I recently did a commercial for Dollywood, and of course because it was Dollywood it's going to have a certain flavor to it which would include guitars. Now, anyone that's ever done commercial work knows that the approval process can be a bit painful. This means revisions and rewrites and more revisions and rewrites with very little time in-between. The biggest pain for me is knowing that all of the live instruments that I've recorded are now going to have to be re-recorded because version 1 was too slow and now version 2 is too fast and then version 3...well you get the idea. And since time and expediency is the name of the game all of these time consuming re-records become an issue. That's why finding a good virtual guitar became the focus for this project.
I actually have a few guitar sample libraries but I remember a few months ago stumbling across a website that had an electric guitar that I was fairly impressed with. So I went back and to my surprise the electric that I liked had now been updated with a new "engine" and improved. I was blown away by the demos.
Orangetreesamples.com is not your typically known music website like EastWest or Project Sam. On their website, they tout "Ultra Realistic Sample Libraries for Kontakt" and if the "Evolution Guitar Strawberry" is any indication, I have to agree. Aside from its strange name, it's a really, really extraordinary electric guitar - actually, I think the original guitar was called "Strawberry" and this is the "evolution" of the new guitar update. Whatever...they can call it "Lamp" as far as I'm concerned because it sounds and performs great and that's all that matters!
First here's their description from the site and then I'll give you my take on their claims...
Evolution Electric Guitar covers rhythm and lead guitar playing -- which includes Orange Tree Samples powerful and advanced, yet easy to use, chord strumming functionality. The strumming system automates the time consuming task of sequencing realistic rhythm guitar parts, including an intelligent chord detection engine, which instantly translates chords on the keyboard into guitar voicings on the fretboard. Popular studio techniques like double tracking (and triple and quadruple tracking) are performed with the turn of a knob. Want to detune or capo the guitar? It's all easily done, and switching to alternate tunings not only affect the range of the instrument, but change the tone of the individual strings. To provide the greatest versatility, Evolution Electric Guitarwas recorded dry and includes an assortment of virtual stompbox effects, and a vast array of guitar cabinet impulses, all built directly into the sample library. That way users can choose their favorite select amp simulation and effects to attain just the right sound, from pop to rock to funk to hip hop to jazz right out of the box.
•...covers rhythm and lead guitar playing
Yes - I originally got this for covering lead solos. The mod wheel actually sounds like vibrato. Not really sure how they did this but it is spot on. The tones were exceptional but I quickly found that I could create convincing rhythm patterns by either playing or using the "chord strumming system."
•...which includes Orange Tree Samples powerful and advanced, yet easy to use, chord strumming functionality. The strumming system automates the time consuming task of sequencing realistic rhythm guitar parts,
Yes - what is cool about this, is that you have a drop down menu and a variety of strumming patterns to choose from. I do have to say that when you solo these strumming patterns it's not like your listening to a live player standing in front of you BUT when these strumming patterns are "in the mix" they are pretty convincing.
•The strumming system automates the time consuming task of sequencing realistic rhythm guitar parts, including an intelligent chord detection engine, which instantly translates chords on the keyboard into guitar voicings on the fretboard
Yes - this really does work! Now, I'm a guitar player and understand how voicing's work on a fretboard however for those who are keyboard only players, this feature is invaluable in giving you convincing sounding chord voicing's. Nothing drives me more crazy than hearing a track with a virtual guitar and sounding like a keyboard player was playing it on a keyboard! You end up hearing a track that sounds like the guitar player had 14" long fingers in order to play those chords.
•Popular studio techniques like double tracking (and triple and quadruple tracking) are performed with the turn of a knob. Want to detune or capo the guitar? It's all easily done, and switching to alternate tunings not only affect the range of the instrument, but change the tone of the individual strings.
Yes - all of the double tracking stuff is cool and really gives you flexibility in creating a big sounding track but the feature that I absolutely love is the switching the alternate tunings. Dropping the low E down to a D or C gives it that flavor that I haven't found in other libraries (yet). Using a cc (controller) I can, in real time, determine where on the fretboard the chords (or lead) is played. This changes the tone of the chord (or lead) as it would on a real guitar. Combine this with the intelligent chord detection and you start getting results that sounds legit. Because remember, guitarist just don't play on the first 3 frets!!!
•Evolution Electric Guitarwas recorded dry and includes an assortment of virtual stompbox effects, and a vast array of guitar cabinet impulses, all built directly into the sample library. That way users can choose their favorite select amp simulation and effects to attain just the right sound, from pop to rock to funk to hip hop to jazz right out of the box.
Yes - I absolutely applaud the fact that it was recorded dry - nothing, nada, bare naked clean! Thank you, as there's nothing more irritating than trying to work with a virtual that has ambience or EQ recorded to it and then trying to make it work within the context of your project, not to mention that everyone that also owns that same virtual immediately recognizes it.
Once again, there is a drop down menu to select FX presets and stomp boxes and they are apply named like, "Biker Gang," "Dangeresque," "New Smooth Jazz," "Silky Lead," "Texas Tweed" and 37 others. Note: you can also start with a dry guitar or take any of those presets and change and tweak to create your own presets.
You can pretty much get any style of guitar sound that you need with this instrument like they say, rock, pop, jazz and as I did on the Dollywood track, "Chicken Pickin'". And for those of you that can appreciate the complexity of fingering and articulations of actually chicken picking, you know that for a virtual instrument to convincingly pull this off is no small feat! I played the final track for a well respected guitar player friend of mine and he was totally blown away and couldn't believe that it wasn't a live player.
PROS:
•This is a great "out of the box" virtual guitar. You can very quickly start using this instrument with great results but it's also an incredibly deep instrument and has a ton controller and programming capabilities.
•The interface is a guitar and it shows you the chords on the keyboard as you are playing. The GUI is laid out very intuitively, so you can just jump in and start playing.
•All the presets sound great, totally usable and there are a ton to choose from.
•4 Layers per note (round robin) to avoid that "machine gun" effect.
•Repetition Key (C0) to do repetitive notes or chords. Simply put, if you hold a note or chord down and then repeat C0, you can do the "chug chug," "speed metal," repeat solo notes, whatever, just like a real player would do.
•Using the mod wheel for vibrato actually sounds like vibrato! Not the usual modulation "wobble"
•Extensive cc controller capability. I have most of the controls of this instrument (which there can be as much control as you want or need) cc'd to my Novation Zero SLMkII. There's always a bit of a learning curve when you start utilizing controllers, but it's well worth the time to become familiar with them and "take control" of the instrument. It's the difference between being a good virtual and being a great convincing instrument.
•Specialty preset fx patches. In the fxs presets, there are a few really cool patches like "Dreamland" that have a muted echoey kind thing happening...so not just the typical guitar patch sound. This kind of sound would even work well in the film genre.
•Fxs like long scrapes, muted chugs, ring slides, down slides, etc., etc.
•Articulations - Sustains, Palm Mutes, Muted, Tapping, Natural Harmonics, Blues Strum, Strum Sustain, Strum Muted, Squeal (particularly effective doing a solo - I feel just like Eddie Van Halen). Being able to cover most articulations really give this library a convincing sound.
•Even though it's one guitar, you can make it sound like a variety. From a Tele, a rippin' PRS/Strat sound to a jazz feel to what ever. I pretty much have every ax that I need at my finger tips.
•Fast load times with a relatively small memory footprint which really helps when you want to have 3 or 4 guitars in your track. For example, when I load in the guitar, Kontak shows 103.65MB. When I loaded in many of the FX presets it stays the same. Only unloading a heavy FXs preset like "Speed Demon" did it bounce up to 157.60MB which is still low! They did a really nice job of optimizing the samples.
•Just as a real player chooses where to play, I can change the bridge, bridge+neck, and neck pickup positions. The closer I play to the "virtual bridge." the thinner the sound just like on a real guitar. HUGE FEATURE! Don't take this one for granted when it comes to making a virtual guitar sound like the real thing.
•Being able to switch in and out of "legato mode" while playing lead solos is a great one invaluable feature as it makes convincing sounding articulation in the way that an actual soloist would play them. I used this when doing the "chicken pickin'" thing on the Dollywood piece and it made the difference between sounding dead on or the client saying, "uh....right....next please!"
•I can play rhythm patterns with the "strum patterns" library OR just play them on the keyboard. For example, I did a Tele rhythm track and accented certain patterns that punched through the mix - it sounded great.
•No guitar player stays on the first 3 frets! Being able to change positions on the fretboard makes the difference between sounding real, and we'll....not real!
CONS:
•If I have any criticisms for this instrument I would have to say that creating your own strumming pattens does require a certain knowledge of editing within the Kontakt engine. But, it's not rocket science and most keyboard players will understand how this works and have no problems creating their own strum pattern presets.
•I may be missing something but when I have 3 or 4 guitars up and have chosen different presets, there is no name readout on the instrument to tell me what preset I have loaded. If I can figure that one out, I'll update this.
•This is just an annoyance - when choosing a preset whether it's an FXs or Strumming preset, it doesn't default to the folder that those presets are assigned to. For example, when I make an instance in Kontakt with Evolution Guitar, select the drop down menu for an FX, the "open dialogue box" may show somewhere entirely different on my computer and then I have to navigate to EG data folder. Definitely not a deal breaker but I'm hoping that this can be fixed in the future. Just a little irritating workflow annoyance.
CONCLUSION:
Listen, nothing, and I mean nothing will ever replace a great live guitarist, but If you're looking for for a great virtual guitar, don't walk... RUN AND BUY THIS ONE! The retail price is $179, which is inexpensive, but as of this post it's at an (re) introductory price of $139. BUT, they also have a Competitive Crossgrade Discount of $40 if you have one of the listed competitive libraries. I just so happen to have had one of those libraries so the whole thing ended up costing me $100...that was positively a steal!!!! The only thing that I'm missing out of this whole thing are my calluses!
So, go to Evolution Guitar Strawberry, listen to some demos, check out the manual and read more detailed specs. This is a deep program and there's plenty more to discover about this instrument.
And here is Evolution Guitar Strawberry in action on the Dollywood track that I did using this great guitar. Take a listen, and let me know what you think!
If you have any questions about this or anything else, feel free to ask!
The guitar is truly a beautiful instrument to play. I've been learning for awhile, however, still struggle with guitar tuning without the use of an aid. Do you have any tips?
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