Steinberger Studio Case 2 User's Manual
The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. The software described by this document is subject to a License Agreement and may not be
copied to other media except as specifically allowed in the License Agreement. No part
of this publication may be copied, reproduced or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for
any purpose, without prior written permission by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH.
All product and company names are ™ or ® trademarks of their respective owners.
Windows XP is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. The Mac logo is a trademark
used under license. Macintosh and Power Macintosh are registered trademarks.
© Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, 2005.
All rights reserved.
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Table of Contents
7 Introduction
8 About this manual
9 What are VST instruments?
9 About the instruments
included in Studio Case
11 Optimizing the hard disk
before installation
12 Minimum system require-
ments (PC version)
12 Minimum system require-
ments (Mac version)
13 About the Steinberg Key
16 Installation
18 Register your software!
19 Activating VST instruments
in Cubase SE
21 Virtual Guitarist
Electric Edition SE
22 About Virtual Guitarist
Electric Edition SE
23 How do I use Virtual
Guitarist?
23 What is Virtual Guitarist
Electric Edition SE?
24 How does Virtual Guitarist
work?
24 What you can and can’t do
with Virtual Guitarist Electric
Edition SE
25 First test
26 How to play Virtual Guitarist
Electric Edition SE
27 Players
28 Parts
29 Chord recognition
31 Latch mode
31 Expression and timing
variations
35 Sound variations
36 MIDI controller assignments
37 Reference
43 Virtual Bassist SE
44 About Virtual Bassist SE
45 What is Virtual Bassist SE?
45 How does Virtual Bassist
SE work?
46 What you can and can’t do
with Virtual Bassist
47 The first test
48 Playing Virtual Bassist SE
48 Using a MIDI keyboard
50 Virtual Bassist SE
terminology
52 Loading and saving Styles
53 Auditioning styles
54 Virtual Bassist SE controls
60 Guitar controls
62 MIDI Controller assignments
63 Assigning MIDI controllers
in Virtual Bassist SE
64 Chord recognition
67 Groove Agent SE
68 What is Groove Agent SE?
68 First test
69 Groove Agent SE
terminology
70 Using Groove Agent SE
71 The LCD window
71 Range
72 Sliders and buttons
78 Mute, grouping and
instrument selection
79 Stop/Run
VST Instruments
4Table of Contents
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81 Using the automation in Cu-
base SE
81 Controlling Groove Agent
SE from a MIDI keyboard
83 The Grand SE
84 Introduction
85 Playing The Grand SE
86 Opening the Edit window
86 Sound Character
87 Global
89 D’cota SE
90 Introduction
90 Overview
93 The synthesis section
94 Creating a synth sound with
PWM – a brief tutorial
96 Analog parameters
106 The modulation and output
section
107 The Controller strip
113 Using external MIDI
controllers
113 LFO section
115 The Envelope section
117 Volume and Pan dials
118 The Effect section
120 The keyboard
121 Tips and tricks
123 HALion SE
124 Introduction
125 HALion SE overview
125 How HALion SE plays
samples
125 About program banks and
programs
132 Tweaking programs
132 The Filter section
135 DCA and Envelope
136 The LFO
137 The Tune Section
137 Glide
137 The Options pop-up menu
139 Importing samples and
soundbanks into HALion SE
141 Automation and MIDI
controllers
141 Recording dynamic control
settings
142 Using MIDI controllers
143 Optimizing system
performance
145 Composer Set
Documentation
151 Index
Table of Contents 5
VST Instruments
VST Instruments
6Table of Contents
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1
Introduction
About this manual
Steinberg Studio Case consists of two main parts:
• Cubase SE software – the recording studio
•A set of 6 software instruments – the band
This manual describes the instruments included in Studio Case. They
complement Cubase SE with a backing band that offers you sounds
and instruments for a vast range of musical styles.
Key command conventions
Many of the key commands in Cubase SE use modifier keys, some of
which are different depending on the operating system, Windows or
Mac. When key commands with modifier keys are described in this
manual, they are shown with the Windows modifier key first, in the following form:
[Win modifier key]/[Mac modifier key]-[key] or action
For example, [Ctrl]/[Command]-click means “press [Ctrl] under
Windows or [Command] under Mac OS, and mouse click”.
VST Instruments
1 – 8 Introduction
What are VST instruments?
With computers becoming more powerful and a more integral part of
home and professional studios all over the world, instruments that
used to be hardware move into the computer.
VST instruments (short: VSTis) are software instruments which run under any VST compatible host, such as Cubase SE. They are plugged
into the host software, which means that you set up and play them
from within the host. This offers many advantages to external/hardware
instruments:
• First off, since VST instruments use your computer system and don’t need their
own hardware, they’re a much better value and more portable. Even more, when
you own one VST instrument, you can use multiple instances of it in one song
without having to buy multiple copies of the instrument. Two acoustic Grand
Pianos would be a significant investment in terms of money, space and maintenance – in Studio Case, a second Grand Piano is a matter of two mouse clicks.
• VST instruments are part of the song. When you load up your song, the instruments used in it and their settings are automatically restored – “Total Recall“.
• VST instruments offer a much better integration into your musical environment
than external instruments can. They can be fully automated (you can record
and play back knob or fader movements within the VSTi).
• Software instruments do not have to deal with hardware limitations such as
RAM, small graphic displays or missing hard disks. Their performance depends
only on your computer system, and these instruments can make full use of the
CPU power, RAM, hard disk or monitor your computer has to offer.
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About the instruments included in Studio Case
Steinberg has gained a world-wide reputation for software instruments.
You’ll hardly find a music studio without Steinberg software instruments.
Award-winning products like The Grand, Virtual Guitarist or D’cota are
used by high-profile artists world-wide and can be heard in countless
chartbreaking music productions and film scores.
Studio Case incorporates essential versions of six of these great instruments. SE versions are easier to use and less demanding on computer
performance than their professional counterparts. At the same time,
they offer the same sound quality the originals are well known for.
VST Instruments
Introduction 1 – 9
The six instruments complement each other perfectly, representing a
comprehensive collection of sounds for any musical style:
• HALion SE is a powerful software sampler. A composer set from Wizoo is already included, providing you with important sounds like basses, guitars,
strings or even drumloops. It imports all HALion-compatible libraries (separately available) and even imports AIF/WAV and Soundfont files, so it can produce a vast range of instruments, sounds and grooves.
• The Grand SE is an emulation of the grandest instrument of all times – the
acoustic concert grand piano. Apart from four characteristics to choose from,
it offers you exactly the controls you’re used to from the real thing: Keys, pedals and nothing else.
• Groove Agent SE relieves you of the time-consuming task of programming
your own grooves. Just hit a key and let him do his magic. You are in full control of playing style, complexity, dynamics and fills. And if you like, you can of
course create your own grooves using Groove Agent SE’s built-in drumkits.
• Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE is a professional electric guitarist with a
perfect sound, perfect timing and perfect playing technique. Tell him what
style to play and he’ll beef up your tracks with juicy funk/wah licks or crunchy
rock riffs – it’s all up to you.
• Virtual Bassist SE is a professional bass player with a perfect sound, perfect
timing and the ability to flexibly adapt the playing to suit most musical needs.
With Virtual Bassist SE, you can easily add professional-sounding bass guitar
tracks to your projects.
• D’cota SE is a powerful analog synthesizer. It complements your backing band
with a vast range of synth basses, leads, pads and other typical analog sounds.
You can either choose from the 128 patches supplied or make your own ones.
Although SE instruments are great tools that can last a lifetime, we’ve
taken into account that maybe sooner or later you feel like you’ve made
a lot of progress and your demand gets higher. In such a case, you can
conveniently upgrade to the original versions of each of the instruments.
For feature comparisons and upgrading options, check the Steinberg
website.
VST Instruments
1 – 10 Introduction
Optimizing the hard disk before installation
The VSTi installer installs about 1 GB of data on your hard disk, and if
your drive is quite full, or has not been defragmented recently, it’s possible that the install data will get split (fragmented) into many parts over
the disk. This can affect the performance of some VSTis, and it can
lead to longer loading times of library files.
Therefore we recommend that you defragment the target hard disk
before you start the installation. This can be done with the defragmentation system software on Windows, or with Norton Utilities (or another
defragmentation program) on the Macintosh.
Latency
Although VST instruments are practically latency-free, high latency
times (which result in delays between pressing keys on your MIDI keyboard and hearing a sound) can occur when you play VSTis via your
MIDI keyboard in real time.
This is often caused by the audio card or the MIDI interface, although
it won’t be an issue when playing back a song with a VSTi MIDI track.
To get rid of annoying real time latency, we recommend that you replace your current soundcard with a professional audio card for which
an ASIO driver is available. Most soundcards built into off-the-shelf
computers don’t use an ASIO driver and usually produce latencies of
up to several hundred milliseconds.
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VST Instruments
Introduction 1 – 11
Minimum system requirements (PC version)
•A PC with an 800 MHz Pentium or Athlon processor (2.8 GHz or faster
recommended).
• 384 MB of RAM (512 MB recommended).
• 1.1 GB of hard disk space.
• Windows® XP Home or Professional.
• Windows MME compatible audio hardware (an ASIO compatible audio card
is recommended).
• The Steinberg Key and an available USB port.
• Monitor and graphics card supporting 1024 x 768 resolution (dual monitor
setup and 1152 x 864 resolution recommended).
•A DVD ROM drive is required for installation.
• When you are upgrading from a previous version of Cubase SE/LE, a working
internet connection is required for the licence activation.
Note that The Grand SE requires 85 MB of RAM!
Minimum system requirements (Mac version)
•A Power Mac G4 867 MHz computer (Power Mac G5 Dual and 1.8 GHz or
faster recommended).
• 384 MB of RAM (512 MB recommended).
• 1.1 GB of hard disk space.
• Mac OS X version 10.3 or 10.4.
• CoreAudio compatible audio hardware.
• The Steinberg Key and an available USB port.
•A DVD ROM drive.
• Monitor and graphics card supporting 1024 x 768 resolution (dual monitor
setup and 1152 x 864 resolution recommended).
• When you are upgrading from a previous version of Cubase SE/LE, a working
internet connection is required for the licence activation.
Note that The Grand SE requires 85 MB of RAM!
VST Instruments
1 – 12 Introduction
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About the Steinberg Key
Please read the following section before installing the instruments
included with Studio Case.
New users
Included with the Studio Case package you will find a hardware key
(sometimes referred to as “dongle”) that is part of the Cubase SE and
the Virtual Bassist SE copy protection scheme. The licenses for both
the program and the instrument are stored on that key. Cubase SE
and Virtual Bassist SE will not run if this key isn’t installed properly.
•
You should first install the program (and any necessary hardware, see
below), then insert the protection key and finally launch the program.
This is because the necessary drivers for the key are installed when you install the
program.
If you’re upgrading from a previous version of Cubase SE/LE
Included with the Studio Case package, you will find a Virtual Bassist
SE activation code for the Steinberg Key, a hardware copy protection
device that is part of the Virtual Bassist SE copy protection scheme.
Virtual Bassist SE will not run if there is no Steinberg Key present or if
this key has not been properly activated.
•
If you already own a copy protection key, you need to activate that key
for use with Virtual Bassist SE. This is done by means of the activation
code included in the upgrade package, after the installation procedure,
see page 15.
•
If your previous version of Cubase SE/LE was not hardware-protected
by a Steinberg Key, you need to purchase this key separately. The key
then needs to be activated for use with Virtual Bassist SE. This is done
by means of the activation code included in the upgrade package, after
the installation procedure, see page 15.
Both licenses can be stored on the same Steinberg key. If you have
already downloaded the Cubase SE license to your Steinberg key,
proceed the same way for Virtual Bassist SE. If you have not installed
Cubase SE yet, please read the following sections and follow the instructions carefully.
VST Instruments
Introduction 1 – 13
The Steinberg Key
The Steinberg Key is, in fact, a little computer on which your Steinberg
software licenses are stored. All hardware-protected Steinberg products use the same type of key and you can store more than one license
on a key. Licenses can also (within certain limits) be transferred between keys – which is helpful, e.g. if you want to sell a piece of software.
•
If you have a Windows PC and have never used a dongle on your
computer before, the installation routine will initiate a restart of Windows after installation of the key drivers. After the restart, the key must
be plugged into the USB port for the installation routine to continue.
When the key is plugged into the USB port, Windows will automatically recognize it as
a new hardware device and will attempt to find drivers for it – these necessary drivers
won’t be present until Virtual Bassist SE has been installed and the computer restarted.
•
If you have an Apple Macintosh computer, there will be no automatic
restart. Be sure to read the information regarding the Steinberg Key
that is displayed during the installation process.
•
If you already own copy-protected Steinberg software, you should remove any existing Steinberg Keys from the computer’s USB port during the installation routine.
You can load your Virtual Bassist SE license and the Cubase SE license
onto the same Steinberg key.
The Steinberg Key must not be plugged in before or during the installation of Virtual Bassist SE if this is the first time you use such a key.
Otherwise the operating system of your computer will register it as new
USB hardware and try to find drivers that won’t be present before Virtual
Bassist SE installation.
VST Instruments
1 – 14 Introduction
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Activating the Steinberg Key (only if you’re upgrading from a
previous version of Cubase SE/LE)
• For the activation of the copy protection key, you need a working internet
connection, as this is performed online. In case you have no connection
to the internet on the computer on which you wish to use Studio Case,
you can always use a different computer for activation.
Simply install the License Control Center separately on the internet computer, without
installing the complete product.
Windows: To do this, the product installation DVD contains a dedicated installer called
“SyncrosoftLicenseControlSetup”.
Mac: Double-click the installer file, and select the “Custom” installation type. Deactivate
the installation of the VST instruments and only install the License Control Center.
You can also find up-to-date versions of this installer (for Mac and for PC) on the internet at www.syncrosoft.com/downloads/index.html.
Your Steinberg Key does not yet contain a valid license for Virtual
Bassist SE. You must download a license to it before you can launch
Virtual Bassist SE! Use the activation code supplied with the program
in order to download a valid Virtual Bassist SE license to your Steinberg Key. Proceed as follows:
1.
After installation of the dongle drivers and the software (and, on a
Windows PC, after restarting your computer), plug the Steinberg Key
into the USB port.
If you are unsure of which port this is, consult the computer’s documentation.
2.
If this is the first time a copy protection device is plugged in, it will be
registered as a new hardware device. On a Mac, drivers are found
automatically, without further user interaction. Windows will display a
dialog asking you whether you would like to find drivers for the device
manually or automatically. Under Windows, choose to find drivers automatically.
The dialog closes and you may have to reboot your computer.
3.
Make sure that your computer has a working internet connection.
4.
Launch the “License Control Center” application (found in the Windows Start menu under “Syncrosoft” or in the Macintosh Applications
folder).
This application allows you to view your Steinberg Keys and to load or transfer licenses.
VST Instruments
Introduction 1 – 15
5.
Use the License Control Center “Wizard” function along with the activation code supplied with Virtual Bassist SE to download the license
to your Key.
Simply follow the on-screen instructions. If you are uncertain about how to proceed,
consult the help for LCC.
Installation
To install the VST instruments included in Studio Case, proceed as
follows:
Windows
1.
Start your computer and launch Windows.
2.
Make sure that no Steinberg Key is connected to the USB port.
3.
Insert the plug-in installation DVD into your DVD-ROM drive.
4.
A pop-up installation dialog appears automatically.
If this dialog does not appear, open the DVD on the desktop and double click the
installer file.
5.
Follow the instructions on the screen.
6.
During the installation process, you will be asked to select the instruments to be installed and to select the target folders for the audio
content (for all instruments except D’cota SE).
The audio content folders contain specifically designed samples for the different instruments. Please note that the audio content takes up about 1 GB of hard disk space.
Make sure to check the DVD for “read first” or “late changes” files. Please
read all such files before launching any of the instruments, since they may
contain late information not included in this manual.
Please note that the installation routine will take some time to install all
plug-ins and the content files.
VST Instruments
1 – 16 Introduction
Removing the instruments
To remove the VST instruments from your computer:
1.
Open the “Add or Remove programs” control panel.
2.
Select “Steinberg VSTi Collection” and click “Add/Remove”.
3.
Follow the instructions on the screen.
•
The instruments and the respective audio content are removed from
your computer.
Macintosh
1.
Disable any anti-virus software. Then insert the plug-in DVD into the
computer’s DVD drive.
2.
Double click on the icon for the plug-in DVD.
A window opens.
3.
Double click on the VSTi installer (the .mpkg) file.
The installation procedure starts.
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4.
Follow the instructions on screen.
•
At some stage, you will be asked to read and confirm the license
agreement (shown on screen – this is required for the installation to
proceed) and to select a destination for the software installation.
• When the actual software installation starts, a second window will open.
Note that this must not be closed during the installation process, otherwise installation will not be successful.
Finally, a dialog box informs you that the installation was successful.
Please note that the installation routine will take some time to install all
plug-ins and the content files.
•
For each of the available instruments (except D’cota SE), there are audio content folders with specifically designed samples available. Please
note that the audio content takes up about 1 GB of hard disk space.
VST Instruments
Introduction 1 – 17
Make sure that you have enough free hard disk space on your system
partition for the installation procedure.
Make sure to check the DVD for “read first” or “late changes” files.
Please read all such files before launching any of the instruments, since
they may contain late information not included in this manual.
Removing the instruments
To remove the instruments from your computer, delete the respective
files in the vstplugins folder in your system folder.
Things to note
•
The first time you launch HALion SE, Groove Agent SE, Virtual Guitarist
Electric Edition SE, Virtual Bassist SE and The Grand SE, you might
have to specify the path to its content folder on your hard disk (e.g. if
you chose the custom installation). A dialog will be opened where you
can navigate to the desired folder.
•
When you are launching Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE for the
first time, the player content may not be localized automatically and
you will get the message “Content not found”. In this case:
1.
Click OK.
The dialog “Please locate the content folder” appears.
2.
Locate and select the folder “Virtual Guitarist EE SE” and click OK.
Under Mac OS X, the path is /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/VSTi Collection.
3.
In the VST Instrument rack, it now reads “Please reload the plug-in”.
4.
To “re-load” the plug-in, deselect it in the instrument slot (select “No VST
instrument”) and re-select it from the pop-up menu.
Register your software!
Before getting carried away with the software, which we’re sure you will
do, please take a moment to complete and return the registration card
enclosed with the Studio Case package. This will entitle you to technical support, and we’ll also keep you up to date with the latest news and
updates.
VST Instruments
1 – 18 Introduction
Activating VST instruments in Cubase SE
This section describes how to set up any of the VSTis in Cubase SE.
Make sure Cubase SE has been correctly installed and set up to work
with your MIDI and audio hardware (e.g. a MIDI keyboard and a sound
card).
We’ll show the process of setting up a VSTi instrument using HALion
SE as an example.
1.
In Cubase SE, open the VST Instruments window.
2.
Click the “No VST Instrument” label. In the pop-up menu choose
HALion SE.
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3.
Open the HALion SE window by clicking the Edit button (e) in the
VST Instruments window.
4.
In Cubase SE, select HALion SE as the output for a MIDI track, and
make sure this track is set up to receive MIDI data from your MIDI keyboard and to transmit on channel 1.
5.
HALion SE is now set up properly.
• Please note that for some instruments, you have to choose the content
folder when you launch the instrument for the first time (see page 18).
VST Instruments
Introduction 1 – 19
VST Instruments
1 – 20 Introduction
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2
Virtual Guitarist Electric
Edition SE
About Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE
Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE is your own personal rhythm guitarist, letting you choose between 6 guitar players, each of which is a
perfectionist: perfect sound, perfect timing, and the ability to flexibly
adapt to suit most musical styles.
Using Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE you can easily add professional-sounding rhythm guitar tracks to your songs, without the need
for a real player, and get a perfect take every time. Even if you use real
guitarists in your music as well, Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE
has the big advantage of enabling you to experiment with rhythm guitar parts at any time, and in any place, without the need for special recording equipment. You could even be laying down tracks on your
laptop computer while flying to Mongolia.
VST Instruments
2 – 22 Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE
How do I use Virtual Guitarist?
Using Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE is simple, especially if you
think of the plug-in as a real rhythm guitar player – tell them what to
play and they will play it. The playing is precise and the guitarist won’t
complain, which, aside from the clever programming, is a worldwide
first in itself!
Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE is used exactly like any other VST
Instrument:
• Prepare a track and load Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE.
• Select a player from the menu.
• Use a MIDI keyboard to trigger Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE or, alternatively, manually add the chords to a MIDI track via the sequencer’s editor.
• Swap guitars, throw in fills or long chords, and improve your guitar track until
you’re happy with it. You can change any parameter at a later time, and, in
contrast to recording “real” guitars, you can change the key of the song at any
time without having to repeat the whole recording session!
What is Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE?
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Technically speaking, Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE is a VST instrument containing a variety of rhythm guitar styles. Each style is represented by a player, and is ready-to-go with the correct guitar, microphone or amp.
Musically speaking, Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE plays itself,
and all you have to do is play the chord and key progressions via a
MIDI keyboard. You can control the phrasing, sound, and play parameters, using either the mouse, or by triggering them in real time by
using a MIDI controller. This enables you to adapt the rhythm guitar to
seamlessly work within your song, and in any given musical style.
VST Instruments
Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE 2 – 23
How does Virtual Guitarist work?
To clear up a common misconception, Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition
SE doesn’t use common single-note samples or synthesis to imitate
guitars. The result would be extremely artificial, and if you’ve ever tried
to simulate guitar playing on a MIDI keyboard, you’ll know exactly what
we’re talking about.
Perhaps surprisingly, the Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE concept is
actually much simpler and is based on a huge library of audio tracks recorded by real living and breathing guitar players. This means the result
really is a genuine guitar recording – and not an artificial approximation.
Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE’s ground-breaking approach
makes it possible to select from these recordings in real time when
you change a chord or any other parameter. Tempo changes are no
problem as the guitar recordings have been processed in a way that
enables all the beats to be triggered individually.
What you can and can’t do with Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE
Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE has many advantages when compared with a real guitar player:
• The virtual guitar players are convenient and available at any time.
• Using a virtual guitarist is cheap and easy, especially since you won’t need a
studio to record in.
• You can save time because there’s no setup, tuning, preparation, microphone
positioning, or audio recording.
•Virtual guitarists don’t play wrong notes and there aren’t going to be any timing
problems.
• You can work with several guitar players simultaneously.
• You have complete control over the sound and phrasing of the guitar.
• Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE supports your creativity, allowing you to
experiment as much as you want, and giving you the possibility of creating
tracks that couldn’t be played on a “real” guitar.
• It’s possible to make alterations at any stage, even after recording or during
the mixing process. You can change the instrument, phrasing, and sound
without having to recreate the chord data from scratch.
VST Instruments
2 – 24 Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE
Despite all of these advantages, it’s important to remember that Virtual
Guitarist Electric Edition SE is a computer program and will inevitably
have some disadvantages when compared to a real player. It would be
impossible for Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE to provide everything
a real guitarist might theoretically be able to offer, although the included
virtual players do cover a broad range of musical styles capable of suiting most needs.
First test
At this point, you’re probably itching to get your hands on Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE, so:
1. Activate Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE (as described in the section “Activating VST instruments in Cubase SE” on page 19) and load
a player. In the Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE window, click the
“Latch On/Off” button to activate this parameter.
2. Play a chord or note on your MIDI keyboard, and Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE will start to play. Because we activated the “Latch On/
Off” button, playback will continue when you release the key(s).
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3. If you have a sustain pedal connected to your MIDI keyboard, press it
to stop Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE.
If you don’t have a sustain pedal, you can assign the “stop” function to
a note on your MIDI keyboard. For more information about this, check
out the section “Remote keys” on page 32.
The MIDI LED in the Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE window lights
up when the instrument receives MIDI events.
VST Instruments
Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE 2 – 25
How to play Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE
There are several ways of playing Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE:
• You can play chords and vary the expression using keyboard velocity, MIDI
controllers, the sustain pedal, and program changes.
• If you’re not familiar with a keyboard, you can enter chords and other MIDI
events using one of the editors provided by your software sequencer.
• You can use Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE to dub the chord tracks of existing songs and MIDI files to improve the way they sound. Many commercial
MIDI files include special chord tracks, although duplicating a typical “Pad
sound” track (such as strings) with Virtual Guitarist will usually produce good
results.
Multiple Virtual Guitarists
You can use as many versions of Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE
simultaneously as your host application and computer allow. There’s
nothing wrong in using two rock guitar tracks at the same time with
different phrasing, and then throwing in an additional riff from a third
Virtual Guitarist instance here and there.
VST Instruments
2 – 26 Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE
Players
In Virtual Guitarist terminology, a player is a guitarist with a unique style.
However, more than just a style or rhythm, each Virtual Guitarist player
refers to particular guitar, sound (amp, speaker, etc.), and dedicated
playing style.
Selecting a player
• To select a player, click the small downward-pointing arrow on the
Virtual Guitarist’s plug-in window, and choose from the pop-up menu.
The loading status is indicated in the control panel, see below.
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• You can also use the left and right arrows window to switch between
players, but this isn’t recommended because of the long loading times.
After loading, a picture of the original guitar used for the recording is
visible in the “sound hole”.
VST Instruments
Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE 2 – 27
Parts
Each player offers up to four different parts. A part is variation – varying
in rhythmic phrasing, note structure (e.g. single notes, chords, octaves)
and effect setting. You can either play the same part all the time, or
switch parts while playing to add variation to a track.
Selecting parts
You can select a part by clicking one of the two part selection arrows
in the Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE window.
Switching parts in real time
You can switch between parts while you play without any glitches, and
one way of doing this is to send a MIDI program change message (from
one to four) from a MIDI keyboard. The program change number corresponds to the part number.
Alternatively, you can switch between parts using certain notes on your
MIDI keyboard.
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Chord recognition
Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE contains an intelligent chord recognition system, which always plays the correct chord based on the MIDI
input from a sequencer or MIDI keyboard in real time. The MIDI input
can consist of a complete chord or simple one-finger notes – you don’t
need to make any special settings because Virtual Guitarist Electric
Edition SE will always know what to do.
The chord set
The chords provided in Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE are the six
most common chords in most musical styles:
• Major, 7, maj7, minor, sus4, sus2.
If you play a chord that’s not included in this set, Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE will automatically select the most appropriate replacement chord.
Playing chords
ENGLISH
If you play a complete chord (for example, the notes C, F, and G for a
Csus chord), Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE will automatically
recognize it.
• For the best possible chord recognition, all the notes of a chord must be
played. Playing three notes is sufficient for major, minor or sus4 chords,
but for the other supported chord types (maj7, 7 and sus2) you need to
play all four notes.
Chord inversions
In most cases, it doesn’t matter what inversion of a chord you play.
However, there is one exception where the bass note has to be the
root or tonic note:
• +5 chords (A+5 uses the same notes as C#+5 and F+5).
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One-finger chords
For the chord types major, 7 and minor, you don’t actually need to play
all the notes in the chord. Although playing a single note always indicates a major chord, you can indicate a different chord type by playing
an additional key.
Additional key Chord
None major
Next left white key 7
Next left black key minor
Chord display
The chord display shows the currently playing or pre-selected chord. If
the chord you play can’t be found or is missing in the chord set, Virtual
Guitarist Electric Edition SE will automatically choose the most appropriate replacement chord (indicated in the chord display).
Players and chords
You’ll soon discover that the selection of available chords depends on
which player you have selected. Some players only offer neutral
chords. But it’s no problem to control this type of player from a MIDI
track containing more complex chords – Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE automatically selects the most appropriate chords from the
available selection.
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