Editing virtual guitarist 2

[Keyplayer]

Wow, nobody's using this program anymore? What did you guys replace it with?

So far, this is the only program I've found that does what this does. I just need to figure lout how to make it do what I need. ANYbody here still using it?





Rigg:
Nuendo 4.3 | Windows 7 Pro (SP 1) | Intel i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67 Quad Core | 12GB of RAM |RME HDSPe RayDAT | PNY ? 9500GT 1GB PCIe Dual Head DVI Video Card | Xkeys | UAD-1 Platinum | Isotope RX | Melodyne 3.2 | Voxengo Plugins | B4 II | EZ Drummer | Drumagog 1 | Virtual Guitarist 2 | Korg, Roland, Kurzweil Synths | Apogee Big Ben | Panasonic DA-7 desk | Mackie 824 monitors | VS-1680 & 880 HDR's |

[Keyplayer]

Okay, I found a manual and it's has taught me how to edit and save parts within the instrument. Now I need to figure out how to chain DIFFERENT parts together to make a convincing performance.

It says that the Key Remote Range will trigger default parts 1 - 8. So PT.1 "Royal" and Pt. 3 "Gypsy Fill" should be keys C1 and E1 respectively, right? In VSL strings you can assign legato to a key and detache to another key. The VG2 manual SEEMS to be saying the same thing. But I'm not clear as to how that works, because if Pt. 1 is C1 and Pt. 3 is E1, then when I place the MIDI trigger blocks to make this change, I SHOULD switch between the parts. Instead, I'm getting a completely different part that plays through both sections. What am I doing wrong?


Rigg:
Nuendo 4.3 | Windows 7 Pro (SP 1) | Intel i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67 Quad Core | 12GB of RAM |RME HDSPe RayDAT | PNY ? 9500GT 1GB PCIe Dual Head DVI Video Card | Xkeys | UAD-1 Platinum | Isotope RX | Melodyne 3.2 | Voxengo Plugins | B4 II | EZ Drummer | Drumagog 1 | Virtual Guitarist 2 | Korg, Roland, Kurzweil Synths | Apogee Big Ben | Panasonic DA-7 desk | Mackie 824 monitors | VS-1680 & 880 HDR's |

[Keyplayer]

I've gotta say how surprised I am that after 210 views, nobody has a response for this thread. I got the impression from searching VG2 that there were hundreds of users for this program.

In any case, here's where I am on this.

I had to track the song seven times from beginning to end each with a different "guitar part" to build up my selection of clips (I SHOULD'VE BEEN ABLE TO TRIGGER THESE PART CHANGES WITHIN VG2). Then I mad a comp performance track from those clips. It turned out pretty well. Then I ran the comp track through Melodyne to get the notes separated so that I could tweak/eliminate any of the minor errors.

While each "blob" was it's own chord, which means you CANNOT REPAIR a bad chord, YOU CAN REPLACE the incorrect chord with another blob from another section. It's a major P.I.T.A. with a ridiculous amount of extra effort required to make it work. But the end result is a TANGIBLE WORK-AROUND!

If anyone has a more streamlined way to make this work or any information regarding getting the launch commands (which by itself would save an hour of unnecessary passes just to get the clips together!) to change the parts inside VG2 , feel free to speak up. I would greatly appreciate a response, because I still think that there's got to be a better way to make this program work. But at least there is one way now that will work.


Rigg:
Nuendo 4.3 | Windows 7 Pro (SP 1) | Intel i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67 Quad Core | 12GB of RAM |RME HDSPe RayDAT | PNY ? 9500GT 1GB PCIe Dual Head DVI Video Card | Xkeys | UAD-1 Platinum | Isotope RX | Melodyne 3.2 | Voxengo Plugins | B4 II | EZ Drummer | Drumagog 1 | Virtual Guitarist 2 | Korg, Roland, Kurzweil Synths | Apogee Big Ben | Panasonic DA-7 desk | Mackie 824 monitors | VS-1680 & 880 HDR's |

[Ivorydom]

I am not sure what your problem is exactly.
VG2 is pretty straightforward. You play the chords with the free keys above the keyswitches and with the keyswitches you change the strumming patterns, not the chords.

Maybe I am missing something, but I don't see why you are confused. What are you trying to do? If you read the manual try to use the correct terms so that we could possibly understand what you're talking about (for example what does "launch data of the preset" mean?).

[Keyplayer]

Originally Posted by Ivorydom

I am not sure what your problem is exactly.
VG2 is pretty straightforward. You play the chords with the free keys above the keyswitches and with the keyswitches you change the strumming patterns, not the chords.

Maybe I am missing something, but I don't see why you are confused. What are you trying to do? If you read the manual try to use the correct terms so that we could possibly understand what you're talking about (for example what does "launch data of the preset" mean?).

First off, thanks for the reply!

To answer your first question, keyswitches = "launch data of the preset." I apologize for the incorrect terminology and I get this concept. It's the same as VSL. You play a part and to make a more realistic performance, you can change a sustained note from straight legato to vibrato, for example, by using keyswitches. My problem comes with the lack of editing capabilities with the notes themselves. I am a keyboardist. That's my primary instrument. So I found playing a single note, G for example, giving me a G Triad very disorienting. So now when I play a Gmin triad I've got a GMaj triad a BbMaj triad and a DMaj triad? When you go into Melodyne to separate the triad (which is the ONLY way I found to even get access to the triad), that's what you found, 3 super-imposed major triads.

In any other program, if you have a finger slip and you hit a bad note in an otherwise good performance, you simply open the MIDI lane and delete that note or go in and change it. You meant to play Gmin, but accidentally played GMaj.You should be able to change the B to Bb. You cannot do that with VG2 because of 1 note = 1 triad architecture. Also, depending on the pattern, in this case I was using a custom built montuno pattern, the 2nd bar of the pattern is different from the 1st. When this happened on a chord change between the 2 bars, I needed the second measure's pattern to play on the changed chord. When I tried to split the "pre-set pattern," VG2 automatically gave me 2 1st bar patterns! There were no instructions in the manual as to how one might solve this dilemma.

The other big problem is that I couldn't get the keyswitches to work as described in the manual, which is also just like VSL.

I placed a keyswitch where the manual said and found that the range described was different on my keyboard. No big deal this varies all the time from platform to platform. What I was not prepared for was VG2 essentially crashing after I placed the keyswitches where I needed them! In my example, I picked C1 to launch/play the "Royal" strumming pattern. Then at bar 3, I put a C3 keyswitch to change the pattern to "Gypsy Fill." Instead of a changed pattern, my entire performance changed to these clipped, cut off staccato notes! The only way I could get my original performance sequence back was to un-install the style and re-install the style from scratch. THAT'S why I ended up having to make 7 full audio clips to work around this issue.

So my question(s) were based around all of these oddities I was finding. I'm perfectly willing to admit human error on my part. So I was reaching out to all of you more experienced users to find out what I was doing wrong.

Manuals are notorious for omitting details or not explaining the sequence of events properly because of translation issues. That's why forums like these are so important. You can ask another owner, how they got a particular function of an app to work for them.

I take it from your reply that the keyswitches worked for you as described? I'd be happy if they did so for me. That would be a huge time saver! Is there something else I need to do besides place the keyswitch to get it to work? How did you handle the "split pattern/chord change" problem, or did you ever face that issue? That's the kind of information I'm looking for now.

[Ivorydom]

In VG2 there is a specific way in which you can trigger the different chords.
I am a pianist as you are and I find it easier to trigger the chords by playing the chord itself instead of single notes:

So if you play a Gm triad then your chord will be Gminor.
If you want to change it to Gmajor in the key editor all you have to do is to change the Bflat to B natural.
Pretty obvious but I am just taking a shot here.
Bear in mind that not all styles have all kinds of chords (e.g. dim chords, 7th chords, maj7 chords etc). If you find that this is the case activate the XXL program of the patch that you load in the preferences.

[Keyplayer]

Originally Posted by Ivorydom

In VG2 there is a specific way in which you can trigger the different chords.
I am a pianist as you are and I find it easier to trigger the chords by playing the chord itself instead of single notes:

So if you play a Gm triad then your chord will be Gminor.
If you want to change it to Gmajor in the key editor all you have to do is to change the Bflat to B natural.

I was playing chords. So I was getting the chords I wanted. But when I opened the key editor in my DAW, all I saw was one MIDI block on the timeline. I expected to see 4 blocks in a stack to show each of the notes I played in the chord.

Originally Posted by Ivorydom

........So if you play a Gm triad then your chord will be Gminor.
If you want to change it to Gmajor in the key editor all you have to do is to change the Bflat to B natural.

Are you saying that there is a key editor INSIDE VG2? Because, as I stated above, I only saw one block that said G and when I clicked on it, I got a Gmin 7 chord from it.

Originally Posted by Ivorydom

Bear in mind that not all styles have all kinds of chords (e.g. dim chords, 7th chords, maj7 chords etc). If you find that this is the case activate the XXL program of the patch that you load in the preferences.

I'm not familiar with "XXL program." Is that where you find the separated notes INSIDE of VG2? Could you talk me through that process?

Thanks a lot for your help!