Guitar Virtual Instrument for Linux ?

[Kernel_Mode]

Hello,

I'm new on the forum, but as far as I can tell most of my post, for now, will start by me telling you that I come from FL Studio, and am looking for a replacement for some plugin, FX, or whatever else.

So here I am. I am looking for a good enough guitar virtual instrument on Linux (ideally LV2 plugin), that is GPL only.

On FL Studio, there was a plugin, FL Slayer. This video seem to be the only one that does it more or less justice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46Xe9O_GNmo

There's a lot of other presets, and different setting, and I'm looking for a replacement. As far as I could see, there's only plugins for guitar FX, guitar processing (amplifier...), what I am looking for is really a way to make (electric) guitar sounds, that is completely GPL (otherwise I'd just Wine FL Studio through).

Thanks !

[Lyberta]

I use samples from here: http://www.flamestudios.org/free/GigaSamples

They are actually GPL (although I'd prefer CC BY or CC BY-SA). Unfortunately, there is no free sampler that can play GIG samples. I had to use proprietary LinuxSampler. It's mostly GPL but backend license prohibits commercial use so it is proprietary.

I use Guitarix for effects. It is GPL.

The demo of my whole setup: https://lyberta.net/stuff/music/etudes/Etude23.flac

So apart from LinuxSampler, everything is free.

[tavasti]

On FL Studio, there was a plugin, FL Slayer. This video seem to be the only one that does it more or less justice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46Xe9O_GNmo

For me that sounded not very convincingly guitarish, so I bet getting to that level is not a problem. To my taste, even in LMMS/ZynAddSubFX presets there is something similar sounds for synthesized guitar sounds, but I am not happy with them.

However, I would pick some soundfont for normal (electric) guitar, and play it thru guitarix. I would start installing fluid-soundfont-gm, and from there test with patches 'Steel String Guitar', 'Jazz Guitar' or 'Clean guitar'. And search net for 'free guitar soundfont' and there will be few more options, but can't say if they are good or not. I try to learn play guitar so that I won't need any synth for it

[Kernel_Mode]

Not a single plugin, but a similar sound could perhaps be achieved with a sampler (with a guitar sound) and then distortion and other FX on top of this.
This is a great idea for a plugin though...

If I'm not mistaken, electric guitars are basically a classic guitar with heavy distortion, right ? So this could be simple to emulate. To be honest that would be a nice plugin, if anyone is interested into making it there's this article that might help (and the few before it):
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... ze-guitars

I'd like one day to make a plugin like this, or some audio plugin, but from what I can see there's a few hundreds of hour worth of theory to learn first (the MIT Open CourseWare has a module for DSP: about 100 hours of work, and then there's about 4 "dependencies" which also take a bit of time). Since I'm short on time, don't expect news from me on that anytime soon. If someone does have the time but lack the knowledge to, I can gives those resources required.

I use samples from here: http://www.flamestudios.org/free/GigaSamples

They are actually GPL (although I'd prefer CC BY or CC BY-SA). Unfortunately, there is no free sampler that can play GIG samples. I had to use proprietary LinuxSampler. It's mostly GPL but backend license prohibits commercial use so it is proprietary.

I use Guitarix for effects. It is GPL.

The demo of my whole setup: https://lyberta.net/stuff/music/etudes/Etude23.flac

So apart from LinuxSampler, everything is free.

Unfortunately I can't access your demo, there's a connection timeout.
I don't plan right now to make music commercially, but I'd rather not get used to something that I can't use freely; thanks you anyway for sharing those.

I heard about Guitarix, this could be a solution.

On FL Studio, there was a plugin, FL Slayer. This video seem to be the only one that does it more or less justice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46Xe9O_GNmo

For me that sounded not very convincingly guitarish, so I bet getting to that level is not a problem. To my taste, even in LMMS/ZynAddSubFX presets there is something similar sounds for synthesized guitar sounds, but I am not happy with them.

However, I would pick some soundfont for normal (electric) guitar, and play it thru guitarix. I would start installing fluid-soundfont-gm, and from there test with patches 'Steel String Guitar', 'Jazz Guitar' or 'Clean guitar'. And search net for 'free guitar soundfont' and there will be few more options, but can't say if they are good or not. I try to learn play guitar so that I won't need any synth for it

I have not played (or even probably heard) enough guitar to judge the sound here; however that plugin comes with a few dozens presets, there's some metal guitar-ish sound, unfortunately I did not manage to find a convincing enough demo on youtube that does the plugin justice. I would like to learn the piano one day, so I can't really add another instrument to learn. And it's mostly to use in electronic music projects, so it'd be rather impractical too. And at the moment I'm busy learning how to use Ardour to I can produce music more or less like I did in FL Studio, so maybe in a loooong time...

On FL Studio, there was a plugin, FL Slayer. This video seem to be the only one that does it more or less justice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46Xe9O_GNmo

OMG what a horrible arcade game sound if compared to real guitar
LMMS ZynAddSubFX has some guitars in it, but they are as horrible as this one. They do reach this one though with a rather simular sound (if some edit on it).

You could use a good clean guitar sample to edit it into a nice fx-ed guitar sound by "guitar plugins" such as the Guitarix plugins or some other also good ones. I think this can give one of the nicest results for non-real guitar.

Or ask a guitarist to collaborate? As guitar samples and imitations are rather difficult if not impossible.
Be aware that collaboration is difficult to fulfil within the HR world, so it can be hard to achieve.
Is it for once? Or do you need it highly regular and all the time? If for once or a few times perhaps i can help? What do you need?

It would clearly be too irregular for a collab to be practical. Except if you find someone who doesn't mind playing a few riffs on demand, as soon as I'm opening Ardour (so if I happen to make music at 5 in the morning, that guy better be motivated).



Basically what you guys are telling me is that there is no such thing yet, and that it would be much better to either find a real guitar, or use samples from a real one and add FXs to it. I prefer the second solution; so, what kind of FX would work ? Distortion obviously, but what else ?

[ssj71]

It would clearly be too irregular for a collab to be practical. Except if you find someone who doesn't mind playing a few riffs on demand, as soon as I'm opening Ardour (so if I happen to make music at 5 in the morning, that guy better be motivated).

I understand that feeling, but it doesn't have to be in real time. Just tell them a tempo, make a midi demo or write out the music or something and you might find someone willing to do it and email the samples to you. We actually have a whole forum for just that sort of thing: viewforum.php?f=60

what kind of FX would work ? Distortion obviously, but what else ?

It really depends on the genre and how experimental you want to get. Probably a good exercise would be to install rakarrack and/or guitarix and go through the presets in it to see how they affect the sound. Once you find some you like you can find alternative plugins that do the same effects (including the lv2 port of rakarrack or the guitarix plugins).

Best of luck!

[CrocoDuck]

If I'm not mistaken, electric guitars are basically a classic guitar with heavy distortion, right ?

Not exactly, I think. If I had to define electric guitar in the shortest way possible I would say "Ferromagnetic strings electromagnetically coupled to conductive coils", while if I had to define a classical guitar in the same fashion I would say "nylon strings vibrationally coupled to a resonating chamber".

But I think you can reasonably emulate electric guitars and, despite the physical differences between acoustic guitars and electric guitars, perhaps starting from acoustic guitar samples can get you a long way.

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... ze-guitars

That's really interesting, thanks for sharing! In addition to that, there is an entire book on the subject of physical model synthesis:

https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Numerical+S ... 0470510469

And this paper details how electric guitar pickups work:

http://www.physics.princeton.edu/~mcdon ... guitar.pdf

I always wanted to try to make a physical model of guitar to use as a virtual instrument, a sort of Guitar equivalent of what Pianoteq is for piano (https://www.pianoteq.com/). I was looking at the functional transformation method: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.10 ... 5-0049-0_5. But I haven't started yet...

I think though you should be able to find some waveguide synthesizer implementation. I believe that the Karplus-Strong algorithm is implemented in some LADSPA plugin. I am not very fond of how it sounds, but it might be a starting point for you. Many finely tuned synths with convincing sounds are build around the Karplus-Strong, but with significant optimization.

I'd like one day to make a plugin like this, or some audio plugin, but from what I can see there's a few hundreds of hour worth of theory to learn first (the MIT Open CourseWare has a module for DSP: about 100 hours of work, and then there's about 4 "dependencies" which also take a bit of time). Since I'm short on time, don't expect news from me on that anytime soon. If someone does have the time but lack the knowledge to, I can gives those resources required.

You are right, it's a HUGE thing. However, I would recommend you to look at the FAUST programming language. It is easy to learn, and it makes possible to create standalone apps and plugins with quite some ease. Romain Michon makes very good tutorials, and here you can even find how to implement Karplus-Strong yourself (beware that the code is a bit old, though, but a great introduction nevertheless). Among many cool things, FAUST has also a library for physical modelling.

I heard about Guitarix, this could be a solution.

Guitarix is BRILLIANT, and it uses FAUST under the hood. Totally recommended.

Basically what you guys are telling me is that there is no such thing yet, and that it would be much better to either find a real guitar, or use samples from a real one and add FXs to it. I prefer the second solution; so, what kind of FX would work ? Distortion obviously, but what else ?

Yes, open source physical modelling synths are lacking in Linux world, I believe. The only synth with native Linux version I know of is for piano, and it is Pianoteq (linked above). I would totally try either to start from samples, or dig out a Karplus-Strong implementation. The latter doesn't sounds great (in its most basic form), but maybe with some tuning and other effects you can get an interesting sound out of it.

As for the chain, I would do: string synth (either samples, waveguide or something else) -> passband filters with properly tuned resonances -> guitar effect simulators -> amp simulator -> cabinet simulator -> some ambient simulator (maybe a reverb).

You can find most of the above within Guitarix.

[tramp]

You are right, it's a HUGE thing. However, I would recommend you to look at the FAUST programming language. It is easy to learn, and it makes possible to create standalone apps and plugins with quite some ease. Romain Michon makes very good tutorials, and here you can even find how to implement Karplus-Strong yourself (beware that the code is a bit old, though, but a great introduction nevertheless). Among many cool things, FAUST has also a library for physical modelling.

Yes, and here you'll find a ready to use MIDI-enabled electric guitar physical model with built-in UI.
https://github.com/grame-cncm/faustlibr ... s.lib#L884
As part of the faust library for physical modelling, When scroll a bit down you'll find models for acoustic guitar with steal or nylon strings.

[tavasti]

I created test for this, here is quick scratch on idea. Ubuntu distributed GM soundfont and few Guitarix stock presets.

https://youtu.be/2FxHHPTgDEA

[GuntherT]

I had to use proprietary LinuxSampler. It's mostly GPL but backend license prohibits commercial use so it is proprietary.

This statement is not correct. "Proprietary" refers to ownership. For example, Windows is a proprietary OS because it is owned by Microsoft. Kontakt is a proprietary sampler because it is owned by Native Instruments. Linuxsampler is open source software that is not owned by anyone. Linuxsampler is non-GPL, and it's license is more restrictive than the GPL, but that doesn't equate to being proprietary.

According to the Oxford English dictionary:

proprietary
ADJECTIVE
1Relating to an owner or ownership.

‘the company has a proprietary right to the property’

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

proprietary
plural proprietaries
1 : one that possesses, owns, or holds exclusive right to something; specifically : proprietor 1
2 : something that is used, produced, or marketed under exclusive legal right of the inventor or maker; specifically : a drug (such as a patent medicine) that is protected by secrecy, patent, or copyright against free competition as to name, product, composition, or process of manufacture

These definitions clearly do not apply to Linuxsampler. I understand you do not like LS's license and frequently make that known here, which is fine, but you should refrain from referring to Linuxsampler as proprietary since that is categorically false.

[Kernel_Mode]

Thanks again for all your replies.

I think for now I'll stick to what tavasti did in his video.

Actually making plugins would take me far too much time than I have available right now.

However, it doesn't stop me from sharing all the resources I found out about on how to make those. First, there are all the courses of MIT, on MIT OpenCourseWare. There is a DSP class, with several prerequisites: Single variable calculus, Multiple variable calculus, Complex variable theory, differential equations, linear system theory, and advanced calculus. Those are the prerequisite basically, and can be found on the mit courseware website. The DSP class is this one:
https://ocw.mit.edu/resources/res-6-008 ... ring-2011/

The prerequisites page can be found using your favorite search engine, with the topic name and MIT OpenCourseWare in it.

I also know about Synth Secrets, 63 articles written on the Sound On Sound magazine, available for free:
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... d-on-sound

However, those related to this thread in particular (guitar modeling) are those three:
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... ed-strings
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... itar-patch
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... ze-guitars

I'll stick to making music for now. Making the tools will wait a bit. Hopefully those resources will help some of you.

[Lyberta]

Linuxsampler is open source software that is not owned by anyone. Linuxsampler is non-GPL, and it's license is more restrictive than the GPL, but that doesn't equate to being proprietary.

LinuxSampler is not open source and is owned by LinuxSampler devs. LinuxSampler license violates criteria 1, 3 and 6 of the Open Source Definition.

Copyrighted works are either free or proprietary. LinuxSampler is not free so it is proprietary. LinuxSampler devs hold exclusive rights to it and deny fundamental freedoms to everyone else.

[j_e_f_f_g]

Just want to mention that if you're looking for some good-sounding sampled guitars to use with LinuxSampler, check out my collection of Guitar SFZ instruments at http://www.bandshed.net/sounds/sfz (nbb_guitars.zip).

Included are a couple Les Paul electrics, a Strat electric, nylon string, steel string, mandolin, and banjo. Many of the guitars have several articulations. For example, in addition to a normal articulation, one Les Paul has muted notes, harmonics, hammer-on/off, and fret/pick noise articulations.

My SFZs use looped samples, so they're very RAM-efficient.

[tavasti]

I think for now I'll stick to what tavasti did in his video.

To get more realistic sound, put some variation to note velocity, now all were on same velocity. And for even more realistic sound, some pitch bend here and there might be good.

[LinMusGuy]

Some years have past since the last post so I would like to know if things have changed in the mean time. Is there already a free virtual guitar plugin available for Linux (perhaps with Wine) that's comparable to the professional and paid versions?

[tavasti]

Some years have past since the last post so I would like to know if things have changed in the mean time. Is there already a free virtual guitar plugin available for Linux (perhaps with Wine) that's comparable to the professional and paid versions?

About 99% of windows plugins work ok in linux, and most of the plugins that fail are failing on authorization, so with free plugins ratio should be even better. So take a look what free alternatives there is for windows.

I have Ujam Carbon (got it together with something else from pluginboutique), and have to say it doesn't sound like guitar, but synth mimicking metal guitar. For making something guitar-like sounds to some electronic music with metal vibes that would work, for making real metal, forget.

But please report what you find. And what kind of guitar sound you are looking for?