Sugar Bytes Guitarist Review
Making realistic guitar parts from samples is tough, but Sugar Bytes aims to simplify the task. Mike Hillier puts down his axe.
Price: £199.00
Manufacturer: Sugar Bytes
Website: http://www.sugar-bytes.de
The sequencer built-in to your DAW can be used to control more than just audio and MIDI: plug-in parameters can all be automated from inside the DAW, providing a huge degree of control over the sound and enabling you to create complex sequences from only one or two plug-ins. However, for all its strengths, the automation sequencer in your DAW is a general tool and as such isn’t always the best one for the job. However, Sugar Bytes has built more dedicated sequencers into several of the company’s plug-ins, including the popular Effectrix multi-effect.
Guitarist, then, is the company’s latest plug-in, combining an electric guitar samples player with a dedicated guitar sequencer that puts all the important note-sequencing options in one place, from velocity to strum direction. This kind of control using a traditional sampler and automation would have required considerable programming skill; however, wrapping it all up in an interface that’s dedicated to the task makes it simply a matter of deciding what you want to do. Completing the plug-in is a built-in amp and effects section.
Three-chord trick
At first glance the sequencer can be a little daunting– to a guitarist it’s clearly never going to be as intuitive as simply playing the guitar, but to a non-guitarist wanting to re-create a realistic guitar part in a composition it should take little more than a few runs through the presets and a little experimenting with the various options to get everything worked out. If you approach the sequencer knowing in advance what you want to achieve, getting from the blank User Default preset to the riff that you want is incredibly quick. You can program chord changes, chord inversions, picking and strumming patterns, drags (vibrato, slides and bends), mutes and, of course, velocity in a quick and visual manner.
The second page of the sequencer – the Animation page – provides further control, enabling you to alter a chord by animating each string individually up or down by up to three semitones. So, should you wish to program a simple blues shuffle, for example, you can animate one string between the fifth, sixth and minor sevenths of the chord to create your riff rather than relying on strumming through static chords.
Once you’ve programmed a riff it’s also very simple to experiment with variations on the theme, switching chords around, changing picking styles and so on. You can save each new pattern to its own pattern key ready to be recalled manually or sequenced on the third page of the centre section, the Song page.
Pick your weapon
Guitarist comes with a choice of three sampled guitars for playing back your patterns: a Duesenberg Starplayer Special, a Fender Stratocaster and a Telecaster. Each has been meticulously sampled, with more than 2,200 samples per instrument. The Starplayer has a similar tone to a Les Paul, while the Strat and Tele will be familiar to everyone. Each of the guitars has been recorded clean through a DI, enabling you to dial in the amp/effects settings you want. There are two versions of the Starplayer guitar (bright and normal), expanding the tonal options still further.
In effect
An amp simulator with a dual effects engine and wah-wah pedal has been built-in to the software, so the clean guitars can be dirtied up in a variety of ways. There are three amp choices: DI, Model X and Model Q. With little in the way of the usual clues to indicate which amps these are modelling, it goes down to using your ears, which we find quite refreshing. Model X has a more vintage sound to our ears, with lots of dirty tube-like overdrive as you turn up the drive (although when pushed too hard it breaks up in a less-than-appealing manner). Model Q, on the other hand, has a brighter, more modern sound and can be pushed hard with plenty of drive to get a screaming metal sound.
The two effects banks provide a little more sonic interest, with modulation effects in the first and delays and reverbs in the second. However, set up Guitarist without effects and the DI amp model, run it into a dedicated amp simulator and you open up a world of sounds that’s far more interesting than anything you can achieve using the software alone.
WHY BUY
+ Covers a wide range of guitar playing styles
+ Built-in amp and effects
+ Broad collection of presets
WALK ON BY
- Electric guitar only
- FX playing styles missing
VERDICT
Guitarist makes the composition of complex-sounding guitar tracks incredibly simple.
★★★★★★★★★
Score: 9
This review first appeared in Music Tech Magazine issue 94
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