Acoustic Guitar VST required

[Tezza]

Thanks Jim, I hope it is of interest to those who might be looking at acoustic guitar VST's.  One thing I've learned is that these VST's seem to be aimed at keyboard players wanting to play in an acoustic guitar finger picking or solo sound and to assemble strumming tracks. They are fine for that, they don't seem to be aimed at guitarists wanting to transcribe their guitar playing into samples, especially if you are a jazz player. I have achieved success in getting the Amplesound VST player to play my chords with the correct fingering and on the right frets by using the key switches but I have to put them in at every chord change for consistent results. Not too bad since I can copy the midi blocks with the key switches in them and then just change where different chords might sit.

One other problem I have come across is if you play a note at a set velocity and then play that same note a second time with the same velocity, it sounds different, more trebly. This is because these players automatically apply up and down strokes to everything you play, ok for solos but a nightmare for chords and finger picking between the chords. They usually have a way of turning this off with a slider or switch but haven't found this yet in Amplesound.

Nevertheless, I will have soon transcribed the first half of the song and then send that to David for feedback on the timing. Just now being able to convert my acoustic jazz style playing into midi and retain the original feel is an eyeopener for me.

[Chaps]

On 1/16/2020 at 3:02 AM, msmcleod said:

The Amplesound guitars sound fantastic.

They do a free version of their Martin acoustic (same sound, just less articulations than the paid for version): https://www.amplesound.net/en/pro-pd.asp?id=7

 

I've checked out the free version of the Amplesound acoustic guitar and it really does sound great, as does their free P Bass VST plugin.

Edited February 20, 2020 by Chappel
Clarification

[Jim Fogle]

@Tezza, Like you I approach guitar VSTi from a guitar player viewpoint more than a keyboard player viewpoint so I'm gathering a lot of important information from your observations.

Many people suggest you need to think like an instrument "x" player to get a Instrument "x" VSTi to sound authentic.  My guess is many VSTi designers do not play the instrument they design so when an instrument "x" player tries to use the VSTi it is more difficult to use than it needs to be.

There are multiple reasons why I'm so interested in guitar VSTi.  I have no interest in recording my guitar playing.  I live in a very noisy area and I'm a terrible musician!  But I understand music from a guitar perspective and most popular music has one or more guitar tracks.  I like working with midi so guitar VSTi makes sense for me.

[Tezza]

Yes, there are advantages to guitarists to transcribe acoustic work, I guess it depends on the style you play. Ironically, my style is very much suited to transcribing to acoustic VST because I can actually write all the single notes, chords and occasional strums into the piano roll easily. But... the acoustic guitar VST's are not designed for this purpose, they are designed that you will either strum (using the pattern strummer) or play solo (which doesn't allow chords) or play direct from the keyboard (different VST's implement this differently).

The Amplesound is winning at the moment for me as I can do most of what I want to do. It's a bit of work initially to start with but then there are benefits:

1. You have better control over finger noise and fret noise.
2. It doesn't matter if you have a real life ordinary guitar, you can access a better sound.
3. You can "record" acoustic guitar (transcribe to midi) despite the angle grinder and barking dogs next door.
4. Once transcribed, you have access to a midi roll with all the notes, making it a lot easier to build arrangements from that (if you arrange with midi)
5. You can change tempo's or experiment with the song after it's transcribed, with no audio track to worry about.
6. You can change notes or chords in the arrangement after you transcribe rather than being locked to an audio recording.
7. You can choose to include different notes in chords that might not be playable on an actual guitar for a different sound.

 

[NeedMoreGuitars]

Try out DSK dynamic guitars 

[Tezza]

On 2/28/2020 at 7:12 AM, Benjamin said:

Try out DSK dynamic guitars 

Yes I've given those a try, they are not as convincing as the more expensive ones if they are the only instrument but can sound fine mixed in with other instruments.