Programming guitar tracks

[awrichar]

Hey all - first post here! After being a TAXI member for 2 years, I thought I would check out the forum

I'm looking for recommendations on how to lay down quick guitar tracks when writing. Mostly I'm wondering if there is any software out there for programming electric guitar parts (MIDI or otherwise) that don't sound like absolute crap. I'm sure nothing comes close to a live part, but it would really speed up my writing process if I could find a solution with some samples that make a halfway decent backing track.

I'm mainly a keyboard/synth player...but it's hard for me to write pop/rock-type vocals without an electric guitar part to work over. I can chunk out some power chords as well as the next guy, but it's totally not my forte...so I'd rather be wasting less time on it during the writing phase.

Currently I'm using Cubase LE and Reason 3. A couple of my demos are at http://www.myspace.com/arichardsonmusic if you want to hear...we're talking really basic pop/rock guitar parts. Thanks for any suggestions!

Andrew

[Dwayne Russell]

Hey all - first post here! After being a TAXI member for 2 years, I thought I would check out the forum

I'm looking for recommendations on how to lay down quick guitar tracks when writing. Mostly I'm wondering if there is any software out there for programming electric guitar parts (MIDI or otherwise) that don't sound like absolute crap. I'm sure nothing comes close to a live part, but it would really speed up my writing process if I could find a solution with some samples that make a halfway decent backing track.

I'm mainly a keyboard/synth player...but it's hard for me to write pop/rock-type vocals without an electric guitar part to work over. I can chunk out some power chords as well as the next guy, but it's totally not my forte...so I'd rather be wasting less time on it during the writing phase.

Currently I'm using Cubase LE and Reason 3. A couple of my demos are at http://www.myspace.com/arichardsonmusic if you want to hear...we're talking really basic pop/rock guitar parts. Thanks for any suggestions!

Andrew

THis one is awesome depending on what you're doing. It's so real sounding no one will know its not a real player:

http://www.vir2.com/instruments/electri6ity

It not something that you make sound great the first time you use it. It takes some learning and practice. But, its killer. I think this has more samples per note than any other VI ever made to date. I think it has like 10,000 per note. Not sure but its some crazy figure like that.

[Kolstad]

I'd also list Cinematic Guitars from Sample Logic, prob. less real sounding than Electricity, and more for textures. Nevertheless awesome http://www.samplelogic.com/cinematicguitars.html

[mojobone]

Slayer 2 sounds pretty good; uses a modeled string rather than samples, even does feedback. The onboard distortion sounds aren't all that hot, but it can sound pretty realistic when run through a good amp modeler. Does pretty good metal-style melodic leads, arpeggios and rhythm chucks, some of the patches are palm-muted at lower velocities/sustain when you poke a little harder. The onboard effects other than distortion are very good. That said, no ones's going to mistake you for Eric Johnson. You could also look at this.

[awrichar]

Thanks a lot for the suggestions! Electri6ity looks (and sounds) pretty incredible. May be overkill for me...I wish they had a trial so I could really check it out. $400 is a lot to drop on a piece of software without ever trying it.

The others seem to be a little out of my genre...as was said, it sounds like Slayer's tones are more metal-focused, and Cinematic Guitars is really ambient. Good sounds though.

Maybe I just need to find some loops for writing, rather than worrying about programming a part up front. Any recommendations in that direction (ie a package of pop/rock guitar loops)?

[mazz]

I've had decent luck with Real Guitar, they have both acoustic and electric versions. There's some good loop libraries from Nine Volt Audio that come in several versions like Acidized Wav and REX. The REX files can be converted for use in Stylus RMX, which makes them very tempo friendly and gives access to all the cool Stylus editing functions. They even have different types of chords played in 8ths with different accents, etc., for those "standard" guitar parts that are part of a lot of the styles you've mentioned.

I would like to submit that for writing you can just bang out some chords if you can pull that off, even for one verse, and loop it for the writing phase. Once the writing is done, hire a good guitar player to knock out the parts for you, or collaborate or offer some barter or something. There's really no substitute for the real thing and I've found that the time investment it takes to get one of these libraries like Vir2 or Prominy to sound really great doesn't warrant the time investment, at least for me! By the time I get the part where I want it, I could have written a couple more instrumentals and had a great player lay down the track already! Time really is money.

Just something to think about.

Mazz

[mojobone]

Slayer does clean and ambient guitars, too, but they can sound a touch "synth-y" without some additional polish/signal processing; it's pretty cool for the price. I'm mostly a guitarist, so it's usually easier for me to play 'em than program. You might want to search eBay for Oberheim's Strummer; it's a pretty cool little hardware box that can convert block chords to strums, I think Linn may have made something similar at one point.

[Len911]

For basic cheap you might look at something like twiddly bits guitar midi and a sonivox guitar. $40 for a midi collection and a sonivox guitar like the les paul which is on sale today for $22.95.

http://www.keyfax.com/index.php/softwar ... s.html?p=2

http://www.sonivoxmi.com/ProductDetail. ... -+Les+Paul

[awrichar]

Wow, lots of stuff to check out now! Thanks for all the suggestions. Long day at the office today, so I didn't get to check them all out in detail...the REX loops from Nine Volt sound closest to what I was envisioning, but now I've got a few ideas of different routes I could go with this.

Also @Mazz - what you described is basically what I'm doing now...ie bang out the chords myself, loop it while I write, then get a real guitarist to lay down a track later. But the slow death of my amp is actually what prompted all this...it's pretty unreliable these days, so I'm evaluating whether I want to repair it, shop for a new one, or just find a software solution (since I only use the guitar for roughing out tracks anyway). As you said, time is money...and money is also money so I'm trying to decide the best way to spend both.

[mazz]

You certainly don't need an amp these days. There's plenty of modeling boxes or even software like guitar rig or the line 6 stuff for not that much money. Unless the sounds really inspire you, which is understandable, a basic sound for writing is fine, IMO. If a song works without an elaborate arrangement, it's probably a stronger song anyway, right?