Best Acoustic Guitar VI for strumming

[wonder]

Hi Motu-ers

I have a question and I'm going to preface this with the ubiquitous "yes, I know REAL is always the best" ... but I'm looking for a good VI for acoustic guitar strumming.
There are times when I'm doing such a quick track (demo or otherwise) and need a great sounding acoustic guitar VI to tuck into a track.
I'm a keyboardist by trade and an play some chords on guitar but for times sake, I need a good VI.

I have Acoustic Legends, Applied Acoustics Strum ... but the strumming just doesn't cut it for me.

I'm looking for something with even MIDI file templates with strumming styles already packaged in so i can edit quickly and just go.

Any suggestions? I know REAL is always best but that's not an option sometimes and I'd like to get into something that is great sounding and believable in a track.

ANY suggestions would be appreciated. I've done some research but I'd like to hear from those that have used certain VI's and how they've worked for you...

[Prime Mover]

Check out Orange Tree: Strawberry Acoustic. I don't have any first hand experience but I own their Strawberry Electric and it's DAMN good. The developer, Greg, is also a realy nice guy and very helpful.

Strawberry electric is a monster, giving you lots of control, it's even a bit intimidating at first, but they provide lots of good presets.

[wonder]

Check out Orange Tree: Strawberry Acoustic. I don't have any first hand experience but I own their Strawberry Electric and it's DAMN good. The developer, Greg, is also a realy nice guy and very helpful.

Strawberry electric is a monster, giving you lots of control, it's even a bit intimidating at first, but they provide lots of good presets.

I've heard good things about Strawberry.

I have Electri6ity and it's like trigonometry trying to figure this thing out....VERY complicated.

[cbergm7210]

http://www.amplesound.net/en/index.asp

[mhschmieder]

Vir2 finally released their acoustic library this past week or two. A bit pricey but it includes six instruments (not all of them guitars) and is briefly on introductory sale.

I'm not allowing myself to spend money on any more guitar or bass libraries; I bought too many as it is. My self-justification was to be able to do late night mock-ups of ideas when I otherwise would maybe lose some of the idea if I waited until non-curfew time to use real instruments.

I guess my feeling is that the Orange Tree stuff is good enough for mock-ups so I'm "done" with that requirement. But if starting from scratch, maybe I'd consider Ilya Efimov's stuff (frequently on sale).

I haven't used Orange Tree since the most recent re-do. In fact, I've barely recorded at all since my main client died. But I have found it useful to get an idea of what I want to do when I pick up one of my acoustics to do it for real later.

[Schweats]

Indiginus.com
Strummaker IV and Acoustic Guitar Collection (Full Kontakt v4 or v5 required)

Impact Soundworks.com
Acou Revolutions Vol. 1

Pettinhouse.com
Acoustic Guitar 2.0 (Full Kontakt v4 or v5 required)
watch all the vids for all the libraries

http://www.musiclab.com/products/realguitar/info.html
Real Guitar 3.0


Hope this helps - Schweats

[bolla]

Musiclabs Realguitar works for me.
I don't use their strum patterns.
I generally record a rough pass to get the chords recognised correctly and then record another for the strum pattern.
In the mix they are a little thick and need thinning out around 350 hz.
The nylon with the high position option sounds ok as a ukulele substitute too.
Cheers, Bolla.

[jloeb]

RealGuitar (still, a decade later) has the most comprehensive strum detection algorithm, but it would really be stretching things to the breaking point to say that its strumming sounds acceptable for a finished demo. IMO it doesn't, not in 2014.

VI's that do include the Amplesound guitars (which would probably be my top recommendation for realism), OrangeTree, Effimov (borderline for strumming) and the new Acou6tics although the price is high b/c of the number of instruments and it's no better as far as realism from what I can hear.

[wonder]

Some GREAT replies.

It's easy to find great guitar TONES but not easy to find strumming MIDI files or even patches or keyswitches that sound normal and real.

I'm checking out Orange Samples and it seems pretty good so far. Haven't dug into the guts of it.

I'm really interested to hear a guitar VI that includes finger strumming or thumb strumming. I do a lot of songwriter stuff and supplementing guitars for demos with a HARD pick is too harsh. Looking also for nice finger strumming for a nice touch.
I know .. I know … get a REAL player.

[jloeb]

I'm really interested to hear a guitar VI that includes finger strumming or thumb strumming. I do a lot of songwriter stuff and supplementing guitars for demos with a HARD pick is too harsh. Looking also for nice finger strumming for a nice touch.

http://www.amplesound.net/en/pro-pd.asp?id=4

[wonder]

I'm really interested to hear a guitar VI that includes finger strumming or thumb strumming. I do a lot of songwriter stuff and supplementing guitars for demos with a HARD pick is too harsh. Looking also for nice finger strumming for a nice touch.

http://www.amplesound.net/en/pro-pd.asp?id=4

wow. there's a LOT of great Guitar VI's that aren't included in Google or Forum searches.

[cbergm7210]

http://www.amplesound.net/en/index.asp

Tellin' you, this one is at the top. It's been a game changer for me personally. One of the only VI companies that I've emailed in the middle of a project to thank them for such a fantastic product.

[Shooshie]

If you have Mach Five, version 3, you can try Telematic, a strumming guitar that comes with M5.3. It took me a little while to figure out what was going on, but it turns out to be pretty intuitive, and it gives you a lot of practical control over the strums, picks, and chords.

I never see anyone else mentioning it, though. That could be because:

• 1) not many people have Mach 5.3
  2) People have Mach 5.3, but not many have tried Telematic.
  3) Telematic may be complicated.
  4) everyone tried it but thinks it's a joke.

I honestly don't know the answer to that. But I've enjoyed it when I've tried it. Not being a guitarist, I don't think I'm qualified to pass judgment.

Shooshie

[edited "telestream" to "telematic." ]

[jloeb]

Shooshie just to make sure - you're not talking about Telematic, which is an electric Telecaster guitar VI that comes with MachFive 3 and has convincing strumming, but a different included VI that is acoustic? (If so, this is the first I've heard of this, I can't come up with anything on a search, and as far as I know Telestream is a software company that designs streaming video codecs...)

[Shooshie]

Shooshie just to make sure - you're not talking about Telematic, which is an electric Telecaster guitar VI that comes with MachFive 3 and has convincing strumming, but a different included VI that is acoustic? (If so, this is the first I've heard of this, I can't come up with anything on a search, and as far as I know Telestream is a software company that designs streaming video codecs...)

Yes, Telematic! Sorry. I think TeleSTREAM is a video app maker. Sorry about that. I should have looked it up first. And is it only electric? I guess my memory is worse than I thought. Sorry about that.

I'm going to change it in the original post to avoid confusion.

Shooshie