Im recording a guy doing country, and he only plays acoustic. I need to find some pedal steel guitar samples or loops to use in the background. Anyone have any suggestions?

I've looked at some steel guitar loops before, but haven't found anything that's really very usable. However, I know a great steel player that I've worked with before and I'm sure you could get him to play the parts for a pretty reasonable amount. He lives just outside of Nashville and another mutual friend of ours has a ProTools studio and they do a lot of long distance tracks for folks. I use them for for steel guitar, country lead guitar (Forrest Lee Jr is awesome country guitar) and they can also bring it great fiddle players, drummers, etc.

Usually they can do an entire song for a few hundred bucks (for pretty much any country instrumentation). Anyway, if you're interested I can put you in touch with them.

Martin is the Steel Guitar player....you can see him playing on this youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jOMB2M9piw
And Forrest Lee Jr plays guitar and is a great country producer ...check out his youtube video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIzFo_UrD64 (yeah, that's me on bass....gotta get my plug in too )

Hope this helps...

If you can edit realistic MIDI use a Jazz Guitar setting and assign each string to its own channel and track to independently control string bends.

yeah.....i've tried using midi w/ Jazz Guitar sound before. We actually used a midi gtr as well to try and get a little more realism....and while you may be able to get some suitable pad sounds, I don't really think you can get anything that really approaches a real steel sound. The sound is more in the "cheese-o-rific" category IMHO ;-)

But if you can't find a steel player, it could work in a pinch. Another alternative is if you can find a tele player that knows how to use a b-bender and volume pedal....that combination can give you a pretty decent quasi steel sound.

wwww.beathive.com...Search Loops...select "Guitars" then "Pedal Steel" only about 58 loops available but they may be useful.

I wrote a long answer on how to emulate a pedal steel. Use the search engine here.

Dan

I need to find some pedal steel guitar samples or loops to use in the background. Anyone have any suggestions?

Smart Loops, Loops of Hazzard includes some steel guitar.

call me crazy, but.... why not find a real steel player.

We have two "go to" guys in my area. Both are great. One has been doing since the begining of "pedals".

Pedal Steel players are usually consumate musicians. They will play their parts in single session and they ADD to the song.... not just fill in space.

best,
mike

The reason I am not hiring anyone is I am doing this for free. This guy just graduated from high school, has absolutely no money, the most humble guy you can ever meet, and has an amazing voice, and wrote all of his own songs, and they are pretty good. So I am trying to do this with as little expense as possible

Help the guy out. Underwrite the cost of a musician.

paying a $100- recording fee to a musician seems reasonable... and if it helps this guy move forward then I bet it will come back to you in the big scheme of things. I don't see how corrupting his music with a steel fascimile is being as helpful. Just equate the $100 bucks to your time... it should be a cheap trade off in the big picture.

plus you'll be building a relationship with a steel player as well.

Just my opinion.

mike