Which RE for emulating guitar solos?

[crimsonwarlock]

The only big missing thing regarding REs is a good electric guitar emulation. So far, this is the only instrument that I have to resort to using a VST (Applied Acoustics Strum GS-2 in my case). Although the A-list guitar REs are no longer in the shop, I do have them all, but they don't let you play single notes across octaves. I tried several REs that can do 'somewhat' guitar-like sounds, like PX-7, Friktion, Objekt, and even Speo's Trust Cypher. None of those give me anything useful when combined with an FX and Amp stack (yep, all the Kuassa stuff ).

So, what do you guys use for this (if you do something like this). Any suggestions for an existing RE that can deliver on this?

[Jackjackdaw]

I remember a while back checking out Navi Retlav Neptune guitar refill. I don’t use this king of thing because I can play the guitar but I remember thinking it sounded pretty good. I dug up the thread on here and got their url, unfortunately seems to be down atm. But maybe you could email them. http://www.naviretlav.com/

[NMHindman]

It's ancient, but I've used the below for fairly convincing electric guitars, right in Reason:
YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@tyberium
And I see his web page is still up, with downloads for his electric guitar combinators:
https://tyberium.com/downloads/
You can replace his Line-6 amps with your Kuassa's

[Loque]

At first, you need the right sound, which is not too difficult for the main sound.

Second, you need the expression, differences and glitches, which is pretty hard to emulate.

For a electric guitar a simple sin can do wonders. Just add a 5th or 7th sin and feed it into an amp. Have a full sustain (pedal) or a longer release time. Play single note for smooth/flat/plain sound. Add more harmonics (5th, 7th, ... sin) for more aggressive sound. Let it glide and use PW (sadly most synths do not allow automation of the range).

But in the end, nothing beats the real instrument with a good player.

[turn2on]

Real guitar (can be cheap), just practice and use various software.
Better gift to NY - buy used guitar (may be active pickups), and learn to play with own practice. You cant find better way to have what you need in final results.
My start to go sometimes in the way, was been Bass Guitar patch for Subtractor + huge effects from stock up to Kuassa and many others. If you have Kuassa, just try to use Clean patch. I like to use also hardware pedals in this chain.
But - for guitar sound, guitar is must have)
Guitar and hands not repeatable with synthetic pre-recorded parts in software. Your hands - your sound.

[TritoneAddiction]

This is an old song from about six years ago, so I can’t remember the details. But I do remember using FM4 combined with Scream4 for the guitar lead sound. Not even an amp sim in other words.
I don’t think it was that important to me to have the lead sound exactly like a guitar, but I for sure went for something ”gitarish”.
I do know that without being an actual guitar player I wouldn’t had come this close. I remember making certain patterns that made sense for a guitar on the fast runs. And having some notes picked and others being more legato. I also added some whammy bar type of effects. Making notes slightly unquantized helped too so that it didn’t sound too robotic.

You can listen from 01:48.

[crimsonwarlock]

Just to clarify it, I already have pretty good guitar sounds. I have no problems with emulating what I need. The issue is that I require a VST for that, and I like to use REs exclusively in Reason. Strum GS-2 is actually awesome for this, and difficult to beat, that's why I have a hard time finding a RE alternative.

I remember a while back checking out Navi Retlav Neptune guitar refill.

It's ancient, but I've used the below for fairly convincing electric guitars, right in Reason:

I'm not really interested in canned sounds. I'm creating my own sounds, based on what the song needs. The search is for a basic guitar sound that I can use as the foundation for a guitar sound stack. I use Strum GS-2 basically with all its internal FX and amps turned off (it has several DI presets for that).

Second, you need the expression, differences and glitches, which is pretty hard to emulate.

I have no real problems with that, mainly because I play the parts instead of programming them, which gives the expression. Glitches are indeed hard, you need key-switches for that, and it is rather difficult to do that while live playing. However, glitches are not the most important thing, and guitarists like David Gilmore are known for their very clean solos.

Real guitar (can be cheap), just practice

Nope, not an option. I'm strapped for time in the studio as it is, so no spare time to learn another instrument. Besides that, I've been playing keyboards for about 40 years now, and at my age I will never get as good on a real guitar as what I can emulate on a keyboard

I don’t think it was that important to me to have the lead sound exactly like a guitar, but I for sure went for something ”gitarish”.
I do know that without being an actual guitar player I wouldn’t had come this close. I remember making certain patterns that made sense for a guitar on the fast runs. And having some notes picked and others being more legato. I also added some whammy bar type of effects. Making notes slightly unquantized helped too so that it didn’t sound too robotic.

I was hoping you would chime in here ... and I totally agree with you. I'm not a guitar player, but I've studied many great solos and I emulate certain playing styles, picking order, etc. This is indeed the most important thing to get a passable emulation. But I also like to emulate certain sounds, and I regularly watch episodes of "Andertons Sound Like..." and "That Pedal Show" to find out how certain sounds are assembled with certain pedals and amps.

But to be honest here, I think the example in the video you posted doesn't sound like a guitar solo at all