Vir2 Electri6ity Electric Guitar Library Review

Yo what’s good fam, it’s friday…so time to get a nice new plate of Big Fish!

Today I’m checking out an instrument from Vir2 called Electri6ity.

I remember when I first saw this a NAMM a year a go and I thought it was dope.

I’ve had it for a while but have just been spending time learning how to use it, there’s a lot of tricks and features here.

Anyway, if you don’t know, it’s an electric guitar library build on the kontakt player engine.

So let’s check it out

What is Electri6ity?

According to Vir2 it’s “the ultimate virtual electric guitar instrument”

In my own words, it’s a highly detailed and advanced electric guitar library that tries to capture the realism of guitar playing.

It does auto chords, so when you play chords on the keyboard, it voices them as it would be voiced properly on a guitar, great for non guitarist such as myself!

It also has strumming features built in, so you can get a more realistic strumming sound and not so much of the “machine gun” repetitive effect from trying to strum the normal way on a keyboard.

Not to mention all the other articulations and playing styles built in as well as the way the engine “adapts” to your playing to give you realistic switches between various velocities and articulations.

 

Quick Specs

• content: 27gb
• format: kontakt and kontakt player
• price: $399.95

How does it sound?

Of course we all know this is all that matters, and this thing sound incredible.

You get two folders: Amped and DI

So you can use the amped version which uses the internal fx modules to give you an instant character and tone, or you can use the DI versions for a clean sound.  The DI versions are also useful if you want to run the guitars through your own Amp fx like AmpliTube 3 or Guitar Rig.

Personally I prefer the amped versions, they sound really good! I like how the chord recognition works and even tells you which chord it is playing.

The strumming engine took me a while to understand, but basically if you hit a chord/key, the strumming keys will remember whichever keys you just hit, so you can strum that same chord or note easily using the various strum and picking styles.

I like the fact that it’s not just 1 guitar recorded but 8 popular electric guitar models with 3 different pickup positions.

The interface allows you to quickly adjust the tone of the guitar as well as the volume of the guitar or the pickup.

You can also customize the vibrato speed, strength, type, pick position, pick direction, strum direction, timing of the strum, noise, and release volume.

Pretty much everything is front and center, and the guitars themselves are recorded well, have a nice tone, and are responsive when being played.

What’s the bottom line, is Electri6ity a keeper?

For the price, I’m sure there are many guitarist that will say you can go out and buy an electric guitar and a copy of AmpliTube or Guitar Rig and be in a better position.

That’s up for debate depending on how good you are with a guitar and if you want to take the time to learn it.

On the other hand, there will also be those that say there is no way you could get your hands on these 8 guitar models for the price of the library, and I’m sure with all the customization you can do to the engine, strings, playing, etc….many guitar purist will still find this enjoyable.

For someone like me who loves the guitar sound but pretty much sucks on a real guitar, it’s a happy addition to the toolbox. The fact that it’s not dedicated strictly to metal guitars is a plus, as it seems many libraries focus on the hard, metal style power chords and sound.

No doubt you can get that here, but you can also pull out some smooth jazzy lines or some funky riffs, depending on the model and amp setup you choose. Basically it’s flexible in that it allows you to choose the sound you want.

For me at the end of the day all that matters is tone and playability.

I give this library 5 out of 5 subs, I really enjoy the tone, the interface, and the usability of the library.

I will say this, it’s probably best used with a full sized keyboard controller, I have a 49 key controller on my desk and find myself transposing up and down octaves quite a bit to access all the articulations and strumming/picking keys.  I do believe you can rearrange them  to focus on the stuff you use but I like how they are setup by default.

It does take a little while to fully understand everything going on, and the depth to which you can customize everything, down to the volume of each string, is just plain sick!

With the Amped and DI version represented, I’m pretty confident I can find any electric guitar sound I am looking for.

To put this in perspective, in my mind, Electri6ity is to virtual electric guitars what Trilian is to Bass, pretty much all you’ll need to get the sounds you want.

Of course this is all my opinion, you should definitely go check the various demos and videos and make up your own decision: Vir2 Electri6ity

leave a comment below, let me know what you think!