Steinberg Studio Case VST Instruments Operation Manual

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VST Instruments
Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE 2 – 31
Latch mode
Latch mode sets whether Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE continues 
to play when you release the keys on your MIDI keyboard. With latch 
mode on, Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE plays continuously from 
the moment you play the first key, until you manually force a stop by us-
ing the stop button of your sequencer, the sustain pedal, or by playing 
the B remote key.
If you only want to play a lick here and there, set latch mode to off and 
Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE will only play while the keys are 
held down on your MIDI keyboard.
You can find more information about using remote keys and the sustain 
pedal on page 32 and page 33.
Expression and timing variations
Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE offers a number of functions for 
adjusting the playing style and creating variations.
Accents and syncopation
If you play the notes on your MIDI keyboard quite forcefully (which will 
result in a high MIDI note velocity value), Virtual Guitarist Electric Edi-
tion SE will play the chord in a syncopated style. This means that the 
chord will only be played on the weak beats, with the chord on the 
strong beats being omitted. 
To make Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE revert back to a normal 
(unsyncopated) playing style, simply play another note or chord with a 
lighter touch.  
						

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Long chords
You can also use Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE to play long 
(sustained) chords.
•To play long chords, press the sustain pedal and play the chords as 
normal on your MIDI keyboard.
There are two types of long chords, triggered by different MIDI note 
velocities:
•A light key stroke produces a slowly strummed chord (not available in all 
players).
•A stronger key stroke produces a heavy chord.
If you don’t have a sustain pedal, you can assign this function to the 
B-key of your MIDI keyboard’s remote octave. For more information 
about how to do this, look at the “Remote keys” section below.
Fills
While Virtual Guitarist is playing, you can trigger a fill (a little variation of 
the current part) by using the modulation wheel on your MIDI keyboard. 
Simply turn the modulation wheel forwards and back, and Virtual Gui-
tarist Electric Edition SE will play a fill before carrying on with the nor-
mal groove. 
You can also trigger a fill by pressing the A# key on the remote octave 
of your MIDI keyboard, see below.
Remote keys
With Virtual Guitarist’s remote keys, you can use the remote octave 
(the octave starting with C1) of your MIDI keyboard as a remote control 
for the most important playback variations. The remote keys are espe-
cially useful if your MIDI keyboard doesn’t have program change but-
tons or a sustain pedal, although it’s important to remember that Virtual 
Guitarist’s remote keys and controllers can be active simultaneously. 
						

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Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE 2 – 33
The keys for the remote octave are mapped out with the following 
functions:
•If you want to experiment with this function, you should load the Player 
“Rock:Classic”, since the Fret and Stop noises are most noticeable in 
this Player.
Sustain pedal
The sustain pedal has an important function in Virtual Guitarist Electric 
Edition SE, and it works differently depending on whether latch mode 
is activated or not. 
If you don’t have a sustain pedal, you can simulate it by using the B-key 
in the remote octave instead (as described in the previous section).
Try experimenting with the functions described in the table below to 
get an understanding of how you can use the sustain pedal.
If Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE is not playing and you hold down 
the sustain pedal, notes played on the keyboard will result in single long 
chords, instead of starting Virtual Guitarist’s rhythm playing as usual. 
(See the section “Long chords” on page 32 for more information.)
Key Function Description
C to F Parts one to four Selects a Part
C# Fret noise Adds fret noise (very noticeable effect in the 
Player “Rock:Classic”)
D# Stop noise Triggers a stop noise (very noticeable effect in 
the Player “Rock:Classic”)
F# Sustain pedal Same effect as using the sustain pedal
Latch Mode OnStop functionVirtual Guitarist will stop playing if you press 
the sustain pedal during playback.
Latch Mode OffSustain pedalVirtual Guitarist will stop playing as soon as 
you release the keys played on the MIDI key-
board, unless you release the keys while the 
pedal is down. (This is similar to how the sus-
tain pedal works when playing a piano instru-
ment on a keyboard, for example.) 
						

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2 – 34 Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE
Tempo
Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE automatically adapts itself to the 
tempo of the current song, which is set up in the host application 
(such as Cubase). Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE will also auto-
matically follow tempo changes during playback, like an accelerando, 
for example. 
However, the slowest song tempo that Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition 
SE plays correctly at is 70 bpm (beats per minute). With high shuffle 
values (see below), the minimum tempo played back correctly is slightly 
higher. The slowest tempo for perfect triplets (Shuffle 66.7%) is 85 
bpm. However, there are no upper limits to Virtual Guitarist’s tempo – 
except for taste!
Shuffle
The shuffle dial allows you to add a swing factor to the virtual guitar-
ist’s playback, enabling you to fit the rhythmic feel more closely to your 
song. Technically speaking, the shuffle dial sets how far the off-beats 
are placed behind the eighth note positions – you can get Virtual Gui-
tarist to play exact triplets by setting shuffle to 66.7%.
If your music has a mostly triplet-based rhythmic feel, Virtual Guitarist 
Electric Edition SE will sound better if you set shuffle to a slightly lower 
value than 66.7% – between 58% and 63% is usually a good starting point.  
						

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Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE 2 – 35
Sound variations
Track Doubling
In a recording studio, guitar tracks are often doubled as another way 
to enhance the stereo image, and to produce a richer sound. To do 
this, the guitar player must record the same track twice onto two sep-
arate tracks, which are panned left and right.
Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE doesn’t need two recordings to 
achieve this. Simply activate the Doubling switch and, as if by magic, 
two guitar players will play in unison.
The doubling feature literally plays back two different tracks. This means 
that Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE’s doubling sounds exactly the 
same as the conventional, but more cumbersome, doubling method.  
						

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2 – 36 Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE
MIDI controller assignments
In addition to VST automation, many of Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition 
SE’s parameters can be controlled by MIDI controllers. The following 
table shows the assignment of Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE 
parameters to MIDI controller numbers. 
In Cubase SE (and other Steinberg hosts), you can automate the dials 
and switches in Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE using the automation 
features of the host application instead of MIDI Controller numbers.
Cc# Name Virtual Guitarist Parameter
1Modwheel
7Volume Volume
11 Expression Volume
64 Sustain Pedal Sustain Pedal
67 Soft Pedal Desync (deactivates tempo sync to host)
70 Fill (if assigned in setup)
71 Reso Doubling on/off
72 Release Latch on/off
76 Vibrato Rate Shuffle
RPN 0 Pitch Bend Range 0 to 24 semitones 
						

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Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE 2 – 37
Reference
Chord reference
The chord reference table below lists all the chord types (based on 
the key of C) as an overview. It includes the notes and the one-finger 
scheme.
*Csus2: You need to press E or Eb for the chord recognition although 
this note is not sounding in the chord.
Guitars
The following sections introduce the guitars and amps used in the 
production of Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE.
•When loading a player, the guitar used for this player is shown in the 
stylized “bull’s eye” in Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE’s control panel.
One Finger Scheme
Chord Notes
CC-E-G Root note
Cmaj7C-E-G-B
C7C-E-G-Bb + next lower white key
CmC-Eb-G + next lower black key
Csus4C-F-G
Csus2C-D-(E)*-G
C-D-(Eb)*-G 
						

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2 – 38 Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE
Fender Stratocaster
The perfect maple neck Stratocaster with a pickup offering unrivalled 
transparency.
Fender Esquire
This guitar is almost identical to a Telecaster, except for the fact that 
the Tele has a second neck pickup (which the Esquire has just been 
prepared for). The character of this “cowboy” guitar has a lot of twang 
and is perfect for vocal accompaniment. The sound of the neck pickup 
embraces the voice with shimmering treble and piano-like basses, just 
like an acoustic guitar.
Model1956
In Player …Funk: Basic/Octaves, Wah: Single Note//Complex
Model1953
In Player …Pop: Brit2   
						

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Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE 2 – 39
Gibson ES 335
This is a semi-resonance guitar with humbuckers which sounds a bit 
lighter compared to a Gibson Les Paul. Therefore it’s predestined for 
slightly overdriven, fat, wooden but also jazzy sounds. The instrument 
of artists like Chuck Berry or BB King.
Amps
Fender Twin Reverb
The king of clean guitar amps. Its 100W 6L6-equipped power amp 
develops a mighty and punchy, yet transparent and warm sound with-
out any unwanted distortion.
Model1963
In Player …Rock: Classic
Model1966
In Player …All Funk Players, All Wah Players   
						

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Marshall Plexi 50
AC/DC 101. This amp creates a smoky, fat distortion with a lot of beef.
Vox AC30 Top Boost
This british combo was originally developed for organ amplification. 
But the pop and rock stars from the island pretty quickly got hooked 
by its uniquely brilliant and warm timbre. The Beatles finally helped it 
to world fame.
Model1968
In Player …Rock: Classic
Model1963
In Player …Pop: Brit2