Any Good Steel/Slide Guitar VSTs Out There?

[dtrain1234]

Hi,

I would like to work on some country songs and I was wondering if anyone knows or uses any kind of software that would be able to produce that steel/slide guitar sound for me? I am using a Mac and Garageband for now, I might upgrade to Logic Pro in the future, thanks for your help.

[Len911]

I think a while back I had heard a lot about the wavelore, I believe it is about the only thing available for what it does. I believe I remember a review about it also that said it was very difficult.
http://www.wavelore.com/wlps_K2_details.shtml

[mojobone]

Building a VST instrument to emulate pedal steel isn't all that difficult; playing it is the snag. Playing the actual real world instrument is a daunting enough task; it's like three dimensional chess. E9 tuning, ten strings, three (or more) knee levers, five (or more) pedals, same again, plus a different (C6) tuning for your doublenecks, you do the math. On top of that, you have a slide in your left hand, which requires bat-eared intonation and nerves of, um, steel, then there's a volume control under your right foot.

I should say it's fairly easy, but you need a keyboard with polyphonic aftertouch, and those are kinda rare, nowadays. The hallmark of the pedal steel sound is holding a note or chord while bending one or more of the notes; (sometimes in one or more directions) most keyboards just aren't designed to do that. At the end of the day, it's probably easier and cheaper to jes' buy a steel.

[guscave]

At the end of the day, it's probably easier and cheaper to jes' buy a steel.

Or hire someone that can play one. Several years ago I tried looking for a VST that I could use on a demo and couldn't find any that came even half way close to the real thing. Solution: went online and found a couple a guy who offered to lay down some tracks for cheap.

[mojobone]

I was checking out the Wavelore steel's manual, interesting that they use portamento for sliding, (each string has its own MIDI channel) and they came up with a way to bend notes in opposite directions simultaneously. (!) Listened to the demos, the slow stuff sounds really good; the uptempo breakdown, sadly, is not at all convincing. Worthwhile, if more than a little spendy, (requires the full version of Kontakt, too) but you probably couldn't use it for featured parts, and like its inspiration, the learning curve is long and steep.

[Len911]

yes Mojobone, I remember now looking at the manual when I was considering buying it, and yes it is very expensive, but I remember probably the biggest reason I didn't buy it was because I couldn't even make sense of the manual,lol, and it probably sounds like it would be easier to just buy one and learn, although my uncle has been doing that for a couple years now, and says it is somewhat difficult. Sony has some samples that are much easier, one is called Nashville Wire, the hardest part is searching through all the samples to find exactly what you are looking for, it might be more productive to just start with the steel guitar samples and write your whole song around it,lol!
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/nashvillewire

[ggalen]

... it might be more productive to just start with the steel guitar samples and write your whole song around it,lol!
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/nashvillewire

Now that's a good problem-solving mind!

[mazz]

I was checking out the Wavelore steel's manual, interesting that they use portamento for sliding, (each string has its own MIDI channel) and they came up with a way to bend notes in opposite directions simultaneously. (!) Listened to the demos, the slow stuff sounds really good; the uptempo breakdown, sadly, is not at all convincing. Worthwhile, if more than a little spendy, (requires the full version of Kontakt, too) but you probably couldn't use it for featured parts, and like its inspiration, the learning curve is long and steep.

The uptempo demo sounds like it's overly quantized and very mechanical, which is too bad because I'd be willing to bet in the right hands it could work pretty well.

Regarding writing to the samples: IMO that's a valid way to work, although it can seem backwards at first. I have several loop libraries that I really like, and I will write my chord progressions to take advantage of the loops. I'll modify the loops with effects, etc., but the basis of the piece will be the chord progressions in the loops and I'll use different bass notes, common tones, etc. It's a creative way to work, but it's not the same as writing a piece and then adding a part to it afterward. With something like a steel guitar, unless you're going to spend the time to learn how to make the samples work well and sound authentic, then you're better off writing to the loops, finding a different instrument for the part, or hiring a player.

I like the Wavelore library, though, it seems like it's a good one and well thought out. I'll keep it in the back of my mind for future possibilities, thanks for the tip!

Mazz

[t4mh]

That cryin' steel! Love it! Learned to play along time ago but I don't remember much about it now. Probably wouldn't take me too long to pick it up again if I had one. Another thing to remember is the attack with finger picks. You wouldn't think its much but you can make a steel sound really , really bad ( as in NOT GOOD ) if the attack isn't right. For me, playing with finger picks was the hardest thing to get past. I just can't stand havin' the damned things on the ends of my fingers... I would think that any loops out there would come with standard articulations and in that respect they would be easier to use than finger picks...

I'd say hire a steel player and knock it out.

Keith

[Kolstad]

I've tried the demoversion of the Wavelore, and wasn't impressed. I think the product is in an early stage, but maybe a version three.

The samples from Big Fish (their country libraries) are more playable, IMO, but still can't do more than 'flavour' the track with steel sounds. Sometimes that's all you'll need, though.

But depending on what your goals are, steel isn't that much used in the country format these days, I think. The format is lots of guitars of course (Nashville = "guitar town"), but rather a slide (due to the current popularity of southern rock) than a steel. At least for the contemporary stuff, which is probably what's left for artist pitches.

But of course, for tv/film the steel sound is iconic. For that, I would go for the Big Fish samples, they are more affordable too (but watch the licence agreement ). I can't remember if they require Kontakt, but I think so.

I actually got a lap steel, and equipped it with great TV Jones pu's & a Duesenberg Multibender http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb-0c66NYDk , hoping to come closer to a pedal steel sound (without actually getting the big furniture). But it's quite hard to play like Martin on the vid, so it takes a lotta practice (not there yet!), and I think it's better on a long scale electric, like the strat he plays, than on a shorter scale lapsteel, as the bender tends to get in the way when playing the high notes (which are the real pedal steel sounding ones )..