Looking for "overdriven guitar" patches for NotePerformer

I’m using NotePerformer with Dorico 5 on a Windows PC and, although NP is a great source for orchestral sounds, I haven’t found any “overdriven” rock-guitar patches in its default sound library. I plan to keep using NP, so any modifications to my future workflow would have to include NotePerformer as my primary sound engine

The best solution I’ve come up with would be to add NP’s “playback engine” module and (assuming I understand how it works, which I’m not sure I do!) add a third-party sound library like Sketch or a BBC offering to NP’s battery of sounds. I’m not looking forward to dual learning curves – I’m sure that it’ll be a nightmare to try to create custom percussion kits with this modified platform – but if this is the best option, so be it. I just don’t want to have to buy, install, and learn multiple playback engines / sound libraries while I search for the that comes closest to doing what I need.

So my question is: Can anybody, based on hands-on experience creating rock-style electric-guitar parts with NP in Dorico, recommend a specific sound library / playback engine?

Extra points if that same sound library also has decent patches for other amplified instruments, like electric violin.

Thanks for any guidance anyone can provide.

Hello, you just have to add your Guitar VST in play mode (tab “VST and midi” on the left panel), attach this VST to your instrument (tab “Track Inspector”) and select the proper expression map (or create your own it in the menu Library/Expression maps).

If you want this settings to be remembered, again in play mode, tab “VST and Midi” clik on the icon at the bittom of the list of the VSTs which looks like a “Share” icon : you will create an “End Point”. Then go to Play/Playback templates… , duplicate the “Note performer” template and edit it, adding “Manually” the end point you created before Noteperformer in the list. This settings will be applied next time you add a guitar : it will use your VST instead of NP (because at the beginning of the list).

Another cool and simplier way of doing is (what I have done for years) to create a score, add all the instruments you use to use, add the VSTs and link them to your instruments as explain at the beginning of this message, and save the score as “Project Template”. And each time you create a new score, use this template and at the end delated all the instruments you did not use with “Setup / Delete Empty PLayers”. Hope this help.

@kcnarf007

Thanks for the detailed reply! But two clarifications:

i) would any of these methods allow NotePerformer to process the articulation, microtiming, etc., of the third-party VST? I’m familiar with variations the mechanisms you mention, but have not yet found a way to place the VST before NotePerformer in the signal path.

ii) I was looking for suggestions re: a sound library that has decent electric instruments that I can add to an orchestral score. Any favorites?

If you route your guitar to the guitar VST, NotePerformer will no longer receive any MIDI events for that track.

Even when using NotePerformer’s Playback Engine add-on module & configuring the guitar instrument’s VST to interface with PE?

How does one do that? Does NotePerformer have a PE for your guitar?

Whoa, I don’t think we’re communicating. I don’t have a physical guitar. I’m trying to add a virtual instrument to NotePerformer that’s similar to the GM “Overdriven Guitar” patch, and allow NP to manage the articulation of that instrument, the same way it manages instruments in its bundled default instrument library.

If you’re not familiar with the PE add-on for NotePerformer, I’d recommend downloading the latest version of the NP manual, which ends with a section describing some of the engine’s functionality.

I think I may be asking a question a bit more advanced than what might appear from a quick scan. Please read through at least the first paragraph closely to understand what I’m looking for, and remember that I’d ideally want to retain NotePerformer control over this third-party patch, including managing articulation, etc., through NP’s “AI” functionality.

It’s starting to appear that, if any of this is even possible, it would require purchasing the NP add-on I mentioned. It’s not clear that PE does what I’m looking for, but the documentation suggests that it might. I’d prefer not to have to add another module into my workflow, but if that’s what it takes, that wouldn’t be a dealbreaker for me.

Thanks.

As far as I know, the Performance Engines sold by Wallander do not play rock instruments… Those are mainly orchestral instruments. I really don’t think there’s any distorted guitar available (yet) in the third party libraries covered by Performance Engines. :person_shrugging:

Thanks, MarcLarcher. I see that the list of PE-supported libraries is steadily growing, but I’m not personally familiar with any of them (not even Sketch, actually).

Are you saying that you don’t believe that any of the supported libraries include electric instruments? That would surprise me, but if you confirm that to be the case, that would at least let me avoid spinning my wheels trying to do something that can’t be done.

I have a question out to Wallender about a related topic, but so far haven’t heard back. Maybe when the work week starts again in the UK, I’ll hear something.

I’d say I’m 99% confident there is no overdriven guitar in those libraries — I don’t have them all… But VSL, Spitfire’s, HOOPUS and Iconica certainly don’t.

NotePerformer has been historically focused primarily on traditional and classical orchestral instruments. There’s limited support beyond that for modern genres such as jazz and rock. There’s definitely no distorted guitars in any of the playback engines. I recommend perusing all of them if you want to check yourself - NotePerformer 4: Artificial Intelligence-based Playback of Musical Notation - at the top of each it lists every available instrument as well as the available articulations for each below that.

As for PE libraries steadily growing, well, sort of. Wallander is a small developer and the pace of releases is not blazing fast. I’ve been using them since the beginning of their release and I can’t give an exact figure but I’d say only a few have been released per year at most. There’s a lot of reasons they are not planning to support certain niche libraries which include limited financial feasibility for them to develop and then continue to support, so for the most part they will be focused on the bigger orchestral libraries on the market. I have a feeling we’ll see a fuller NPPE for OT Berlin soon. But I am very doubtful they will venture into electric guitars or any kind of more niche rock libraries as a playback engine – but of course you can always reach out to them directly for the request.

In the meantime the VSL Studio Electric Guitar is decent, and VSL libraries map pretty well (for when they don’t already have maps created, which for that particular one I don’t think they have).

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That much is clear when you said VST (maybe you have a guitar but in this context, VST was clear). But NP doesn’t have an overdriven guitar and there are no PEs with overdriven guitars (as @MarcLarcher guesses). So what you are trying to do can’t be done yet.

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@wing

Everything you say makes sense. Not the answer I wanted, but any straightforward answer is worth its weight!

I guess Plan B would be to find a library that includes some useful electric instruments and hand-tune their parts in my score. FWIW, I’m working mostly with orchestral instruments in various combinations, which is why NP has worked so well for me in the past. The addition of electric guitar/violin/etc. parts is something new for me. So it looks like I’ll have yet another learning curve.

Can anybody recommend a library that includes a workable set of electric instruments? I don’t mind paying up to a few hundred bucks for an offering that solves this problem.

Regardless, thanks to everybody for your help. Good discussion.

D

Yep, most of my work is hybrid involving NP for the orchestra and then lots of alternate libraries covering synths, keyboards, saxes, extended percussion. It took me awhile to get my template where I like it, always a work in progress… I definitely wish NP and the NPPEs had more alternate sound support but it is what it is!

I have added the occasional electric guitar too, though I mostly use clean/spacey guitar sounds with lots of effects, for which I’ve used some of the Native Instruments electric guitars. I don’t use a distorted sound very much. However in the past I have used VSL’s Overdrive with success. What I like in general with VSL is how agile their legatos are and the Synchron player with the wealth of articulations make it easy to map and I find my independent VSL libraries (outside of what is supported by NPPE) tend to mix well with NP with minimal issues. I don’t know about others though, I’m sure there are lots of options out there.

@wing
That’s pretty good feedback. It sounds like you’ve already gone down the path I’m about to start. I’ll check out some of your suggestions.
C

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There’s another similar thread right now asking about NotePerformer and guitar distortion sounds. NotePerformer does have guitar effects, which can be turned on or off by CC changes. They include distortion, fuzz box, heavy distortion, chorus, flanger, phaser, wah-wah.

More details are in this thread:

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Learn something new every day – :+1:

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Oh my bad! I never write with such guitar effects so I never knew that. Pretty cool, good to know!

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No worries! NotePerformer tends to be full of surprises!