Calling All Guitar Players - Real Guitar VS Vir 2

[wagtunes]

Well, I downloaded Real Guitar. Took a little while to get used to the keyswitching. It's actually quite extensive.

The demo says 14 days unrestricted but it's not really, which is a shame. The only guitar you get to actually test is the steel fingered one.

On the plus side, loading in Guitar Rig's Almost Clean setup with a little tweaking, I nailed the intro to Roundabout, harmonics and all. It is so scary close to the original that it's eerie. Without FX, this guitar is lacking in the character department. But with the proper FX you can hear the realism come through, right down to the fret noise, which is non existent in the AAS Strum series that I am almost sorry I got in the first place.

There is no question that, realism wise, this is a nice guitar and with very little "training" I got up to speed. The amount of programming I would have to do with this I suspect would be significantly less than what I'd have to do with Vir2. And if all I needed was this one guitar, I'd spend the $200 and be done with it. But it would just be a small piece of my arsenal. I may just wait for a sale and get it anyway to add to my Vir2 collection that I am almost positive I'm getting. There is just too much there for too little money to pass up.

Still, I am impressed with the ease and realism of Real Guitar. Just wish I could have gotten to try out the other 7 guitars I was supposedly getting in this so called "unrestricted" 14 day demo. They really need to update their demo specs so people don't expect things that they're not actually getting.

[Compyfox]

Can't really comment on demo restrictions (didn't see a demo in a long, long time). But throw me a PM with a MIDI and/or maybe your keyswitch settings (screenshots would also work for both the keyswitches and the humanize interface), and maybe I can help you out in other ways.

[wagtunes]

Can't really comment on demo restrictions (didn't see a demo in a long, long time). But throw me a PM with a MIDI and/or maybe your keyswitch settings (screenshots would also work for both the keyswitches and the humanize interface), and maybe I can help you out in other ways.

I can only go by the message I get when I try to choose one of the other 7 guitars. It says "This guitar only available in full version". Except according to installation and first time activation, this is supposed to be a full unlimited version for 14 days. It isn't. There's nothing for you to look at. It doesn't work.

As far as keyswitching goes, it's all very easy and intuitive. I have no problems with it. Plus it's fully programmable so I can modify them any way I like. Don't really need help in figuring any of this out. Like you said, easy peasy. Just wish I could demo the whole package instead of just one guitar. IMO, they're losing customers this way.

[Compyfox]

Not saying that you need help with the engine, but I can render things out for you as I have all guitars at my disposal, maybe even give you the one or another hint how to get even more out of the guitars

[wagtunes]

Not saying that you need help with the engine, but I can render things out for you as I have all guitars at my disposal, maybe even give you the one or another hint how to get even more out of the guitars

I just did a little timing test on this thing just to get an idea of how easy or hard it will be to use in recording.

I played a simple chord progression alternating between mutes and strums for realism. As I said, because of my limited playing ability, I had to record the keyswitching and the chords in two different takes.

Upon playback, the chords were all out of sync with the keyswitches, obviously as I play horribly, and because of this, many of the chords actually turned into single notes.

So what I had to do was go into the piano roll and quantize the two parts together so that the keyswitch changes landed on the chord. After doing this, the part played back perfectly. And with the fret noises and all the other little nuances, it sounded quite realistic. Certainly 100 times better than AAS Strum.

Point being, I have performance down to a 3 step process. Chords, keyswitching and quantizing and there's nothing I can't pull off short of what my imagination can come up with. Creativity is on me and no library is going to turn me into a musical genius. That I have to achieve on my own.

I like it. With Guitar Rig, not a lot I can't pull off because of the clean sound that I have to work with. I now understand why they took the approach that they did. Rather than give you somewhere where you're stuck with one sound, they gave you something that can be molded to your needs depending on what FX you have at your disposal. The key is the realism factor which is very high on this one. It's just not flashy out of the box.

I'm going to download LPC and demo that too. I assume the engines of both are the same as far as how keyswitching is handled.

[Compyfox]

The first question I'd ask here is, did you use the "Solo Mode" or the "Chord Mode". If you're after Chords and finger picked play, I'd recommend the Chords&xyz modes as they perform better. The Solo Mode can trigger Powerchords (Keyswitch is called "Intervals") however, and this mode is great for soli parts. Chords do tend to sound a bit crap though (not that much anymore with the Humanize engine).

RealLPC compared to RealGuitar is similar in the engine, however since the samples are different, certain keyswitches and attack behavior is different of course (mainly noticeable via the Humanize Engine). So writing the song with RealGuitar and then moving on to an electric guitar is possible, but you might need to adjust some settings/keyswitches.


I don't know why you want to run RealGuitar Acoustic through GuitarRig, but if it works for you, good. Personally I mainly only use an EQ and compressor, maybe a tape sim to produce some pleasant saturation. With the E-Guitar range, you DEFINITELY need a different approach. In case for RealStrat, a LPF (a tone dial) is so important, so is a compressor (especially soli parts). RealLPC is a bit more forgiving, but compared to Vir2 or whatever is out there, it does sounds a bit "thin" (so - up with the LowShelf, maybe add a LPF as well), which brings us back to the "open aproach" by the developers. You can shape and mold it to your needs.


Nothing great for people that want "wow factor" out of the box, but with the right guitar chain (again, in my case I prefer a boost pedal, maybe a compressor and a delay, and then a suitable tube amp into a 2x12 or 4x12 cabinet with a boring SM57) you can already do a lot. Then it's really down to how well your performance is.

Another important thing:
As with all sample engines with various forms of round robin and "humanize engines", no playback is the same. So if you're happy with your performance, either bounce it out or freeze the instrument. This way you can mix to your hearts content and not worry about constant minor changes.


Some more Musiclab videos:
https://youtu.be/WOd4AQ0P4Kw (RealGuitar Engine 1 and 2 Chord Play Presentation - original video by the Musiclab developer)

https://youtu.be/wPsRRJf8pp8 (RealGuitar Engine 2, split keyboard with 2 instances - original video by the Musiclab developer)

https://youtu.be/0ewfqzyffEc (RealGuitar Engine 2 or 3, short demo)

https://youtu.be/b8jt-1ExTeI (RealGuitar 4, programming strumming patterns)

https://youtu.be/Oi0RSmo91lg (RealLPC Solo Sound improvement)

https://youtu.be/3tUC_vF_clQ (RealLPC Solo Melody Demo)

https://youtu.be/QE5x8f3cVPI (RealLPC Engine 3 doing more Metal - check out this fellow's other stuff as well, showing various "keyswitch" features)

https://youtu.be/8u4JZyHyGNw (RealStrat Engine 1 or 2 playing Solo for Jackson's "Beat it")

https://youtu.be/W010620_W4Q (RealStrat Engine 2 I think, playing Soli for Beatle's "Let it be" with Vocaloid as Lead Vocalist - here it's apparent why a LPF on RealStrat is mandatory)

https://youtu.be/1tHbpGpH32k (RealStrat Engine 2 I think, playing Carlos Santana - LPF would have made this sound even more "mellow" so to speak)

https://youtu.be/ZYucTwOgEWM (more RealStrat Engine 3 solo work)

https://youtu.be/LnSBcjpJzi4 (RealStrat Engine 2 playing some very convincing Greenday)

https://youtu.be/LnSBcjpJzi4 (RealStrat Engine 2 and RealGuitar 3 playing Within Temptation)

https://youtu.be/2ade8frnNQ8 (Mistheria demos various productions of his with all RealGuitar v2 engines)

https://youtu.be/s_YIClJnA1c (RealEight Solo Play with AT4 Mesa Boogie and Orange Amps, plus some Fender - presenter thinks that guitar sounds fake ever so often)


Plus the metal demos I already linked to the other days.

Did I post these two yet?

https://youtu.be/qQ8gVp1Qitk (Djent with RealLPC Engine 3, incl. a "how to" video)

https://youtu.be/bHuy7IPHhUk (more Djent-ish Metal with RealLPC Engine 3)



Compared to like half a year ago, some very good video presentations these days... Musiclab's engine really came a long way... though there sadly is no good RealRick video demo available (even though I like KeytarJeff's work), but there are definitely some cool audio demos on the product page.

[wagtunes]

Well, that's a lot to digest. Let me go through everything, download the LPC demo and I'll get back to you sometime during the week.

Thanks for everything.

PS - Music Labs should hire you as a sales rep.

[Compyfox]

PS - Music Labs should hire you as a sales rep.

Not hearing that the first time for various products I use and can recommend...

[wagtunes]

Well, I downloaded the LPC demo and while I like the sound, these demo restrictions are really turning me off. Why give us 14 days when you only let us play 6 frets up? So I can't get to hear how those high string leads sound through proper FX processing. If it was an unlimited time demo, I could see disabling certain things. But when you only give us 14 days can't we at least demo the entire guitar? How else are we going to make our decision?

Sorry, but this is poor marketing. There is just no way around it.

[Compyfox]

As somebody that's been with Musiclab since Engine 1, I've barely seen demo versions. So I'm terribly sorry that this gave you a bad impression.

As of this moment, you can only go by hear-say and what you see in the videos I'm afraid. Sorry...

[nordickvr]

...Would you happen to know if Vir 2 ever runs a sale?

http://www.bigfishaudio.com Does from time to time.

[wagtunes]

...Would you happen to know if Vir 2 ever runs a sale?

http://www.bigfishaudio.com Does from time to time.

Thanks. Actually, if you buy the bundle (electric and acoustic) it's $150 off the price if you buy them separately. So even without a sale, I'll be saving a lot of money.

Hopefully, they'll run something for Christmas or New Years.

[nordickvr]

...Would you happen to know if Vir 2 ever runs a sale?

http://www.bigfishaudio.com Does from time to time.

Thanks. Actually, if you buy the bundle (electric and acoustic) it's $150 off the price if you buy them separately. So even without a sale, I'll be saving a lot of money.

Hopefully, they'll run something for Christmas or New Years.

There's chances, hope you'll get it if going for Vir 2.

I use Vir 2, nothing to add on top of what already've been said.
Truly liked what I get from using Vir 2.
Must say that Compyfox did a pretty good pitch about Musiclab.
At time when looking for some electric, I remember struggling between the two.
Too much choices!

[Compyfox]

Must say that Compyfox did a pretty good pitch about Musiclab.

Which sadly fell a bit short, as I didn't know how limited the demo versions were...
Sorry...

[nordickvr]

Must say that Compyfox did a pretty good pitch about Musiclab.

Which sadly fell a bit short, as I didn't know how limited the demo versions were...
Sorry...

Well, would like to see more elaborated review like you did to compensate for some plug's demo version shortcomings!