listen/index.htm

and under the heading, "RealGuitar Demos" you'll find three video demos and one audio demo of the strumming patterns. Decide for yourself.

No idea what the new v3.0 features are by the way.

[cfcboc]

1) In my opinion -- and no, I am not a fanboy or sock puppet -- that is a hell of a good deal; thanks for alerting me to it; usually I don't buy things under time pressure, but having used RG for around a year, I'm going for it.

2) Other opinions:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan08/a ... lstrat.htm

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun10/a ... eallpc.htm

3) Most importantly -- your opinion

Scroll down about halfway down this page

http://www.musiclab.com/downloads/listen/index.htm

and under the heading, "RealGuitar Demos" you'll find three video demos and one audio demo of the strumming patterns. Decide for yourself.

No idea what the new v3.0 features are by the way.

Thanks for the opinion.

Like I've read in some of your earlier posts, I am looking for strumming to use live, and I also want the pattern to change during a strumming sequence, so that there is reasonable variety, and being able to just use one hand to play a chord and have the guitar strum a pattern. My understanding from reading your posts is that RealGuitar will only play one pattern without variation, and to switch patterns will require some interruption in live playing. If my understanding is correct, then RealGuitar won't really address the live playing issue the way I would prefer to have it.

BTW, after reviewing the musiclab site, I am somewhat confused as to what RealPC does versus RealGuitar.

[lingyai]

You can use multiple patterns in mid-song using Reaper.

http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php? ... post834565


ReaLPC is a Les Paul emulation; RealGuitar is an acoustic guitar emulation