Sketch Samples / Summer Sale

[Piet De Ridder]

SketchSamples, makers of surprisingly fine acoustic guitar sample libraries, are having a summer sale. The promotion runs until June 31st.

Sales prices:
- Sketch Nylon - $39 (regular $49).
- Sketch D-Hole Guitar - $59 (regular $79).
- Sketch Dreadnought - $59 (regular $79).
- Sketch Nylon & D-Hole Guitar BUNDLE - $89 (regular $99).
- Sketch Nylon & Dreadnought BUNDLE - $89 (regular $99).
- Total Guitar Bundle - $139 (regular $159).

Good sound — personally, I prefer the SketchSamples sound to that of OrangeTree and/or Ample —, very playable and cleverly programmed. If you're looking for a decent virtual acoustic, don't forget to look at these libraries.






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[Lawrence]

Everyone of those demos sounds fantastic. However, I was hoping for somewhat of a range of styles (folk, country, basic strumming) but they all seem to be Latin. Is that just what the product excels at?

[Piet De Ridder]

No, the Sketch guitars are capable of much else besides Latin, Larry. I guess Sketch’s demo-makers must feel most at home in the Latin idiom. And Latin is, of course, a gratifying genre to demo acoustic guitars with. (The only MIDI-pack they sell is also Latin-oriented.)
But the D-Hole guitar has more of a gypsy flavour which is also reflected in some of the demos. (Check a.o. the ‘Licks Demo’ and 'Indifference'.) And the Dreadnought can sound quite ‘rural’, folky and singery-songwritery if you play it that way.

Strumming is not Sketch's forte though. ('Indifference' gives a good idea of what Sketch-strumming sounds like. It always sounds rather chopped and percussive. Not bad for certain styles, but only for certain styles.) If you're looking for a good, versatile virtual strummer, I'd look elsewhere.

I don’t have anything on my HD at the moment that showcases the Sketch guitars, but I think I’ll manage to record something before June 31st.

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[wst3]

I am finally starting to sort out my ambivalence to sampled guitar.
First - without the physical feedback it is difficult for me to create a decent track, this inspite of the fact that a lot of these libraries sound better than my instruments. (talk about depressing!)

But mostly, the sounds themselves do not appeal to me. I'm sure they were lovely instruments, sampled lovingly, they just don't match up with what I think a guitar should sound like, and this is no where more true than dreadnoughts. If I picked up an instrument that sounded like this one I'd go on to the next one pretty quickly.

The nylon sounds nice enough, but again, it isn't what I want a nylon guitar to sound like.

The gypsy guitar comes closest to what I think a gypsy guitar ought to be. Close enough that I might buy it just to save the expence on the real thing, and let's be honest, I've never been a convincing copy of Django!

All of this leads me to wonder how other instrumentalists feel about libraries for their instruments.

[Markus K]

All of this leads me to wonder how other instrumentalists feel about libraries for their instruments.

I would feel like super stupid to use guitar libraries after spending countless hours of practicing for a good part of my life. And it's one of the easiest instruments to record and one of the hardest to sample imo. Never heard a truly convincing one.
There can be done some interesting sounds if you don't want to fake a real player though, like in Omnisphere and such I find. I think I once used the Spitfire Acoustic guitar to layer with a real one to make a more dense sound. But other than that I don't see much use if you can play.
If not- well you have to but most of the time it sounds weak. More than other vi's imo.

[wst3]

I agree completely - better a less than perfect performance from me on a real guitar than a sampled version. I have used various libraries to double parts cause I just don't have enough guitars to do it myself - or I'm just lazy?

I keep buying them out of sheer, stubborn curiosity! So maybe I am a geek?

[Ashermusic]

I am finally starting to sort out my ambivalence to sampled guitar.
First - without the physical feedback it is difficult for me to create a decent track, this inspite of the fact that a lot of these libraries sound better than my instruments. (talk about depressing!)

But mostly, the sounds themselves do not appeal to me. I'm sure they were lovely instruments, sampled lovingly, they just don't match up with what I think a guitar should sound like, and this is no where more true than dreadnoughts. If I picked up an instrument that sounded like this one I'd go on to the next one pretty quickly.

The nylon sounds nice enough, but again, it isn't what I want a nylon guitar to sound like.

The gypsy guitar comes closest to what I think a gypsy guitar ought to be. Close enough that I might buy it just to save the expence on the real thing, and let's be honest, I've never been a convincing copy of Django!

All of this leads me to wonder how other instrumentalists feel about libraries for their instruments.

I will remind you that on my song "I'm Not Ready To Have That Conversation Yet" you told men that my Indiginus Renegade Acoustic picked guitar part was exactly what you would play and that you thought it was very believable.

So yes, sampled instruments are limited but if you know what the real guys play and play accordingly, they can work quite well.

The Sketch Samples sound really good, but I am not unhappy with those I have.

[wst3]

you, and a handful of others (Greg at Orange Tree for one) are genuinely masterful when it comes to sampled guitar. My comments above were from my perspective as a potential customer. And I have no doubt there are folks that can make these sound brilliant.

My point was more about the sound of the libraries themselves.