How to make realistic guitar chord sounds in piano roll view?

[yeto 41]

Have any of you ever tried inputting in piano roll view a guitar chord and offsetting/delaying each note of the chord by a few milliseconds to get a more realistic strummed guitar chord sound? I am having a hard time putting into words what I am trying to ask but I hope the previous sentence made sense.

Thank you for any help,
yeto

[RobertWS 212]

Yes. 

[scook 2,502]

There is a CAL script to simulate strumming but I have never messed with it.

When I need MIDI played like a guitar, I use a real guitar and play it through Jam Origin's MIDI Guitar.

 

[Promidi 395]

Not all of us have real guitars - so we have to utilise what we do have.

I just nudge the notes manually - and turn off snap.... 

I don't use the Strum.it.CAL script as it produces the same result every time. 

If I was going to use a CAL script, I would use one that randomly adjusts the times of the notes slightly.  If you do end up writing a CAL to do this, do not use the Editslide command (or Editslide40 command) - this will categorically crash CbB.  Adjust the time parameter of the note event instead.

 

[mettelus 389]

@yeto, did you get AmpleSound's strummer working? The answer to your OP is yes, but that is both manual and painful. A VSTi with a strummer is a better bet, and AmpleSound is a good one.

[yeto 41]

7 hours ago, mettelus said:

@yeto, did you get AmpleSound's strummer working? The answer to your OP is yes, but that is both manual and painful. A VSTi with a strummer is a better bet, and AmpleSound is a good one.

Yes, I got it to work and I agree it is good. 

[yeto 41]

19 hours ago, scook said:

There is a CAL script to simulate strumming but I have never messed with it.

When I need MIDI played like a guitar, I use a real guitar and play it through Jam Origin's MIDI Guitar.

 

I am trying the CAL script but it seems once you make a change you can't "undo" which could get frustrating. 

[yeto 41]

10 hours ago, Promidi said:

If I was going to use a CAL script, I would use one that randomly adjusts the times of the notes slightly.  If you do end up writing a CAL to do this, do not use the Editslide command (or Editslide40 command) - this will categorically crash CbB.  Adjust the time parameter of the note event instead.

 

What software/language would one use to open and modify a CAL script?

[Promidi 395]

8 minutes ago, yeto said:

What software/language would one use to open and modify a CAL script?

CPA9

[scook 2,502]

It takes no specific tools to create a CAL script. The files are text files which may be opened in any text editor. There few guides available and the feature was deprecated over 20 years ago.

Best to always use a copy of the MIDI track when working with CAL.

It appears that http://www.midi-kit.nl/ has moved to http://members.ziggo.nl/odw/en/index.html. This site is a pretty good resource. There is a CAL guide pdf on http://members.ziggo.nl/odw/en/indexmidi.html which is useful.

Softpedia still has the CAL Editor available for download. I don't care for the editor but it includes a CAL reference in chm format which I used a lot when working with CAL.

All that said, putting a lot of effort in CAL at this time is not a wise use of time. It was abandoned in 2000 with the first release of SONAR.

 

[Jim Fogle 496]

@yeto, here is a 10 minute video on creating realistic audio tracks using VST guitars: 

 

[yeto 41]

23 hours ago, scook said:

It takes no specific tools to create a CAL script. The files are text files which may be opened in any text editor. There few guides available and the feature was deprecated over 20 years ago.

Best to always use a copy of the MIDI track when working with CAL.

It appears that http://www.midi-kit.nl/ has moved to http://members.ziggo.nl/odw/en/index.html. This site is a pretty good resource. There is a CAL guide pdf on http://members.ziggo.nl/odw/en/indexmidi.html which is useful.

Softpedia still has the CAL Editor available for download. I don't care for the editor but it includes a CAL reference in chm format which I used a lot when working with CAL.

All that said, putting a lot of effort in CAL at this time is not a wise use of time. It was abandoned in 2000 with the first release of SONAR.

 

The CAL guide PDF is an interesting read. Thank you for taking time to share.

[yeto 41]

18 hours ago, Jim Fogle said:

@yeto, here is a 10 minute video on creating realistic audio tracks using VST guitars: 

 

Thank you for taking time to post. Very helpful video.

[sjoens 124]

I normally do it by hand but today I thought to try Strum-it.CAL. It does well for my needs tho I don't like that it chops the beginning of the notes instead of shifting them. If you have a short note, it can disappear or throw an error. 

You can undo a CAL script but it requires several undo processes. Keep hitting undo until the original notes are restored.

Edited November 26, 2020 by sjoens

[Glenn Stanton 132]

i've been using the articulation map feature and the AAS strum-2 VST - just taking regularly performed chords (piano, ripchord, chordz, etc) and just adding articulations (downstroke, upstroke, palm mute, arpeggio, etc) and it seems to work pretty well. i've attached my own articulation map in case it's useful.

as a note, to get a really tight sounding performance requires lots of small articulations - i've broken the map down into strokes and arpeggios so you can have things like an upstroke which then evolves into an arpeggio on the same chord notes because you have two articulation tracks slightly overlapped. dunno if that is the right way to do it but it leads to some fairly realistic effects.

AAS Strum 2.artmap