Recording - December 2014 - 56

RECORDING'S

SHOWCASE OF SOUNDS

AmpleSound Acoustic Guitars
By Gary Eskow

Chinese into English, was sparse and difficult to
understand. It's an online document with audio samples, which is great, but many of the features were
described in insufficient detail.
For example, I asked AmpleSound if it would add
a feature that would allow the user to engage palm
mutes on only the lower two strings and not the
upper ones, which is something players routinely
do. They told me that this feature is already in the
software (hold down the C0 and D0 keys simultaneously), but they didn't mention it in the manual!
I'm glad I didn't give up, however, because these
instruments unequivocally yield the most realistic performances I've ever heard, and in the months since I
first started working with these instruments the online
tutorials and manual have been steadily improved.
Seriously, this software is worth the learning curve.
Switch choices
The Taylor guitar was played with a plectrum, the
other two fingerstyle. All three instruments are built
along similar lines. With the AGM and AGL guitars
you select either finger or strum mode; the AGT lets
you choose either pick or strum modes. The strum

A number of companies have released acoustic guitar sample libraries
in the last several years, and some of them are quite convincing and a
pleasure to play. A relatively new addition to the field is AmpleSound,
which offers three acoustic guitar libraries in a product line that also
includes three electrics and a bass. Should you bother checking them out?
The three sampled instruments in this collection are a Taylor 714ce (AGT),
a Martin D-41 (AGM), and an Alhambra classical nylon-string guitar (AGL).
All recordings took place at Ample Sound Studio, a private facility located
in Beijing, China that's owned by Kane Kang, Amplesound's CEO.
Full disclosure: Back in the day I concertized as a classical guitarist-six hours
a day of woodshedding, watching the nails, the whole bit. My teacher, the great
Fred Hand, plays all around the New York area... catch him if you can!
Learning curve
At this point I need to say that after spending a few hours with these
instruments I almost threw in the towel. The manual, translated from
Delivery: Web download, roughly 4 to 5.6 GB each (DVD
backups provided for a fee)
Format: Standalone, VST, Audio Units, RTAS and AAX, 32 or 64
bits, Windows and Mac
Copy Protection: Challenge/response User ID and key code plus
personal watermark; all downloads operate in
full-function demo mode for 7 days
Licensing: All clips are royalty-free for use in original music; no
resale or resampling into commercial products or
libraries
Documentation: Online tutorials and manual
Prices: AGM+AGT+AGL bundle, $349; AGT and AGM, $169 each;
AGL, $179
More from: AmpleSound, www.amplesound.net
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RECORDING December 2014

mode, which we'll get to in a moment, is built
around a step sequencer.
In the finger (or pick) mode you'll rely heavily on
the key switches placed below the bottom of the
instrument range. These switches let you play sustained notes, harmonics, palm mutes, mono and
poly slides, and hammer-ons. They add excellent
detail, but the algorithms that AmpleSound uses
confused me; in some instances slides that are routine on a a real instrument wouldn't play. Likewise,
some parallel thirds, a staple technique, didn't seem
possible to articulate.
Eventually I understood that these issues center
around the way the software decides what position
to play in. You can change positions yourself by
employing the G0 to C0 key switches. It takes some
work in overdub mode, but the effort is worthwhile.
In addition to the technique switches that lie in the
lower octave of your keyboard, there are a number
of other temporary switches that sit in the upper
octaves, adding effects to your performances.
Performance choices
There are a lot of features on the main page that
you may want to check out. However, you'll probably find no need to alter the panning, width or mic
positions, and I doubt if the effects (which may have
been ported over from AmpleSound's electric guitar
arsenal) will make it into your recordings.
I do like the fact that you can drop-tune the sixth
string to D; in fact, you can change the pitch of all
strings. This may seem counter-intuitive since you

http://www.amplesound.net

Recording - December 2014

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