# New NI guitar library - Session Guitarist Picked Acoustic



## motomotomoto (Sep 19, 2019)

SESSION GUITARIST PICKED ACOUSTIC


Two distinct instruments, based on a vintage acoustic guitar: One loaded with preset picking and strumming patterns, and another for your own melodies.




www.native-instruments.com





Always wanted something with this sort of sound. Any thoughts on how this looks vs. other competitors?


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## dflood (Sep 20, 2019)

Hmm, crickets. 

I’d have thought there might be more interest since the walkthrough seems to show a pretty full featured instrument with options for creating the typical kinds of licks and patterns used on countless film scores. Hopefully someone with some experience with the other products in this category will chime in soon.


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## Mark Schmieder (Sep 20, 2019)

I was hesitant to post, as the NI demos turned me off 100%. The problem is, this is ALWAYS the case with everything they come out with! Sometimes I think I'm better off not listening to their official demos and waiting for someone else to post one. That's how I ended up buying Noire (piano).

I was very surprised by the choice of a Martin 00-size model. I'm quite pleased by that decision actually, as I prefer smaller body guitars overall (especially for finger-picking work).

I just hope someone does a demo soon that doesn't sound like machine-gun repetitions. I'm sure it's possible, as the other libraries in this series are perfectly fine once you start working with them. But they all have "strange" official demos at the NI site.  At least for those of us into pure acoustic music.


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## Polkasound (Sep 20, 2019)

As far as sound quality goes, I give the NI Session Guitarist line a full five stars. I use these libraries whenever I can. Fitting them into a composition, however, is the challenge. When you're dealing with preset patterns, the odds of finding one that matches exactly what your song needs is slim to none. Every time I use a Session Guitarist library on a song, I use it as a supplemental library and cover it with a more flexible, controllable library. Session Guitarist libraries are great for inspiring new compositions, though.

Picked Acoustic has a major feature the earlier Session Guitarist libraries don't have... a melody instrument! This is will surely speed up work flow and take a lot of the frustration out of fitting the library into a composition.

I don't own Picked Acoustic, but I'm absolutely certain I will buy it at some point.


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## Dirk Ehlert (Sep 20, 2019)

Got it yesterday and encourage everyone to not buy it 😂 so it can stay my secret weapon. This thing is an absolute gem. Stream comin soon


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## Mark Schmieder (Sep 20, 2019)

Looking forward to it. It will be great to hear a more realistic real-world demo. But I figure it will be in the next Komplete update, so unless I end up having a near-term need for it, I'll probably hold off, or maybe wait for an end-of-year loyalty coupon from NI.


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## Camus (Sep 20, 2019)

the melody instrument is phantastic as are the licks & Loops


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## motomotomoto (Sep 20, 2019)

Camus said:


> the melody instrument is phantastic as are the licks & Loops


Ok that does it. Picking it up this weekend and I’ll let you all know how it plays next week.


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## idematoa (Sep 21, 2019)

01 - Drumasonic - Session Guitarist - Picked Acoustic
02 - SA - HCT - Pad Hits - Swells Grid
03 - Sonuscore - The Orchestra Complete - Orchestral Harp


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## Bluemount Score (Sep 21, 2019)

I own the 3 Session Guitarist libraries released before (due to KU12 CE). Sound is great, but I dislike pre-recorded patterns no matter what.
The possibility to finally create your own melodies is why Picked Acoustic is much more interesting to me! Would trade 2 of the older libraries for it


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## Richard Wilkinson (Sep 22, 2019)

idematoa said:


> 01 - Drumasonic - Session Guitarist - Picked Acoustic
> 02 - SA - HCT - Pad Hits - Swells Grid
> 03 - Sonuscore - The Orchestra Complete - Orchestral Harp




Those are some..._interesting_ chord choices.


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## BassClef (Sep 22, 2019)

I have the first two in the series and struggle to get the strum patters to fit properly into a track. Starting and stopping the patterns exactly where you want is difficult. 

when it comes to actually playing a guitar on the keyboard (not strumming patterns) I picked up a couple of guitars from Orange Tree. Their "Evolution Songwriter" is great for this.


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## Tim_Wells (Sep 22, 2019)

I've had success using NI Strummed Acoustic as accents, rather than the main acoustic guitar rhythm. I actually mixed it with OT Evolution Steel Strings, with the two offsetting each other.

I will second those who would love to see programmable patterns.

One thing I have to watch is timing issues with NI Strummed Acoustic. It doesn't always put strums exactly where I think they are going to land. I've had to bounce down to audio and do some tweaks.

That said, I am pleased overall with Strummed Acoustic and looking forward to Session Guitarist Picked Acoustic (hopefully in my next Komplete upgrade).


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## Eckoes (Sep 22, 2019)

I find Strummed Acoustic 1 and 2 completely maddening to work with. Makes me hesitant to buy this new one.


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## Jeremy Spencer (Sep 22, 2019)

I also struggled with this. If you want to start within a bar, for example, make sure you have "Latch Mode" set to Stop Instantly....and "Pattern Sync" set to Sync to Host.


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## madfloyd (Sep 23, 2019)

I have the two strummed releases and while the sound quality is fantastic, using them proved so hard I gave up. But I am interested in this one...


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## Polkasound (Sep 23, 2019)

Years ago, I worked with a session musician who is one of the finest guitar and banjo players in the Midwest. The style of polka I was recording required equal volume on the 1 and 2 beats, but he had this habit of accenting only the 2 beat. It didn't matter how many times we stopped and restarted -- he just couldn't break free of his old habit.

Working with Session Guitarist libraries is a lot like that. As great as the guitarist sounds, he simply can't play what you want, and you end up tearing your hair out while looking for solutions or making compromises. Session Guitarist is like a restaurant that serves filet mignon, but they only serve it drenched in jalepeno sauce. You either have to order it that way or else order the fish.

Session Guitarist libraries work the best when you start a composition with them, building your composition around the rhythms. I don't work that way, but if I did, I'd probably rate these libraries a full five stars because of how fantastic they sound.


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## Eckoes (Sep 24, 2019)

The manual for SA2 talks about being able to customize the patterns. Yes, you can to a degree, but getting it to work the way you really want was next to impossible. Close enough to impossible that I got frustrated and it made me purchase OT Evolution Songwriter which is much easier to work with.

That said, I feel like I could do a better job with SA2, and I hate having something I purchased go unused.

You can tap in a rhythm and it will find a pattern that’s close...maybe even exact if you’re lucky. But for instance I found a pattern in which the second beat was the rhythm I wanted but the rest was not. Ok cool. So you can drag the right side of the pattern inward to the end of beat 2, but you can’t drag the left side to the beginning of beat two. Ugh! Why would they do this?

So I’m left with a pattern where I’m forced to use beat 1 and 2, but I only need beat 2. No problem right? You can ‘offset’ the pattern. So I offset so that the part I want (beat 2) is on beat 1, and then drag the right part of the slider in to get rid of beat 2. Should work right?

Nope. I can’t get it to play back at the right time. It starts in the middle of the beat rather than on the beat. So I tear what’s left of my hair out for 2 hours trying to figure it out and then just give up.

Haven’t touched it since but I would like to use it. Not sure what I’m doing wrong but it cost me money since I just went out and bought the OT guitar instead.

Argh.


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## Ruffian Price (Sep 24, 2019)

Yeah, I really just use muted patterns to select chords and then play what I want with the ending samples, at the very least they're really clean recordings


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## Reid Rosefelt (Sep 24, 2019)

Polkasound said:


> Session Guitarist libraries work the best when you start a composition with them, building your composition around the rhythms.


I never imagined there was any other way to work with Strummed Acoustic 1 and 2. Rightly or wrongly, I've always seen the two of them as highly scripted loops. I never considered them to be the same thing as, for example, the arpeggiator in an AmpleSound guitar that actually plays notes in patterns. There are no notes in those two libraries, just strum loops. The way I saw it, either you can use a loop in a piece of music or you can't. So, once I decided I could work with one of their pre-fab rhythms, I just programmed the MIDI and the keyswitches. Never had a problem ever.

The trick for me to make it a bit more musicical is the modwheel (which changes the voicing) and the pitchwheel (which changes the accents).

In the unfinished piece below, I programmed the MIDI and then wrote the rest of the song. After the other tracks were done, I went back and automated the voicing of Strummed Acoustic 2 with the modwheel to react to the rhythm of the other parts live. I've received many weird responses to this track, but maybe the weirdest is that several people thought that the Strummed Acoustic 2 guitar was me playing a real guitar. 



Now, I don't have Picked Acoustic (yet), but per the manual, during picking and strumming in Picked Acoustic, the Modwheel is Vibrato and Pitch Wheel is "Impact," which changes the playing velocity. Having vibrato instead of voicing on the modwheel is disappointing to me because I found that changing the voicings with the wheel was very intuitive and easy to do in real time, so I could use it like a player. You can change voicings in Picked Acoustic with more precision and more options, which can be seen as a big improvement, but it would have taken painstaking work for me to get the constantly changing automation I wanted for "The Cowboy Way." Fluidly changing voicing is my favorite feature in those two libraries, so I would have liked the option to select vibrato/voicing on the modwheel.

FYI, the Pitch Wheel changes back to Bend when you play melodies.


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## Polkasound (Sep 24, 2019)

Eckoes said:


> Haven’t touched it since but I would like to use it. Not sure what I’m doing wrong but it cost me money since I just went out and bought the OT guitar instead.



I could be wrong, but I think if you deselect "Link to Song" the shifted pattern will start on the off-beat instead of reading the song to find where the downbeat is.



TigerTheFrog said:


> several people thought that the Strummed Acoustic 2 guitar was me playing a real guitar.



That doesn't surprise me, and that's why I have to give NI credit. For acoustic rhythm guitar tracks, these Session Guitarist libraries are hard to beat. As frustrating as they can be to use, I wouldn't trade my SG libraries for anything. They have the radio-ready sound I want. I'll spend hours piecing together an SG guitar track from full, offset, and partial patterns before I have to supplement it with another library.


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## Eckoes (Sep 24, 2019)

Polkasound said:


> I could be wrong, but I think if you deselect "Link to Song" the shifted pattern will start on the off-beat instead of reading the song to find where the downbeat is.



Ok I will try this. Thanks for the tip!


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## idematoa (Oct 25, 2019)

Session Guitarist - Picked Acoustic - Pawnshop Guitar


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## idematoa (Nov 10, 2019)

1 - NI - Session Guitarist - Picked Acoustic - Ray of Light
02 - Sonuscore - Elysion - Neptune Pad Reaching The Digital Era
03 - Sonuscore - The Orchestra Complete - Violin 1 Sustain - Oboe Staccato - Glockenspiel Hit - Harp Plucked - Flute Staccato
04 - UVI - FALCON - Plurality - Lyre E Bow Darkness Split
05 - NI - STRAYLIGHT - Cloud Piano
06 - SA - Orchestral Swarm - Horns - Tenuto Swarm


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## idematoa (Dec 13, 2019)

*01 - NI - Session Guitarist - Picked Acoustic - Tonight
02 - SA - PS - Tubular Bells - Short Soft Sticks
03 - SA - PS - Xylophone - Swarmed Sticks Hot F
04 - SA - OACE - Chamber Grid

*


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## GtrString (Dec 13, 2019)

I think these libraries from NI are easy enough to work with, but wish they had a patch where you could play the guitar yourself with the keyboard. That way you could enhance the realism, by creating small parts and transitions around the patterns, to provide more context and variation with the same sound as the rhythm.


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## madfloyd (Dec 13, 2019)

idematoa said:


> *01 - NI - Session Guitarist - Picked Acoustic - Tonight
> 02 - SA - PS - Tubular Bells - Short Soft Sticks
> 03 - SA - PS - Xylophone - Swarmed Sticks Hot F
> 04 - SA - OACE - Chamber Grid
> ...



Beautiful piece and it shows off SG Picked Acoustic nicely. Well done!


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## dflood (Dec 13, 2019)

Each patch in Picked Acoustic has a ‘melody’ variant that enables you to instantly toggle between melody playing and picking patterns. I was trying it out the other night, and it does seem to work. However, from what I can tell it’s either/or. You can’t just slip in a few grace notes on top of the pattern. I think to make it convincing, you’d have to more or less continue playing some sort of variant of the pattern manually when melody mode is triggered. Anyway, it’s a great sounding instrument. I probably just need some more practice with it.


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## Damare (Jan 20, 2020)

I'm guessing they eventually will but I really hope they come out with a new electric library that has the melody feature too, the inclusion of that changes it all for me


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## Damare (Mar 16, 2020)

An update to their existing electric guitar sunburst library just came out that includes a melody instrument, my wish came true


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## Reid Rosefelt (Mar 16, 2020)

Damare said:


> An update to their existing electric guitar sunburst library just came out that includes a melody instrument, my wish came true





The upgrade price is $49, but I get this message: "None of the qualifying products are registered to your account." 

I couldn't get through to support so I've put a comment in their *forum*.


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## Vastman (Mar 16, 2020)

TigerTheFrog said:


> The upgrade price is $49, but I get this message: "None of the qualifying products are registered to your account."
> 
> I couldn't get through to support so I've put a comment in their *forum*.



Good to know! It says nothing in their PR about upgrade... which really pissed me off...

Where did you see "upgrade"? Please post a link


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## dzilizzi (Mar 16, 2020)

"As an owner of Komplete Ultimate 12 you qualify for the upgrade price"

Price is $49 for me.


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## Vastman (Mar 16, 2020)

Thanks...dum dum me never checked my email...
Just BOUGHT! BTW, I found that the "upgrade" pricing didn't appear until I signed in.
Shouldn't this be a separate thread?























!


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## Reid Rosefelt (Mar 16, 2020)

dzilizzi said:


> "As an owner of Komplete Ultimate 12 you qualify for the upgrade price"
> 
> Price is $49 for me.


Yup. It works for me now. I just bought it. 
One thing that's not mentioned in the video is that it includes the special voicings from Picked Acoustic. That's my favorite feature in all the Session Guitars, so I'm excited to try this out.

I started a new thread HERE.


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## BassClef (Mar 16, 2020)

Just got it for $49... sounds great... now have 4 pretty good guitars... NI's Electric Sunburst Deluxe and Strummed Acoustic 2, and two by Orange Tree Samples... Evolution Songwriter and Evolution Country Twang. I still need a good base though... likely Evolution Round Wound next time they have a sale.


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## sostenuto (Mar 16, 2020)

Hmmmmm ..... wrestlin' with this. $49 in Cart seems cool, BUT have everything Greg (OTS) has ever offered. As keyboardist, ElecSunbDlx adds lotsa fun 'enhanced picking patterns, more strumming patterns and new reverse patterns', ++. Maybe worth $49. by themselves. Would be instant buy if these could be easily used in OTS lbs.


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