Showing posts with label Guitar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guitar. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Monday, August 19, 2013
Review: Sample Magic Chillwave Guitars
Developer: Sample Magic
Format: Digital download in WAV, Apple Loops, or Rex2 format.
Price: £14.95
Demo: Audio demo on the Product Page
Today I'll be having a listen to the "Chillwave Guitars" library from Sample Magic. This is a collection of 284 guitar loops divided into both processed and unprocessed versions, should you care to apply your own effects chain. A variety of vintage acoustic and electric guitars were used in the recording sessions, and in the case of the effected loops, processed heavily with reverbs, chorus, delay, and the like.
Musically, the riffs are fairly minimal and "open" sounding. These are less the sort of riff that is going to be the main hook in your song and more the sort of thing that adds a special extra something to inspire and build the rest of your arrangement around - arpeggios, melody fragments, textures. While simple, the parts are played extremely well and sound thoroughly professional.
Throughout, the guitar sounds themselves bring to mind the distinctive tones of the Cure, the Cocteau Twins, or even the types of guitar tones all over Junkie XL's "Today" album. While the influence of a lot of the tones are reminiscent of the 80's, the recording and production quality is definitely current. "Warm", "Dreamy", and "Atmospheric" are all descriptors that come to mind. Surprisingly, given the atmospheric nature of these riffs, most of them loop pretty seamlessly.
Given the almost comically-short shelf life for most electronic music genres, you may wonder if this library will be useful to those outside the chillwave genre and the answer is a resounding yes. Producers of ambient, soundtrack and commercial music, dreampop, downtempo, and other genres where dreamy guitars are a must, will all find something to like here. [9/10]
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Nick Crow Releases V 1.2 of 8505, Includes Mac Compatibility
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Free Gift for Owners of XLN Audio's Addictive Drums
Monday, July 9, 2012
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Not That There's Anything Wrong With That...
Thanks to my friend Steve for sending me this one.. Amazing graphics and name! Want one? They're made by Quinnamp.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
360 Systems Spectre Guitar Synth (Oberheim SEM) on eBay
Rare guitar synth manufactured by 360 Systems. The synth section itself is actually an Oberheim SEM!Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Free Guitar Harmonics Ableton Live Rack from AfroDJMac
I haven't been keeping up with every single Live Rack Mr. AfroDJMac has released, but I've always been a sucker for the sound of guitar harmonics, so, as you might have guessed, his latest free release provides just that. Here's what he says:"This weeks rack was created by sampling the harmonics produced by each string at the 5th, 7th, and 12th fret. The instrument comes set up with a macro knob that allows you to switch between the different samples, each of which has its own unique character. This allows for some cool effects, such as holding the sustain pedal and changing the sample while you play, which creates an interesting morphing timbre.
There’s a macro knob that reverses the samples, creating a swelling, somewhat glitchy sound, not unlike those from some of my favorite psychedelic Beatles tracks (or my 3rd Ableton Live Rack: Reversed Piano”). I’ve also been experimenting with the Grain Delay plug-in more and more these days, and there are some macro knobs to control that effect.
Check it out and have fun! PS. If you are not a Live user, you can still use the samples included in the download."
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Review: Impact Soundworks Sheddage X
Library: Shreddage X Electric Guitar Samples
Format: Kontakt 4 Instruments
Genre: Anything that needs rhythm guitar
Developers Site: Impact Soundworks
Price: $20.00 (Complete Shreddage set $69)
Demo: On product page
Shreddage X is the new expansion pack for Impact Soundworks original Shreddage guitar samples library for Native Instruments Kontakt 4. (This is apparently the only format it will be available in given that Kontakt's complex scripting abilities are often needed here). We've seen an increasing number of drum libraries where different velocities and playing techniques are integrated into round robin instruments to create super-realistic sounding instruments almost indistinguishable from the real deal. Now, we're seeing more and more sample developers apply that same idea to melodic instruments. Shreddage X is basically designed to open up all the playing techniques needed to create convincing rhythm guitar tracks. What makes this collection especially nice is that lets you use velocity to switch between performance techniques as opposed to playing notes on a "dead" section of the keyboard to do the switching. This can admittedly be a bit tricky with some of the more complex instruments if you're not a very controlled keyboard player, but to me, it feels more natural to do this way overall.
What is most impressive about this collection to me is how thorough it is. Over 1,000 WAV samples are organized into nearly 50 instruments covering sustain mutes, palm mutes, chordstops, chord chokes, power chords, open sustains, harmonics, natural vibrato, scrapes, squeaks, and slides. All instruments are available in 'double tracked' versions as well, which layers two slightly different instances of the same samples. As a nice bonus, some presets for amp simulators such as Guitar Rig or Amplitube are included as well.
The sound quality of the samples is very good and perhaps even more importantly, the matching from note to note is expertly done and seamless for the most part (a couple round robin sounds were a bit easier to pick out as samples, but only when played in isolation.) Everything has been recorded cleanly, so you pretty much have a blank slate as to where you want to go with these sounds. Will it be reggae skanks drenched in spring reverb? The Edge's shimmering delay work outs? Metal chugging through a simulated Marshall stack? The sky is pretty much the limit as far as where you go, it's just up to you to put together the right samples with the right effects. Throw in a little playing (or programming) technique and you'll be putting together convincing rhythm guitar parts in no time.
There's really not much I can fault here. There is an impeccable attention to detail and some very good programming behind these instruments that makes them hard to resist. This is especially worth a look if you need a rhythm guitar in your arrangements but lack a real player or the ability to play it yourself. Very convincing and very playable! [10/10]
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Friday, January 7, 2011
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Sample Oddity Releases Free D.I. Metal Rhythm Guitar Samples for Kontakt 2+
SampleOddity have released a free 166MB set of heavy metal rhythm guitar recorded through a D.I. (so they'll need to be fed through an amp simulator to sound most authentic). Here's the details:
"$0 (USD) FREE!
166MB of samples /53MB .rar download
Essential metal articulations
Powerchord 5ths (4xRR)
Palm-muted staccatos
powerchord palm-mutes (8xRR)
single string palm-mutes (8xRR)
Single note sustains (4xRR)
.wav files are open for you to browse/alter/use as sound effects.
Kontakt 2.2.4 / 3.5 full version required"
GO GET THEM!
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Coolest Guitar Picks Ever?
Via Gizmodo:At $7-$8 a pop, this isn't for the frugal, but it's hard to deny the geeky coolness of a guitar pick recycled from old circuit boards.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Playing Hooky
I was poking around online and came across this interesting thread about Peter Hook's (if you don't know which bands he was in, you probably won't care...) distinctive bass tone and how it's achieved. Although I think it leaves out the vital tip that it won't sound the same unless you sling your bass so low that it's bouncing off your shins.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Lou Reed Plays the Moog Guitar
By now you probably have heard that Moog Music, known mainly for their legendary synthesizers, has decided to enter the guitar market. The Moog Guitar has e-bow sustain mechanisms built into each individual string for amazing sustain effects that were previously impossible. Oh yeah, and it costs almost $7,000 so you can believe that the guys featured in this video are among the 5 people in the world who can afford it...
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