I’m finding the learning curve on Steinberg’s Virtual Guitarist 2 ridiculously steep. For all it’s hype about how simple it is to use, I’m finding it anything but. The manual is very vague and the few tutorial clips I’ve found on-line (including the SB site!) were mostly just ads displaying features but not actually how to use it!
I’m trying to figure out how to get this thing to accept and save strumming patterns that I program, rather than the presets. The GRID doesn’t display bars, measures or any kind of tempo setting devices, so I have no clue where I am with the wave forms or how to make the patterns lock to the song.
I see empty sections in the performance menu, but I don’t know how I’d actually save any pattern I could develop, since I don’t see any “save as” functions. The slice section shows a menu. But it doesn’t seem to do anything except let you check it. I also have other wave forms playing off screen after hi-liting the ones on screen with no way to access those. So I can’t figure out how to modify them at all! I can’t figure out what the groove section does either. It just moves lines around but I don’t hear any changes.
In fact, no matter what I seem to try, I would never hear any difference in the performance preset play back, except when I deleted a “slice” or move it in one direction or another. So clearly, there MUST be some way to program the patterns, I just can’t figure out how. Can anyone here help me with this or at least refer me to a REAL tutorial video for this program?
Not near my studio, but look at the manual. You have to use (as close as I can remember) midi channel 16 if you want to play patterns you have programmed yourself. There’s a way to directly access down strums, up strums, etc. Any data in the midi channel NOT using the above will be seen only as chords and will change within the time signature regardless of the actuall notes/timing.
First off, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR REPLYING!
I’ve saw that part about ch. 16:
P.68 ADDITIONAL PHRASINGS: > Triggering on MIDI channel 16 crom C1 and above, all the slices making up the currently selected part can be accessed individually note by note. This allows you to create and record additional phrasings. The pitch selection is still carried out on MIDI Channel 1.
This left me with more questions than answers.
Those instructions are already vague. It doesn’t mention that, while on ch. 16 your programmed part will only play the same chord (you get that info in the last “throw away” sentence, like the fine print of a contract!), so you’ll be exclusivly programming rhythmically. Nor does the manual adaquately tell you in CLEAR decisive steps how to get rid of the extemporaneous wave files still being triggered. So you waste hours trying to figure out which combination of instructions will actually yield the desired results. Instead, you get a B.S. statement like
Handling this seems complicated at first glance, but your patience will be rewarded.
Seriously?
The sustain pedal works, then it doesn’t. The manual tells you it works under these conditions (see p. 25) only it doesn’t! I turned latch mode off as instructed to make the chords sustain like they would with a keyboard. It’s not working. As soon as my finger lets go of the key, the sound stops abruptly.
It says that the light and dark blue shades of the riff editor indicate where the slices should be placed, RELAVTIVE TO WHAT? I’ve moced those slices to every decisive section in that editor to detrmine if this is a grid of 16th, 8th, or quarter notes. I still can’t figure that out. The wave forms show position, pitch and length and PARTS are one bar long. So are the wave files one bar or are they only part of a bar? If only part, which part? Do the slices indicate where in the measure the strum is placed? Speaking of strumming directions, can you tell me which page that’s on? I haven’t found it yet. It’s not listed in the table of contents and there’s no index in back.
Bottom line, I would very much appreciate it if you or someone else who’s actually used it successfully, could talk
me through step by step how to program this thing (including the caveats). I can’t believe nobody did a tutorial DVD. If there was ever an app that needed visual aid instructions, its this one! Thanks again.
Still not near my studio (won’t be for a week or so), but from memory…
I believe I had midi channel 1 programmed with the chord progressions I wanted using VG2 as the vsti on one track, then I had another track using the same VG2 instance set to midi channel 16. If you use two different tracks then play notes above C1 on the midi channel 16 track, it will become more clear to you. Just set 2 different tracks to control the same instance of VG2.
Thanks again for help. I tried running 2 tracks to the same instance of VG2. So, Ch. 16 act’s like a controller channel like the controllers in VSL Samples (C1= legato, C#1= Sustain, D1+ Pitzacato, etc.)for articulation? Good to know, well in principle anyway! That’s a lot more information than I got from the manual. However if this is correct then something is still wrong, because I just set Ch. 16 to trigger different articulations under the mirrored Ch. 1 with the pitch changes and I’m getting an arppegiated chord from Ch. 16 AND a sustained chord from Ch. 1, NOT an arpeggiated pitched chord from Ch. 1 as expected. All of this irrelevant anyway, as this is of little use until I can get the wave files to play only the pattern I program.
The only way I was able to get anything close to what I wanted was to strip the wave pattern down to one single chord. Then It played the pattern I wanted in the pitches I wanted. But it’s now a single sample, which (even with articulation help from Ch. 16) will sound synthetic after a few meaures. How do I mix and match the different samples that came with the original pattern?
If I use the copy and paste method to develop a pattern INSIDE of VG2, I am immediately tripped up by the “all or nothing” nature of the copy/paste function. I can’t just hi-lite ONE wave file and copy that into an empty window.
So all of the arranging has to be done inside the original window until I get what I need. Then the problem there is that I can’t pull “slice 5” into “slice 2” position. This is the absolute opposite of intuitive. If you’ve mastered this program, you have the patience of a Saint!
OK, I got the control issue settled (I think). Ch. 16 DOES act like a controller channel (like the controller in VSL: C1= legato, C#1= Sustain, D1+ Pitzacato, etc.) for articulation. You just have to make sure that the audio out is off on Ch. 16 so that all you hear is the pitched channel.
So now I just have to find a way to work out the wave file issue and “I’ve got a ball game.” I would never have gotten to this point based on anything offered in that manual! Thanks again for your help!! When you get back to the studio, let me know if you’ve got a solution for the actual wave file programming.
Thanks again for your help!! 
When you get back to the studio, let me know if you’ve got a solution for the actual wave file programming.