Acoustic Guitar Collection Userʼs Guide StrumMaker III update 10/20/10 2010 Indiginus with StrumMaker III by Indiginus for Kontakt 3
Installation Just drag the AGC folder to your sample drive (or wherever the rest of your sample library resides), then load as usual using Kontakt's browser window. Use the Files tab to navigate to the Acoustic Guitar Collection s folder, not the Libraries tab! Overview The Guitars A Guild JF30 ("Nashville"), a 1955 Martin D-28 ("Blue Ridge"), a Taylor 410 ("California"), and a Sivlertone ("Nylon Guitar") were sampled to create these instruments. With the exception of the NylonGuitar, each guitar has fingerpicked, picked, and 12-string versions. There are 2 main instruments: Acoustic Guitar Collection, for playing finger-picked and picked guitars: and StrumMaker III, for playing strumming patterns: In addition to these, there are folders containing special articulations and the original StrumMaker, which uses sampled strums instead of the Fretboard tab. Also, you will find legacy instruments and Akai S-5000 programs in separate folders.
Playing picked and finger-picked sounds Upon loading the Acoustic Guitar Collection instrument, you can select your guitar with a pull-down menu. The Articulations panel gives you control over the velocity-triggered Mutes, Slides, and Harmonics layers. The knobs control volume, while the buttons toggle the layers on/off. Mutes are triggered at low velocities, slides at high velocities, and harmonics at low to mid velocities. When a layer is toggled off, it is replaced with a sustain layer. A note about the Harmonics layer: This layer overlaps part of the mutes layer, and is a subtle effect designed to create a bit of randomness for realism.
Velocity Scaling Velocity Scaling allows you to choose from several presets that determine how the articulations respond to velocity. This includes a user preset for a customized feel. When you select the EditVel button, you will see this: Now you have control over all velocity layers independently! Any layer can be set to respond to any velocity range. The lower row adjusts the low midi velocity limits of each layer, and the upper row adjusts the high velocity limits. You can even isolate a single layer. Turning the upper knob of any layer all the way down turns that layer off. Below, all layers are off except the Harmonics layer, which now covers the entire velocity range: Save your settings by using the SaveVel button: This will save your velocity settings to the User location on the VelSense knob. You may want to change the name of the instrument before you save it; something like, Double-Tracked Harmonics, or whatever. But you must save the instrument to keep your settings. Enjoy!
EQ Controls You can select from preset EQ settings or create your own User setting. The EditEQ button will display the controls shown below, where you can tweak to your heart's content. Then, the SaveEQ button will store your settings in the User slot of the pull-down menu. Additional controls Reverb A knob a bypass button are provided. Legato Mode Makes the instrument monophonic, which helps to simulate hammer-ons or pull-offs. Legato can be toggled on/off by holding any key below E0 for use in real time performance.
StrumMaker III The StrumMaker III instrument consists of 2 elements (scripts) that are accessed by the tabs below. Strum Sequencer The Strum Sequencer is a simple sequencer for the creation of automated strumming patterns. There are several preset patterns, as well as 3 user memory locations in the Strum Pattern pull-down menu. The patterns are triggered by playing single notes on the keyboard from C1 to B1. Patterns Downstroke Hits UpStroke Hits C1 C2 C3 C4 Single chord strums are also available for stops. Note: Chord variations (major, minor, 7th, etc.) are selected in the Fret Board screen.
StrumMaker III Sequencer Creating Your Own Patterns The upper grid is bipolar and controls the velocity of each strum for each of the 16 available steps (you can vary the number of steps in the TimeSignature pulldown menu). The center line is zero velocity. Dragging downward creates a downstroke and dragging upward creates an upstroke, with velocity increasing as you get farther from the center. Lower velocity settings will trigger mutes. Above, you can see a downstroke on beat 1, an upstroke on beat 2, and a low velocity downstroke on beat 3. Creating a stop/mute in the pattern. Dragging a bar all the way up (127) or down (-127) will trigger a strum mute and silence for one step. For instance, in the screen shot above, there is a stop/mute on beat 4. The Counter (below the grid) follows the beat when the pattern is playing, and indicates the number of steps. Just a few more buttons: Strum Pattern: Pull down menu for choosing patterns. TimeSignature: Varies the length of the grid. Reset Grid: Save Pattern: Sets all steps to zero To one of 3 user locations. NOTE: Be sure to save the entire instrument if you re running Kontakt in stand-alone mode.
StrumMaker III Sequencer Using key switching to change patterns. Keys C0 - F0 can be used to change patterns on the fly. Just press one of these keys before or during a pattern. The upper button toggles this feature on/off. The Edit_KeySw button reveals this display: Here you can choose which pattern each of the 6 key-switch keys will trigger.
StrumMaker III Fretboard FretBoard Click on the Fret Board tab. Now, when you play single notes to trigger the sequence, you can see which virtual strings are played and on which frets the strings are pressed! Hereʼs how this works: To access a particular chord, just press the corresponding key. For instance, pressing C1 will cause C to be displayed, and the Variation knob will indicate the chord variation. If you turn the knob to Dim, the next time you press C1 you will hear a C diminished chord. This makes it easy to set the Fret Board for playing in different keys. The Select Gtr pull-down menu lets you choose which guitar is strummed. The Edit button in the lower right corner toggles several controls into view:
Creating your own chords. Press the Edit button until tou see these controls: String Selector pull-down menu lets you choose how many strings are played. Mutes button can create a more aggressive sound by adding muted strums at lower velocities. Copy Chord To pull-down menu allows you to copy the currently selected chord to one of the user locations for modification. Select fretted notes using pull-down menus on the left, not on the display! 1. Set the Variation knob to User. Each scale note has a User variation, so you can create a total of 12 custom chords at a time! 2. Choose how many strings you want to sound using the String Selector menu. 3. Select which fret your virtual finger will be pressing on each string by using the pull-down menus on the left. Remember that the first selection will always be the open string, so you wonʼt see any indicator in that case. 4. The Speed knob (accessed by the Edit button) controls how velocity effects the strumming speed. Turning it up will slow the strums at low velocities. 5. The Mutes button adds mutes and harmonics at low velocities. This will give a more aggressive sound. 6. Remember to save your settings (K3 will do this automatically when you save your project file). So, letʼs say you need a D major, a D minor, a G major, and a G7 all available at one time! 1. Play a D note and set the variation to Major. 2. Select another note, preferably one you donʼt need for this song. For instance, play a D# note and set the variation to User. 3. Enter the notes for a D minor. Now, when you need that D minor chord, you access it by playing the D# key. 4. Do the same for the G and G7 or any other chords you need. However, if there is a key change in the song you might want to open up another StrumMaker II instrument on another midi channel and set itʼs chords to the new key.
StrumMaker III Live StrumMaker III Live is really just the Fretboard without the Strum Sequencer. In this case, though, the downstrokes are on the first octave and the upstrokes are on the second octave so you can play your strums live by rocking back and forth between the two. Use the sustain pedal. The strumming script is really quite dynamic, so play at different velocities and listen to what happens! Downstrokes UpStrokes C1 C2 C3 C4
Special Instruments Fingerpicked Round Robin Cycles thru Nashville, Blue Ridge, and California fingerpicked sample sets with each key strike. Picked Round Robin Cycles thru Nashville, Blue Ridge, and California picked sample sets with each key strike. Picks and Fingers Same as above, with fingerpicked and picked samples sounding together. Harmonic Dance Great for creating rhythmic patterns. Legacy Content Here youʼll find earlier versions of AGC instruments and documentation, including StrumMaker and StrumMaker II. Whatʼs the difference between StrumMaker, StrumMaker II, and StrumMaker III? StrumMaker (original) relies on sampled major and minor strums, so if you need a D#7b5, youʼre out of luck. Sounds good,though. StrumMaker II actually plays every note in the chord, so you can create your own chords. There are also many commonly used chords to choose from. StrumMaker III adds more frets, a choice of guitars, and other enhancements.
Special thanks to those who helped make this product a reality. To Norman Lee, Randy Harris, and Ray Valla for the use of their great guitars. Special thanks to Greg Doles for use of his various audio devices. My wife Brenda, who was patient through the year-long process and has become quite the audio editor in her own right. The samples and programming on the Indiginus Acoustic Guitar Collection the property of Indiginus and are licenced (not sold) for use in music productions only. Any unauthorized copying, selling, lending, or re-distribution of it's contents in ANY WAY is expressly forbidden. This includes use of these samples in any other sample library. Indiginus DOES authorize copying and/or modifying of the samples and programs in the user's (licencee) own sampling system and storage devices. This is for the convenience of the user only. The Acoustic Guitar Collection is licenced as is. We have created a product that we believe sounds great and plays well, but we cannot guarantee that it will fulfill any particular expectation on the part of the end user. Copyright 2010 A.Tracy Collins.