Hi All

Interesting issue for me as I am working on a project that requires a VSTi Guitar that can be Unison Tuned (all strings to the same note - in my case an A) but it must also be able to do a very convincing slide as much of the guitar part uses slides to transform from one chord to the next.

All I have been able to find are pedal steel (country type) kontakt librarys which are completely the wrong sound as this is a rock song where the guitar has been Unison tuned to A and the player uses a slide on thier little finger.

I have looked at as man VSTi manufatuteres websites as I can find but nothing mentions what I need especially the Unison tuning and playing slide via pitch bend sounds artificial.

Any suggestions for a VSTi or kontakt that can do this?

 

heavier7strings

 

https://www.orangetreesamples.com/products/slide-lap-steel

 

doesn't make any sense tuning all 6 strings to A, the usual open tunings yes but unison A, ridiculous, I would never try this on any of my guitars. get yourself as piece of 2"x4" wood about 36" long, do a little work to mount a set of tuners, a pickup, a makeshift bridge and tailpiece and play it with a slide, or just buy a junk $20 guitar and try it. As for pedal steels being for country music, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page with Led Zepplin, use them as well as so many other rock bands.

 

I don't believe there's a single guitar plugin or library out there that allows unison (or even open or custom) tuning, at least I have never seen one.
All Orange Tree Samples guitars are in standard tuning and allow Drop D, Drop C, Half step down, Whole step down, Baritone and New Standard tuning. All Ample Sound guitars are also in standard tuning (except Metal Eclipse) and you can drop every string a half step or a whole step down. Heavier7Strings is in standard 7 string tuning and you can drop it to Drop A. Shreddage series guitars come in standard tuning for 6 string guitars (except Legacy), Drop A for 7 strings and Drop E for 8 string, none of them can be tuned in any way.

If I understand you correctly, you want to strum these stacks of unison notes, chords and glide between them with a slide. I can only say that you're shit out of luck, mate. Sorry to say, but your only 2 options would be to either buy a cheap guitar and play it yourself or hire someone to do it for you. Second option might turn out to be expensive or really hard to find as I've never seen anyone use unison tuning before.

 

Last edited: Oct 12, 2020

I've used some pretty weird tunings in my lifetime and when it comes to unison, a couple of strings tuned to the same note can give a pretty cool effect. The other day I used something like BbFCFCC and it sounded pretty cool just doing drone strings. Unison tunings are pretty weird though and would never dare do it to my guitar either. But I find some goodies here and there. BEBEBE is another favorite of mine. That's about as close to a full blown Unison tuning I'll go.
I've used a pedal steel for ambient rock/shoegaze music. If you get creative enough a pedal steel can be pretty cool. I'd recommend the Impact Soundworks version over Orange Tree though.

I have done guitar tracks for people in the past for some beer money or whatever. But in that scenario I'd likely charge a lot more because I've never used a tuning where all the strings are the same. The closest I've ever seen anyone doing this was the Goo Goo Dolls' "Iris" which has a tuning of BDDDDD.
I'd have to have the person pay for new strings. Basically I'd have to mangle my guitar just for someone else's song. I wouldn't even do that for one of my own songs lmao. My Taylor A10 alone has been through enough lol

 

Last edited by a moderator: Oct 12, 2020

there is nothing ridiculous about it, the sound my client wishes to emulate for this project comes from a VERY famous worldwide hit from the 70's that to this day is VERY well known in the UK and especially in the USA. The band in question are still performing thje song to this day. The original producer has documented how he got the sound which was he tuned every string to A and slide between the chords.

Oh and as a point of order, when some one asks a polite question that is not an invitation to be rude and dismissive. I do not care about your opinion and I was not asking for it. If you are unable to answer someones question then kindly say nothing.

 

Such colourful launguage - well done.

Try googling "unison guitar tuning" - it is a known and surprisingly often used tecnique. A fair number of very well known artists use this technique on certain songs.

 

It might be easier to just bounce the VSTi 5 or 6 times from the same MIDI file performance, slightly altering the timbre of the string (guitar) each time by adjusting picking position, using a different pickup, or other settings. This way, you have way more options and control in the end.
....that is, if you can find the VSTi that you're looking for.

Maybe use this technique with a KONTAKT i̶n̶s̶t̶r̶u̶m̶e̶n̶t̶ library that has a slide incorporated??

 

Last edited: Oct 13, 2020

I may be mistaken, but can't you tune individual strings on Sugar Bytes Guitarist?

 

I am not a guitarist, I had no idea what you were talking about and I did a research. I must tell you that this unison tuning technique has enlightened me: now I understand how to get these sounds out of the guitar, this is definitely "blues"