Wavelore's Pedal Steel Guitar virtual instrument (now K3)

[David Polich]

Here's my quick review -

Couldn't get the .dll version to run within V-stack. had to use the standalone.

The installer places the .dll in the TASCAM/Instruments?Wavelore Pedal Steel folder. If you place it in your VST host's folder, then the standalone won't run. So actually, you need to COPY the .dll's to your VST host's plug-ins folder.

The demo is limited to about an octave. Very crash-y on my PC, particularly when clicking on the included GUI keyboard. "Load" and "Save" don't work, but you can click on one of the subsequent fields marked "Load" and load one of two options. They're both labeled differently, I don't know what the difference is. Couldn't hear any, actually.

The idea is, as you might guess, that the six-strings are on different channels, all within one instrument. So to enable some strings to bend and others to not bend (i.e., characteristic Pedal Steel behavior) you need to program this yourself, one string at a time. It doesn't do it automatically.
Guess those audio demos on the website took awhile to do..

It really just sounds like an "okay" electric guitar when you initially play it.
With some onboard echo and reverb. There is some mysterious object called "AMP SIM" in the installation folder, but I couldn't figure out how to initiate it, or how to load different mic settings and microphones. Maybe you need Gigiastudio itself to do that.
I could have missed something obvious.

My opinion is, don't waste your money. But that's just my opinion. If you have a PC you can download it and evaluate it.

There is a pedal steel technique I learned from an old and wise retail salesman years ago when I was working at a piano and organ store near a retirement community. These old customers would come in and always ask for a "Hawaiian Guitar" like on "those Don Ho records". So here's what the old guy taught me (you can use any plucked sound you like, or even a piano).

Say you're in the key of E major. Pull the pitch bend wheel (or lever) on your controller down towards you and simultaneously press G# above middle C. Then move the pitch bend back up towards center, and just before it gets to center detente position, press the E above the G#, continuing to hold the G#.

This gives you a sixth interval, two note chord. Instant pedal steel.

Combine this technique with deft use of your volume/expression pedal and the modulation wheel, and you'll have an even more convincing effect. You can also try starting with the pitch bend wheel above center detente and move back down (going from higher to lower pitch).

I did a sound library of guitars for the Motif XS, called "Axxe", and the pedal steel patch employs use of the assignable function switches which are set to momentary trigger. So, if you press the assignable function switch 1, it triggers different elements which are the "pitch bent" ones.
You could also program something so that aftertouch affects pitch bend on a guitar patch.

[mhschmieder]

Good review, Dave. And also good hints for working with pedal steel guitar sounds using controllers.

When I bought my cheap lap steel last December, during the course of my research, I was surprised to learn that ALL resonator type guitars are Hawai'ian in origin: Dobro; Resonator Guitar; Lap Steel; Pedal Steel, etc. They're all variants on the same theme. I never knew that before.

[seasiderecording]

If you plan your part you could put the unbent strings on one channel , assign the same guitar patch to another MIDI channel and do your bends. To get even more complicated you might need a third channel cuz some pedals and levers to half steps while others do whole steps.
As a player of both Hawaiian C6 style and country E9 pedal steel. The Hawaiian style is more drawn out slides up to pitches. There are no individual bends cuz there are no pedals.( except for slant bar but we don't want to go there)

[mhschmieder]

This instrument has now been re-released as a Kontakt instrument, with lots of KSP scripting.

http://www.wavelore.com/wlps_K2_details.shtml

It might be worth re-checking the demo, as it may now be a much more playable instrument due to advanced Kontakt scripting.

You can also download and read the PDF manual. It's always nice when vendors let you do that to help inform a buying/trying decision.

[jloeb]

It sounds good. I'd jump right on it except for the price ($300???), which I wouldn't pay for it even in good times.

This is a reasonably detailed library of a single instrument with Kontakt scripting. These days, absent 24GB+ of sampling like that done for Soniccouture's gamelan (which, btw, covers multiple versions of the instrument and still costs less than Wavelore's product), that simply is a not a $300 library by any stretch. It is, at best, a roughly $150 library.

I hope Wavelore views this gouger of a price as positioning themselves for a group buy; otherwise, they're pricing themselves out of all but the nichiest of niche buyers. Word to the wise: Their lack of courage to go for volume will end up losing them money.

[mhschmieder]

Yeah, I tend to agree. My pedal steel guitar plus accessories cost me less than that. Of course it's a low-end model.

Sitar Nation wasn't cheap, but was worth every penny. Though now someone on the VI forum claims NI's $79 North India pack is the best sitar, and words it in such a way as to imply they are intimately familiar with every single alternative. It really bugs me when people do that, because you know they probably are blindsighted. At any rate, the claim is that NI's product allows both short and long samples and no one else does.

The point being that these specialty vendors that focus on one instrument often do an amazing job, but then there's always the chance that a larger vendor will come along with a better answer at a cheaper price. I don't yet know if that's true for sitar, but as pedal steel is a rarer instrument in its usage, SONiVOX seems the only other vendor that has bothered to sample and script it.

[mhschmieder]

Another new update, accompanied by a Group Buy that ends on 30 July and may go as low as 50%, with incentives to first 50 buyers:

http://www.vi-control.net/forum/viewtop ... 9723ca985d

I think the Virtual Instruments forum has a strict policy against cut/paste, as there were some tiffs a year or so ago when cross-forum arguments got ugly at Northern Sounds (which I don't read). So I thought it safer to link the topic instead.

The three audio demos in that posting sound dreadful to me, in that they seem to lack any fluidity of phrasing and break up between and changes of articulation. There's probably good content there, but it may need more Kontakt scripting work.

In fact, the pedal steel guitar may be a good candidate for physical modeling, due to the complexity of articulations on that instrument. Even my beginner's lap steel guitar isn't something I would expect to translate well to samples.

[BKK-OZ]

Well, I don't mind all this new-fangled computer stuff, but a couple a months ago, I went out and bought me a real guitar for this kind of stuff.
Its a cheapo Gretsch G5715 Lap Steel.
OK, its not pedal, it is a Lap steel, but its lotsa lotsa lotsa more phun that any ol' plug ever will be and is pretty easy to get a good basic sound out of it.
Lookee here
Yummy.

[mhschmieder]

Yep, once I find time to start learning the one I have (a cheapo Rogue, but I bought nice extras later on after researching what the bluegrass people use for slides etc.), if I decide I can get on with the instrument, my plan is to upgrade to that very one from Gretsch that you link to.

I can't see myself going all the way to a full pedal steel guitar, as I don't want to make things more complicated with the pedaling. That's a lifetime of learning in itself.

[BKK-OZ]

yah, pedaling, will be, I'm afraid, always out of my reach.
Lotsa levers, too tricky for an old mind like mine.

The great thing about a lappy is that you can get some good sounds straight away, if you can learn how to hold the tone bar properly, that is.
My two teenage sons and I have had phun with the thing from the first day I brought it home, because its sooo easy to whack out some basic blues on it after tuning it up.
Again, there is no doubt of a lifetime's worth of refinement after that, but there is a certain amount of instant gratification to be had.

[johnnytucats]

I downloaded the free trial and I'm impressed with the results I could get in just a few moments. The sound (very limited in the trial) seems excellent. Just plinking away with two fingers gets you the kinds of bends achieved with the pedals...hard to get those on a lap steel unless you have three hands and two slides.

[mhschmieder]

Thanks for the feedback; I forgot or maybe didn't notice there is a demo to download.