RealGuitar: Although I’m a guitarist I occasionally use RealGuitar 2L, a sample-based virtual instrument, to provide acoustic guitar strumming parts in a song. A well-designed piece of software, it not only provides very realistic strumming but also plucking and bending sounds using nylon, steel or 12-string guitar real samples (i.e. not synthesised sounds) as well as articulations such as fret noise. The 2L version also comes with a library of MIDI rhythm parts which can be dragged into your project and used or modified as desired. The single interface is pictured right, top.
Although designed primarily for keyboard players and to be played and recorded in real time, I operate RealGuitar as plugin to Sonar on MIDI guitar tracks I’ve imported from Band In a Box or Jammer Pro and edited. You can download a demo version and listen to sound examples at the MusicLab RealGuitar web site here. MusicLab also make two sister products RealLPC (Les Paul Custom) and RealStrat, which I haven’t tried but which have received good press reviews.
Drum Sounds: Getting the right drum kit sounds and beats on a song is vital and I try various sources to see which one best complements a particular project. Sometimes I use sounds and/or preset beats from one of my drum machines (see Hardware page 3) or my Fantom X6, but I mostly use software
such as:
- Smart Loops: These are short real recordings of patterns and single hits played on kits and kit components which you can string together to make a complete drum track. I recommend the Pro Drum Works volumes 1 and 2 which provide a massive collection to suit almost any occasion. Loops are extremely realistic but you are of course limited to what has already been recorded.
- EZdrummer (pictured right, middle) is one of a number of real drum samplers that have had a lot of success in recent years. Made by Toontrack, it comes with different kits and an extensive library of preset MIDI patterns and fills. You can also buy add-on packs of different kits, e.g. Jazz, Funk, Nashville, as well as MIDI packs of extra patterns. As its name implies, EZdrummer is very easy to use, and has some great sounds, which is why it’s a bestseller.
- Addictive Drums (pictured right) is a similar product to EZdrummer both in terms of interface and functionality. This tends to be my go-to drums plugin. As well kits and pattern libraries both have a mixer page where you can use effects to alter the ambient sound of the kit with Addictive Drums having a bit more flexibility in this area, but see Toontrack’s Superior Drummer for its more advanced product.
- Battery 3 by Native Instruments was an early pioneer drum sampler but its matrix of kit components interface is not user friendly when compared to what now seems a de facto standard exhibited by those above. It doesn’t have a library of MIDI patterns. However, it’s still very widely used but the kit sounds are very biased towards dance, techno, etc.
EZmix: This is an extremely useful tool (well for me anyway!) and at only £40 is a no-brainer. Ezmix from Toontrack is a simple tool that gives access to an array of professionally combined effects presets (EQ, compression, reverb, etc) for instruments, vocals or final mixes. You simply audition the presets and accept what sounds right. Purists will abhor such a product but like all tools, used properly in the right place they can do a perfect job.
