Open Guitar - A new concept in virtual instruments: VSTi plugin + guitar loops service

                                    

            Let me introduce you to "Open Guitar", the new virtual instrument by NUSofting.

            

            "So what's new about it?" you're asking.

            The answer is not simple. Let me first explain how a real guitar can be

            seen in the synthesizer world as a stack of 6 monophonic synths. (Here

            I will assume that you known the meaning of: "legato", "polyphony",

            "staccato","hammer on" and "pull off")

            

            Speaking in synth terms you would say that a 6 string guitar features 6

            voice polyphony, so any keyboard synth with at least 6 voices available

            could do the job of playing what a guitar can do in terms of notes and

            chords. Wrong! With this architecture, two peculiarities of guitar

            voicing would be lost. The first is that on the guitar fretboard we

            have many "duplicate" notes. For instance, you have the same C note

            both on the first fret of string 2 (B) and the fifth fret of string 3

            (G), but the two sound very different and they can be played at the

            same time. So actually, each string of the guitar is an instrument on

            its own.

            

            It’s even more evident with the second peculiarity: on a guitar you can

            play legato using one string while playing staccato using another one -

            again at the same time. This feature is responsible of those nice

            "hammer on" and "pull off" techniques you hear in most of the simple

            but beautiful strummed or arpeggiated chords which fill so many songs.

            

            And this is what I have captured with "Open Guitar". The six strings

            are mapped in my MIDI instrument to six monophonic synths, each of them

            allowing legato playing on its own. Moreover, just like with a real

            guitar, the faster the legato playing is the louder will be the next

            legato note. (That happens since the higher the speed of the finger

            hammering transmits more energy to the vibrating string)

            

            Another feature of Open Guitar is the "modelled resonance" per string

            and for the whole "soundbox", these DSP filters allow to emulate the

            contiuous variation of the harmonics which nalturally happens in a real

            guitar. Therefore greatly reducing the "machine gun" effect of the same

            sound sample retriggered many times.

            

            For ease of use "Open Guitar" uses only one MIDI channel at time (any

            of the 16) so that the "duplicate" notes of a real guitar are missing.

            The range of the instrument is D1-C4, allowing to play both in standard

            guitar tunning and in the wider "Drop D" open tuning.

            

            Even with the limitations of Open Guitar many of the main guitar chords

            are possible, arpeggios with "hammer on" and "pull off" are playable

            with standard MIDI keyboard and chords strums are programmable with any

            MIDI sequencer with VSTi host.

            

            A small collection of MIDI files is bundled with the plugin, these can

            be used a starting loops to compose your custom track for Open Guitar.

            

            The MIDI files are provvided also as Ableton Live Clips (Windows only)

            which includes also the Open Guitar settings and the audio effects I

            programmed for the clips. Moreover a chart with the most used guitar

            chords, which are possible with Open Guitar, is included as well.

            

            

            

            Send your questions to info[AT]smplugins.com

            

            

            How to use Open Guitar plugin.

            

            To play Open Guitar you need a VST Host running on Windows XP or Vista.

            

            The Open Guitar plugin has no on board audio effect, it's just the pure

            instrument (but customizable with the Soundbox and EQ controls)

            and like you would do recording a real guitar you should use

            extra EQ and compressor to enhance the sound, plus any effect (Chorus,

            Flanger, Reverb...) you may need.

            

            

            The Open Guitar parameters.

            

            Envelope: Decay Time, used to damp the sound, linked to ModWheel cc#1

            Envelope: Sus Gain, used to add power to the volume

            

            Soundbox: Plate, filter control for soundbox harmonics, cc#23

            Soundbox: Gain, amount of soundbox volume

            Soundbox: Width, size of the soundbox, this parameter is not modulatable

            

            Tuning: 6 string fine pitch controls

            

            MIDI controls: keys from D1 to C4 play the strings, anyother key mutes the guitar,

            - ModWheel cc#1 controls the Decay Time

            - Value of cc#23 controls the tone of the soundbox

            

            Varipluk: switch on the physical modelling per string