The guitars, ranging in size from around 80-130MB, have been produced to professional standards using Focusrite preamps and converters. They were extensively multi-sampled at 48kHz/24 bit (converted to 32 bit for editing) across the entire instrument range. Each note was recorded with full decay (no looping!). The presets are authentically mapped with no note having to be resampled by more than a semitone. There are 3 velocity layers to produce a more dynamic sound and string/fret noise samples are included. Also, very importantly, the guitars were sampled completely dry with little or no processing of the sound. This means that it is possible to add whatever sound-shaping and effects are appropriate to suit the music project. Indeed, the electric and bass guitars, which were recorded by direct input to the recording console, generally work best with the addition of an amp simulation plugin. The acoustic instruments were recorded in stereo using a coincidental XY pair of professional quality Rode condenser microphones - this ensures mono compatibility, which can prove important during mixing. Noise levels are very low throughout and every care has been taken during the editing process.
The 16 bit presets have all been professionally "dithered" down to standard CD quality (44.1kHz/16 bit) for final use, as this represents a huge saving on the amount of computer resources required to play the instruments. In practice, I find it impossible to distinguish between these CD quality samples and the original 48kHz/32 bit samples, provided that the sampled instruments are rendered to audio at 24 bit or above. If you have a powerful system and sampler and are interested in having the original higher resolution samples, I can supply them in .wav file format for you to map into your sampler, but this option will obviously require more downloading!! Presets for Kontakt and Halion are available.
AND
ACOUSTIC
BASS
2 PRESETS
ESPANA
CLASSICAL
GUITAR
1 PRESET
STRING
ACOUSTIC
GUITAR
3 PRESETS
CARDINAL
SERIES
ELECTRIC
GUITAR
6 PRESETS
Web Archive
It is possible to play the presets using a standard MIDI keyboard and this method works well for picked guitar parts. However, with the best will in the World, it is impossible to produce strummed parts using a keyboard! For this reason, quite a number of sampled guitar collections these days include separate presets, made up of recordings of individual strums, which can be programmed together to produce strummed parts. However, these have their own inherent drawbacks and to my ears sound repetitive and stilted. Part of the problem is that you can never hope to include all of the chord extensions and inversions which professional guitarists include in their performances as a matter of course. Also, each up and down stroke tends to be slightly different, so using the same sampled strum for each stroke will never produce a completely natural sounding track.
However, there is another approach, which is far more versatile and, in my opinion, produces more realistic results. It IS possible to produce convincing strummed guitar sounds with standard multi-sampled guitars as long as the MIDI data has been recorded using a proper MIDI guitar controller. If you are lucky enough to own one of these, so much the better. If you do not, my advice would be to purchase one of the excellent "Twiddly Bits" MIDI guitar collections from www.keyfax.com. These were recorded by well known professional guitarists, include all common guitar playing styles and articulations and sound superb. Their other great advantage is that they are infinitely editable, allowing you to produce any chord extension you require. You can then, of course, patch any guitar sound you want and add effects as necessary. It is worth noting that many of the guitar riffs included in Band-in-a-Box and Jammer were also recorded in this way and these will work particularly well with my sampled guitars.
If you are still in any doubt, please take a listen to the tracks I have created to demonstrate the individual Chevin Sounds instruments, all of which use MIDI files from the above sources. They hopefully show just how good strummed parts can sound on a sampled guitar.
DEMO GUITAR PRESETS
Demo "lite" versions of 5 of the presets from the Guitar Collection, plus some free sampled guitars from my earlier collections, are available on the demo page HERE.
If you like the demos, I hope you will choose to purchase the guitar sounds. Please follow the link below to place your order.
PURCHASE THE GUITAR COLLECTION