ELECTRIC SUNBURST is a virtual instrument designed to bring the vibrant and dynamic sound of an electric guitar directly to your digital audio workstation. At its core, ELECTRIC SUNBURST excels in creating realistic and expressive electric guitar chords, offering a wide array of patterns and functionalities to suit various musical styles. This guide will walk you through the essential concepts of using ELECTRIC SUNBURST to play and manipulate Electric Sunburst Guitar Chords, from selecting patterns to controlling dynamics and saving your preferred sounds. Whether you’re a seasoned composer or just starting out, understanding these features will empower you to create authentic and compelling guitar parts using a MIDI keyboard.
Understanding Pattern Selection and Playback for Chords
The foundation of playing electric sunburst guitar chords in ELECTRIC SUNBURST lies in its pattern-based system. These patterns, recorded by professional guitarists, are the building blocks for your guitar performances. You trigger and select these patterns using a MIDI keyboard, making it intuitive to arrange and experiment with different chord progressions and rhythms.
Patterns within ELECTRIC SUNBURST automatically synchronize to your project’s tempo, ensuring seamless integration with your existing compositions. These patterns are versatile, performing optimally within a tempo range of approximately 60-65 bpm to 160 bpm and beyond. Crucially, ELECTRIC SUNBURST avoids time-stretching, preserving the pristine audio quality of the original recordings across all tempos.
It’s worth noting that because the patterns are based on real studio recordings, they inherently sound most natural and impactful within the typical tempo ranges favored by guitarists.
Selecting and Triggering Patterns
ELECTRIC SUNBURST allows you to assign up to eight distinct patterns to chromatic keyswitches, ranging from C1 to G1 on your MIDI keyboard. These keyswitches are visually represented as red keys on the KONTAKT on-screen keyboard, providing immediate visual feedback. Slots without assigned patterns are indicated by uncolored keys.
The KONTAKT on-screen keyboard displaying the keyswitches for patterns (red), endings (yellow), and slides (green). Chords can be played in the blue key range.
Pattern Selection Methods:
- MIDI Keyboard Selection: To select a pattern, simply press the corresponding keyswitch MIDI note on your keyboard.
- User Interface Selection: Alternatively, you can click directly on the desired pattern within the ELECTRIC SUNBURST user interface.
Playing and Stopping Patterns:
- Initiating Playback: Once a pattern is selected, play chords within the designated blue key range on your MIDI keyboard to trigger the pattern playback.
- Stopping Playback: To halt a pattern, release all keys on your MIDI keyboard. Playback will cease after a note duration determined by the Latch Mode settings (detailed in the Playback Page section of the manual). You can also trigger an ending keyswitch (yellow keys) to stop playback with a natural guitar ending.
For smooth transitions between electric sunburst guitar chords and patterns, it’s recommended to initiate chord or pattern changes slightly ahead of the desired beat. This anticipatory approach allows the engine to seamlessly incorporate effects like fret noise and ensure fluid transitions. More advanced tips on timing and transitions are available in the Tips and Tricks chapter of the ELECTRIC SUNBURST manual.
DAW “Chase Events” Recommendation:
For optimal performance, especially when using sequencers and DAWs, ensure that “Chase Events” is enabled in your DAW settings. This setting guarantees that ELECTRIC SUNBURST receives complete note information, particularly during sequencer starts or loop jumps, preventing potential timing or playback issues.
Exploring Strummed, Arpeggiated Chords and Riffs in Electric Sunburst
ELECTRIC SUNBURST offers three distinct pattern types, each responding uniquely to incoming MIDI chords, providing diverse textures for your electric sunburst guitar chords: Strumming, Arpeggio, and Riffs.
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Strumming Patterns: These patterns are built upon recorded loops of strummed chords. When you play a chord with multiple notes, ELECTRIC SUNBURST intelligently layers additional single notes on top of the base strumming loop. For the most authentic strumming sounds, it’s advisable to use chords with a moderate number of notes, avoiding overly dense voicings.
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Arpeggio Patterns: Arpeggio patterns are dynamically generated based on the chords you input. The engine analyzes your played chord and distributes the notes across the virtual guitar strings, creating intricate arpeggiated textures. Playing chords with up to six notes can yield particularly rich and varied arpeggios. Depending on the chosen arpeggio pattern, the engine may even introduce hammer-ons and pull-offs on individual strings, further enhancing realism.
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Riffs: Riff patterns are pre-recorded performances, offering ready-made musical phrases. However, they are not static; ELECTRIC SUNBURST intelligently adapts riffs to your played chords by chromatically adjusting individual notes within the riff. For instance, if a riff contains minor thirds and sevenths, and you play a Cmaj7 chord, the engine will modify the riff in real-time, replacing the minor intervals with major ones to harmonize with your chord progression.
ELECTRIC SUNBURST boasts impressive chord recognition, accurately interpreting a wide range of chords and intervals. This includes standard major and minor chords, but extends to more complex voicings like no-third chords, diminished, augmented, half-diminished, various suspended chords, alterations, and even slash chords (e.g., C/E, D/C, Dmi7/F, Ami/E). This versatility allows for sophisticated harmonic textures and voicings when playing electric sunburst guitar chords.
You can also explore creative playing techniques, such as holding a chord or interval with one hand while playing a melody with the other. For example, holding a fifth interval in your right hand while playing bass notes with your left hand is particularly effective with arpeggio patterns, creating interesting harmonic movement. Generally, the instrument strives to play chords and patterns within the exact pitch range you play on your MIDI keyboard, unlocking a vast spectrum of chord voicings and possibilities.
Important Note on Chord Overlap:
The chord detection engine in ELECTRIC SUNBURST is designed to process one chord at a time. Overlapping notes, which technically imply the presence of two simultaneous chords, can confuse the engine. To ensure accurate chord recognition and smooth transitions, fully release a chord, or at least some of its notes, briefly before playing a new chord. This prevents ambiguity and ensures that the engine correctly interprets your harmonic intentions when playing electric sunburst guitar chords.
Arpeggio patterns in ELECTRIC SUNBURST offer a dynamic feature: slide transitions. By striking newly added keys with high velocity (above 110) while playing arpeggios, you can trigger slide effects between chords or voicings. The engine will initiate a slide on the next suitable note within the arpeggio pattern, adding expressive nuances to your electric sunburst guitar chords.
For users less experienced with keyboard chord playing, ELECTRIC SUNBURST provides helpful tools: a voicing generator and an Auto Chords mode, which simplify chord playing and voicing.
Utilizing Voicing Generator and Auto Chords for Easy Chord Playing
ELECTRIC SUNBURST provides two powerful features to assist with playing electric sunburst guitar chords: the Voicing Generator and Auto Chords mode. These tools are especially helpful for keyboardists who may not be familiar with complex guitar chord voicings.
The Chords Panel with the key set to G major. Thus, the root pitch G is mapped to the original C key; all other pitches are mapped (transposed) consequently.
Voicing Generator:
- Enabling/Disabling: The Voicing Generator can be activated or deactivated via the “Voicing” dropdown menu associated with each pattern.
- Functionality: Each pattern comes with five pre-defined voicings carefully selected to complement its character. If you play a single key, the pattern will use its default voicing. As you add intervals (thirds, sixths, sevenths, etc.), the Voicing Generator intelligently adapts the voicing accordingly, creating harmonically rich electric sunburst guitar chords.
- “As Played” Mode: For complete control over voicings, select “as played” in the Voicing dropdown menu. This disables the generator, and ELECTRIC SUNBURST will play the chords exactly as you play them on your MIDI keyboard, offering maximum flexibility for advanced users.
Auto Chords Mode:
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Enabling/Disabling: Auto Chords mode is toggled on or off using the power button located next to the “Auto Chords” button.
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Simplified Chord Playing: When activated, Auto Chords mode, often used in conjunction with the Voicing Generator, simplifies chord playing by automatically mapping basic major and minor chords, along with some common chord variations, to the white keys of your MIDI keyboard.
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Auto Chords Panel: The Auto Chords Panel, revealed by clicking the “Auto Chords” button, provides a visual interface for this mode.
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Key and Mode Selection: Within the Auto Chords Panel, you can set the musical key and mode (major or minor) for your song using dropdown menus. This transposes the chord layout, so in a major key, the root note of the key is always mapped to the ‘C’ key on your keyboard, and in a minor key, the root is mapped to ‘A’.
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Playing Chords in Auto Chords Mode: In Auto Chords mode, playing any white key within the chord range (see the keyboard layout in the Pattern Selection and Playback section) will trigger the chord labeled on that key. Regardless of the selected key and mode, the seven diatonic pitches (plus the diminished seventh) are always accessible on the white keys from C to B (including Bb as a white key).
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Adding Chord Options and Suspensions: To enrich your electric sunburst guitar chords in Auto Chords mode, use the labeled black keys to add chord options or suspensions. Clicking a black key (or pressing and holding it on your MIDI keyboard) adds the corresponding option. Clicking it again (or releasing the key) removes the option.
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Locking Auto Chords Settings: To prevent Auto Chords settings from being altered when loading Songs or snapshots, click the lock icon in the top-left corner of the Auto Chords Panel. This ensures consistent chord voicings across different project states.
Standard Chord Mode vs. Auto Chords Mode:
While Auto Chords mode offers a user-friendly approach, the standard chord mode, where you play chords directly across the keyboard, unlocks the full potential of ELECTRIC SUNBURST. Standard mode allows for playing a wider variety of chords, intervals, options, and tensions, played precisely in the pitch range you input. For more advanced and nuanced electric sunburst guitar chords, mastering standard chord mode is highly recommended.
Mastering Endings and Slides for Chord Transitions
Beyond patterns, ELECTRIC SUNBURST provides dedicated keyswitches for musical endings, guitar slides, and percussive elements, adding realism and polish to your electric sunburst guitar chords. These keys are visually distinguished on the KONTAKT on-screen keyboard with yellow and green colors.
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Endings: Triggered by keyswitches G#1 to Bb1 (yellow keys), endings provide natural chord resolutions. Playing an ending keyswitch stops the current pattern playback and plays a guitar ending phrase appropriate for the current chord. You can trigger an ending with the currently playing chord, or transition to a new chord by playing it just before activating the ending keyswitch. In the latter case, only the ending phrase will reflect the new chord.
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Slides: The B1 key (green key) triggers a slide sound effect. Playing this keyswitch adds a guitar slide, enhancing transitions between electric sunburst guitar chords.
Velocity Control for Endings and Slides:
It’s important to note that velocity input for ending and slide keyswitches primarily affects their volume. To control the dynamics and intensity of the pattern playback itself, you’ll utilize the Impact slider or pitch wheel, as detailed in the next section.
Dynamically Controlling Chord Performances with Impact Slider
ELECTRIC SUNBURST offers a unique approach to dynamics. Instead of relying on MIDI velocity for patterns, it employs the “Impact” slider (or MIDI pitch wheel) to provide continuous, nuanced control over the intensity and expressiveness of your electric sunburst guitar chords.
The Impact feature
The Impact slider operates bi-polarly:
- Positive Impact Values: Dragging the slider upwards (positive values) instructs the virtual guitarist to play with greater intensity, resulting in a more aggressive and forceful performance of your electric sunburst guitar chords.
- Negative Impact Values: Conversely, dragging the slider downwards (negative values) softens the performance, producing gentler and more subdued electric sunburst guitar chords.
- Default Center Position: The slider’s center position represents a neutral dynamic level. You can quickly return to this default by using [Cmd] + click (or Ctrl + click on Windows).
MIDI Pitch Wheel Control:
- Real-time Dynamics: The Impact slider can be controlled in real-time via the pitch bend wheel on your MIDI keyboard. Assigning the pitch wheel to Impact allows for expressive dynamic shaping during your performance.
- Default Alignment: The default center position of the Impact slider corresponds to the center position of your pitch bend wheel, ensuring intuitive control.
Tips for Dynamic Performance:
- Smooth Transitions: Automating the Impact slider (or pitch wheel) in your sequencer is an effective technique for smoothing transitions between patterns with differing inherent dynamics. This creates a more natural and musically cohesive performance when switching between various electric sunburst guitar chords and patterns.
- Velocity for Slides (Arpeggio Patterns): While velocity doesn’t control pattern dynamics, remember that high velocity (above 100) when playing chord changes with arpeggio patterns triggers slide transitions, adding another layer of expressiveness.
Saving and Loading Sound Presets for Chord Tones
ELECTRIC SUNBURST provides extensive sound customization options, allowing you to sculpt the perfect electric guitar tone for your electric sunburst guitar chords. Sound presets encapsulate all settings from both the “Guitar Settings” and “Amps & FX” pages, providing comprehensive tonal control.
The Sound Preset box in the top right corner of the instrument
Preset Management:
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Loading Presets:
- Dropdown Menu: Access the Sound Preset dropdown menu in the top right corner of the interface to browse and select factory and user presets.
- Arrow Buttons: Cycle through presets sequentially using the triangular left and right arrow buttons next to the dropdown menu.
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Saving User Presets:
- Naming Presets: Enter a descriptive name for your customized sound in the preset name field.
- Saving: Click the floppy disk icon to save the current sound settings, including Guitar Settings, Amps & FX parameters, Voicing, and Impact slider position, as a new user preset.
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Overwriting Presets: To update an existing user preset with modified settings, ensure the preset name remains unchanged and click the floppy disk icon again.
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Deleting Presets:
- Selection: Choose the user preset you wish to delete from the dropdown menu.
- Deletion: Click the circular “Delete” button to remove the selected preset.
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Linking to Song Presets: Enable the “Link to Song” checkbox to associate a specific factory sound preset with a Song preset (Song presets are covered in the Song Browser section of the manual). When “Link to Song” is active, loading a Song preset will automatically recall and apply the linked factory sound preset, ensuring consistent sound palettes for your compositions.
Global Preset Changes:
It’s crucial to understand that any modifications or deletions of user sound presets are applied globally. These changes are persistent even if you close ELECTRIC SUNBURST without manually saving your KONTAKT instrument instance. Be mindful of this when managing your presets.
Locking Parameters for Consistent Chord Sound Across Snapshots/Songs
ELECTRIC SUNBURST’s snapshot and Song loading functionality typically recalls all instrument parameters, ensuring complete project recall. However, you might want to maintain specific Playback or Auto Chords settings when loading snapshots or Songs to ensure consistent behavior for your electric sunburst guitar chords.
When the Playback parameters are locked, they will not be changed by snapshots or Songs.
To prevent Playback and/or Auto Chords parameters from being altered during snapshot or Song loading, click the lock icon located on the Playback tab. When locked, these settings will remain unchanged, regardless of snapshot or Song loading actions, guaranteeing consistent behavior for your electric sunburst guitar chords and performance settings across your project.
Defining Downbeat for Complex Chord Progressions with Signature Changes
In scenarios involving time signature changes or bar length variations within your DAW project, ELECTRIC SUNBURST’s pattern playback might drift out of sync. This is because the instrument cannot inherently detect these session-level changes. To address this, ELECTRIC SUNBURST offers a global transport offset feature, allowing you to manually realign the downbeat and maintain synchronization for complex chord progressions.
- MIDI CC#111 for Transport Offset: Send MIDI CC#111 to define a global transport offset in ticks. The value you send (ranging from 0 to 127) is multiplied by 80 ticks and added as an offset to the host transport. 80 ticks is equivalent to a 32nd note triplet, the smallest rhythmic division in ELECTRIC SUNBURST.
Common Offset Values (MIDI CC#111):
| Offset | CC#111 value |
|---|---|
| No offset | 0 |
| One quarter | 12 |
| Two quarters | 24 |
| Three quarters | 36 |
| Four quarters (= one 4/4 bar) | 48 |
| Five quarters | 60 |
| Six quarters | 72 |
| Seven quarters | 84 |
| Two 4/4 bars (= no offset) | 96 |
| Minus one quarter | 84 |
| Minus two quarters | 72 |
| Minus three quarters | 60 |
| One eighth note | 6 |
| One triplet | 4 |
For example, to insert half of a 4/4 bar (shifting playback by two quarter notes), send MIDI CC#111 with a value of 24 (2 quarters * 12). This feature ensures that even with intricate time signature changes, your electric sunburst guitar chords and patterns remain perfectly aligned with your project’s rhythm.
Conclusion
ELECTRIC SUNBURST provides an intuitive and powerful platform for creating authentic and expressive electric sunburst guitar chords. From its diverse pattern selection and dynamic chord recognition to its user-friendly voicing tools and dynamic control, ELECTRIC SUNBURST offers a comprehensive suite of features for crafting compelling guitar parts. By mastering the techniques outlined in this guide, you can harness the full potential of ELECTRIC SUNBURST to bring the vibrant sound of electric guitar chords to your music productions. Experiment with patterns, voicings, and dynamics to discover the vast sonic landscape this virtual instrument offers and elevate your compositions with realistic and inspiring electric guitar performances.
