UJam have released Virtual Guitarist Sparkle 2, the follow-up to the successful initial version, available for only £88.33 / $99.83, increasing to £131.85 / $149.00 after the promotion. There is a loyalty discount, log in to your account for more details.
The original Virtual Guitarist was a best–selling virtual instrument series developed by Wizoo and distributed by Steinberg from 2002. The core people behind Wizoo, now in UJAM, also originated Virtual Guitarist SPARKLE 2– your new virtual instrument.
What’s new in Sparkle 2
UI Facelift
Users of the original SPARKLE will find the user interface slightly extended and enhanced to reflect the new features. We made it a thing to keep the original usability as intact as possible though. Although we’ve added lots of functionality to the new Virtual Guitarist, using SPARKLE 2 is as easy as ever thanks to a new UI design that guides the eyes and looks even cleaner.
MIDI Drag and Drop
In Player Mode, the keys of the on–screen keyboard are now horizontally divided into two sections. The top section looks like a tab.
Click onto a tab and drag into the Virtual Guitarist track of your DAW, then let go to drop the phrase into your track as a MIDI File. Any phrases can be dragged and dropped: Common phrases and Style phrases. This opens up a slew of creative options:
- Tweak phrases to yourliking by changing velocities or adding and replacing notes
- Combine phrases from multiple styles
Building Songs
If you play a key or chord before or while you drag, the dropped MIDI phrase will be in that key or chord. Use this to build entire songs: Hold a chord, drag phrase, hold next chord – you get it!
Tuning
You are now able to tune your Virtual Guitarist! Pitch it up or down by up to 3 semitones, depending on your needs.
Instrument Mode
The Instrument Mode was probably the most requested feature for SPARKLE, as many users wish to play the built–in guitar, rather than “just” triggering phrases and chords.
Stomp Box
The brand new Stomp Box effect allows you to choose from 30 different effect combinations in order to create a wide selection of classic guitar sounds that we all know and love so much. It’s a really amazing addition to Virtual Guitarist, but we didn’t stop there…
Finisher
The Finisher is a new section that adds even more guitar–optimized effects to your Virtual Guitarist and offers endless sound design possibilities.
New Styles and Presets
Virtual Guitarist SPARKLE 2 comes loaded with 30 brand–new style phrases, 354 phrases overall (330 style phrases and 24 common phrases), and 300 additional presets! As this is SPARKLE 2, we put a special emphasis on Pop, Funk, Rock and the various sub–genres within.
Resizable Interface
The user interface is now resizable to fit different sizes of screens. To resize, either click the “window” icon next to the notification bell in the top right corner or simply drag the three stripes in the bottom right corner of the user interface.
Player Sync
You can now quantize the player to match the playback of your DAWthis setting can be found in the Micro Timing overlay. Quantize to the current grid, 1/4, 1/8, or 1/16 notes. This new feature keeps the Virtual Guitarist always in sync with the DAW timing position to make sure you have the phrase in time and on the right beat. Give it a try!
PreSonus Studio One Integration
With the new VG SPARKLE 2, we provide Studio One users running on version 4.6.2 or later with an exclusive PreSonus chord track and Sound Variation feature. Descriptions of styles and key switches are displayed on the piano roll to help you find the right styles and phrases faster and easier for your track.
The Sound Variations are highlighted in red on the piano roll. The chord track feature in Studio One automatically follows the chords and automatically changes the MIDI notes for you. Use the “Follow Chords” toggle underneath the right keyboard on the user interface. We recommend not setting a song key when using the feature.
Loading Indicator
We added a loading bar that displays the loading status of the sample library when opening the instrument in the DAW. If you use an external drive for the content files, loading it might take a little while, depending on your hardware.
Virtual Guitarist SPARKLE 2 was built by musicians for musicians. UJAM are a pretty diverse bunch– from DJ to guitarist to weekend producer to Oscar–awarded Hollywood composer. Ujam build every product for ourselves, and, like you, we’re all users of Virtual Guitarist too. That means that before Ujam even start developing, a lot of thought and discussion goes into finding out what the user will expect from the product, what problem it solves, which controls we can remove to make the product more inviting, and which hurdles we can destroy that might get between you and a perfect track.
Virtual Guitarist Sparkle 2 is available to PC and Mac users (VST2, AU and AAX).
For more information on the Virtual Gutarist Sparkle 2, click here:
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