Midi Output?

[verdesi]

I am really enticed by RealGuitar but haven't yet taken the plunge. I have not yet migrated in any serious way to softsynths and am still working with my hardware synths, which I love and plan on continuing to use for the forseeable future. I know, I know... my username ought to be "Caveman" or some such neolithic apellation, but I feel that I haven't given my hardware guitar patches enough of a chance yet, and I don't think I want to just leapfrog over to something, like RealGuitar, which is totally different from the rest of my gear. I've been sequencing and recording for years, but only recently have started doing guitar stuff myself. So I started looking for a hardware or VST/DirectX solution that would take my keyboard midi input and magically morph it into halfway decent midi guitar tracks. I nearly spent $250 for a used Digitar, but got cold feet. Then I saw an Oberheim Strummer for a little less, but still felt that there just must be a plug-in that does this for a fraction of the money. That's when I stumbled on RealGuitar.

I'm pretty sure that with RealGuitar, you can not record the midi output. If I'm wrong, by all means set me straight! But with all the samples and the complexity of RealGuitar, I can't imagine that even if you could record the output, it'd be less than a dozen separate tracks--in other words, nearly impossible to sort out for use with other midi devices.

If RealGuitar is not what I'm looking for right now, my question for any kind souls who care to chime in is: what is? Is there anything that processes keyboard-played midi input and outputs decent midi guitar parts?

Thanks to anyone who can help.

[Landphil]

Come in to the light, Caveman!

I feel like you do. . . I'll never give up my hardware synths! I'm amazed at discussions on other sites that try to pit hardware against software. They co-exist quite nicely in my setup! I love the vsti world. It's amazing! But I also love the old fashion way. . . just turn on an amp and a keyboard and play without staring at a screen.

On to Real Guitar (RG). . .

You're correct that RG doesn't output midi. Check the forum . . . I remember somewhere that Sergey posted about the nightmare of midi info that would be required to use other samples/sounds, due to the nature of RG's method of playing samples.

I used to (and still do sometimes) go thru sequencing hell to record rhythm guitar parts. I'd do a take with strum down arpeggios, then do a takt of strum up arpeggios, adjust the velocities between the two, merge them together, then do a light double comp on top of the two, then merge that, etc. I got some good results, but it was very time consuming. Real Guitar has made it so that I can do the backing rhythm in one take . Just play a chord and you get a strum. It's very velocity sensitive, so emulating a strumming rhythm is easy.

I also own Virtual Guitar (VG) as well. When I first got it, it blew me away. But as time passed, it started to feel like VG was playing me. The preset rhythms never quite fit the style of the moment, and after a few bars without changing chords, the loop became painfully obvious. What I like about RG is that I can play IT! It responds to my velocity, my timing (or lack of) my inversions (to a point). It's just fun to play!

I've never had hands on time with Digitar or Strummer, so I can't comment on those, but in my 28 years of playing, I've never heard anything that comes close to RG for acoustic simulation that's as easy to play and sounds as good. There are some exellent sample libraries out there that sound great, but you have to develope a playing style to manipulate those samples so the sound like a guitar instead of a keyboard player with a guitar patch. RG does a lot of the work for you.

As for what you're looking for I can't say, since you didn't mention the style of music you like, or if you're looking for lead sounds or rhythm, electric or acoustic. Still, I highly recommend Real Guitar. It's a great VSTi ! And I have a feeling that the folks at MusicLab have some kickass updates coming in the future!

A couple of us have posted our own demos here:

http://www.musiclab.com/community/forum/viewtopic.php?t=327

[JohnR]

I too have hardware synths which I use regularly. I know the sounds and know where to go to instantly get the sound I am looking for.

I am strictly a keyboard player though, so RG has given me a completely new dimension. I've always wanted rhythm guitar backing and RG can give me that in a totally flexible way.

I agree with LandPhil about playing style. To play a keyboard in the same style as a guitar is extremely difficult, so for MusicLab to create a new method to play RG is completely logical.

Over time I'm sure that Musiclab will produce more and more samples so you can get the sound you're after, but at the moment there's an awful lot of free plugins out there that can be inserted in the audio path to adjust the sample to get more of the type of sound that you are looking for.

It was only two years ago that my PC first became capable of running VSTi's, and I was blown away by the whole new world I discovered.

John