UJAM Silk 2 is out

[Soundwise]

$49 for the instrument.

$29 for crossgrade from other UJAM Virtual Guitar instruments.

$19 for upgrade from original Silk.

https://www.ujam.com/guitarist/silk/

 

https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/1-Instruments/64-Virtual-Instrument/11872-SILK-2-Upgrade-from-SILK-1

https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/1-Instruments/64-Virtual-Instrument/11873-SILK-2-Crossgrade-from-any-Virtual-Guitarist

https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/1-Instruments/64-Virtual-Instrument/11871-SILK-2

 

UPD

PB won't allow purchasing the upgrade if Silk 1 is not in your PB account.
Best Service to the rescue.

Instrument:
https://www.bestservice.com/en/virtual_guitarist_silk_2.html

Crossgrade:

https://www.bestservice.com/en/virtual_guitarist_silk_2_crossgrade.html

Upgrade:

https://www.bestservice.com/en/virtual_guitarist_silk_2_upgrade.html

Edited January 24 by Soundwise

[Yan Filiatrault]

2 minutes ago, Soundwise said:

$29 for the instrument.

$19 for upgrade from original Silk.

 

https://www.ujam.com/guitarist/silk/

It's 49$, not 29$

[Soundwise]

1 minute ago, Yan Filiatrault said:

It's 49$, not 29$

Patience, my friend. ? Takes a few minutes to fact-check and look for prices/details.

[Bapu]

Had some BestCoin so for $11.02........  Installed!

[Soundwise]

Demoing Silk 2. Hugely disappointed.

This is not an instrument, but rather a player for built-in midi loops and patterns like strums and arpeggios. Arpeggios, however, have nothing in common with the guitar technique of the same name. Any DAW or MIDI-keyboard can do the same. Instrument page is a joke - you can't play single notes, just chords that have to be either strummed or picked. Although it is possible to play regular guitar arpeggios on the instrument page, I still wonder how playing arpeggios (picking every note) with one hand while holding a chord with another is better than just playing arpeggios? Also, you can't play any embellishments, like grace notes, slurs, etc.

I must mention, that the recorded samples are not great, average at best. 7GB of disk space for something as useless as this piece of software? No, thanks!

Edited January 25 by Soundwise

[audioschmaudio]

2 hours ago, Soundwise said:

you can't play single notes, just chords that have to be either strummed or picked.

Not even if you switch from chord mode to note mode? I would have expected that that's exactly what note mode is there for.

[Soundwise]

1 hour ago, audioschmaudio said:

Not even if you switch from chord mode to note mode? I would have expected that that's exactly what note mode is there for.

I tried it - deafening silence, unless you press one of the pattern keys.

Edited January 25 by Soundwise

[lawajava]

@Soundwise - I had the same experience- no sound playing single notes.  I ran out of time trying to determine my user error. I did watch the Walkthrough vid on Silk (which is of course well done).  Single note playing is demonstrated in the Walkthrough. I just need to learn which button to get there.

[Soundwise]

1 hour ago, lawajava said:

@Soundwise - I had the same experience- no sound playing single notes.  I ran out of time trying to determine my user error. I did watch the Walkthrough vid on Silk (which is of course well done).  Single note playing is demonstrated in the Walkthrough. I just need to learn which button to get there.

I've seen something that looked like single not playing, too. Yet, here we are, not able to find a way to do it with this toy "instrument". ?

[audioschmaudio]

I just installed the demo. What is strange is that the installer says I have 29 trial days remaining, but inside my DAW the plugin tells me that I only have 7 days left

However, I gave it a try and figured out that to play it like a real guitar you have to use instrument, trigger mode off, hold one of the white notes between C3 and F5 to pick a chord and then simultaneously press the white notes from C2 to A2 to play individual notes, or H2 to strum the whole chord. It's how a guitarist would play the guitar. The notes from C3 to F5 represent the left hand that frets the strings and the notes from C2 to H2 represent the right hand that holds the pick.

tip: click on the little keyboard icon with a question mark on the right to see the help menu for the key layout:

Edited January 25 by audioschmaudio

[Soundwise]

2 minutes ago, audioschmaudio said:

then simultaneously press the white notes from C2 to A2 to play individual notes, or H2 to strum the whole chord. It's how a guitarist would play the guitar.

Well, these keys allow you to trigger only notes within a chord while you are never sure which  degree (or string) is mapped to those keys in C2-A2 range. And, as I said, you won't be able to play embellishments, because your set of notes is limited by the played chord.

As for guitarists, a real player would expect individual pitch keys to be mapped to a certain string, e.g., C2 -> 6th string, A2 -> 1st string. Not the case here.

Check out AmpleSound guitars, AAS GS-2, AcousticSamples, etc.

[Steve K]

There definitely are some odd design decisions in this new version:

• Omission of  instrument mode, particularly since they do have it in Carbon 2. 
• As Soundwise points out, the pitch keys are definitely playing the wrong notes relative to a real guitar.  This is actually really poorly implemented -- the third and fourth strings play the same pitch -- this is a bug or perhaps user error because rarely it does work correctly.
• Almost all of the presets seem to be geared to creating synth sounds rather than guitar sounds
• Small number of pattern presets, at least compared to Carbon 2 and Silk 1.  Patttern presets are a key feature, if not the key feature, of an instrument like this. 
• MIDI drag-and-drop only works with Silk instrument mode.  It would be nice to use the patterns with a different instrument (acknolwedge that this wouldn't work for strums, but it would for arpeggios).  AAS GS-2 has the same limitation.

But also some good things:

• Key triggering works better than Silk 1 -- less choppy, more playable than its predecessor
• Remove the stomp box and finisher effects and, in my opinion, the guitar sound is better than in Silk 1.  But it doesn't sound nearly as good as NI Nylon.  And the patterns aren't as good either.  Silk 2 is better than AAS GS-2 nylon guitar models -- although I think the AAS nylon models are actually pretty darn adequate.

I am finding that the best use for Silk 2 is playing its synthy/guitary presets alongside Silk 1's more traditional arpeggio patterns.  The keyswitches are the same between both so this is easy to make happen.  I understand the complaint about not having an instrument mode, but I think most folks who can proficiently tinkle the keys might be happier with Heavyocity's free Foundations Nylon Guitar, which sounds amazing.

 

Edited January 26 by Steve K
cleanup

[Fleer]

Instrument mode is what I’d be missing most. 

[Soundwise]

AAS GS-2 used to be my go-to instrument for quick and dirty guitar mock-ups. A few years ago I injured my left wrist and was unable to play the guitar. Although now my wrist seems to have recovered from that injury, I still cannot practice/play for more than 30 minutes. That's why I'm looking for easy to use guitar instruments and libraries and often compare their UI/UX against GS-2. It's a very capable little gem (head and shoulders above UJAM, imo) that can do electric, acoustic and nylon string guitars; all strumming and picking is a breeze. The only downside- it cannot compete with quality sampled instruments tonewise.

 

[lawajava]

Instrument mode is still there. The button for it moved location.