The
whole idea with Virtual Guitarist 2, as Steinberg
say, is to provide a high quality rhythm guitarist
straight into the computer studio environment
without any external amps or microphones. This
concept obviously has much appeal - it takes time,
space and organisation to have a real musician
present, even if he or she could play as well as
the musicians used here - and this "guitarist" is
available whenever you want. It's basically a huge
library of high quality professionally recorded
audio tracks - (you need about 7GB of hard drive
space) which have been arranged into different
styles (87 in all) which would cover pretty much
most musical genres. The recordings have been
subject to some serious editing, which makes
possible the variations within each style, as we
shall see.
As with Virtual Bassist and Groove Agent 3, Virtual Guitarist 2 is copy protected by a "key" (a dongle; again not supplied, but no issue if you already have one as multiple licenses can be stored on one key), is easy to install and authorise, and comes with a clear and instructive manual. It's worth browsing through this first: the idea of Virtual Guitarist 2 is basically simple; chords and progressions are played by a midi keyboard but different parts of the keyboard are assigned for different duties.
Any given "style" is in fact a set of riffs and fills (sixteen including the fills) which can be triggered in real time as you play, so as chords are changed within a sequence (using the "play range" part of the keyboard) the different riffs and fills pertaining to each chord can be chosen using the "remote range" part of the keyboard. That might sound a bit tricky, but it's not - a few minutes fiddling around and you'll see what we mean. Other controls, such as when to trigger a fill, or when to play a sustained chord, are also available within the remote range. We wonder sometimes if an "audio track" based instrument such as this can provide enough variation and inspiration for a demanding musician; however the "Riff" page is excellent for editing what would otherwise be a fixed set of parts and fills - slices within a part can be moved, changed in pitch, deleted if you want; and here we also have the "Groove Settings" section, allowing for easy adjustments in timing and feel of a given part, which all means that something unique can quickly be created from this instrument without too much trouble. If yet more variation is required, instead of using Midi track 1 (or as well as), use track 16, and individual slices of a part can be triggered from the keyboard - this allows for much more variation and the opportunity to be inventive.
On to the effects - these are very good - we have a wah pedal, compressor, fuzz, delay...and choice of speaker cabinets and microphone positions. Lots of presets are available here too, and the whole effects section can be used as a plug-in in it's own right. We would say that if you are not a guitarist, or even if you are and can't always be bothered to set everything up for such a quality recording, then this will give excellent results with a large degree of variation over a wide range of styles. Virtual Guitarist 2 can be used as a plug-in, as we did, or standalone with the option of ReWire connectivity, and is also compatible with Intel-based Macs. The quality of the recordings is excellent; the "feel" of the playing is real and natural (because it's a real guitarist playing in each instance) and it's easy and fun to use. Anyone looking for a convincing rhythm guitar in software would do well to seriously consider Virtual Guitarist 2.
As with Virtual Bassist and Groove Agent 3, Virtual Guitarist 2 is copy protected by a "key" (a dongle; again not supplied, but no issue if you already have one as multiple licenses can be stored on one key), is easy to install and authorise, and comes with a clear and instructive manual. It's worth browsing through this first: the idea of Virtual Guitarist 2 is basically simple; chords and progressions are played by a midi keyboard but different parts of the keyboard are assigned for different duties.
Any given "style" is in fact a set of riffs and fills (sixteen including the fills) which can be triggered in real time as you play, so as chords are changed within a sequence (using the "play range" part of the keyboard) the different riffs and fills pertaining to each chord can be chosen using the "remote range" part of the keyboard. That might sound a bit tricky, but it's not - a few minutes fiddling around and you'll see what we mean. Other controls, such as when to trigger a fill, or when to play a sustained chord, are also available within the remote range. We wonder sometimes if an "audio track" based instrument such as this can provide enough variation and inspiration for a demanding musician; however the "Riff" page is excellent for editing what would otherwise be a fixed set of parts and fills - slices within a part can be moved, changed in pitch, deleted if you want; and here we also have the "Groove Settings" section, allowing for easy adjustments in timing and feel of a given part, which all means that something unique can quickly be created from this instrument without too much trouble. If yet more variation is required, instead of using Midi track 1 (or as well as), use track 16, and individual slices of a part can be triggered from the keyboard - this allows for much more variation and the opportunity to be inventive.
On to the effects - these are very good - we have a wah pedal, compressor, fuzz, delay...and choice of speaker cabinets and microphone positions. Lots of presets are available here too, and the whole effects section can be used as a plug-in in it's own right. We would say that if you are not a guitarist, or even if you are and can't always be bothered to set everything up for such a quality recording, then this will give excellent results with a large degree of variation over a wide range of styles. Virtual Guitarist 2 can be used as a plug-in, as we did, or standalone with the option of ReWire connectivity, and is also compatible with Intel-based Macs. The quality of the recordings is excellent; the "feel" of the playing is real and natural (because it's a real guitarist playing in each instance) and it's easy and fun to use. Anyone looking for a convincing rhythm guitar in software would do well to seriously consider Virtual Guitarist 2.
Steinberg Virtual Guitarist Review