Smooth Jazz Guitar Lead Sound

[rikp]

I am looking to emulate the smooth guiitar leads that you hear on smooth jazz tracks and the weather channel. Anyone have any ideas on good libraries out there?

Peace

Rikp

[gregjazz]

Check out Chris Hein's guitars:

http://www.chrishein.net/guitar/chg_productsite.htm

[Tomdini]

Agreed. CHG has a great hollow-body electric jazz guitar, and you can even use the acoustic samples of the hollow body if you want (or any combination of the electric/acoustic signals). Go all-electric and it's perfect for those octave jazz leads. Almost prototypical.

-Tom

[Schmandie]

One more confirmation... CH Guitars.

Best,

Andreas

[rikp]

Thanks folks! I am off to make a purchase)(~


Peace

rikp

[jazzobizz]

Thanks folks! I am off to make a purchase)(~


Peace

rikp

I 'm sure you will love your purchase, it's the best guitar library I ever tried.

[Raindog]

I 'm sure you will love your purchase, it's the best guitar library I ever tried.

I would like to second this. The jazz guitar especially is great
Raindog

[Journeyman]

Here's a question about electric guitar libraries (including CHG):

Do any of them emulate octave unisons correctly? I mean, of course you could just play in the octave parts with any library, but aren't octaves physically played differently in real life as opposed to taking an individual pluck and sending in up or down an octave? And then, aren't there different styles of octave playing? For example, doesn't George Benson stick a fifth in the middle of the octave? (I'm a keyboard player; hence my seemingly naive question.) Thanks!

[Chris Hein]

Here's a question about electric guitar libraries (including CHG):
Do any of them emulate octave unisons correctly? ... hence my seemingly naive question.
Thats a good question.
When playing octaves on a guitar with a plectrum, you always hit three strings.
Usually the fifth in the middle is muted, so you just hear two notes with a little delay between them.
But the sound is different than playing an octave on a keyboard.

CHG has no recorded octaves. It has a built in midi-harmonizer with an adjustable dealy, but that does not sound like George Benson.
Chord mode II simulates it a little bit, but to be honest, that also does not sound like real played octaves.

I haven't really tried to simulate the typical octave Jazz-Gitar playing.
I guess it would need a complete separate instrument with another 4.000 samples.
There is a lot of dirt happening when playing fast octave lines
especially in lower notes where you don't hit the upper three strings
and you would need all the different articulations like slides, grace-notes, etc.

Has anyone tried to play George Benson like octaves with CHG?

Chris Hein

[spectrum]

Hans Zimmer Guitars vol.2 two has a nice Jazz Guitar that includes sampled real octave playing. It's not as extensive as the more recent CH Guitars, but it's still very expressive and has a great tone. :-)

[Journeyman]

Thanks Eric!

[rikp]

Hans Zimmer Guitars vol.2 two has a nice Jazz Guitar that includes sampled real octave playing. It's not as extensive as the more recent CH Guitars, but it's still very expressive and has a great tone. :-)

Oh no! Looks like another purchase*() I really want a nice guitar sound to blend with my sax for smooth jazz tracks. I have to say that I am impressed with the CH audio demos!

Peace

Rikp

[ltoonz]

Oh no! Looks like another purchase*() I really want a nice guitar sound to blend with my sax for smooth jazz tracks. I have to say that I am impressed with the CH audio demos!

Peace

Rikp

You might wish to check out the Prominy LPC 'Clean Guitar'. Look for a demo called 'Urban Jungle' that features Octave playing. This lib has recorded Octave artivulations.

Regards,
Kevin L

[clonewar]

I own CHG and LPC Clean.. both are amazing libraries!

CHG probably nails that particular sound better because it has a hollow body jazz guitar, which is an amazingly versitile instrument because you can dial between the electric and acoustic samples, plus play it picked or fingered. But, it doesn't have octaves sampled so if you really need that then you should take a look at the Prominy. Its a Les Paul and is SOUNDS like a Les Paul (I mean that in a very good way!), and through the right amp simulator it can get a very nice jazzy tone. To me LPC is the VSL of guitar libraries.. it has sooo many articulations sampled that if you work at it you can nail just about any lead you want to play.

Chords are a different matter. LPC has a lot of chord types sampled, but I prefer CHG's chord mode, where you can voice the chords with your left hand (or both hands) and then 'strum' them (up and down) with your right, with lots of varying degrees of mutes, etc. There'll never be a chord you can't play..