I can play my guitar OK thru amplitube, but I often want quick backing chords using midi that sound convincing.  Anyone using software like this?  Can I get something good for $100?
 
I saw 8Dio has some strat emulation sw... Xuhn Audio, RP Guitar and others for abt $99, which is what I want to spend.  There's some Kontakt strat emulations... for $200 there's AAS, MusicLab, Orange Tree, then for more money is like Electri6ity and a couple of others.  Best bang for the buck?
 
 

I'm happy with MusicLab - I have their Les Paul VST and it's really quite good. I imagine their Stat is of the same quality.
 
BTW, have you played around with Strum Session, it's included with Platinum.

Have you checked out:
http://indiginus.com/renegade.html
Indiginus Renegade Electric Guitar
for Kontakt  5
$59 USD
 
Check out the video demos, the 2nd one covers what your asking.

deep question<G>...
 
My go-to guitar libraries are, well, my guitars most of the time. But for some strange reason I can't stop fiddling with guitar libraries!

You mentioned Orange Tree, I think they are among the best guitar libraries available, and they just keep getting better. However, with great power comes a learning curve. You can do some really amazing things - more than you are probably aiming to do right now, but you will have to spend some time taming them. I've been using them for a while now, so I'm not the best judge on ease of use - you might just fall into them?

My other favorite is Indiginus - Torch is cool, and he just released a Tele library that is amazing. These are not quite as feature rich, but they are a lot easier to learn.

I'll add that both developers are as good as it gets with respect to taking care of their customers.

Have fun!

Orange Tree... since Greg developed his latest engine is the most intuitive, easiest and powerful guitar vst I own and I have dozens...his Stratosphere is just exquisite!  (for the record I own All of OTS stuff and about 40 other guitar vsts, most of which are now taking up space these days)
 
Renegade and torch are good... bought each when they first came out... but much more limited...in particular, if you are looking for backing rhythms... Greg allows key switch assignments of a zillion rhythms, has a FUN system for creating more, and playing/switching is very intelligent and unique. Inside/outside of this part, you can also assign a buttload of playing techniques to strike force or other things... switching from one amp sim/sound (you don't need an amp sim like Amplitude) is also very intellegent, often with different playing style assignments depending on the type of sound you're calling up
 
 

Do you have the full version of Kontakt?

Indiginus and Ilya Eftimov have good products but need the full version.

Most of the Orange Tree guitars will work in player.

I would say Orange Tree is the best, followed by Ilya Eftimov, both have very good strum engines.

Renegade is very good but much simpler and cheaper. But its very effective for manual strumming.

I find Music Lab stuff good for leads but much prefer Orange Tree and Ilya Eftomov for strumming.

Another vote for Orange Tree. They are hands down the best guitar libraries available at the moment. Little more than $100 but wait for a sale and you can get it cheaper.

TerraSin
Another vote for Orange Tree. They are hands down the best guitar libraries available at the moment. Little more than $100 but wait for a sale and you can get it cheaper.

Same here. My main instrument is keyboard, but can hack out some tunes and chords on my real Strat. I studied the manuals for Orange Street Strat and Kontakt5 and you can do amazing stuff with the CC commands. 
 
Walt

I recently picked up Impact Soundworks' Shreddage II, Renegade & Torch (Indiginus) and Virtual Guitarist IRON. IRON has excellent sounding guitars from clean to metal and really decent set of strumming patterns driven by key switches (similar to the others I mentioned). Got them all at introductory or sale prices. Shreddage was the most expensive at $114.
 
I have OTS' stuff and although great sounding libs I have trouble getting the time to wrap my head around what was initially a (seemingly) easy strumming engine. I'll need a week's vacation dedicated to just that aspect of the OTS stuff.
 
The other libs I've mentioned seem a lot easier to work with (which of course means *maybe* a little less flexibility). But I essentially write rock so for the most part they give me what I want or can use even if it's just to demo the song and get my other mates on this forum to replace those parts.

dang... i guess I have the kontakt player and not the sampler... and really don't want to spend $400.
 
tried the strum session and it works pretty good...for free.  I had the old strum 1.0 installed and it kept crashing and i had not enabled the newer strum 2.0.