Steinberg Virtual Guitarist 1 Manual
Have a look at the manual Steinberg Virtual Guitarist 1 Manual online for free. It’s possible to download the document as PDF or print. UserManuals.tech offer 523 Steinberg manuals and user’s guides for free. Share the user manual or guide on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.
VIRTUAL GUITARIST “ELECTRIC EDITION” English 41 ENGLISH Setting the Flanger: 1. Use the speed control to adjust the rotation speed. Higher settings make the flanger sound like a vibrato. 2. Now turn up the feedback control until the effect has the desired con- tour (from subtle to glassy to sharp swirling). Chorus As the name suggests, the Chorus seemingly multiplies the signal. While this is probably an exaggeration, it definitely livens up the sound, makes it wider and thicker. The principle of the Chorus is simi- lar to the Flanger, except for the fact that the effect signal doesn’t get fed back to the input, the depth is adjustable and the basic delay time is higher (25 to 50 ms) making the Chorus fatter and less glassy. Setting the chorus effect: 1. Use the knob switch to select either Chorus or Detune. Detune sounds wider and fatter than Chorus, partly resulting from a longer delay time. Choose Detune when you want to create the image of multiple guitars, and select Chorus for adding a shimmering modulation to the sound. 2. By matching Speed and Depth to each other, you can create a wealth of effects. As a rule of thumb: The higher you set Speed, the lower you need to set Depth and vice versa, otherwise the detuning becomes too strong. A high Speed setting creates vibrato-like effects. A low Speed setting along with a high depth value creates beautifully swirling, jazzy clouds.
VIRTUAL GUITARIST “ELECTRIC EDITION” 42 English Effect routing The routing of the effect units has been optimally preset. All effects are connected in series in the following order: Wah or AutoFilter → Phaser → Flanger → Chorus → Delay → Reverb → Tremolo. Plug-in version of the effect board The multi-effect board of Virtual Guitarist “Electric Edition” is also available as a separate plug-in. You can use this plug-in outside of Virtual Guitarist in any mixer channel—for example for your bass, key- board, drum, drumloop or vocal tracks. The plug-in version offers all the functionality of the integrated effect board. ❐Since the effect board is optimized for being inserted post amp/speaker, it is a perfect complement to Steinbergs virtual guitar amp “Warp”. A bonus welcomed e.g. by guitarists who record or just play solo guitar on top of Virtual Guitarist tracks. You can select the plug like any other send or insert effect in any mixer channel of your host application. Managing effects The main bonus of the plug-in version compared to the integrated effect board is the extended file handling. Thanks to the program banks not being occupied by Virtual Guitarist itself, you can create as many different effect banks as you like, using the standard VST file menu.
VIRTUAL GUITARIST “ELECTRIC EDITION” English 43 ENGLISH ❐The Load Bank button in the top right corner allows you to load banks even in VST host applications which don’t support *.fxb file handling. Switching effects with program change Thanks to the program change command not being occupied for selecting parts, you can use it to select effects programs in the plug-in version. Default FX bank Banks created with the plug-in can be loaded into Virtual Guitarist’s effect board using the Load Bank function. When opening an instance, Virtual Guitarist loads the default.fxb file located in the Virtual Guitarist folder inside your VST plug-ins folder. By saving any bank as default.fxb to this location you can make it Virtual Guitarist’s default bank. Controlling effects with MIDI control change messages Of course the plug-in version supports all MIDI controllers dedicated to effect control (see below in paragraph “MIDI controller assignments).
VIRTUAL GUITARIST “ELECTRIC EDITION” 44 English MIDI controller assignments In addition to VST automation, many of Virtual Guitarist’s parameters can be controlled by MIDI controllers. The following table shows the assignment of Virtual Guitarist parameters to MIDI controller numbers. Cc# Name Virtual Guitarist Parameter 1 Modwheel Assignable in the setup, if not assigned: Wah Pedal. 4 Foot Control Wah Pedal 7 Volume 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 73 Attack Tempo half/normal/double If no tempo sync from host: Tempo control (bpm = controller value +60) 74 Cutoff Stereo Width 75 Decay Decay 76 Vibrato Rate Shuffle 77 Vibrato Depth Vibrato (if assigned in setup) 78 Vibrato delay Timing 79 Dynamics 80 Low Cut 81 Presence 82 Mic Position 85 Bypass FX off/on 86 Wah on/off
VIRTUAL GUITARIST “ELECTRIC EDITION” English 45 ENGLISH ❐Depending on the capabilities of your VST host application, you can automate the dials and switches in Virtual Guitarist with your sequencer’s automation features, instead of using MIDI Controller numbers. This type of automation is available in Steinberg’s own host applications, Cubase SX/SL and Nuendo, for example. 87 Autofilter on/off 88 Delay on/off 89 Delay Mix 90 Reverb on/off 91 Reverb Level Reverb Mix 92 Tremolo on/off 93 Chorus on/off 94 Flanger on/off 95 Phaser on/off Aftertouch assignable in setup RPN 0 Pitch Bend Range 0 to 24 semitones Cc# Name Virtual Guitarist Parameter
VIRTUAL GUITARIST “ELECTRIC EDITION” 46 English Global settings (setup) Virtual Guitarist’s setup window provides access to the settings and parameters that are normally hidden ” from the regular playing controls. ❐The setup parameters are simultaneously applied to both the acoustic and electric guitar types, so changing the settings from the acoustic instrument type will also affect the electric instrument type. 1. To switch to the setup window, click on the “quarter inch” jack labelled “Setup”. 2. When you’re done, you can return to the main Virtual Guitarist window by clicking on the “Play” jack or to the FX page by clicking the FX plug.
VIRTUAL GUITARIST “ELECTRIC EDITION” English 47 ENGLISH Save Setup Click the save setup button to save all the setup parameters. As previ- ously mentioned, these apply globally to all instances. ❐Setups are stored within the host’s song file, meaning that each song can have a different setup configuration. Key Remote Octave The key remote octave selector lets you set which octave on your MIDI keyboard will be used to remote control the Virtual Guitarist functions, or disable the remote keys facility altogether. Each of the displayed note values indicates the lowest note of the chosen octave, so if you select C1, the octave between C1 and B1 will be reserved for remote control. Chord Set The chord set parameter is used to limit the number of chords loaded into RAM when a player is selected. The XXL set loads all available chords, the MID set is limited to ten, the ECO set to the six most important chords. The loading times of MID and ECO sets are significantly smaller, and you need 30% respectively 60% less RAM.
VIRTUAL GUITARIST “ELECTRIC EDITION” 48 English Since most electric guitar styles get by with neutral chords (single notes, octaves, riffs) or major/minor combinations, the chord set set- ting in Virtual Guitarist “Electric Edition” affects the following players only: • Funk: Basic, Medium, Complex Pop: Brit 1, Brit 2, Dream Chords XXL All available chords—up to 15 for each key, depending on the player. • Major, maj7, 7, 6, +5, −5, dim, minor, mmaj7, m7, m6, m7-5, sus4, 7sus4, sus2 MID Only the ten most common chords are loaded, which reduces RAM requirements to approximately two thirds of the XXL set. • Major, maj7, 7, dim, minor, mmaj7, m7, sus4, 7sus4, sus2 • These will not be loaded: 6, +5, −5, m6, m7-5 ECO Only the six most common chords are loaded—RAM requirements and loading times will be reduced by two thirds, compared to the XXL set, and by half compared to the MID set. • Major, 7, maj7, minor, sus4, sus2. ❐If you use several Virtual Guitarists in one song, you can use different chord sets for each Virtual Guitarist by changing the settings before you load the player. If you work with the MID or ECO chord set and play a chord that’s not included in the set, Virtual Guitarist will automatically select the most appropriate replacement chord. ❐When you’ve changed the chord set parameter, you need to remove” the currently selected player and reload it (as described in the “Removing a player” section on page 17) before the changes take effect.
VIRTUAL GUITARIST “ELECTRIC EDITION” English 49 ENGLISH Vibrato Control Some electric players have a built-in” vibrato because this was played by the original guitarist. However, other players let you control the amount of vibrato by using a MIDI controller, which can be configured with this parameter. You can choose between controlling vibrato via aftertouch, the modulation wheel, or control change #77. Fill Trigger The fill trigger parameter sets the MIDI controller to be used for trig- gering fills. For information about playing fills with Virtual Guitarist, take a look at the “Fills” section on page 23.
VIRTUAL GUITARIST “ELECTRIC EDITION” 50 English Velocity Switch The velocity switch sets the velocity value where Virtual Guitarist will play syncopations or accents. Normally, a value between 90 and 110 will work best, but this depends on your playing style and MIDI key- board. Velocity Threshold When you play the keyboard, there’s always the possibility of playing a wrong note. Although such a mistake will often go unnoticed in key- board parts, when playing the Virtual Guitarist a wrong note could lead to the misinterpretation of a chord. Because wrong notes tend to have lower velocities than intended notes, Virtual Guitarist lets you set a minimum velocity threshold where notes falling are ignored if they fall below this level. We recommend a setting of between 10 and 30.