Detailed Overview: All Articulations, Velocity Layer, Takes and Samples

With SampleArt products, we attach great importance to transparency! Unfortunately, it is not unusual in marketing to hide inadequacies of products behind colourful pictures and a polished facade. Therefore, we would like to give you a complete overview of all articulations contained in Shredolution.

As a potential user, you will get a detailed overview of what the library contains and how complex and extensive the electric guitar was sampled.

Here is a summary of what the individual terms mean to make it easier to understand:

• Articulation
  

  This refers to the different ways in which a tone can be produced on an instrument. Applied to the electric guitar, these would – for example – be sustain notes (played open and fading), palm muted (played muted), hammer-ons/pull offs (notes hammered with the right hand or produced by quickly pulling away the finger) or harmonics (overtones).

• Velocity Layer
  

  This refers to the different velocities recorded during the recording process, i.e., the different dynamic levels between soft and loud tones. With most instruments, the timbre or sound character changes significantly depending on the velocity you play it with. Therefore, it is crucial that the correct levels have been chosen in the sampling process and that sufficient steps are available to reproduce a wide range of dynamics realistically.

  Fortunately, the electric guitar is an instrument where the timbre – which is determined by the velocity – changes according to specific physical rules. This allows for intermediate samples to be simulated, which means that less different velocities samples have to be recorded in comparison to a snare drum, for example.

• Takes/Takes Downstroke/Takes Upstroke
  

  This describes the different takes recorded per articulation and per velocity layer – one downstroke and one upstroke (i.e., the string picked from above and below). More takes generally imply that the dreaded machine gun effect does not occur if the same note is played several times in a row, which leads to much more realism.

  The difficulty and high art of sampling is the recording of variation in such a way, that it is not perceived as too much variation. This means that there must not be a particular take that repeatedly stands out as inappropriate when the same note is repeated several times in a row. Therefore, each take should be musically fitting at all times and should not differ so clearly from other takes that it is perceived as unique. With over 10 years of experience in sampling virtual instruments, we have, of course, put a lot of emphasis on getting this right.

• Picked/Strummed
  

  In the world of sampling, Guitars are a special case, because their velocity behaviour and the timbre of the tone are changing, depending on whether you play a single note or you strum a chord. It will never be possible to achieve the sound of a strummed chord if you only try to “build” a chord from picked single notes. Hence, we have recorded all possible playing styles on the guitar that can be played both as a chord and as a single note twice – picked and strummed!

• All Strings, Wholetone Sampling, Three Pickups

  It is possible to play the same tone (e.g. A#1) on two different strings on a guitar – on the E-string on the sixth fret or the A-string on the first fret. The timbre of the E-string and the A-string differs considerably despite being the same note. Therefore, we have recorded all frets on all strings in whole tone intervals for Shredolution, with all possible pickup positions.

Shredolution Complete Overview