In the following part of this user guide, every feature of Virtual Guitarist SILK will be explained in depth.
Table of contents
Moving, renaming and deleting presets
Menu Bar
The top bar of the Virtual Guitarist SILK interface lets you load and save presets. It also contains important management functions from checking your trial status to contacting support.
Loading Presets
A preset in Virtual Guitarist SILK is a complete setting of the entire plug-in including Style selection and all control values. Here’s how you can switch presets:
- Advance to the next preset by clicking one of the arrows left and right of the PRESET name.
- Click on the name of the current preset in the PRESET menu to open the Preset Browser (see image above). As you can see, the Preset Browser is a clean, organized list of presets, categorized by simple musical terms.
The folder Introduction will give you a first impression of the sound capabilities. Virtual Guitarist SILK ships with over 140 Factory Presets. Take your time exploring them, as this is the quickest way of getting an overview of what Virtual Guitarist SILK can do!
If you have freshly installed Virtual Guitarist SILK, there will only be Factory Presets. User Presets will appear once you have saved your first own preset.
Save and Save as …
You can of course save your own Virtual Guitarist SILK presets. You can name them and assign a category too.
The difference between the Save and Save as … buttons:
- Save replaces the preset with the changes you just made.
- Save as … lets you assign a name and a category, so does not replace the current preset.
Factory Presets can only be saved using Save as …, they cannot be replaced.
Moving, renaming and deleting presets
You can move, rename or delete Presets directly in your operating system. You will find Virtual Guitarist SILK Presets in these folders (replace “USERNAME” by your actual username):
Bell Icon – Notifications
When you launch Virtual Guitarist SILK, it will automatically check for updates. If an update is available, the bell icon will be illuminated. Clicking it will open a dialog that lets you choose whether you want to download the update now or later.
We built this mechanism to save you the pain of manually checking for updates in order to keep up with the latest improvements of Virtual Guitarist SILK.
Speech Bubble Icon – About Page
About Page
The About Page is the place for information about your version and licensing status of Virtual Guitarist SILK. It is also a portal to other services:
- Product Website takes you to www.ujam.com/silk with regularly updated news, videos, tutorials, and other helpful stuff.
- Read Manual opens this document.
- Contact Support lets you report problems and ask questions.
- Acknowledgments – the people behind Virtual Guitarist SILK.
- License Agreement – legalese stuff for gourmets.
Style Bar
In the Style Bar, you choose a STYLE (selection of phrases) and a KEY. It also contains the CHORD display.
Style
A STYLE in Virtual Guitarist SILK is the counterpart to a particular phrasing style that you ask your guitarist to play. Styles are the “rhythmic vocabulary” of Virtual Guitarist SILK, which is why we have included 60 of them. You can select styles by either clicking the small arrows to skip to the previous/next style, or by clicking the name of the current Style to bring up the full list.
Every Style is a set of eleven phrases that you can access via the Style Phrases area of the Interactive or MIDI keyboard.
In most Styles, Phrases are ordered by intensity/density from left to right.
KEY
This parameter lets you define a Key (scale). With a pre-selected Key, Virtual Guitarist SILK offers a reduced chord selection consisting only of chords that work well in this key.
Setting a Key is useful if you want a simplified method of playing chords or if you’re controlling Virtual Guitarist SILK from a non-keyboard controller and have only so and so many pads or buttons assignable.
CHORD
CHORD is not a parameter but a display. It shows the chord and the optional bass note corresponding to the keys you play (see also Fingering Scheme).
Interactive Keyboard
The interactive keyboard is both a display of received MIDI notes and an actually functional onscreen keyboard. The left side of the keyboard doesn’t make any sound by itself. Here, you control the performance of the guitarist by switching between 22 different phrases. 11 of these phrases are set by the style, the rest are always available. Note: The on-screen keyboard does not get recorded by your DAW. Use a MIDI keyboard or – if available – the DAW’s own on-screen keyboard for this purpose.
Interactive Keyboard
Common Phrases
The lower left of the MIDI keyboard (C♯1 – B1) is reserved for a collection of 11 so-called Common Phrases. These phrases are “hard-wired” and won’t change with the STYLE selection. Common Phrases complement the Style Phrases by phrasings that are more generic and applicable to multiple contexts. Five of the Standard Phrases are one-shot phrases that don’t loop: C♯1, D1, D♯1, B♭1, and B1. Phrases are what you make of them. Virtual Guitarist SILK lets you switch phrases in real-time without interrupting the performance. That’s a great way to create dynamic and interesting phrasings of your own.
Style Phrases
Keys in this area select phrases of the currently selected Style. Phrases in the Style range start with the lowest density/intensity on C2 and get more agitated as you move towards B♭2. You could generally work your way through a song going from left (intro, verse) to right (chorus), but of course this greatly depends on the style and your song. Just know you always have 11 different rhythms plus the Common Phrases at your immediate disposal. The highest key of the Style Range – B2 – is the Stop key. In Latch mode, pressing this key will stop playback (whereas the Silent key (C1) will keep playback going, just with an empty phrase).
Bass Notes
Keys in the Bass Notes section (C3 – B3) allow you to play a bass note that’s different from the currently played chord. The occurrence of played bass notes depends on the selected Style and Phrase, some combinations play bass notes very frequently, some don’t at all. Bass notes are always added to the currently played chord and therefor can’t be triggered solitary. Please be aware that setting a Key does not affect the played bass note. What you press is what you get.
Chord Range
Keys in the Chord range function almost like a regular musical keyboard: You start and stop the guitarist’s performance and you determine the chords played. It’s like playing keyboard, except that instead of playing notes you select the chord the guitarist will perform as a phrase.
Virtual Guitarist SILK features a built-in chord recognition that makes it very easy to play even complex chord progressions. You can play major chords (or matching chords if you selected a Key) with just one finger and other chords using two or three. The following paragraph will tell you exactly which chords are supported and how to play them.
Fingering Scheme
The chord recognition scheme of Virtual Guitarist SILK is pretty straightforward and intuitive – it basically plays the chord you play, or the next possible chord if that’s not available.
Chords
The schematic on the next page shows you which chords you can play with Virtual Guitarist SILK. Here’s how to read it: • A black dot on the stylized keyboard means “required”, • a grey dot means “optional” – for example, if you use the MIDI file of a synth pad to control Virtual Guitarist SILK, MIDI chords including these additional keys will still play the right chord.
Fretboard Position
Playing notes and chords using keys on the lower part of the Chord Range will have the guitarist play in lower fretboard positions. Playing notes and chords on higher keys will make the guitarist play in higher fretboard positions if possible.
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