Ample Guitars - Suitable for live performance?

[mythias]

Has anyone had experience trying to use any of the Ample guitars in a live setting?  They are great for working with MIDI and taking your time choosing the articulations and picking styles and whatnot but what if I want to be able to play some realistic sounding crunchy rhythm using their Les Paul?  I'm not fooling myself into thinking I am going to sound as good as a real guitar but it might be good enough for a cover band in a small club for a couple of songs.

 

I have played the Les Paul and the Peregrine Falcon and both sound really good.  Lots of nice amp and speaker / microphone combinations to try out.  One thing I wish they had was some built-in effects like tremolo or wah.

 

I would be happy to hear both positive and negative experiences people have had with this or other guitar VSTs.

[Anderton]

I think it depends on whether you want to play a guitar like you'd play an instrument, or trigger riffs and such. The latter is probably best exemplified by Native Instruments' Session Guitarist series and UJAM's Guitarist products. Of course, you need a computer to run those, so it also depends on whether you're using a computer in your live setup.

 

For real-time playing, if all you really need is some crunchy power chords and such, then you might just want to sample the sounds you need. If you don't play guitar, then set up some chords and strums using guitar note voicings, throw on an amp sim, and sample that. There are certain "sonic signatures" that make people think guitar - amp sims + cabs go a long way toward that, but also, using the pitch wheel to add vibrato (not the mod wheel) and with power chords, doing those whammy bar "dive bomb" effects with a one- or two-octave pitch bend range.

 

The other trick I do for monophonic solos lines is having a sine wave an octave+5th above the chord fade in after a couple hundred milliseconds of delay, to emulate the sound of feedback on sustained sounds. There's an article about how to do this on my craiganderton.org website. Hope this helps!

 

 

[Baldwin Funster]

The main problem as I see it is getting a good rhythm guitar strum. Power chords can sound convincing, and a good pentatonic lead can be done but keys just don't strum well.  I'd like to see a small midi attachment with some string like things and a window for putting your hand up to it to do some real strumming. Maybe it can attach to your belt. 

[KuruPrionz]

I just checked out out some of the demos on their website. 

I think you'll be fine using a guitar plugin at club gigs to expand your range. 

The most important thing is to play parts that sound like guitar parts instead of keyboard parts. 

 

Some of the demos sounded pretty close to authentic, certainly good enough to use. A few of them sounded like a keyboard player trying to sound like a guitar, not bad but not quite the same thing. As long as there aren't a bunch of guitarists in the crowd you shouuld be fine. 

 

FWIW, I am a guitarist and sometimes use a Fishman Triple Play rig to play MIDI pluginis. When I started playing IK Multimedia's ClavTube plugin (Clavinet plugged into guitar amps), it sounded pretty much like a guitar because I haven't quite got the hang of playing like a keyboard player.

 

Most ot the time at clubs, what you do is more about fun for you and the band than trying to fool anybody because honestly, they don't care. Give them a groove they can shake their asses to and a chorus they can sing along with and you have happy campers. Cheers, Kuru

[Stokely]

I honestly tend to use clav, organ or a wurly with some overdrive in spots where I'm acting as rhythm guitarist.  There are a couple tunes where I use/used actual guitar patches:  The plucked melody during the verses of Long Train Running, and some of the chords in Everlong.  I feel that the more I have tried to sound like an actual guitar, the cheesier it sounds and feels...instead I shoot for the essence of the part.  Just my 2c.  I'd say the sounds of any of those sample libraries is good enough, it comes down to playability.

All that said, I've done some interesting things with the NI strummed guitar for home projects--I'd prefer to record my nice acoustic, but I suck and haven't been working on getting better!

[mythias]

I have similar feelings as some of you about playing guitar on a keyboard never quite sounding authentic, more like someone playing keyboard on a guitar.  I have experimented with overdriven Clavinet VST through a software tube amp and a cabinet IR and I do get some nice results.   Pianoteq's Clavinet and built-in effects sound very good to my ears.

 

Keyboard chord voicings are completely different than guitar voicings and you can tell when you're not using them right.  They are much more spread out than typical tight piano chords though I am sure you guys already know this.  Ample guitar sims are detailed enough to not let you play two notes on the same string (unless you override it) for a realistic sound but it does require rethinking of how you play chords.  Easier done when practicing a song and planning ahead of time how you will play it opposed to doing it on the fly in a jam or a solo at least initially until I get more experience.

 

Or, I will abandon the idea and stick to a traditional sound.  I like the idea of staying true to playing instruments that actually have a keyboard attached, piano, organ, clavinet, rhodes, etc.  I also play harmonica and I'd much rather play the real thing than try to replicate it on a keyboard. Same with a guitar, I know how to play it but I don't have the skill or the ability to practice as much as I do with my keyboard and I already have to haul enough gear to gigs without also needing a guitar and possibly another amp.  Much easier to practice keyboards in a small apartment with headphones 5 feet away from my wife without bothering her than a guitar.

 

Keyboard rigs seem always to be a work in progress.  It is a good thing to have in the toolbox no matter what.