UJAM Sparkle 2 Released

[PhonoBrainer]

14 hours ago, Fleer said:

Poutine!

Rage Against the

[Reid Rosefelt]

I've been a guitarist for over 50 years, and I always used to record my own parts.  But lately my arthritis had made that increasingly difficult.  And now it is virtually impossible.  So I now I have to do everything with VIs.

I have never been impressed with the strumming and picking tech on the OTS and Ample Sound instruments.  For me, they are the main weakness in otherwise superlative VIs.     In fact I've never been happy with picking and strumming on ANY guitar VIs.  BIAB can be very believable, but it's in a different category.

Which is why I got so excited when the NI Session Guitars series came out.  I think they are spectacular.  Like any VI, you have to dig deep into them.  Once you put the hours in, you can see the possibilities for alternate tunings, editing the patterns, using the modwheel to constantly change emphasis, varying articulations, etc.  The presets, although they sound great, are just a starting point.

I've created music where everybody assumed it was a real guitar.   And this is because the intensity of the strumming varied through every second of the piece.  I played the VI as if I was playing with a band, responding in real time with the music.   If you know how to play guitar, you can use your intuitive feel to put that feel in.

For picking and strumming, I think they are in a whole other category than other instruments and I love making music with them.  For lead guitar, I go with Indiginus and OTS, and sometimes  AmpleSound guitars.   And the more I use my Indiginus guitars, the more I have been selling my OTS ones, as I have so many.

It's interesting that ujam came on the market with a few guitars.  That was it.  They have become so much more.  Today, my favorite products are the Beatmakers, the Drums, and the basses (particularly Mellow). 

Edited October 22, 2022 by Reid Rosefelt

[Grem]

1 hour ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

because the intensity of the strumming varied through every second of the piece.

Yep. I have been playing for many years. Your strumming varies and give the part life.

Thanks for the heads up on the Session stuff.

[dubdisciple]

I will also say I prefer NI session guitarist. Ujam products always feel like I am just cutting and pasting loops. 

[abacab]

3 hours ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

It's interesting that ujam came on the market with a few guitars.  That was it.  They have become so much more.  Today, my favorite products are the Beatmakers, the Drums, and the basses (particularly Mellow). 

It's interesting that the UJAM basses now integrate with the Studio One chord track, so that the patterns follow the chord changes in the timeline.  I have several of their basses.

And the UJAM drums work with the S1 editor so that you see drum map names instead of note numbers. I have not really used that feature since I now have EZ Drummer 2.

[daveiv]

5 hours ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

NI Session Guitars

Which ones are your favorite?

[daveiv]

10 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

And thanks for the compliment, of course, you know I enjoy conversing with you too.

Thank you, too!

10 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

Although, I realize I've over indulged in this trip back into the history of virtual guitar plugins and libraries, so my apologies to everyone who is bored.

I'd happily read if that part of your post was twice the length.

[PavlovsCat]

5 hours ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

Which is why I got so excited when the NI Session Guitars series came out.  I think they are spectacular.  Like any VI, you have to dig deep into them.  Once you put the hours in, you can see the possibilities for alternate tunings, editing the patterns, using the modwheel to constantly change emphasis, varying articulations, etc.  The presets, although they sound great, are just a starting point.

I've created music where everybody assumed it was a real guitar.   And this is because the intensity of the strumming varied through every second of the piece.  I played the VI as if I was playing with a band, responding in real time with the music.   If you know how to play guitar, you can use your intuitive feel to put that feel in.

For picking and strumming, I think they are in a whole other category than other instruments and I love making music with them.  For lead guitar, I go with Indiginus and OTS, and sometimes  AmpleSound guitars.   And the more I use my Indiginus guitars, the more I have been selling my OTS ones, as I have so many.

It's interesting that ujam came on the market with a few guitars.  That was it.  They have become so much more.  Today, my favorite products are the Beatmakers, the Drums, and the basses (particularly Mellow). 

@Reid Rosefelt Peter Georges' was behind Steinberg's VirtualGuitarist, which is the origin of the UJAM line and came out many years prior to NI introducing Session Guitarist. I'd guess Steinberg released VG in the early 2000s (2002?), whereas I believe Session Guitarist came out at least a decade later. So Peter's previous company, daveiv mentioned their name, was one of the early guitar VST makers. But Peter and Hans Zimmer are partners in the company, as you probably already know, so they are obviously both heavy hitters in the world of sampling and composing. I happen to know what guitar sample libraries Hans' has long used, but I don't have permission to share that info. 

 As I mentioned earlier, of the loop-based guitar sample libraries/plug-ins, the Session Guitarist line is easily my favorite too. But I'm very curious about your mention of varying the strumming using Session Guitarist because I've been using it for many years when I'm composing -- and often I'll use it when coming up with quick ideas and later replace it, which is similar to the way I often use midi and loop libraries for drum patterns instead of a standard click track. As far as I know , Session Guitarist only allows a user to vary volume, vibrato, doubling, tuning, mic position and effects (as  the guitars were recorded dry for the loops, you can add whatever effects and amp sims you like).  Is there some other method of varying strums that I'm unaware of? If so, can you point me in the direction of how you do it?  

Also, why not share your examples -- many of us already follow you on YouTube and are Reid supporters! 

Edited October 22, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[Reid Rosefelt]

18 hours ago, daveiv said:

Which ones are your favorite?

Picked Acoustic.  To totally contradict what I said, I sometimes just grab a preset and make a guitar track in less than an hour using a preset.  I've put this piece up a lot before, but that's how this was done.  Played it once. Adjusted MIDI a bit.  Done.   And then I moved on to the real job, which was the melody instruments.

Frankly, most of the time I've used Picked Acoustic was in situations where I laid down a track in a few minutes and then improvised over it. No finished track resulted, but it was fun. 

I like the electrics and the picked nylon, but I haven't used them in a track yet.

Edited October 23, 2022 by Reid Rosefelt

[Reid Rosefelt]

18 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

@Reid Rosefelt Peter Georges' was behind Steinberg's VirtualGuitarist, which is the origin of the UJAM line and came out many years prior to NI introducing Session Guitarist. I'd guess Steinberg released VG in the early 2000s (2002?), whereas I believe Session Guitarist came out at least a decade later. So Peter's previous company, daveiv mentioned their name, was one of the early guitar VST makers. But Peter and Hans Zimmer are partners in the company, as you probably already know, so they are obviously both heavy hitters in the world of sampling and composing. I happen to know what guitar sample libraries Hans' has long used, but I don't have permission to share that info. 

 As I mentioned earlier, of the loop-based guitar sample libraries/plug-ins, the Session Guitarist line is easily my favorite too. But I'm very curious about your mention of varying the strumming using Session Guitarist because I've been using it for many years when I'm composing -- and often I'll use it when coming up with quick ideas and later replace it, which is similar to the way I often use midi and loop libraries for drum patterns instead of a standard click track. As far as I know , Session Guitarist only allows a user to vary volume, vibrato, doubling, tuning, mic position and effects (as  the guitars were recorded dry for the loops, you can add whatever effects and amp sims you like).  Is there some other method of varying strums that I'm unaware of? If so, can you point me in the direction of how you do it?  

Also, why not share your examples -- many of us already follow you on YouTube and are Reid supporters! 

I got into the history of Peter Gorges in my bass video.

You can hear me jamming with Picked Acoustic and ujam Dandy at the spot I've cued up here.

In the original Strummed Acoustic, you can change the voicing with the modwheel and the accent with the Pitch Wheel.  After I programmed in the part for this.  (Again, sorry, I've posted this a lot),  I played with the wheels while listening to the track.

 

[Reid Rosefelt]

For those of you who aren't familiar with what Band-in-a-Box can do with a guitar part, here is this track, Guitar is 100% BIAB.  Violin is Bohemian.

 

Edited October 23, 2022 by Reid Rosefelt

[PavlovsCat]

@Reid RosefeltI knew your "Cowboy Song." It's a whole different topic  -- but hey, most of us regulars are prone to tangents and I'm obviously no exception -- but watching the first clip you shared, it was cool to see how you could play the rhythm guitar loops in Session Guitarist and also have the other plugin doing the bass. With exception to Session Guitarist,  I am focused on coming up with my own parts using single note multisamples, I must admit that watching your video, I now see how cool that it would be to use one of those tools when I'm writing a song. Thanks for that. 

Now with regard to Session Guitarist,  are you just adjusting the volume and vibrato on certain strums or is there more to it?  Thanks for sharing your videos,  I've watched a bunch of them -- and always give them likes (I follow you on YouTube). 

On a related note, while Hans Zimmer is the co- owner of UJAM, I know one of the guitar sample library lines he and his staff have long used. I don't have permission to share the information,  but you can easily read between the lines. The UJAM plugins are clearly aimed at a very different user than most KONTAKT multisample libraries,  and it's a much larger market (younger/different genres/different empasis regarding playing) and I'm in the group that loves playing via MIDI.  But I definitely see possibilities to use tools like ezBass, even though I've yet to try them. Your video definitely made me interested in exploring those tools. 

Edited October 23, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[Reid Rosefelt]

31 minutes ago, PavlovsCat said:

@Reid RosefeltI knew your "Cowboy Song." It's a whole different topic  -- but hey, most of us regulars are prone to tangents and I'm obviously no exception -- but watching the first clip you shared, it was cool to see how you could play the rhythm guitar loops in Session Guitarist and also have the other plugin doing the bass. With exception to Session Guitarist,  I am focused on coming up with my own parts using single note multisamples, I must admit that watching your video, I now see how cool that it would be to use one of those tools when I'm writing a song. Thanks for that. 

Now with regard to Session Guitarist,  are you just adjusting the volume and vibrato on certain strums or is there more to it?  Thanks for sharing your videos,  I've watched a bunch of them -- and always give them likes (I follow you on YouTube). 

On a related note, while Hans Zimmer is the co- owner of UJAM, I know one of the guitar sample library lines he and his staff have long used. I don't have permission to share the information,  but you can easily read between the lines. The UJAM plugins are clearly aimed at a very different user than most KONTAKT multisample libraries,  and it's a much larger market (younger/different genres/different empasis regarding playing) and I'm in the group that loves playing via MIDI.  But I definitely see possibilities to use tools like ezBass, even though I've yet to try them. Your video definitely made me interested in exploring those tools. 

Yeah, I think the miracle of this technology is that we can all use the tools we like to make the music we want to make.  I'm sure what works for me is not good for others.  I also know from being on VI:Control that a lot of people think my music is crap, and that's fine.  I know I'm not trained.   I like my music.   

My main interest is melody.  So I hum something and then I figure out how to play it and orchestrate it.   I lean towards very simple arrangements with only a few instruments.   In life I feel really sad that I can't play rhythm or fingerpick a guitar like I used to.  It was one of the things I most loved to do.  But  I'm glad that I have the musical tools to keep going and express what I hear in my head.  And I believe that all my years of playing guitar are an advantage with using virtual guitars. 

I didn't change the volume or vibrato on "The Cowboy Way.'  You can change where it is played on the fretboard (voicing), so you can take the same chord and play it higher.  And you can add accents, which is different from volume, I think.  But I hope it gives it dynamism.  I don't know if it "fools" a guitarist, but it's more musical and less canned.  And very easy to do.

Also, I created my own bass part on this using Modwheel's The Lowdown, an acoustic bass.  It has a kind of percussive thwap to it that I like.  Beginning by playing something that I heard, I achieved a result that I found more satisfying than searching something for a part on something like EZBass, which didn't exist then anyway.   There's a collector part of me that would like to amass a lot of EZBass MIDI parts, but I suspect that I will mostly perform my own. (Although I have used EZBass on occasion)  I don't go look for melodies to buy either.  I have ten melodies in my head for every one that I find the time and focus to actually record.  And then I get something new like an Indiginus instrument and it inspires me to write something just for that.

But I'm very curious what the Session Guitars Bass will be like, as I enjoy the guitars so much.  Have to wait for the summer sale... 😕

 

Edited October 23, 2022 by Reid Rosefelt

[PavlovsCat]

17 minutes ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

Yeah, I think the miracle of this technology is that we can all use the tools we like to make the music we want to make.  I'm sure what works for me is not good for others.  I also know from being on VI:Control that a lot of people think my music is crap, and that's fine.  I know I'm not trained.   I like my music.   

My main interest is melody.  So I hum something and then I figure out how to play it and orchestrate it.   I lean towards very simple arrangements with only a few instruments.   In life I feel really sad that I can't play rhythm or fingerpick a guitar like I used to.  It was one of the things I most loved to do.  But  I'm glad that I have the musical tools to keep going and express what I hear in my head.  And I believe that all my years of playing guitar are an advantage with using virtual guitars. 

I didn't change the volume or vibrato on "The Cowboy Way.'  You can change where it is played on the fretboard (voicing), so you can take the same chord and play it higher.  And you can add accents, which is different from volume, I think.  But I hope it gives it dynamism.  I don't know if it "fools" a guitarist, but it's more musical and less canned.  And very easy to do.

Also, I created my own bass part on this using Modwheel's The Lowdown, an acoustic bass.  It has a kind of percussive thwap to it that I like.  Beginning by playing something that I heard, I achieved a result that I found more satisfying than searching something for a part on something like EZBass, which didn't exist then anyway.   There's a collector part of me that would like to amass a lot of EZBass MIDI parts, but I suspect that I will mostly perform my own. (Although I have used EZBass on occasion)  I don't go look for melodies to buy either.  I have ten melodies in my head for every one that I find the time and focus to actually record.  And then I get something new like an Indiginus instrument and it inspires me to write something just for that.

But I'm very curious what the Session Guitars Bass will be like, as I enjoy the guitars so much.  Have to wait for the summer sale... 😕

 

It doesn't matter if not everyone enjoys your music. I was once a very good drummer (and a mediocre pianist and organist and a terrible guitarist), but had an injury that stopped me from playing professionally and now, I still have the same high standards and play everything terribly and can only play drums for less than a minute before I'm in pain, but I still play and whereas I was playing mid-size concert venues back in the day, now if a few friends like something, I'm pretty happy about it! You have lots of us who appreciate and enjoy you and everything you do, Reid. Keep having fun. It doesn't matter if some people don't appreciate you or your music, lots of us do appreciate you.  Last year, when I attempted to play music again 21 years after an injury stopped me from playing professionally, my son asked me what my objective was. I'm a middle-aged man who is no longer a proficient musician, I wouldn't even call myself a musician anymore, I'm a guy who used to be a musician, a long time ago. My objective is just to have an outlet for expression. It's art. It doesn't need to have a commercial purpose. I think everyone should look at creating art -- draw, paint, make music, sing, dance,  make music, make crafts -- it doesn't matter if anyone else wants to listen to or buy what you have. But even if one of other person appreciates your art, I think that's wonderful. Lot's of us appreciate your creativity, Reid. Keep it up! 

[kitekrazy]

47 minutes ago, PavlovsCat said:

It doesn't matter if not everyone enjoys your music. I was once a very good drummer (and a mediocre pianist and organist and a terrible guitarist), but had an injury that stopped me from playing professionally and now, I still have the same high standards and play everything terribly and can only play drums for less than a minute before I'm in pain, but I still play and whereas I was playing mid-size concert venues back in the day, now if a few friends like something, I'm pretty happy about it! You have lots of us who appreciate and enjoy you and everything you do, Reid. Keep having fun. It doesn't matter if some people don't appreciate you or your music, lots of us do appreciate you.  Last year, when I attempted to play music again 21 years after an injury stopped me from playing professionally, my son asked me what my objective was. I'm a middle-aged man who is no longer a proficient musician, I wouldn't even call myself a musician anymore, I'm a guy who used to be a musician, a long time ago. My objective is just to have an outlet for expression. It's art. It doesn't need to have a commercial purpose. I think everyone should look at creating art -- draw, paint, make music, sing, dance,  make music, make crafts -- it doesn't matter if anyone else wants to listen to or buy what you have. But even if one of other person appreciates your art, I think that's wonderful. Lot's of us appreciate your creativity, Reid. Keep it up! 

Hey I suck at everything.  I have projects that might survive up to 8 measures.  

[cclarry]

25 minutes ago, Paul Young said:

Hey I suck at everything.  I have projects that might survive up to 8 measures.  

Strong Union! 

[PavlovsCat]

2 hours ago, Paul Young said:

Hey I suck at everything.  I have projects that might survive up to 8 measures.  

I grew up in a musical family and played publicly since I was 4 but had an injury 22 years ago that stopped me from playing, so now my playing ability is very poor, but it doesn't stop me. I really wish more of us would share our music with each other.

Once in a while I post a song in the forum. I wish more of the regulars here would do the same. 

Edited October 23, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[Billy86]

On 10/21/2022 at 11:25 AM, PavlovsCat said:

IMO, for a loop based rhythm guitar plugin, Native Instrument's Session Guitarist has far more depth, customization and a superior user experience than UJAM.  

I've picked up three of the UJam Virtual Guitarist plugins as freebies over the years (I still have the original Steinberg Virtual Guitarist -- same sample developer,  for those who didn’t know), including  Sparkle, and find them incredibly more limited then NI's Session Guitarist series of loop libraries. 

I totally get the instant gratification of using loop libraries for rhythm guitar and sometimes turn to Session Guitarist when I'm initially working on a song if I know it has a suitable pattern. But it's otherwise so limiting. For those who own Orange Tree Samples Evolution libraries,  spend 10 minutes learning to use the strumming engine and you'll  be able to create virtually any kind of strumming pattern -- and strum --exactly what you want,  with unlimited patterns instead of being confined to a very limited series of loops. I believe you could do the same with Ample Sound,, but to be candid,  personally,  I never figured it out with their strumming engine. 

I have OTS steel strings, but just can’t get my head around learning how to make the strumming work. Do you happen to know any good video instructional/tutorial resources? I’ve seen a the YouTube stuff, but am still waiting for the light bulb to go on. 

[PavlovsCat]

1 hour ago, Billy86 said:

I have OTS steel strings, but just can’t get my head around learning how to make the strumming work. Do you happen to know any good video instructional/tutorial resources? I’ve seen a the YouTube stuff, but am still waiting for the light bulb to go on. 

@Billy86I think the below video is the best tutorial there is.  But I'm going to give it my best try to make this as easy as I can. 

1. Open  the Evolution Steel Strings library in KONTAKT. with whatever sample preset you like.  

2. SELECT the top menu in Evolution that reads "CHORDS". CLICK ON "AUTOMATIC CHORDS." That allows you to play a chord as you normally would and then Evolution translates it into the way a guitarist would play the chord. 

3. Go back to the top menu and SELECT "STRUM." Select a pattern that interests you. say, "Busy Bee." Now hold down a chord with your right hand. For this example, let's say you hold down a C major chord  (C-E-G)  in the root position with your right hand.  While holding down the C chord, use your left hand to play a C in the O octave (the lowest octave) of your keyboard to trigger the pattern.  You change the chords with your right hand, just like you would regularly playing the keyboard. So, keeping it simple, if you played the chords C-F-G the strumming engine would strum those chords playing the rhythm you selected. 

Voila! You're now using the strumming engine. 

If you find a strumming preset that works for you, great. But I often use the strumming presets as starting points and modify them to fit the strumming pattern that works for the song -- just like I would if I was playing guitar (except in this case, instead of my brain telling my hand what to play, I have to click on the buttons in the strumming engine (in the screenshot below, they're the white buttons that read "sustain" -- those let you choose what kind of strum or rest you want).  

For me, the presets are like starting points. You may find one works for you exactly as is, or you can modify a preset to your own liking and add or take away strums, which is something you can't do with a loop player like UJAM or Session Guitarist. They are merely playing loops recorded by a session guitarist. The way Evolution libraries wok is that you are playing individual notes played by a guitarist. The difference is, with Evolution's approach you can define upstrokes, downstrokes, muted/palm muted notes/chords, half muted/palm muted notes/chords, harmonics, slaps -- basically anything a real guitarist could do. That simply is not possible with any loop based player. 

That is my on the fly three minute tutorial. If you can follow those steps, you will be strumming right away.  That's really all it takes. From there, beyond the type of strum, of course, your other choices are going to be the timing of the strums, just like you'd do with a drum machine. 

I hope that helps! Once you figure out how to use the strumming engine, it's amazing how it opens up new doors, that a plugin can have this level of capabilities. I don't really know how anyone could be satisfied use loops after that. They just don't allow the customization it requires to pull off a full song. You are restricted to those patterns and whether you're doing covers or originals, it's just not sufficient if you're very demanding. 

- Peter
 

 

Edited October 23, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[PavlovsCat]

@Billy86 After you've learned how to use presets, this less than 2 minute video will teach you everything you need to know to create your own patterns. This works with any Evolution guitar. Once you learn the strumming feature for one Evolution guitar, you've learned how every Evolution guitar library works. 
 

This is a longer version video of that process.