# Guitar Strummer Script?



## TheoKrueger (Jan 27, 2010)

Just saw the Poly round robin thread and i remembered about this one,

is there any good Guitar strummer script out there that can take a block of sequenced chords and introduce a user defined delay between the notes and some automatic up/down strumming? So you can make something like Real Guitar but using Lyrical Distortion Intimate for example.

I downloaded one but it was very difficult to use because you had to use keyswitches of some sort.

Grateful for any replies o-[][]-o 

Theo


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## gmet (Jan 28, 2010)

Theo,

There is this thread with a harp script by Nickie; don't know if this is what you want:

http://www.vi-control.net/forum/viewtop ... light=harp

Justin


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## TheoKrueger (Jan 28, 2010)

Thanks a lot Justin for the reply!

That is more similar to the other script I tried out implementing keyswitches. I was actually looking for an automatic up/down script, something that would emulate Real Guitar's auto strumming.

But thanks nevertheless!! :- )

Theo


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jan 28, 2010)

You can also just randomize the chords after quantizing them.


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## Frederick Russ (Jan 28, 2010)

Another thing helpful is taking the time to voice the chords like a guitarist would. There are inherent peculiarities to guitar chord voicing & inversions - stray too far from that and it become less believable.

Nevertheless, your best strumming script will not top a simple well-executed strumming technique on a real guitar. Seriously. If you already know keyboards its not that difficult to learn to do - in fact its one of the primary things you learn on guitar. Its also extremely easy for a guitarist to pick a real guitar against a virtual emulatiion. IMO the more real instruments you introduce into your sequences the better it sounds.


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## TheoKrueger (Jan 29, 2010)

Thanks a lot for the helpful replies!

I have found ways to succesfully replicate guitar strumming with midi notes. For example you make a chord moving upwards in 1/8ths distance between the notes and then by using Sonar's Length command you afterwards you start decreasing the start times of the midi notes until they are so close in time that they sound like a fast strum. Though it takes a lot of time this way, once you've done this for up/down strums on a single chord, then you can simply copy paste the same pattern and change the notes.

I agree Frederick that nothing beats a real guitar, there's so many other things going on that are never captured with samples. Sympathetic resonance, plectrum noises, randomness, fret and finger noises, body sound etc etc. The soul of the guitar and the player itself!

Oh, and sorry for not clarifying, when I wrote Real Guitar in the previous posts I was refering to MusicLab's RealGuitar product: http://www.musiclab.com/products/realgtr_info.htm

In RealGuitar (MusicLabs) , when you play a block of chords it automatically introduces a delay between the notes upwards and then automatically alternates downwards on the next block with a user defined time.

I think this, with an added randomizing feature for the strum time for every strum would make a very realistic and handy script for writing guitar lines.

I guess i'll stick to manual mode until some script appears somewhere :- )

Thanks again for the replies o-[][]-o

best, 
Theo


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jan 29, 2010)

The problem with Freddie's idea is that you have to play guitar or have a guitarist play it. That's no help! You can say the same thing about any instrument.

And of course you need playable guitar voicings if you're going to emulate a guitar. But I had a gig over 20 years ago in which I used a DX-7 stringed instrument (not a guitar) and did what I posted above: played in some chords that were voiced for the keyboard (i.e. my fingers found them!), quantized them, and then randomized the timings. It sounds 100% like the instrument is being strummed.

Try it, you'll see. And nobody cares whether fast strums are going up or down; it's the randomization that makes it sound real.


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## tcollins (Jan 30, 2010)

Here are a couple of resources that might be useful:

http://indiginus.com/midifiles/midistrums1.zip

http://indiginus.com/freedownloads.html

The first one contains a midi strum pattern voiced in Gmaj, Cmaj, Em, Am, and Dmaj that I created years ago with a midi strumming gadget (I think it was made by Oberheim) that someone had left in the studio I worked at. You may have to adjust the overall velocity level for whatever samples you are using, but it will help you get an idea of what is actually happening when a guitar is being strummed. You may be surprised at what you see!
I am currently working on a midi strumming script that will be part of some new products, so this subject is close to my heart right now.

The second file is a PDF showing keyboard voicings for common guitar chords.

Hope this is helpful,
TC
indiginus.com


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