Acousticsamples has released Sunbird, a virtual instrument library based on a 1962 Gibson Humming acoustic guitar.

We recorded it with a pair of DPA microphones to get a detailed stereo perspective, with a U87 to capture the Bass and a precise mono perspective and using a contact pickup in case you want to put the library through an amp simulation plugin.

We sampled it very deeply, all frets of all strings with upstrokes, downstrokes, round robins, releases, staccatos, mutes, palm mutes, hand blocks, slides, hammer ons, pull offs, retriggers, fretnoises, percussions other articulations. All of these details allow us to reproduce the real playing of a guitar player, and easily.

There are basically 4 modes (that you can choose using keyswitches, G5 to C6), the solo mode that allows to play melodies, the chord mode that helps playing strums or picking very easily, the patterns mode that does all of the strumming or picking for you and the MIDI mode that allows you to use your preffered midi guitar controler.

Sunbird features

  • 8.16Gb uncompressed, 1.53Gb compressed in lossless flac format, around 13300 samples.
  • Strumming engine (features chord recognition and a smart strumming technique to produce guitar-like chords) and complete control of all its parameters.
  • 67 realistic patterns for easy strumming, picking and advanced playing styles.
  • Integrated song builder to create songs within minutes and very easily
  • Integrated pattern builder to automatically strum your chords
  • Legato script to play natural hammer ons, pull offs and slides.
  • Natural hand placement simulation.
  • 39 different samples per fret and all 21 fret sampled for each string.
  • Multi velocity Hammer on, pull off, slides up, slides down, mutes, ghost notes, pre notes.
  • Included sparkVerb©.
  • Control over the two microphones perspectives and pickup volumes.
  • Advanced bend control.
  • Advanced UVI scripting giving you access to a simple yet powerfull interface and advanced features.
  • and more…

Sunbird for UVI Workstation 2 and MachFive 3 is available for purchase for 119 EUR.

More information: Acousticsamples / Sunbird