Hey what’s good fam, hope your week is off to a good start.
Today I’ve got an acoustic guitar library that’s pretty cool, from Acoustic Samples.
Let’s jump in and check it out!
So what is Sunbird?
It’s an acoustic guitar library based on the 1962 Gibson Hummingbird acoustic guitar.
It has chord recognition so that it will translate the chords you play into the chords of a guitarist, you can also go in and edit the chord voicings.
In addition to that you get realistic strumming with speed control, solo playing, and even a pattern engine with tons of included patterns or you can create your own.
If you own a MIDI guitar, you can hook it up and adjust the settings for how it will interact directly within the instrument itself.
There’s plenty of other customization you can do including capo settings, humanization, the amount of “off” playing, and more.
Quick Specs
- content: 8.16GB uncompressed, 1.53GB compressed
- format: UVI Workstation
- price: $149
- product page: http://shop.soundsandgear.com/product/acoustic-samples-sunbird-acoustic-guitar/
How does it sound?
This guitar has a really great sound, but for me the stand out is how it sounds when playing chords/strumming.
The entire engine is really flexible as well as powerful, but totally easy to use, which is the part I love.
You can get very realistic strumming on your own, or if you wish, you can pull up the many patterns and play along with your track.
If you don’t like the patterns or wish to change them a bit, you can edit or even create your own.
The chord recognition engine is deep, with many different voicing options for the chords, so you can go in and decide how you want a particular chord voiced, or…if you wish, make up your own voicing entirely.
At the end of the day sound is what matters, but for me, when it comes to a guitar vst the ease of use built into the engine adds to the sound because that can determine how easy it is to actually play something that sounds like a real guitar.
You can also go in and change the mic setups to really tweak what you want it to sound like, you get access to pickup, close, and overhead mic settings.
It sounds great, and I love the flexibility in the engine.
So what’s the bottom line?
I’ve messed with quite a few guitar instruments, and not being a guitarist, I find many to be a bit complex to actually work with.
I’m sure they can sound great in the right hands, but the great thing about Sunbird is that even though I’m not a guitarist, the options are very easy to understand and the strumming engine works very well with the chord recognition to allow one to play convincing guitar parts shortly after diving into the interface.
I give Sunbird 4.5 out of 5 subs, it’s great sounding guitar instrument that’s easy to use, and fun to play.
If you find yourself looking to add some realistic guitar to your tracks, complete with chords, strumming, mutes, as well as finger/pick playing, you should definitely check this out.
It really has a nice clean sound to it, and the level of control you have over the subtleties of the sound and playback really allow you to make it your own.
Leave me a comment below and let me know what you think.
What’s up Joe? Nice review. I am glad to see this library. The Hummingbird is a classic and really is used across the spectrum of multiple genres. Keith Richards and Jimmy Page are probably the most well known artists to play one. I love mine. If only it were a Gibson. It’s an Epiphone but still has that Hummingbird sound.
[IMG]http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa102/DraglineDrummer/Mobile%20Uploads/20141215_111627_zpsaqk0nomc.jpg[/IMG]
I’ve been MIA for a while but hope you’re doing well and hope your family has a good holiday.
What’s good fam, always good to hear from you bro!
I guess I can’t embed the picture but here is just the link:
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa102/DraglineDrummer/Mobile%20Uploads/20141215_111627_zpsaqk0nomc.jpg
That thing is nice man!
This seems really nice, man.
you’re killing me! LOL
Ahahahaha lol, it’s very nice
really impressive. really sounds real.
Yeah it does, I dig it.
Why must you make me go broke, Joe?
Ahahahaha, not my intention LOL
From being a guitar player myself I have to say it sounds pretty realistic. It then comes down to how you play on the controller. If you switch between chords without letting go of the last one, it might sound unrealistic, but that’s not the fault of the VST.
Even the solo stuff sounds awesome. This is an impressive one. Thanks for the review!
Right, I would imagine it sounds even better in the hands of someone that actually plays, but for me, someone that doesn’t know the first thing about playing, I was definitely impressed with what I could get out of it! Thanks for the comment.
SJ: The acoustic sound this delivers is pure and complete. Thanks for the video review. Many guitar musicians will appreciate this vst. I agree with your 4.5/5.0 rating.
Thanks for watching
Great demo Mate! There is so much out there! Orange Tree, Amplesound. MusicLab Real Guitar etc with strum and solo stuff!! This seems pretty cool, do you rate it above those mentioned! Wish the key triggers where on the left side of the Keyboard though!! LOL 🙂
Man there’s a ton, I love how easy this one is to use though, really cool imo.
The feel of steel strings, the bending and control of the notes as the steel of the string is stretched and the pure beauty of the magnitude of styles one can get out of steel string guitar alone is remarkable. After seeing and playing guitar piano, string and wind instruments for over four decades and listening to midi guitars and samples of guitars and hearing the many sequnces and guiat arrangments made. I often here in pop music really pathetic cheap programming of the guitar such as Justin Beiber and many others. It is so sad to think that electronic and modern pop music began to destroy live musicians but aroun 1982 to around circa 1992 when rap and hip hop took over real muscians of the past. Few young people remember what live music was or the increbible skill reall musicians had back then. Prince was one of the last musicians whom knew to still perform real music live and over time he was replaced by cheap sampler music. Folk guitar musicians, rock guitarists, jazz and orchestral musicians are slowly dying and younger generations have lost out because so many younger people do not know how to perform live with real instruments but iinstead only now know how to program computers.It seems glamourous but is very sad to see the arts be lost.
So you’re saying all modern music no longer uses real musicans? I’m sorry, but I totally disagree, I’ve seen plenty that shows otherwise.