# Best Acoustic Guitar Strum VSTs?



## zeng (Jul 27, 2016)

Hello,

What are your fav Acoustic Guitar Strum VSTs?

I love Native Instruments' "Strummed Acoustic", Virtual Guitarist's "Amber".

Also I know about Ilya Efimov, Orange Tree's acoustic guitars and Ample Sound but NI and Amber are very easy to go. Select style and play chords!

I am searching for similar VSTs for alternatives?

Thanks,
Zeng


----------



## R. Soul (Jul 27, 2016)

I much prefer the 'play your own strumming patterns' as opposed to 'pick a baked in pattern from a pattern selector'. 
RealGuitar used to be the best choice for that but the samples themselves are really outdated now. 
My current favourite is Sunbird from Acousticsamples - for strumming. For playing single notes I think Ilya, orangetree and Amplesound sound more realistic.


----------



## micrologus (Jul 27, 2016)

I love the _Pettinhouse Acoustic Guitar_ and the Ample Sound Acoustic Guitar - Both have a strum patch, but you can play in fingerpicking style, too. Great sound. 
I bought Kontakt's _Session Guitarist - Strummed Acoustic Library_ and sounds good, but i find it a little limited (you can't create your patterns).


----------



## zeng (Jul 27, 2016)

Wow, I liked acousticsamples acoustic guitar and pettinhouse.

Thanks guys!


----------



## elpedro (Jul 27, 2016)

https://www.acousticsamples.net/sunbird is one i use and like, also check out the orange tree stuff


----------



## Jaybee (Jul 27, 2016)

+1 for https://www.orangetreesamples.com/products/evolution-acoustic-guitar-steel-strings The strumming engine is very detailed and you can really make it do what you want once you get to know how it works. Lots of preset patterns included too but the _tweakability_ in the strumming engine is great.


----------



## Alatar (Jul 27, 2016)

elpedro said:


> https://www.acousticsamples.net/sunbird is one i use and like, also check out the orange tree stuff


+1 on that.


----------



## AmbientMile (Jul 27, 2016)

Another vote for Sunbird from me.


----------



## constaneum (Jul 27, 2016)

I've just checked on sunbird. Didn't know it's really that great sounding ! could be considered for my strumming use.


----------



## Vastman (Jul 27, 2016)

Got them all... love guitar. Nearly always default to Greg's OT creations... amazing breadth of sounds, awesome strums/construction/mods, consistant GUI, and killer sounds/samples. Additionally, Greg is constantly improving his evolution engine...

The 50% off sale on the sunbird awhile ago made it worthwhile but I feel the strum engine is very crude and cumbersome compared to Greg's


----------



## zeng (Jul 28, 2016)

Vastman said:


> Got them all... love guitar. Nearly always default to Greg's OT creations... amazing breadth of sounds, awesome strums/construction/mods, consistant GUI, and killer sounds/samples. Additionally, Greg is constantly improving his evolution engine...
> 
> The 50% off sale on the sunbird awhile ago made it worthwhile but I feel the strum engine is very crude and cumbersome compared to Greg's


I missed it :/ it has a really good sound. I think I'll buy both acoustic and sunbird.


----------



## Ashermusic (Jul 28, 2016)

I love the Pettinhouse and Indiginus guitars for this.


----------



## Kejero (Jul 28, 2016)

R. Soul said:


> RealGuitar used to be the best choice for that but the samples themselves are really outdated now.



I'd still highly recommend RealGuitar. What exactly do you mean by "the samples themselves" are outdated?


----------



## Ashermusic (Jul 28, 2016)

Kejero said:


> I'd still highly recommend RealGuitar. What exactly do you mean by "the samples themselves" are outdated?




I don't know what he means, but I don't think RealGuitar's samples sound that good. It is however obviously subjective.


----------



## Kejero (Jul 28, 2016)

Yeah, that's more of a "you either like, or you don't like the actual sound of a guitar" thing then. Just like it is with a real guitar (no pun intended)


----------



## ohernie (Jul 28, 2016)

RealGuitar isn't as "in your face" as new guitar samplesets. Whether that's good or bad depends on your taste and what you are trying to do.


----------



## R. Soul (Jul 29, 2016)

Kejero said:


> I'd still highly recommend RealGuitar. What exactly do you mean by "the samples themselves" are outdated?


The samples are very one dimensional. It's lacking all the velocity layers, round robins etc. that all the other libraries in this discussion have. I believe it's the same sample set as in RealGuitar 2, which is around 10 years old. That age is an eternity in the sampling world. I was suprised they didn't improve the actual samples when RealGuitar 3 came out, but to release RealGuitar 4 and just adding features, is in all honestly, rather baffling.


----------



## Kejero (Jul 30, 2016)

@R. Soul Velocity layers, I agree, it could use a few more levels. Round robins, I don't actually know how many they have, but they sound absolutely fine to me.
I should add that I mostly use this instrument for strumming, not so much "solo". And for that it sounds great and very rich to my ears (though some guitars better than others -- the nylon is easily my least favorite, as is the steel fingered).


----------



## zeng (Jul 30, 2016)

I think ample sound has the best sound and strumming performance so far.


----------



## kuma (Jul 30, 2016)

Prominy hummingbird


----------



## Baron Greuner (Jul 30, 2016)

For the money, Indiginus Guitars are a no brainer. The quality is first rate. For guitars that are virtual, Indiginus are the first ones I go to nowadays.


----------



## jonnybutter (Jul 30, 2016)

Baron Greuner said:


> For the money, Indiginus Guitars are a no brainer. The quality is first rate. For guitars that are virtual, Indiginus are the first ones I go to nowadays.




How is the programming on the Indiginus products? I like and use a couple of the Ample guitars for their excellent sound, but their scripting doesn't seem as robust as the Music Lab ("Real") products I own, which, alas, don't sound as good.


----------



## Baron Greuner (Jul 30, 2016)

I have Ample Guitar acoustic. It's very good.

I would definitely check out the Indiginus videos on their website. Very good stuff. On top of the acoustics, there are things like the Fender Telecaster Renegade, which is first rate. You can't go wrong. And Tracy and Brenda are great at support too. It all adds up.


----------



## procreative (Jul 30, 2016)

The 8Dio Steel String and Mandolin (Strummer versions) are quite good for basic rhythmic patterns complete with random fret noises. There are about 12 chord types (e.g. Major, Minor, Dim 7 etc) and about 12 rhythms. Plus it has a nice X-Fade Legato that smooths out the transitions if switching rhythms on the fly.

If you keyswitch between them you can make some quite unique parts and I believe you can do the same with the NI one.

Always with these kind of products, the effort you need to put in is probably much greater than just find a good guitarist. However thats easier said than done if you aren't paying for it and then you have to mic it up.


----------



## jonnybutter (Jul 30, 2016)

procreative said:


> The 8Dio Steel String and Mandolin (Strummer versions) are quite good for basic rhythmic patterns complete with random fret noises. There are about 12 chord types (e.g. Major, Minor, Dim 7 etc) and about 12 rhythms. Plus it has a nice X-Fade Legato that smooths out the transitions if switching rhythms on the fly.
> 
> If you keyswitch between them you can make some quite unique parts and I believe you can do the same with the NI one.
> 
> Always with these kind of products, the effort you need to put in is probably much greater than just find a good guitarist. However thats easier said than done if you aren't paying for it and then you have to mic it up.



Thanks procreative. I don't own any 8Dio stuff yet.

Yes, I'd rather hire a good guitarist for several reasons - e.g. maybe they will make a 'mistake' and do something better than what I wrote! 

But I do get used to the control one has with a good VI. The Music Lab scripting, as I said, is really pretty good and predictable, but the sound doesn't hold up for me lately on some things.


----------



## R. Soul (Jul 31, 2016)

I know this thread is primarily about strumming but as I signed up with Orange tree group buy I'm considering the acoustic guitar for picking. How does it compare to Amplesounds AGM?

The reason why I'm asking is because I found this video and I haven't found anything from Orange tree or any other dev for that matter that can match it in terms of realism.
So perhaps my money is better spent on AGM?


----------



## Baron Greuner (Jul 31, 2016)

I have the Ample agt and they sound good, but they're not the easiest implementation and can be tricky to get fast results. The difference in the sound of all the good strumming and single note players is basically negligible.


----------



## bigcat1969 (Jul 31, 2016)

I'm waiting for someone clever to invent a robot arm strumming machine that can be 3D printed... Until then Pettinhouse...


----------



## Kejero (Aug 1, 2016)

procreative said:


> The 8Dio Steel String and Mandolin (Strummer versions) are quite good for basic rhythmic patterns complete with random fret noises. There are about 12 chord types (e.g. Major, Minor, Dim 7 etc) and about 12 rhythms. Plus it has a nice X-Fade Legato that smooths out the transitions if switching rhythms on the fly.
> 
> If you keyswitch between them you can make some quite unique parts and I believe you can do the same with the NI one.



I've got a few of their strum libraries and frankly I find them very limiting. The concept is nice enough but in practice it's a very clunky method for recording strums. It doesn't help that the samples don't loop. Not their best achievement in my book.


----------



## Fleer (Aug 2, 2016)

OrangeTreeSamples. Best strummer.


----------



## gwillimw (Oct 25, 2016)

Hi all. I've a few questions about the various guitar strumming engines out there. 

1) Unless I'm seeing it wrong, a fair amount of the libraries seem to default to root inversion chords, regardless of whether you play an inversion. For example, I've watched in videos of the Efimov and Sunbird where C,E,A are played on the keyboard, but the end result is an A minor root chord.

2) Also, it seems like a lot of these libraries don't take into account the differing string hits of upstrokes vs downstrokes, particularly when playing quickly. That is, that guitarists often don't hit all the strings on the way up. From what I've seen, a lot of these libraries play all of the strings in both directions, which starts to sound a bit over-emphatic.

Are there strum libraries out there for which options exists to address these two issues?


----------



## Ashermusic (Oct 25, 2016)

gwillimw said:


> Hi all. I've a few questions about the various guitar strumming engines out there.
> 
> 1) Unless I'm seeing it wrong, a fair amount of the libraries seem to default to root inversion chords, regardless of whether you play an inversion. For example, I've watched in videos of the Efimov and Sunbird where C,E,A are played on the keyboard, but the end result is an A minor root chord.
> 
> ...


1) Pettinhouse Acoustic Guitar plays the inversion you finger.

2) Doesn't bother me with Pettinhouse.


----------



## gwillimw (Oct 25, 2016)

Got it. Interesting concept for input with Pettinhouse.

After a bit of homework, I see a work-around with the Efimov library for these two issues: there's a keyswitch that let's you isolate the top 4 or bottom 4 strings on a given strum, which would give that lessened effect on the upstrokes that I'm seeking. For inversions, there is a 'Chord/Bass' option that evaluates the bottom note of an input chord as the bass, instead of a mere chord note.

I see that the Orange Tree acoustic steel guitar allows inversions and a ton of other options within patterns. Very impressive!


----------



## JC_ (Oct 25, 2016)

The only strummed acoustic lib I have is NI's - Does anyone know if any of the others have double tracked mode? (like actual hard-panned double and not just a "double" effect)


----------



## gregjazz (Oct 26, 2016)

JC_ said:


> The only strummed acoustic lib I have is NI's - Does anyone know if any of the others have double tracked mode? (like actual hard-panned double and not just a "double" effect)


All our Evolution guitars have double, triple, and even quadruple tracking available from a single instance of the library. We actually use multiple voices with adjustable timing humanization to create a true multi-tracked sound and not just a doubler effect.


----------



## JC_ (Oct 27, 2016)

gregjazz said:


> All our Evolution guitars have double, triple, and even quadruple tracking available from a single instance of the library. We actually use multiple voices with adjustable timing humanization to create a true multi-tracked sound and not just a doubler effect.



Thanks for the info. I'll have to check them out!


----------



## Fleer (Oct 28, 2016)

OrangeTreeSamples guitar libraries are among the best of the very best.


----------



## zacnelson (Oct 28, 2016)

gregjazz said:


> All our Evolution guitars have double, triple, and even quadruple tracking available from a single instance of the library. We actually use multiple voices with adjustable timing humanization to create a true multi-tracked sound and not just a doubler effect.


I just LOVE your Rick bass sample library, I use it on everything, in any genre. I'll have to check out these guitar library demos!


----------



## zeng (Nov 16, 2016)

Here is the new NI Strummed Acoustic 2. 6-string is wonderful!

https://www.native-instruments.com/...n-guitarist-strummed-acoustic-2/?content=3671


----------



## Quasar (Nov 16, 2016)

I've got MusicLab, Pettinhouse, Indiginus and Orange Tree Samples guitars and would be all done, except I was most impressed with Realitone's new Fingerpick walkthough. I'm surprised no one's mentioned this, unless they did and I missed it. Worth looking into, and I plan to get it, hopefully before the intro price ends.


----------



## ZeroZero (Dec 25, 2016)

http://www.pettinhouse.com/index.html ALL the Pettinhouse guitars for $99 24 hours sale be quick!


----------



## elpedro (Dec 25, 2016)

Tugboat said:


> I've got MusicLab, Pettinhouse, Indiginus and Orange Tree Samples guitars and would be all done, except I was most impressed with Realitone's new Fingerpick walkthough. I'm surprised no one's mentioned this, unless they did and I missed it. Worth looking into, and I plan to get it, hopefully before the intro price ends.


I'm loving fingerpick, but it is obviously limited to fingerpicking styles.


----------



## Chornobyl (Apr 25, 2021)

what about in 2021 ?
any better acoustic guitar libraries than the ones mentioned in this thread ?
also what about vir2 Acoustic Legends 2 and Acou6tics ?

is it possible to play fingerpicking on prominy hummingbird ?

I really like Ample Sound's Martin and Taylor guitars, but on both of them low E string is out of tune


----------

