
While Real Guitar 2L is not compatible with styles from Rhythm'n'Chords, this feature is not dissimilar in function. This provides over 1200 preset MIDI patterns for use with Real Guitar 2L, and these cover a wide range of musical styles including simple strumming, picking, blues, jazz, Latin, pop, reggae, rock, and a number of others. Perhaps the key new feature in the 2L version is the Pattern Manager. Real Guitar 2L recognises some 26 different chord types, including seventh and ninth chords and inversions, so even jazz fans ought to be reasonably well catered for. The end result of these various control options is that each mode provides a 'playable' sampled guitar instrument which, with appropriate practice with the keyswitches, can be used to create credible real-time performances directly from a MIDI keyboard. The black keys generate a muted version of the same chord, allowing more percussive elements to be added to the strumming pattern. For example, in Chord mode the white keys simply play a strum of whatever chord is being held in the Melody Zone, allowing complex strumming patterns to be played with ease. The exact function of the Repeat Key zones changes in the various performance modes. Note ranges C1 to D#1 and C5 to C6 form two Repeat Key zones, while all the keys in between form the Melody zone, where notes or chords are played. However, common to all modes is that Real Guitar 2L responds to your MIDI keyboard in three distinct zones. For each guitar type, the different performance modes result in a different set of sample keyswitch options appropriate to that style of playing. Some of these are described a little more fully below, but their names clearly indicate their functions. As with the original version, Real Guitar 2L features a number of different performance modes Solo, Harmony, Chords, Bass & Chords, and Bass & Pick.

Picked, fingered, and 'doubling' options are provided amongst these.

The sampled guitars include two different steel-strung guitars, a nylon-strung instrument, a 12-string, and a stereo steel-string.

The sample library is based entirely around acoustic guitars, and its primary aim is to provide a sample-based acoustic guitar instrument that can be played via a MIDI keyboard. This new version adds a number of new features and comes in two flavours: a basic version and the top-of-the-range 2L version reviewed here. This technology eventually evolved into Real Guitar, the original version of which was released in early 2004. SOS readers will be familiar with the Music Lab name through a number of products, but most notably the Rhythm'n'Chords MIDI plug-in that provided a way of creating realistic guitar parts from keyboard-based MIDI data. Of course, the aim of both products is to achieve credible guitar parts within a musical project, so we figured that a comparative review might be in order, to find out which virtual guitarist is best at this in practice? Real Guitar 2L Via keyswitching options, Real Guitar 2L is a 'playable' instrument.

Realguitar electric series#
In contrast, Real Guitar 2L provides a series of multisampled guitar instruments and, while it includes preset playing patterns, these are MIDI-based and can be edited as such. Virtual Guitarist 2 is very much based around Parts, essentially a set of pre-recorded phrases in a wide range of styles, which are pitch- and tempo-shifted to fit the chord and tempo needs of the project. The other major difference is in the 'engines' of the two products. For example, Real Guitar 2L only provides acoustic guitar samples, while Virtual Guitarist 2 (combining what was in the original Virtual Guitarist and Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition) provides both acoustic and electric guitar options. However, a brief comparison of the respective feature sets reveals some obvious differences. However, Steinberg are not without competition and, for acoustic guitar sounds at least, the recently released Real Guitar 2L - a collaboration between Music Lab and Best Service - provides a competitively priced alternative.Īt first sight, these two products would seem to be direct competitors. When it comes to guitar virtual instruments, Steinberg's cunningly named Virtual Guitarist would probably be the first product to spring into the minds of most SOS readers.
Realguitar electric software#
There have been some famous twin-guitar line-ups in rock history and, even if you can't strum a note, you can now have the virtual equivalent - both of these software instruments will play on time and in tune, and won't want a solo in every song! But are they both equally good? Music Lab Real Guitar 2L's main screen, with the plug-in in Solo mode - note the Capo placed on the fifth fret.
