Help needed: Archtop 3 sound

[steve16]

Hi,

I'm a keyboardist who is new to guitars. I am cutting my first track using a guitar patch. I had previously been using the free guitar that comes with Kontakt 5 Player. My wife said "it sounds like a video game or a kazoo."

SO... i listened to the samples of the Archtop 3, and it seemed great. I payed my $150.

The sample that particularly impressed me, for the sound i am going for (single note leads) was Take Five. Does anybody know what guitar and settings were used for that demo??

My wife still thinks it sounds like a video game. I don't think it sounds that bad. But it doesn't sound convincing the way the demos did.

I am using the Clean Blues guitar (and have tried other clean sounding ones). I'm not using the Lite version of the Archtop. I'm using the default settings, but have also played with every setting I can think of, and it still sounds thin and not resonant like a real guitar.

On the other hand, my Pianoteq "Steinway" piano sounds spectacular.

Let me know if you have magic suggestions to add depth and realism to the Archtop 3 Clean Blues guitar.

thanks

[zircon]

Happy to help. The original demo uses two instances, one for lead and one for rhythm. I'm actually using Guitar Rig here since it was made using the previous version of Archtop which didn't have console. The rhythm preset is "Mellow Tweed". I then have some eq boosting the lows and highs on the guitar, plus a bit of chorus. It's just very lightly amped overall.

The lead part uses the preset "Jazz Reverb", another fairly light patch. Both have a bit of reverb and delay. If I recall, both use the Neck pickup...

Otherwise, it comes down to sequencing. I do a lot of portamento slides at the end of certain notes, plus vibrato on longer notes. I've attached a MIDI here. The patch setup is fairly similar to default with a few tweaks.

1. Portamento is assigned to velocity 1-59, hammer-on to 60-127. "Force Hammer On" is enabled in the engine settings.
2. Tremolo is on E0, non-latched.
3. I reduced the vibrato and portamento slide speed to their default 100% values.
4. No poly-input is used.

That should get you quite close.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9r6plw5xa7w9u ... I.mid?dl=0

[steve16]

Wow thank you very much. Unfortunately, I am not sophisticated enough to understand what you are saying. I think I might have to get a guitarist to help me.

Here are some quick questions, in the meantime:
1) the velocity curve doesn't seem to do anything. i can flatten it all the way down, and I don't hear a difference. How should I properly use it, and what does it control?

2) i can't seem to find a reverb setting. maybe i have to control that in Studio One's effects?

3) it seems like when i am playing a solo, for no apparent reason the notes start sounding different, like they are somewhat muffled. why does that happen, and how can i prevent it?

4) the documentation mentions what seems like different types of "presets." I see a pulldown with a set of snapshots with names like "Archtop Clean Blues." Are there other types of presets i can try? This is what the documentation says: "Now, with the S3 engine, you can use the included Console FX rack and mixer to process and amp the instrument with no external plugins needed. Just choose from our dozens of included presets and you’re ready
to play!" How can I take advantage of that?

sorry... i really am a total novice at this.

thanks

[zircon]

1. The velocity curve on the Performance page is like the one you might find on your MIDI controller or in your DAW. It simply scales your input velocity. For example, with the default curve, if you play velocity 64 (out of 127), the instrument receives velocity 64. If you adjust the curve, you could make it so that playing velocity 64 actually gives you... velocity 80 (good if your keyboard is not sensitive enough).

If you are happy with the velocity response of your controller, there is no reason to change this.

2. You can add or adjust reverb effects on the Console tab. It's at the bottom of the interface, next to "Shreddage Engine". This is similar to the mixer in your DAW where you can add multiple FX per channel / pickup. There are multiple reverb effects like "Reverb" (low CPU) and "Convolution" (more flexible, high CPU).

3. Without hearing an MP3 I can't say for certain what's happening. My guess, if the tone is becoming darker, is that you're just playing higher up on the guitar's neck (higher frets). Guitars naturally sound darker, with shorter note length, on the higher frets, because of reduced string tension. One way to adjust this would be to reduce the "Max Preferred Fret" value to something like 12 or experiment with another "Fretting Mode".

4. The pulldown of snapshots you're referring to is exactly the set presets we mean. There are 31 tone presets included in that list, which is a pretty good amount to get you started. You can always use an external amp or FX plugin if you prefer as well.

[steve16]

Another question:

I am using the Archtop 3 in Studio One. A new weird thing is happening. After playing for a while, say 10 minutes, the guitar starts sounding increasingly distorted. If i switch instruments in Studio One to the piano, it sounds fine. If i switch right back to the guitar, it is distorted. To make this go away I have to restart Studio One.

What's wrong?

thanks