Your favorite rhythm guitar (sequencer) plugins?

NoncompliantBryant

I got the ample sound strat plugin and am so pleased with its sound...but I do wish it had a more robust sequencer that could take advantage of that incredible sample library.

What are your favorite rhythm guitar plugins? I'm mostly interested in plugins that have great sequencing capabilities...I tried the demo for the Sugar Bytes Guitarist plugin but really didn't like the interface for inputting chords. Clicking on the chord and dragging up and down with a mouse feels like the worst of desktop and touch uis lol.

MadeofWax

If you haven’t got Riffler or Riffler Flow I’d recommend them.

NoncompliantBryant

@MadeofWax said:
If you haven’t got Riffler or Riffler Flow I’d recommend them.

Definitely enjoy these on ios, though it's a bummer that riffler isn't working on macs. I do wish the apps had a way for you to sequence them directly so you could take advantage of the excellent sounds.

MadeofWax

@NoncompliantBryant said:

@MadeofWax said:
If you haven’t got Riffler or Riffler Flow I’d recommend them.

Definitely enjoy these on ios, though it's a bummer that riffler isn't working on macs. I do wish the apps had a way for you to sequence them directly so you could take advantage of the excellent sounds.

I agree with you on the sounds Riffler has. I think it could do well if it was sold as a sound library.
According to the website July 1st it will be released for desktop although the midi in feature was supposed to have been released already and I’m still waiting.
There was a rumor that MusicLab https://www.musiclab.com/ was coming to iOS so I looked at their product line and it might suit you, although if you have a sound library you like you might be paying for something you don’t need. I don’t know how well their sequencer plays with outside sources so it might not be worth it.

rs2000

What do you mean by "more robust sequencer"? I agree that using it can be a little challenging but is it broken?

NoncompliantBryant

@rs2000 said:
What do you mean by "more robust sequencer"? I agree that using it can be a little challenging but is it broken?

It's powerful but having to drag midi to the piano roll bit by bit is a bit of a workflow killer for me. I'd prefer to be able to work out a guitar part in larger chunks if I want to. The riff designer is good but to me it feels a bit clunky to easily change keys. Not a huge deal, just less slick than I had hoped for. The strum pattern manager doesn't close when you choose a pattern, which reminds me of the extra taps Igor's apps need when preset diving.

4pockets strummer is a good example of a sequencer that let's you combine rhythmic strum patterns, chords, and a song structure together in a way that doesn't require too much fiddling, though of course it lacks articulations.

I think Guitarist hits a lot of the elements of a strong guitar sequencer but the way you enter chords just feels too fiddly for me. My constant gripe with Sugar Bytes UIs is that they look fancy but sometimes are less usable for me. For instance, having chords be a drop down rather than a click and drag mechanism, or having numbered buttons for chords and patterns would make it so much quicker to use, though of course it wouldn't look as cool.

Overall, I'd love to find a guitar sequencer that can give me access to guitar voicings, a bank of good patterns to work from, the ability to combine patterns and chords easily, and the ability to design anything from short to long phrases. I feel like Ample forces me to keep going between the piano roll and plugin instead of letting me design things in more holistic and streamlined ways in the plugin before moving to the DAW.

dblonde

So can you add your own sequences or are you stuck with what it generates from its own library of riffs?

NoncompliantBryant

You can program your own sequences through the riff sequencer or strum sequencer in Ample. You need to work in sections, however, if you're trying to make something longer. Sequences can be dragged to the piano roll once you've made them.

rs2000

@NoncompliantBryant said:
You can program your own sequences through the riff sequencer or strum sequencer in Ample. You need to work in sections, however, if you're trying to make something longer. Sequences can be dragged to the piano roll once you've made them.

OK, have you tried using the key switches in your DAW's piano roll directly?
See section 4.2 here:
https://www.amplesound.net/en/tutorial.asp

BTW, apart from Orange Tree and some Native Instruments guitar libs (and of course full recorded riffs and a real guitar) there isn't much else out there that sounds like what I consider authentic, currently.
Maybe Ilya Efimov guitars too.
MusicLab have a nice concept but sound wise their guitars wouldn't be my first choice.

dblonde

Best sounding Nylon Guitar is Native Instruments 'Nylon Guitar' which has also an arpegiator built in. Ilya Nylon is also very good as is Ample. But these are desktop (or in my case Surface pro). For ios I think PianoTeq has a lovely Nylon guitar

GUB

many months ago Dev Jonathan Bell posted a video reporting that Riffler would soon be updated to accept midi in, so that chordal input would generate riffs based on those chords. I think that was more than six months ago and I'm not sure if that plan has been abandoned but it hasn't been implemented.

AlexY

I wonder if this would fit the bill for you:

https://www.robpapen.com/rg.html

There’s also the UJAM guitar instruments which now also work as midi instruments.

NoncompliantBryant

The UJAM and RP plugins look great. Do you own them?

AlexY

I do, but only recently acquired one of the UJam guitars. I enjoyed messing with the sequencer in the Rob Papen vst but you can’t sequence it directly with your piano roll. With the UJam instruments, you can.

NoncompliantBryant

@rs2000 said:

@NoncompliantBryant said:
You can program your own sequences through the riff sequencer or strum sequencer in Ample. You need to work in sections, however, if you're trying to make something longer. Sequences can be dragged to the piano roll once you've made them.

OK, have you tried using the key switches in your DAW's piano roll directly?
See section 4.2 here:
https://www.amplesound.net/en/tutorial.asp

BTW, apart from Orange Tree and some Native Instruments guitar libs (and of course full recorded riffs and a real guitar) there isn't much else out there that sounds like what I consider authentic, currently.
Maybe Ilya Efimov guitars too.
MusicLab have a nice concept but sound wise their guitars wouldn't be my first choice.

Oh, I must have missed this during my week of Jury duty! Yes, I do use the techniques you shared in the video. Don't get me wrong -- I love the plugin, I just find that there is a lot of granular work and shifting between the plugin and piano roll to get things going, and maybe that's jsut the name of the game for guitar sequencing. I guess I am on the lookout for a plugin that makes the sequencing of realistic guitar chords and articulations a bit more self-contained within the plugin and more elegant, or dare I say, fun (for me at least). Cheers!

rs2000

@NoncompliantBryant said:

@rs2000 said:

@NoncompliantBryant said:
You can program your own sequences through the riff sequencer or strum sequencer in Ample. You need to work in sections, however, if you're trying to make something longer. Sequences can be dragged to the piano roll once you've made them.

OK, have you tried using the key switches in your DAW's piano roll directly?
See section 4.2 here:
https://www.amplesound.net/en/tutorial.asp

BTW, apart from Orange Tree and some Native Instruments guitar libs (and of course full recorded riffs and a real guitar) there isn't much else out there that sounds like what I consider authentic, currently.
Maybe Ilya Efimov guitars too.
MusicLab have a nice concept but sound wise their guitars wouldn't be my first choice.

Oh, I must have missed this during my week of Jury duty! Yes, I do use the techniques you shared in the video. Don't get me wrong -- I love the plugin, I just find that there is a lot of granular work and shifting between the plugin and piano roll to get things going, and maybe that's jsut the name of the game for guitar sequencing. I guess I am on the lookout for a plugin that makes the sequencing of realistic guitar chords and articulations a bit more self-contained within the plugin and more elegant, or dare I say, fun (for me at least). Cheers!

Well, I've seen some rather genius Kontakt libraries that use extensive scripting, trying to "read your mind" as far as possible but for ultimate expression, I guess that annoying granular work is still the name of the game indeed.
Probably a little faster than learning to play the guitar though, YMMV

NoncompliantBryant

@rs2000 said:

@NoncompliantBryant said:

@rs2000 said:

@NoncompliantBryant said:
You can program your own sequences through the riff sequencer or strum sequencer in Ample. You need to work in sections, however, if you're trying to make something longer. Sequences can be dragged to the piano roll once you've made them.

OK, have you tried using the key switches in your DAW's piano roll directly?
See section 4.2 here:
https://www.amplesound.net/en/tutorial.asp

BTW, apart from Orange Tree and some Native Instruments guitar libs (and of course full recorded riffs and a real guitar) there isn't much else out there that sounds like what I consider authentic, currently.
Maybe Ilya Efimov guitars too.
MusicLab have a nice concept but sound wise their guitars wouldn't be my first choice.

Oh, I must have missed this during my week of Jury duty! Yes, I do use the techniques you shared in the video. Don't get me wrong -- I love the plugin, I just find that there is a lot of granular work and shifting between the plugin and piano roll to get things going, and maybe that's jsut the name of the game for guitar sequencing. I guess I am on the lookout for a plugin that makes the sequencing of realistic guitar chords and articulations a bit more self-contained within the plugin and more elegant, or dare I say, fun (for me at least). Cheers!

Well, I've seen some rather genius Kontakt libraries that use extensive scripting, trying to "read your mind" as far as possible but for ultimate expression, I guess that annoying granular work is still the name of the game indeed.
Probably a little faster than learning to play the guitar though, YMMV

I hope I didn't come across as negative or judgmental about any apps or ways of doing things! I play guitar and I guess I'm just constantly on the lookout for ways to sequence guitar sounds in a good enough way that is fun and light. I have no qualms with sitting down with a piano roll to write out a riff and use keyswitches. I'm just excited to find a plugin that makes that process feel exciting and elegant in ways that I personally haven't experienced yet. Honestly, Guitarist is so close to having what I think of as a great guitar sequencer save for the way you need to click and drag up or down when inputting chords (which feels cumbersome to me vs. a dropdown menu, for instance). I find myself wishing there were something like 4pockets Strummer with an additional component to the strum pattern editor where you could choose different articulations to go along with the strum pattern. That's no disrespect towards the excellent plugins that are available for guitar sounds, though. I guess I just get excited thinking about new sequencers since I find myself creating differently when I run across something innovative and fun!

NoncompliantBryant

@AlexY said:
I do, but only recently acquired one of the UJam guitars. I enjoyed messing with the sequencer in the Rob Papen vst but you can’t sequence it directly with your piano roll. With the UJam instruments, you can.

If I could only afford either the RP or Sparkle 2, what would you suggest I think about re: pros and cons of each?

AlexY

@NoncompliantBryant ,

I kind a like working inside the piano roll so I’m slightly biased towards UJAM. If you prefer sequencers maybe the rob papen vst is a better fit. I got the rob papen vst at a time when UJAM didn’t have guitars that supported instrument mode.

I have to check again but I don’t remember if either vst lets me use dry sounds.

My dirty secret is that I still use the sounds from iOS Riffler for guitar lol. Once I start messing around in full with my other toys we’ll see lol

AlexY

Just wanted to bring up Musiclab’s vsts, though they also rely on the piano roll:

https://www.musiclab.com/products

I’ve looked at videos and the manuals and it seems like they’re very detailed. They have emulations of the Fender Strats, Les Paul, Rickenbacker. Some of the manuals:

https://musiclab.com/assets/files/RealLPC.pdf

https://www.musiclab.com/assets/files/RealStrat.pdf