Wavelore Pedal Steel Guitar (Kontakt Version) 50% Off Sale

I'm a Pedal Steel Guitar player.  Obviously I look at these as a poor attempt to emulate the Pedal Steel.   The Pedal Steel that comes with Band in a Box is much more realistic.

fireberd

   The Pedal Steel that comes with Band in a Box is much more realistic.

+1


Hear it in This Song

Ozz


2)  Didn't these guys have a sale on their stuff a while back for like $50 or some such thing?

Yes they did.  I purchased this plus 3 other softsynths from them for $50.

MarioD

Ozz


2)  Didn't these guys have a sale on their stuff a while back for like $50 or some such thing?

Yes they did.  I purchased this plus 3 other softsynths from them for $50.

Thanks for the heads up with  this info guys. I had heard this was a really good petal steel guitar but the price was kinda high so when I heard about it being on sale I thought it was a good deal - but $50 dollars sure is a lot lower than about 150 dollars. So thanks for the sale info guys.

BTW which package is the petal steel guitar in for Band In The Box?

Thanks Guitarhacker

I found the Real Tracks set #38
some nice demos here http://www.pgmusic.com/realtracks38.htm

That $50 deal was a special fund-raiser for a sick friend. Given the complexity and depth of the library, it was a ridiculous steal that won't ever be repeated. $150 is a much more realistic price point for a library of this quality. Listen to the demos; it really is quite convincing (at least to someone who doesn't play the real instrument).

Of course, you could spend the money another way and hire fireberd instead. I'm sure you'd get results light years beyond what any sample set could deliver, no matter how sophisticated.

But I don't know how many sessions Jack would give you for $150.

I bought a little Maverick pedal steel a few years back.  I had a good time with it and I learned quite a bit about the mechanics and what you can and can't do.  It didn't take me long to realize that you don't just "pick up" pedal steel with a few hours a week.  You have to be a musician, ambedexterous, an aircraft mechanic and engineer all in one.  If you play pedal steel as a primary instrument, I would imagine anything else would seem easy.

Anyway, I sold the Maverick figuring that I could always beg, borrow or pay a real player to sit in on tunes that needed the instrument.

sgotr


Thanks Guitarhacker

I found the Real Tracks set #38
some nice demos here http://www.pgmusic.com/realtracks38.htm

Just to clarify,
the BIAB "Real Tracks" are not MIDI driven samples that are "tweakable" with different pedal/knee lever manipulations.  they are recorded wave files performed by a musician on an instrument for various "styles" and keys.  BIAB's audio engine stretches that audio to fit your tempo within a "recommended range."
 
they sound really good for some things, but they are canned pieces.  sort of like using audio loops but a little better than that, but not near as much control as MIDI driven samples.
 
nothing beats a real musician and like Fireberd says - you can't sample all of the different articulations.  BIAB is GREAT!  and I use it all the time with Real Tracks, but it is limited in what it can do. 

fireberd


With a Pedal Steel, you can never duplicate the "human" side of it.  You can do some mechanical things but it can never create the feel of an actual steel guitar player.

HERE is an MP3 of a "demo" session I did for a semi-retired Nashville songwriter (Jimmy Peppers - BMI) a while back.  You could never recreate the licks in this with ANY synthesizer.

Nice playing fireberd! The pedal steel is such a complex instrument I have to agree with you (and others on this thread) that it simply cannot be emulated very well.
 
I am an accomplished guitar player (primary genre of country music) and 2 years ago I picked up a used Carter 3 x 4 E9 with a George L pickup. I can play almost anything on a guitar, but I still feel like an absolute beginner with the Pedal Steel. My pedal steel licks played on a tele still sound better than my pedal steel licks I play on the pedal steel . What an amazingly difficult instrument to play well!

I agree about a few things mentioned here:

1. the steel is an amazingly beautiful sounding, but difficult instrument to play. I have set down behind a few steels in my day and decided it was not anywhere near as easy as guitar, even though it has strings.

2. BiaB is a decent alternative to a real player. It is not very tweekable like MIDI would be. And on occasion, more then once actually, I have had to have BiaB create several steel tracks to be able to pick and choose the parts that I wanted. Copy and paste has also saved more than one song where BB played a totally wrong chord in the same place, every time it rendered the steel track. Don't expect it to play lead on the Wabash Cannonball for you, cause it won't. It will however, provide a nice background steel for a country song. This was in fact the main reason I bought BB in the first place.... for the steel guitar. No regrets here.

3. You could probably learn to work the Wavelore steel at a fairly proficient level if you set your mind to it and spent more than a few hours a week practicing with it.

And the real irony is that I'm tied into a major studio in Nashville and can call any A player I want...but again because of budget....it's a DIY down here, lol

In deference to the "real: instrument players here who play their ax in real time and achive the results, you cannot play the pedal steel, Garritan J&BB, CH horns, Accordian, East West Violin etc in real time because of the key switching, scripting, CC assignments, and so forth(unless you have many appendages and truly multi task . The KEY to all the libraries and their expressiveness is the Kontakt Scripting magic. You might have to make a pass or two of midi recording to achieve the results

 
Elaborate please.... I m a midi dummy but I have GPO4. Perhaps you can save me some time and trouble... not to mention frustration. I have not had occasion to use it yet but I have some ideas, I hope I am able to do what I want with it. I am NOT into sequencing parts (drums a little maybe... but I still would rather play SD3 with a control pad or keyboard)... so are you saying there is a PITA hard way to record strings etc using Garritan and there is a relatively easy way for real time playing? I think that is what you said but I sure would like you to explain as if you are talking to a beginner. I do not want to have to buy Kontact, I have other things I would rather spend my money on. GPO4 comes with a player called Aria, will it not handle real time strings if I have a decent keyboard controller?
 
Thank you!!
 
Julien