Hummingbird Pro Electro-Acoustic Guitar
Single notes of an electro-acoustic guitar recorded via DI.
ByKeith Theodosiou
The story
As this is my first real attempt at sampling and making a Kontakt instrument, it is pretty basic. I sampled only the six open strings as follows:
Bottom E
A
D
G
B
Top E
From the Top E onwards, i just dragged the region up so it does start to sound a bit Mickey Mouse like lol.
I have been watching vids on how to add things like reverb echo and chorus knobs in the UI so i will work on this and try to make it better and i will also sample the Top E and go up in 5ths to make the higher notes sound better and also i will look into velocity and things like that.
It’s not really too bad for a first attempt but it will improve as I learn more.
I did the first takes using a mic but there was way too much hum and noise so i plugged the guitar into my interface as it is an electro-acoustic and recorded each note using a pick (not finger) but i will do more recordings of finger and i may do chord strums too but i have to learn how to add all that into the UI.
Reviews
Solid first attempt
This sample pack is a solid first attempt at sampling. The samples are well recorded and tonally balanced. There's no noise that I can hear in the samples. There is some low end rumble that I'd EQ out, and the entire library is a little on the crispy side in terms of the EQing. I'd want to smooth out those highs a little bit if it were me. The timings of the beginnings of the samples can be tightened up a little, and using Christian's trick of shifting samples mostly down and only up when there's absolutely no other way helps with the "Mickey Mouse" sound, the sample's author describes. Once you make those changes, this becomes a pretty decent acoustic guitar sample pack.
True character and enough brightness to cut through any mix
Don’t be put off by any apparent limitations the description of the sampling process for this instrument might suggest. The fact only the open strings were sampled turns out to give the sound of this Hummingbird the kind of iridescence displayed by the feathers of the bird of the same name. I doubled up the notes and, depending on their register, either raised or lowered them an octave to create a kind of 12-string sound that not only cut straight to the top of my mix but also lent the sound that ‘mystery instrument’ quality composers are always seeking – you can’t quite identify the source instrument; is it a guitar, a mandolin or something more exotic? Keith has created a true original.
A clean, kind of synth guitar
This instrument is sampled very well with no audible noise at all, and features an electro-acoustic guitar sound that to my ears kind of sounds kind of artificial at times, especially the higher you go in the register, to the point that the two higher octaves sound like a synthy harpsichord. Even though it is not realistic enough, I'm sure some people will find it very fitting to their compositions.
As you play, you might also notice some very slight delay in some keys, but that's something that can be adjusted while programming the instrument in your DAW.