Free Kontakt Instrument - Dream Guitar - Bowed Guitar Patch

[Stuartfox]

Just thought I'd share a quick patch I've made up (Full Kontakt 4.2 required)

I've made up a lot of custom instruments for various projects - this was made of some source sounds from a bigger bowed guitar library I've made up - just thought it sounded cool especially as a bass pad effect.

so here it is - https://files.me.com/stuartfoxmusic/wgfr1s" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Enjoy it!

[Stuartfox]

So I have v2 already: https://files.me.com/stuartfoxmusic/wgfr1s" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Just slightly tweaked! Plays nicer for me now!

[rhythm_kitchen]

Hey thanks for this. Hoping it'll load in 5.

I was at that Led Zeppelin show in Cleveland's Public Hall when Jimmy Page was 'trying out' his violin bow I think for the first time. It was pretty scratchy sounding even on a Gibson. I know it is impossible on a Fender.

Imagine today being handed a completely new triggering device live in front of literally thousands. Actually Jerry Garcia did this with a MIDI guitar and a Proteus Rack at Shoreline one performance (those patch levels are notorious in that box and blew out the entire right side of the Meyer array). I knew exactly what he was doing (arrrg! MIDI guitar) scanning patches with that dial and after that show they fired their long-time house mixer, which was a bummer.

Why it wasn't going through a limiter we'll never know except possibly that Clearsound's custom designed DI boxes that many Bay Area guitarists used live had their feeds split so there was always a direct balanced feed to the console (as once Bob Weir's Digitech tube fx's unit ROM got scrambled and his guitar went dead). No pun intended. The Proteus is hi-z unbalanced and the limiter was up next to the house console. Proteus patched directly into the snake and who but a keyboard player with that early Proteus would know. I've blown a few speakers with that first Proteus myself.

You should see the pink noise calibration Meyer Sound uses (covering the seats with canvas) even scanning the monitors at ear splitting levels to prevent any spikes... unfamiliar with the Proteus or that Jerry's monitor feed was too low and he couldn't hear the patches. Besides there is a master volume and a MIDI volume when in Mode 4.

I accidently stepped on stage just as the monitor test began and Bob Weir grabbed me and yanked me back or my ears would've been fried.

We called this now normalizing. But man, in those days, patch changing was a dangerous thing even with close onstage monitors (to the keyboard player).

At Woodstock, oven lightbulbs were used between the Altec's and the power amps. So if they blew, one just screwed in another (Edison socket) rather than blowing the 18" woofers on the Altecs or their compression drivers.

Thanks for sharing this patch. Next stop? Master Funk Guitar on Maschine in plugin mode? Yeah I'm a midiot what can I say.

[Stuartfox]

Hey thanks for this. Hoping it'll load in 5.

It will run in 5 no probs - its only a very simple patch I threw together this morning but the bass notes are sounding good in the mix of something I'm working on now.

BTW - WOW at your response. I must have triggered some crazy memories. When I have time I'll put together the whole patch - I just have to get the groups and key switches sorted out.

Heres a demo of the sustained patch I've made:
http://snd.sc/yWIiHN" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'll be putting these on my website at some point.

Its damn fun (if time consuming) making Kontakt patches.

Stuart

[rhythm_kitchen]

I downed that new patch. Thanks will load it in 4.1.

You guys tell me (pm) if I'm over doing things, but I feel like as composers/songwriters this is an entirely different forum than Post engineers slaving away with 12,670 gun shots to spot and melons smashed, sliced and diced. Awaiting a new stand so I can work early AM and late nights when the motorcycles and muffler noise subsides.

Actually I'm still undecided as I'm on 4.1.

For years between the early days and then back into FSK pulses, DX drum machines, I never thought much about those days and all of those bands (mostly since we were poor musicians we found a way to sneak in, like the Yardbirds show at the Grande Ballroom). If you watch Spinal Tap below Public Hall is a maze of tunnels and they connect to the parking garage. We snuck in that way (just don't tell my old manager at Belkin Productions)... and even then it was very difficult to navigate that maze.

I knew a very reclusive composer named Ben Ludlow. We became friends, and even in his retirement he and his wife Claire he was continually composing or arranging or traveling to England as I mentioned to visit Hans Jenny. His stepson heard that I had seen these shows and it was all he could talk about, asking me questions all the time. Ben mentioned to me he never stopped talking about it.

Yet there I was with the man himself: NBC Radio Symphony, Coca Cola's '50 Million times a day' and assistant conductor under Toscanini?

Ben to me was a rock star. And I believe few if any knew but myself and his wife (opening royalty checks). Once I asked Ben how he worked so fast above Radio City for these NBC live radio broadcasts and if he used the piano.

He told me at first there was an upright against a wall, but then it took too long. He had a long table setup above the famous studio at Radio City with transposers and scribes all with manuscript paper and fountain pens. Ben would write out the tune and arrangement then slide down each page, one guy transcribing for reeds, another for strings, etc then a scribe to copy the sheet music for each orchestra member.

All without rehearsal, live cues, on air NBC radio hour.

Amazing how even scoring has gotten to the point you can now just time stretch to a modified EDL. But Ben was to me the real star volunteering at churches as music director, conducting choirs, hand bells. He was writing his own hand bell arrangements at the time.

In East Bay Boston, Michael Gregory Jackson and I would cut up old swing sets then tune these as tubular bells for his aptly name: New Delta Music Scene. We all lived together on Marlborough Street near Mass Ave, and each floor Berklee or ex-Berklee railroad style apartments and the back room over the alley, dedicated practice rooms. We had a building code, no one could complain if rehearsals were in that room (all had egg cartons stapled to the ceilings/walls. At that time New England Conservatory was back to back with Berklee College of Music. (It's Pentatonic MAN! Can you dig it?)

Some here may have even lived in the building, as the alley was the back door to a Sikh veggie restaurant, and was slamming shut beginning about 4 AM, so a campaign to 'airmail' garbage began. Once in the kitchen, we were drinking Erewon tea and we saw a huge television fall right passed us. Airmailed from the roof, exploding near the loading dock in the alley. It was so loud that we used the Electro-Comp and a white noise generator (with phasing to emulate waves on a beach) with headphone cables stapled to the walls going into each of our rooms. So we had that early synth on day and night too!

...and we played loud. With a B-3, Rhodes Suitcase, synthesizer, electrified upright, Michael Gregory Jackson playing lead electric but always in 10/8, 11/8, 5/4, etc. Fusion was the thing at the time and alternate time signatures or Airto influenced (or Hermeto Pascoal) and polyrhythms.

Even now when you Google Ben Ludlow you get very little. Sadly Ben passed away but his wife Claire is still with us. Same with Jackson. I was involved in his album A View from Above, mostly in mixing and helping build that studio on the Connecticut River. Of course stacking and restacking vinyl record boxes (as many of us have) that were too out-there for a record company. And his pop songs and singing every bit as good as Stevie Wonder. Gunther Schuller was helping us with funds to tour with those tubular bells and detuned Farfiza... something that in Boston was called 'the loft concert', Cambridge, New Haven, CT, then to SOHO. Without support from Boston, Gunther Schuller, Marion Brown, that scene would never have taken off. If you heard Sun Ra below in the basement of Paul's Mall we were there when everyone had left the building! In NYC, Dia Arts, you would hear a piano sounding more like tubular bells/Tibetan bells in LaMonte Young's Well Tuned piano. Ratio tuned, with only one single string per hammer sounding.

Mike Oldfield overdubbed so many times the tape wore thin and he had to redo that entire album (which is a timeless classic). 'Tubular Bells'

My website is about ready and there I can blog to my hearts content and not worry about policing it. James Steele you must have incredible patience! I knew of Jules from back in DUC land and Editor (he had started a forum even before Jules) and glad Senior Steele has help now moderating things. Awesome too that we will soon have VST-3 support on Windows, just wish it was on Macintosh too. I heard VST-3 was written to be completely compatible with AU. Now there's AAX, another ARRRG plugin format!

http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (get ready cause this is going to be the go-to place for Windows users soon) as well as RATT 3.

I hope dealing with Windows want make us crankier, but I have both, so this is exciting time now for DP (as an ex Vision user from version 1.-0)

And I learned something when I posted erroneous information regarding WAVES and iLOK. Waves plugins are VST native with wrappers for AU, RTAS? Actually we bought that first Renaissance Compressor pack when it hit the stores for VST (Studio Vision Pro and Cubase VST) but darn if we ever even opened the packaging. Then mixing analogue... with Joe Meek SC-2, VC-1. DBX, Summit, hardware compressors/gates/verbs.

Also, besides Ben Ludlow, there are a lot of WIKIs on bands that are erroneous and not written by a bandmember. Zed Zeppelin played in Detroit 6 months prior to their record deal and first US promotional tour. A long long lived Cleveland Blues Band drove there (Ann Harbor and Cleveland were close enough you could be in a band from either/or) so they were told the good news (don't have to play to get paid) then the bad news: you can't play, and this English group needs to borrow some gear. Anyway, I was the only B-3 player as far as I know in that band when Chrissie Hinde got her start as a lead singer sitting in opening our 3rd set for what it's worth. The Led Zeppelin connection. I watched the special on Zep and this tiny little detail (as how they got bookings at Cleveland Public Auditorium or their Capital Records deal) was missing. Oh, at that time Local 4 (Cleveland) was a tough run Musician's union that had far reaching tentacles, particularly in Detroit. We had a band ready to back Frankie Avalon (also from both Cities as was his first cousin Sonny Geraci) but at the time none of us had a union card. In Cleveland you could pay a fine and still play the Agora Ballroom, but in Detroit's Hotels, nada. So he had to hire another band. Sonny Geraci was the lead singer for The Outsiders #1 single: Time Won't Let Me. Thus Eli Radish was born, a pioneer in Country Rock (as in Psychedelic). Capital Records where Zep signed with Atlantic.

We always had 20 minutes to open the 3rd set and improvise funk 4/4 - 6/8 or w/ Chrissie singing lead.

Our bass player left to tour with the Ojays and joined Tower of Power. That was pretty much end of an era for that lineup (Chrissie split for England) most of us moved permanently to Boston, LA, NYC, or San Francisco. But nearly every guitarist from Cleveland (except Joe Walsh) played at one time or another in that band... or got lost in that maze below Cleveland Public Hall (which at the time was the largest indoor venue in the states).

Also, I was going to edit above. Don't know for certain if they were actually oven lightbulbs at Woodstock or larger lightbulbs. But the lightbulb trick is old school and does protect speakers... and if it's a blue backed Jensen or even a Utah they're worth saving.

[4leafplanet]

nice post!

[zed]

Just thought I'd share a quick patch I've made up (Full Kontakt 4.2 required)

Thanks for sharing. It is a very nice mellow and meditative pad, and I have a project where I will happily find a use for it somewhere.

It doesn't sound much like a guitar. It sounds more spacey... (which is kind of like the direction of this thread)

[Stuartfox]

TBH it didn't sound much like a guitar while I was bowing it with my violin bow through a big NI guitar rig verb.... My next job is to somehow incorporate all the long bows I've got and make a big key-switched instrument- - - or maybe I can cross fade between groups with the mod wheel.... hmmm

I should really stop playing with Kontakt and violin bows and start actually doing my work!!!
)

Glad its being enjoyed though!

[bayswater]

I know it is impossible on a Fender.

I better stop doing it then.

[zed]

My next job is to somehow incorporate all the long bows I've got and make a big key-switched instrument- - - or maybe I can cross fade between groups with the mod wheel.... hmmm

Two suggestions for you...

(1) Make sure that Absolute Paths are disabled when you save the instrument. I believe you had saved it as a relative path and with both instruments I had to manually assist Kontakt to find the samples folder and resave the instruments. With relative paths, this should not be necessary.

(2) It seems that there is no velocity sensitivity on this instrument. It would play much more nicely and offer a whole range of additional playability if the volume of the note related to how hard you play the note.

If you are planning to eventually offer it up, I would love to have a copy of your big key-switched version of this instrument. It is quite nice sounding.

[Stuartfox]

Oops - Thanks Zed, thats a good point - I get really annoyed when other people do that (leave absolute paths on (this has happened with several paid for / pro libraries so I should know better

I'll have a play with the velocity - the last few I've done have had 4 or 5 layers per note - but this was a very quickly put together one that I liked the sound of so I didn't play with it for too long. I'm doing a percussive flute one 2 (taps of the pads with the pitched percussive sound recorded from the mouthpiece) Thats going to be nice I think!

Its too addictive... I should be composing!

[zed]

I know it is impossible on a Fender.

I better stop doing it then.

Strange thing is, it actually works on a Squier. I think the US and Mexican made Fenders are electronically coated to retard all bowing induced vibrations. But an e-Bow will work on a 1958 Rickenbacker, even though they spelled their company name Rickenbacher back in the 1940s. You have to take into consideration that coated strings were not invented until much later by a guitar player who preferred upright pianos. I remember reading about that one summer when the precipitation records were much higher than they'd been in recent decades.

[Stuartfox]

(2) It seems that there is no velocity sensitivity on this instrument. It would play much more nicely and offer a whole range of additional playability if the volume of the note related to how hard you play the note.

Of course - if you do play with the patch feel free to send me a modified copy

And yes - I would like to offer up the 5 or 6 little instruments I've made so far - I made a multi layered instrument from my thumb piano I bought at a market in the south of france last year - used it on my Nat Geo Zanzibar documentary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6c0KrmKkKM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - the thumb piano you hear in the titles and credits is my very first kontakt creation - theres an accurate recreation of the thumbpiano - and a hybrid full range keyboard instrument which sounds like a cross between a piano and a marimba..... but kinda metallic!

Don't want to make any money - but I figure if I eventually get the time to put a Kontakt instrument page on my web site it won't do my google rankings any harm!!!

I really miss playing with sound - the way we used to during my music tech degree - swinging mics from the roof above speakers etc etc..... gunna try and do more of that crazy stuff this year.

[zed]

Don't want to make any money - but I figure if I eventually get the time to put a Kontakt instrument page on my web site it won't do my google rankings any harm!!!

I really miss playing with sound - the way we used to during my music tech degree - swinging mics from the roof above speakers etc etc..... gunna try and do more of that crazy stuff this year.

All you need to do is to create few interesting freebies like you are doing, and then build one or two more substantial instruments which you could sell for a few bucks, whatever they may be. You could sample a really interesting upright piano, or any other number of things, and then you've got some unique products that people will pay money to add to their collections.

Then you're in the game!

[rhythm_kitchen]

Jimmy Page was bowing an SG (Gibson arch) rather than a Fender's flatter bridge... I think the only law here is play an accordion go to jail! If someone has an original semi hollowbody Rickenbocker bass I do love the tone in the upper register.

I found my violin bow and rosin so now what to bow? Tanbura or Bunt pan?

Phil Keaggy, before the Morley pedal came out, used his pinky finger to control his SG's volume pot. I really like that non-enveloped guitar lead style, very creative.

You guys ever heard a Bunt Pan hit with a mallet or bowed? David Darling during a solo show in NY on a solid body graphite cello and Lexicon tap delay unit dragged out this ugly red enamel aluminum angel food bunt pan. So from then on I began collecting them at garage sales. Every couple of months my now ex would take them to Goodwill whittling down my stash of musical treasure. I have one orange one left somewhere.

Also the old brass ringers off Bell Telephones. I think I had about 150 collected at one time to make a wind chime.

Look for aluminum Bunt pans. They can come in all colors, enamel on the outside, or just plain aluminum. You know the curved molds for Angel Food Cake? Some marketing genius figured the curved flares looked like Angel's wings? Hans Jenny would have gone ape+$%& over these, but who knew?

You can also bake an Angle Food cake.