# Announcing Evolution Electric Guitar for KONTAKT



## gregjazz (May 15, 2010)

Orange Tree Samples has been perfecting its electric guitar library for over a year. In that time we have made numerous advancements, combining state of the art sampling techniques, extensive articulations and complex, but easy to use scripting. Well, we are proud to announce the next generation of sampled guitar, *Evolution Electric Guitar*.




Over the years, guitar based sample libraries and virtual instruments (VSTs) have come and gone with various degrees of realism and usability. However, to date, they have yet to attain a level of realism where they could convincingly be used in a professional recording in place of an actual live performance the way, say, drum libraries are used. Simulating the many articulations used in a real guitar performance (not to mention making it easy for a keyboardist to play them), complete with all of the detail and nuances that make for a believable guitar performance has been a tall task -- traditional sampling techniques alone fall far short of the challenge. At best, simulating guitar strumming and lead parts using MIDI for the highest quality sample libraries has required time consuming and tedious manual editing. VST guitar strumming products have provided less than convincing results due to a multitude of factors, including inferior sample quality and limitations of the included articulations. Even the most realistic sounding products to date in capable hands have fallen short of the ultimate test, fooling a real guitarist -- the bar Orange Tree Samples used when creating Evolution Electric Guitar.

Evolution Electric Guitar enables keyboardists to easily and quickly create authentic sounding electric guitar parts without hand editing of MIDI. It uses extensive sampling of various articulations combined with physical modeling principles in order to achieve a degree of realism not possible with other sample libraries. Its proprietary string resonation engine creates a sense of organic realism unparalleled by other guitar sample libraries or VSTs. Ironically, the best guitar simulation sample libraries and VSTs on the market require the user to have a foundational understanding of how to play a guitar in order to achieve the most authentic results. Evolution Electric Guitar takes a different approach and leverages the user's existing keyboard skills, translating these techniques for the guitar much like a language translator works. For example, chord inversions are automatically analyzed and the appropriate guitar chord voicing determined. Strummed guitar chord options are only limited by your imagination. Even more, Evolution Electric Guitar, doesn't require you to compromise your playing or sequencing workflow in order to adapt to its way of working -- instead, it uses Orange Tree Samples' revolutionary Mind Control (TM) technology to adapt to the way you like to work. Sample library mapping is quickly and easily customized to your personal preferences.

Evolution Electric Guitar consists of two key components: a rhythm guitar engine -- which includes Orange Tree Samples powerful and advanced, yet easy to use, chord strumming, rhythm guitar functionality -- and a lead guitar engine. Popular studio techniques like double tracking are performed with the touch of a button. To provide the greatest versatility, Evolution Electric Guitar was recorded dry so that users can choose their favorite select amp simulation and effects to attain just the right sound, from pop to rock to funk to hip hop to jazz.

Evolution Electric Guitar - Strawberry, is based on our Strawberry Electric Guitar Library for KONTAKT, and will be released May 31, 2010 at a list price of $199 USD with special upgrade pricing for users of previous versions of Strawberry. Its launch will coincide with a special Orange Tree Samples' group buy applying to all products with discounts up to 50% off list price. Additional Evolution Electric Guitar makes and models, as well as Evolution Acoustic Guitar, will be released later this year. More information, as well as video and audio demos, is now available at http://www.orangetreesamples.com/evolution-electric-guitar, or you can click the links below to check out demos right away:

Video Demo
Audio Demo #1: Scarlet Queen
Audio Demo #2: Slithery Tattoo
Audio Demo #3: Funkulous
Audio Demo #4: Evolution Funk Guitar

Here are the specs:

RHYTHM GUITAR
- Three velocity layers, including articulations such as muted strums and palm mutes.
- 4x intelligent round-robin sample cycling
- Included rhythm guitar patterns with genre/style specific chord definitions, or create your own
- Detune or capo the guitar
- Fingers separately modeled for realistic chord transitions
- Instantly double the guitar with a single button
- Three pickup positions

LEAD GUITAR
- 17 articulations, including palm mutes, squeals, tapping, trills, and special effects such as scrapes and chugs
- 4x intelligent round-robin sample cycling
- A proprietary string resonation engine for organic realism you won't hear anywhere else
- Slide from one note to any other at any speed
- Intelligent legato for hammer-ons, pull-offs, and sampled half-step interval transitions
- Whammy bar effects, including the flutter effect
- Each string separately sampled with true-to-life automatic string selection
- Alternate tunings with dozens of included tuning presets
- Instantly double the guitar with a single button
- Three pickup positions

Total file size for Evolution Electric Guitar - Strawberry exceeds 3GB. Full retail version of KONTAKT 2, 3, or 4 is required.


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## Dynamitec (May 15, 2010)

This seems not only to be the year of strings....it also seems to be the year of guitar strings  =o >8o - cool demos, Greg!


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## shakuman (May 16, 2010)

Wow beautiul solo string =o Congrats Greg..

Shakuman.


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## gregjazz (May 16, 2010)

Unfortunately KONTAKT does not allow script-triggered notes (from the rhythm guitar component) to show up as single notes in the MIDI event list. However, there are controls to adjust strum speed (per individual strum), swing percentage, and some timing adjustments to humanize the strumming patterns more.


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## Ed (May 17, 2010)

Impressive!


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## chimuelo (May 17, 2010)

I have been watching for an Erhu from you but this is just fabulous.
You have captered the Overdriven sound nicely.
Not too much distortion and the chops areòÇD   ÒSÇD   ÒTÇD   ÒUÇD   ÒVÇD


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## gregjazz (May 17, 2010)

Thanks so much for the compliments! The Erhu will get sampled eventually. 

By the way, here's a sample of one of the lead patches in Evolution Electric Guitar played live through a 2-octave MIDI keyboard: http://www.orangetreesamples.com/audio/EvolutionLive.mp3 (http://www.orangetreesamples.com/audio/ ... onLive.mp3)


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## Sean Beeson (May 18, 2010)

This looks awesome Greg!


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## PavlovsCat (May 24, 2010)

Evolution wins for the most realistic sounding electric guitar library to date, IMO, and I own many of the Kontakt electric guitar libraries and VSTs on the market. I just sold RealStrat, which was useful for generating midi files of strums, due to Evolution coming out. 

I've been a customer/fan of OTS from the beginning and have given Greg, as well as a couple of his Kontakt electric guitar and bass sample dev competitors, marketing tips and have been urging him to add strumming capabilities and samples to his guitar library for a long time, and I love the result. One of my favorite devs.


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## PavlovsCat (May 27, 2010)

The Orange Tree Samples Group Buy is now up to 187 people and all their sample libraries are at 40%. It's almost certain to hit 200 buyers and the discount rate will reach 50% off, which will put Evolution at $99.98 USD. 
http://www.orangetreesamples.com/groupbuy2010


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## PasiP (May 28, 2010)

Can this library do fast strumming in the style of metal music. I know you need to use your own amps etc. but I'm worried about the machinegun effect on fast strumming passages..


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## gregjazz (May 28, 2010)

PasiP @ Fri May 28 said:


> Can this library do fast strumming in the style of metal music. I know you need to use your own amps etc. but I'm worried about the machinegun effect on fast strumming passages..



Both the rhythm and lead guitar patches have 4x round robin, so that really helps eliminate the machine-gun effect. But let me know, and I'll make you an audio/video demo so you can get a better idea of whether or not Evolution Electric Guitar will suit your needs.

Another cool and useful feature besides the ability to double-track the guitar with a single button, is the ability to detune the lead or rhythm guitar to access modern metal tunings. If drop C isn't extreme enough, you can even detune the E string an entire octave down--and the detuning not only effects the individual string's range, but also its tone as well.


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## PasiP (May 28, 2010)

I would very much appreciate an audio/video showcasing the strumming on fast and very fast passages.

I have a referencevideo of what I'm after: Unleashed - As Yggdrasil Trembles

If this library can do that then I'm sold.


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## Rob Elliott (May 28, 2010)

Nice work. Really need the acoustic version - also looking forward to that.


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## noiseboyuk (May 28, 2010)

FYI the group buy is now at 50% discount. As an owner of Strawberry Extended, I get Evolution for around 10 GBP! That's insanely generous to existing customers - thanks Greg.


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## drumman (May 29, 2010)

noiseboyuk @ Fri May 28 said:


> FYI the group buy is now at 50% discount. As an owner of Strawberry Extended, I get Evolution for around 10 GBP! That's insanely generous to existing customers - thanks Greg.



Can you elaborate? You mean a further discount than the 50% Group Buy price for Orange Tree Sample owners? I have a bunch of Orange Tree stuff including Extended Guitar. 10 GBP is only about 14 USD. >8o 

Thanks.


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## sirbellog (May 29, 2010)

$14 is for the _Strawberry Extended_ owners only (like me 8) BTW ) : 

In other words, for people who in the past have bought the initial _Strawberry _electric guitar and also upgraded it to _Extended_.
So this price is for eh, "only" the upgrade of their library to the strumming engine+dedicated samples.

IMO, based on the potential this new part of the library seems to bring to the table, those $14 are an almost surrealistic deal, I would have paid way much more for it.

And the price for the full library is also a terrific one, even more this GB offer....
Thus I encourage even people who are just "remotely" interested in guitar libraries to invest now....


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## gregjazz (May 29, 2010)

noiseboyuk @ Sat May 29 said:


> So far I'm not 100% sold on the strumming demos, but I really rate Greg and Orange Tree so I'm sure it'll be very useful... and there's a stack of general feature improvements too.



I know what you mean, strumming is very difficult to replicate, not to mention encompass any style of rhythm guitar in one engine--whether you're just strumming chords, playing choppy funk rhythms, or powerchords.

I'm almost finished with a video demonstration that shows the lead guitar and a bunch of rhythm guitar presets, so that should give you an idea of what the playability looks like. I recorded myself playing it through a little keyboard (man, I can't wait to get my Motif XS8 back!), and also a screen capture.


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## gregjazz (May 29, 2010)

drumman @ Sat May 29 said:


> Can you elaborate? You mean a further discount than the 50% Group Buy price for Orange Tree Sample owners? I have a bunch of Orange Tree stuff including Extended Guitar. 10 GBP is only about 14 USD. >8o



Yup, basically if you already own Strawberry Extended, you can join the group buy and get the upgrade for only $14.95 USD. If you are upgrading from the standard Strawberry library, the upgrade price is $39.95 USD.


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## drumman (May 29, 2010)

gregjazz @ Sat May 29 said:


> drumman @ Sat May 29 said:
> 
> 
> > Can you elaborate? You mean a further discount than the 50% Group Buy price for Orange Tree Sample owners? I have a bunch of Orange Tree stuff including Extended Guitar. 10 GBP is only about 14 USD. >8o
> ...



Well then, this changes the financial landscape a bit. So, having Extended Guitar, just join the Group Buy and follow the instructions to the 14.95 upgrade?


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## gregjazz (May 29, 2010)

drumman @ Sat May 29 said:


> gregjazz @ Sat May 29 said:
> 
> 
> > drumman @ Sat May 29 said:
> ...



Yup, if you sign up, then I will automatically give you the appropriate upgrade discount at the end of the group buy.


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## gregjazz (May 29, 2010)

Okay, the high quality version is still being processed by YouTube, but here's a performance video demo of Evolution Electric Guitar - Strawberry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQPmDlp6yJ8

I want to make a voice-over version of it too, so I can explain stuff. More to come!


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## kotori (May 29, 2010)

gregjazz @ Sun May 16 said:


> Unfortunately KONTAKT does not allow script-triggered notes (from the rhythm guitar component) to show up as single notes in the MIDI event list.


It is possible to record script-triggered notes into a track in ones sequencer. Probably not very practical for a ting like this, but still.


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## noiseboyuk (May 29, 2010)

gregjazz @ Sat May 29 said:


> Okay, the high quality version is still being processed by YouTube, but here's a performance video demo of Evolution Electric Guitar - Strawberry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQPmDlp6yJ8
> 
> I want to make a voice-over version of it too, so I can explain stuff. More to come!



Pretty darn good, Greg. Itching to get my hands on the rhythm guitar to really get a feel for it... like the look of how its implemented though. And great that it's still usable even on a 2 octave keyboard!


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## gregjazz (May 30, 2010)

kotori @ Sat May 29 said:


> gregjazz @ Sun May 16 said:
> 
> 
> > Unfortunately KONTAKT does not allow script-triggered notes (from the rhythm guitar component) to show up as single notes in the MIDI event list.
> ...



Would that only be when you enable the script-generated notes to be sent through the MIDI out in KONTAKT's settings?


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## Sampleconstruct (May 31, 2010)

Today I received my download of Evolution guitar and I am very thrilled by it. Here is my first quick and dirty demo I made with it and some other VIs:
http://www.simonstockhausen.com/Audio/Demos/Orangetree_1st_Jam.mp3 (http://www.simonstockhausen.com/Audio/D ... st_Jam.mp3)


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## Sampleconstruct (Jun 1, 2010)

*New Demo featuring Jaco Bass and Evolution guitar*

Guys and Girls, here is a Track called Rainy Days I just finished featuring the incredible Jaco Fretless Bass and a customized Evolution guitar. The Group Buy has been extended to June 6 so jump on board if you need some spectacular String Instruments.
http://www.simonstockhausen.com/Audio/Demos/Rainy_Days.mp3


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## gregjazz (Jun 2, 2010)

noiseboyuk @ Tue Jun 01 said:


> Greg, is there any way for those of us old Strawberry owners to install just the rhythm component of Evolution and point Kontakt at the original samples for the lead stuff? In an ideal world I'd not duplicate all those samples on the hard drvie... thanks!



Do you have the original Strawberry or Strawberry Extended? I can try and work something out for you.


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## lethalshrapnel (Jun 2, 2010)

This product is amaaazing! I just marvel on how fast the virtual world improves on everything; dynamics, easy playability etc. The demos are very impressive especially the Slithery Tattoo. Wonderful!


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## Sampleconstruct (Jun 3, 2010)

*New Track featuring Jaco Bass*

Here is a new track featuring Jaco Bass and some swelling and trilling Evolution guitars:
*Tell me more*
http://www.simonstockhausen.com/Audio/Demos/Tell_me_more.mp3


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## noiseboyuk (Jun 3, 2010)

gregjazz @ Wed Jun 02 said:


> noiseboyuk @ Tue Jun 01 said:
> 
> 
> > Greg, is there any way for those of us old Strawberry owners to install just the rhythm component of Evolution and point Kontakt at the original samples for the lead stuff? In an ideal world I'd not duplicate all those samples on the hard drvie... thanks!
> ...



Thanks Greg - Extended.


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## gregjazz (Jun 3, 2010)

noiseboyuk @ Thu Jun 03 said:


> gregjazz @ Wed Jun 02 said:
> 
> 
> > noiseboyuk @ Tue Jun 01 said:
> ...



Okay, I'll be sending you an email/PM soon.


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## noiseboyuk (Jun 5, 2010)

Whoa there! I've just had a first play around with the rhythm patches... I'm a guitarist and pretty critical, but this is good stuff! Not everything is spot on yet, but an amazing amount works very well already - you'd easily get away with this and a good amp sim in a mix. With one reservation....

My main request thus far is an increase in the chord definitions. A few important ones are missing - a Dsus4, for example is as basic as it gets... my fingers play it but it's not yet recognised! Hopefully more shapes can be added in a future update.

But as I say, lots works great right now. The metal stuff sounds very good - might throw a quick demo together later. Also love that you can play the 6 strings at the top of the keyboard, MUCH more playable and realistic than trying to using the conventional keyboard. Also the rhythm patches are very light on RAM (about 60mb) and CPU. Excellent work, Greg and huge thanks!


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## gregjazz (Jun 5, 2010)

noiseboyuk @ Sat Jun 05 said:


> My main request thus far is an increase in the chord definitions. A few important ones are missing - a Dsus4, for example is as basic as it gets... my fingers play it but it's not yet recognised! Hopefully more shapes can be added in a future update.



There's a general "sus" voicing, which is recognized as either a sus2 or sus4. You can edit the chord definition if you want to change it to a sus4 instead of a sus2.



noiseboyuk @ Sat Jun 05 said:


> But as I say, lots works great right now. The metal stuff sounds very good - might throw a quick demo together later. Also love that you can play the 6 strings at the top of the keyboard, MUCH more playable and realistic than trying to using the conventional keyboard. Also the rhythm patches are very light on RAM (about 60mb) and CPU. Excellent work, Greg and huge thanks!



Thanks so much--you've made my day!


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## A/V4U (Jun 5, 2010)

Nice demos Simon. The best one is Rainy day. I realy love the athmosphere.


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## noiseboyuk (Jun 5, 2010)

gregjazz @ Sat Jun 05 said:


> There's a general "sus" voicing, which is recognized as either a sus2 or sus4. You can edit the chord definition if you want to change it to a sus4 instead of a sus2.



Ah, but the problem is that I want both! The ol' sus2 / sus4 combo is a mainstay... I think this, ultimately, is key to the playability. At the moment I play some chords and they translate to good guitar phrasing, but other times it seems a little baffling... the ol Dmaj, Dsus4, Dmaj, Dsus2 cliche for example just results in Dmaj, Dsus2, Dmaj, Dsus2. I think there are a few other common guitary shapes that aren't recognised either. I appreciate that you can define voicings and change what's there, but I think a large database containing them all is critical to get to the point where you can play without thinking and have it all sound natural.

I'm particularly interested in this part of the engine, because it's usually where all guitar libs come unstuck. With the manual strumming at the top of the keyboard, there's real potential to produce some incredibly realistic, flowing figures I think if Evolution gets to the point where it "reads my mind" (which I know is a very high ambition!) I love playing figures with open strings, often using the top few strings. I don't know if it would ever be possible, but I'd be fascinated to have the ability to, say, lock the top E as open, and then play some chords to see how Evolution interprets phrasing. Add in some slides between notes while locking open strings, and this really would be major breakthrough stuff - afaik nothing at the moment can come close to this, which is so simple and intuitive for a guitar player.

But I realise that's all for the future, if it is possible at all. I must emphasise how good it is already. So much of the reason why guitar VIs are poor is developing an interface that is playable to a keyboard player but can somehow translate that to something that sounds like a natural guitar player, and Evolution is a great step along that road.


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## Sampleconstruct (Jun 6, 2010)

A/V4U @ Sat Jun 05 said:


> Nice demos Simon. The best one is Rainy day. I realy love the athmosphere.



Thank's A/V4U...


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## Sampleconstruct (Jun 6, 2010)

*Jaco Funk*

Here is a short and dirty Demo with some Jaco Funk and strummed Evolution guitars (not using the strum engine):
*Jaco Funk*
http://www.simonstockhausen.com/Audio/Demos/Jaco_Funk.mp3


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## Sampleconstruct (Jun 7, 2010)

*new demo*

Here is a new, rather darkish Track named *When* exploring Evolution guitar's ability to scream, sing and cry. Can it do that? YES! Lot's of whammy bar action going on, slides, high fretting positions, and FX sounds - could we have some more FX sounds please Greg... 
http://www.simonstockhausen.com/Audio/Demos/When.mp3


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## gregjazz (Jun 7, 2010)

Wow, sounds incredible!

Here's a little secret--there are a bunch of other effects included in the "Samples / Lead / Miscellaneous (RAM) / xEffects2" folder. I tried to add these samples to the effects articulation, but I hit the actual limitation of how many samples you can have in a K2 sample library!


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## Sampleconstruct (Jun 13, 2010)

*Let them play*

Here is a little Trio with Evolution guitar, Jaco and Piano:
*Let them play*
http://www.simonstockhausen.com/Audio/Demos/Let_them_play.mp3

I recorded the Kids in Seoul some years ago when collecting sounds for my Filmscore for Trip to Asia (http://www.triptoasia.de/)


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## EwigWanderer (Jun 13, 2010)

Thanks Simon for these great demos. I rarely use guitars in my music, but with this library I think I'll start to use them =) First I'll go and buy it!!


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## Sampleconstruct (Jun 13, 2010)

EwigWanderer @ Sun Jun 13 said:


> Thanks Simon for these great demos. I rarely use guitars in my music, but with this library I think I'll start to use them =) First I'll go and buy it!!



You won't regret it


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## alpiner (Jun 18, 2010)

there is a chance that this lib will not suck like 99% of all other guitar libraries....

interesting


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## Sampleconstruct (Jun 21, 2010)

I moved my Orange Tree Demos to Soundcloud, there were just to many downloads from my server.
Let them play:
http://soundcloud.com/sampleconstruct/let-them-play
Rainy Days:
http://soundcloud.com/sampleconstruct/rainy-days
Jaco Funk:
http://soundcloud.com/sampleconstruct/jaco-funk
Tell me more:
http://soundcloud.com/sampleconstruct/tell-me-more
When:
http://soundcloud.com/sampleconstruct/when


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## Polarity (Nov 13, 2010)

I bought Evolution Electric Guitar yesterday.

My wonder is this anyway: n you tube I saw a video about "Creating a Strumming Pattern", but I don't found this section in the patches and any reference in the manuals too.
So what?
I'm missing some update?

I'm using Kontakt 4.1 something and K3 as well, but no Strum Pattern.
It's somethng removed recently?
Is it possible to get it back with old patches?

Thanks.


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## noiseboyuk (Nov 13, 2010)

I wonder if you do have the latest version? Evolution has Lead and Rhythm folders. Using one of the rhythm patches you can either strum manually or using preset patterns, and it's all in the manual starting p16.


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## Polarity (Nov 13, 2010)

Yes, I have those ones.
I have just the version I downloaded yesterday from the links provided after purchase: I assumed it should be the latest one.

What I don't see it's that sort of arpegiator to create automatic patterns.
The one I saw it in this video: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRp9cD4cThI


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## noiseboyuk (Nov 13, 2010)

Use one of the nkis such as Pop, Rock etc as a starting point. The Basic Strum patch doesn't seem to have the arpeggiator in it (it's just set up for manual strumming) but these other patches do. Just select Strum Pattern from the drop down menu, and away you go...


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## gregjazz (Nov 13, 2010)

The strumming pattern engine has been discontinued in favor of the more flexible and intuitive strumming palette system. You can still download the legacy patches, here: http://www.orangetreesamples.com/bl...tric-guitar-strawberry-legacy-rhythm-patches/

I'm going to be creating some new video tutorials/screencasts using this new rhythm guitar engine, and until then, I'll update the video names to reflect their EEG version.


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## Polarity (Nov 13, 2010)

Perfect!
Thank you both.


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## gregjazz (Nov 13, 2010)

Oh! I just realized that Simon's (Sampleconstruct) user demo links don't work anymore. They probably got deleted to save web space / bandwidth, but I got his permission to use them as demos, so here are new links, hosted on the OTS server:

http://www.orangetreesamples.com/audio/SimonStockhausen-RainyDays.mp3

http://www.orangetreesamples.com/audio/SimonStockhausen-LetThemPlay.mp3


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