Welcome to SampleSmith.com,
the website devoted to improving the sound of your midi guitar tracks!
There are many sites that offer advice on the more technical aspects of using midi. Here I would like to offer something that appears to be lacking - A musical-instrumental approach; one that puts the instrument before the gear. So, many of these articles are not really addressed just to guitar players (there are lots of places to learn to play), but also toward the keyboardist/sound designer who needs to become familiar with both the guitar's limitations and the particular opportunities it offers.
To that end, I offer a package including a good sound font, all the midi project files used to create the demos, and 2 tutorial pdf files describing most of the editing that went into producing the audio demos (appox. 30pages for the strum demo, and 54 pages for the finger-picking demo).
If it was Soundfonts that brought you here, you'll probably want to check out the demos first. These were created with the SampleSmith G1 large font:
Finger-picking Demo (1972kB) Flat-picking Demo (760kB) SampleSmith Free Soundfont (15,281kB)
You can download ZIP's of the audio demos here.
New April 5/06 The Reason NN-XT version is here, and it's the first appearance of Version 2.0 of the G1 Sampleset.
It's the same original samples but the Long Rings have been re-processed from the original files in 48kHz 24 bit format and 24 bit release samples have been added. The stereo balance has been improved, and it's all been packed into a Reason Refill with 8 patches that include Open Long Rings (the open strings are the default, and their fingered alternates are available in the C0 octave), Fingered Long Rings (same, but vice versa). These are availbale with release samples and without. The release samples can also be loaded as a separate patch for further control. Also, similar to the soundfont version, there is a patch of fifth position fingered notes (now 24 bit), and the muted notes (still 16 bit), are available as a separate patch too. The total refill size is 72,196kB, which is actually a little smaller than the old 16 bit SoundFont version. It's been kept that small in spite of the additions by using the flexibilty of the NN-XT to use the same sampleset for all velocities.
Have a listen to the Fingerpicking Demo you heard above, but done with the new 2.0 version in Reason here. SS_Reason-Mixed_Bag-FP_Demo.mp3 2038kB. It's available for purchase here.
After that, if you poke around the site a bit, you'll find some information about why I started this effort, about the midi editing that went into the demos, and some small articles about guitar and midi that I hope you'll find useful. I'll be adding to these articles fairly frequently, so please return often to see what's available.
There will also be articles on the midi editing that was done to create
these demos, and then more information about guitar playing and midi
that I hope will be useful to sound designers, arrangers and of course, guitar
players.
I hope this site will be of particular value to keyboard players; to further their understanding of the mechanics of the guitar, helping to create tracks that are believable and actually playable on the instrument. Future articles, already in creation, will address such things as adjusting a quantized midi file to emulate the relative string delays involved in strumming, an article on the playing of clusters (what's available, what's not) and rarely used techniques of playing them.
As the site develops, I also expect to make available many small midi clips of strums; arpeggios and melodic fragments, and chord voicings that can be pasted together to create guitar tracks that are tempo-independent without time stretching (unlike sampled strums), and are harmonically correct.
Some of this stuff will be free. Some of it won't. As a guitar player who has been gigging for over 40 years, I feel the best service I can now offer is to share what I've learned, but I still need to make a living...
If you would like to be advised of site updates please use the feedback form on the contact page,(your privacy will be respected), and feel free to mention any feedback on the demos, articles or any topics you'd be interested in having addressed.
Thanks for visiting!
Keith Smith