<- The Performance pane (top) lets you go nuts editing guitar characteristics. The Mixer (bottom) can load tons of
effects, and lets you create up to 64 channels, including surround.
I once gave a seminar in Nashville on synth programming.
One attendee asked, “I can’t get a good guitar sound from my synth.
What do you recommend?” The answer was obvious: “You’re in
Nashville. Hire a guitarist.”
Today, my answer would include “or get Electri6ity.” As I play both
guitar and keyboards, I see this ambitious, complex virtual instrument
from both angles. As a guitarist, I’m very impressed by the realism,
and as a keyboardist, it’s possible to create physically impossible guitar
parts.
The Kontakt Konnection
Electri6ity pushes Native Instruments’ Kontakt 4 Player to the limits,
especially with the number of samples (over 24,000 per guitar), and
the scripting that turns incoming MIDI data into realistic guitar voicings.
A simple example of this is assigning successive notes to alternate
between up and down strums.
Cleverly, Electri6ity uses only clean samples of its guitars: Les
Paul, Les Paul P90, Stratocaster, Telecaster, 335, L4, Danelectro
Lipstick, and Rickenbacker. Why? Clean samples get around the “you
should have sampled it through a Marshall/Twin/Mesa Boogie/whatever”
issue, as there are two preset options: DI for sending sounds
through a physical amp, and Amped presets, which include effects
drawn from NI’s Guitar Rig amp modeling software. With 27GB
of samples, loading a guitar’s set requires a lot of RAM, which
is why Electri6ity is spec’ed for 4GB. You can get by with less,
but you’ll probably have to reduce the number of articulations—and
forget about multis.
Review continues after these web extras:
The Keyboard Konnection
The keyswitching and articulations really call for an 88-note keyboard,
as you use keys above and below the standard guitar range for triggering;
fewer notes will work if you edit after the fact, are handy with your octave-shift buttons, or click on the virtual keyboard’s notes, but
half the fun of Electri6ity is performing with it.
I can’t emphasize enough how many options there are, and how
daunting this can be. You’ll need to refer to the manual, and several
“cheat sheets” are worth printing out as you learn the program. Sometimes
I think it would be easier to learn guitar itself than all the options
in Electri6ity, but the more you work with the articulations, the more
you realize you don’t need to use all of them, all the time. Even a few
is enough to spice up the presets.
<- Amped samples load three sets of virtual stompboxes, as shown when you click on the Effects tab.
The King Kong Konnection
You can make huge sounds, but also very detailed ones because of
tremendous control over multiple parameters. The Settings page edits
characteristics of individual strings, like tuning, sympathetic resonance,
dynamic attack, pitch drift, level, velocity, vibrato, and much
more—and you can control all these via MIDI continuous controllers.
A Performance page lets you switch pickups, alter the guitar’s tone
control, change pick position (closer to the neck or bridge), pick direction
(up, down, or alternating), control morphing, and so on. A realtime
Fretboard page shows notes being plucked, with artificial
intelligence to map notes in a “guitaristic” way, although you can turn
this off.
With Amped presets, an additional page offers effects. There are
multi-effects with independent phaser, flanger, chorus, reverb, and
delay; distortion; and amp modeling with seven amps, three mics,
and three rooms, with two sets of variations and three bands of parametric
EQ. However, you can do lots without touching the Amped
presets, because the mixer section offers multiple outputs and aux
channels, and each has four effect inserts. Here, there are 17 effects
(compressor, limiter, cabinet, distortion, delay, convolution, etc.) along
with 19 filters; the convolution effect is welcome for adding ambiences
like spring reverb or guitar body acoustics. (Note: It may seem
like you can drag effects into the virtual rack, but you can use them
only with the inserts.)
The virtual fretboard shows how notes are mapped, and the strum direction.
Tweak-wise, I disabled vibrato because it’s more realistic to do it
with your keyboard’s pitch wheel, using your fingers—like a real guitarist.
Also, I like a synth-action keyboard better than weighted keys;
what works for a stage piano just doesn’t feel right for “guitar.”
The fretboard window is tremendously helpful, as you can see
the guitar voicings being used. This helped me mimic what I’d play
on a fretboard, but keyboard players can check out chord books
for guitar. (Android phone users, check out Solo Lite’s Chord
Library page—it has voicings for a zillion guitar chords, and the
app is free).
Conclusions
If you’re willing to learn the articulations and your computer is up to
the task, Electri6ity will let you create realistic, satisfying guitar parts.
You want heavy? You want big? You got it. Almost makes me want
to pour some lighter fluid on my keyboard. . . .
Specifications
PROS Good selection of guitars. Huge number of realistic guitar articulations.
Mixer section offers effects, as well as Amped presets with their own
effects. Maps chords how a guitarist would play them. Excellent morphing
between samples.
CONS Really wants at least 4GB of RAM and a 64-bit OS. Flexible
enough to be daunting. Becoming an articulations expert takes
practice.
CONCEPT Sample-based virtual guitar with extreme flexibility—you can
reproduce not just a guitar’s notes, but its vibe and voicings.
FORMATS Mac or PC. AU, VST, or standalone.
MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Mac: OS 10.5 or later, Intel
Core Duo 1.66GHz, 4GB RAM.
PC: Windows XP2 (SP2, 32-bit), Vista 32/64, 7 32/64, 1.4GHz Pentium
or Athlon, 4GB RAM.
RECOMMENDED SYSTEM 64-bit OS, more than 4GB RAM, and
quad-core processor.
PRICE List: $399
Approx. street: $320
vir2.com