MusicLab RealEight 6

An 8-string electric guitar virtual instrument for lead, rhythm and even bass parts in rock and metal.

We are proud to present the RealEight virtual guitar instrument - the ideal guitar for creating lead, rhythm riff, and even bass tracks in your future rock and metal masterpieces! The new RealEight has a full-featured chording/strumming engine, letting you use it successfully in a wide range of rock and pop music styles as well!

RealEight is an 8-string sample-based electric guitar virtual instrument.

RealEight provides incredible playability based on easy-to-use keyboard layout as well as the advanced key/pedal/velocity switch system allowing a keyboardist to perform guitar parts with a whole new level of realistic expression.

RealEight covers practically all sounds, articulations, and techniques a professional guitarist can produce on his 8-string electric guitar, including mute, bridge mute, harmonics, pinch harmonics, sliding, scraping, etc.

24-bit high quality dry samples recorded directly from pick-ups let you easily create any desired guitar sound using your favorite amplifier simulator.

Ways of using

There are three ways of using RealEight virtual instrument.

• Intuitive keyboard layout allows live/MIDI keyboard performance with numerous articulations, noises, guitar-specific tricks, strumming and finger picking techniques.
• Any guitar performance produced on a MIDI keyboard can be recorded or directly programmed in a MIDI track of any DAW.
• Built-in Song sequencer designed to arrange up to the entire song by simply inserting chord symbols and selecting pre-recorded guitar rhythm patterns.

Sounds and noises

We've carefully and meticulously recorded high quality dry samples of each fret of all strings directly from a custom handmade 8-string electric guitar's pick-ups which let you easily create any desired guitar sound using your favorite amplifier simulator. RealEight sample library includes not only sustain sounds, but also other guitar-specific sounds with dynamics and nuances an experienced performer can get from his/her instrument.

Guitar FX processor

Version 6 supports external guitar FX processors, which are important for creating a realistic guitar part. Our experts have thoroughly examined guitar tones used in most popular songs played by greatest guitarists and came up with more than two hundred authentic presets which sound similar to what they heard, ready to be used in your next song. We recommend using open-source Guitarix.vst virtual guitar amp as a robust and versatile solution to use these presets. Combining a virtual guitar and an FX processor allows you to store a guitar sound and an FX processor preset at the same time, which is a real time saver.

Techniques and control

An authentic sounding guitar part cannot be recorded by using samples on their own, but requires a bunch of guitar-specific techniques, which are simulated in RealEight. Whether you are playing live or programming a DAW, these techniques are controllable by using special gestures, key switches, key velocity, modulation wheel, sustain pedal, key aftertouch, MIDI CC, DAW parameter automation, and any combinations of these.

Chord voicing

Guitar chord voicing is very unique depending on guitar construction and is absolutely necessary to reproduce in order to achieve authentically sounding chordal parts. Our patented technology provides accurate reproduction of guitar chord voicing automatically for 30 chord types in all existing inversions, extensions and alterations.

Rhythm patterns

In order to record an authentic accompaniment track, most session guitarists carefully study characteristic rhythm parts for the required style. We created a huge rhythm library consisting of 1,250 patterns. It can be easily used for quickly creating guitar accompaniment parts in the DAW or in our internal Song sequencer.

Realism

Sophisticated humanization algorithms vary samples, technique and control parameters, timing and chord strum aspects to reach the best possible realism in guitar tracks. That helps you bring a digitally simulated guitar performance maximally close to an analog recording of a best-in-class session guitarist.

Summary

RealEight and all MusicLab Virtual Guitars are simply the best in the industry. They are convenient, feature-packed and give the user endless musical options. Whether you're a beginner, a professional or a producer, you'll find our products the answer to all of your virtual guitar needs.

MusicLab. Making Virtual Instruments a Reality since 2004.

Features

Guitars

• 8 strings, 24 frets (huge 5-octave note range)
• Standard and Baritone tunings
• Bass mode lowering the pitch of all strings to Bass guitar tuning
• Ready-to-use Double Track and Quad Track guitar patches with a single MIDI input

Samples

• High quality 24-bit samples
• Multi-channel sample layering technology
• Every fret of all 8 strings sampled, up to 30 different samples for repeated notes
• Authentic, deep velocity response

Performance modes

• Solo, Harmony, Bass&Chord, Bass&Pick, Chords
• Multi mode (universal)
• MIDI Guitar (normal guitar via MIDI interface input)

Assignable FX

• Up to 30 Key/Pedal/Velocity/Mod.Wheel Switch FX
• 33 keys for Key Switches
• Custom Key Switch presets (save/load)
• Toggle/Temporary switch modes

Chord detect/construct

• 1-4 note piano chords to 6-voice guitar chords real-time translation
• 30 chord types recognition, including sus2, sus4, 6/9, 7th, 9th and altered chords
• 4 chord positions along the fretboard
• Slash Bass Chords option: play major/minor triads with any note in the bass
• About 2,000 instant guitar chord shapes

Chord editor

• Edit/change factory chord fingerings with a mouse click
• Create custom chord banks

Humanization

• Sound, Timing, Velocity, Pitch randomization

Song mode, a powerful songwriting tool

• Easy-to-use built-in Song Track for constructing guitar parts
• Powerful Style Filter letting you find suitable patterns by musical criteria
• Chord Selector for quickly selecting and inserting chords
• Import whole chord sets directly from a web page or text document
• Export Song Track as a Standard MIDI file to use with any third party instruments
• Advanced Humanize engine, allowing you to easily add more realism to the performance with a mouse click

Pattern library

• 1,250 guitar rhythm patterns covering a wide range of music styles
• Pattern Tree view for easily finding and selecting rhythm patterns
• Pattern view, graphically presenting guitar 'Strokes' contained in the current rhythm pattern
• Audition the selected pattern by pressing a chord on your external keyboard, without starting your host sequencer
• Full synchronization with the host's tempo, start/stop, beats, loop and time signature
• Drag and drop the selected pattern from the Pattern window straight to your host's MIDI track

Tunings

• 8-string standard guitar tuning: F#-B-E-A-D-G-b-e with 8th string lowered to E (Drop E, expandable to Drop B)
• 7-string baritone guitar tuning: F#-B-E-A-D-f#-b with 7th string lowered to E (Drop E, expandable to Drop B)
• 8-string bass guitar tuning: F#-B-E-A-D-G-C-F; notes played via MIDI trigger sounds an octave lower, keeping the whole keyboard layout unchanged

Sounds

• Full length (recorded with full attack and sustain)
• Muted (fret hand mute)
• Bridge Mute (right hand mute)
• Harmonics
• Pinch Harmonics
• Pick Noise
• Fret Noise
• Release Noise
• Fret Position select
• Pick Position select
• Drop D and Drop C tunings (Solo mode)

Sound effects

• Violining (volume swell)
• Sustainer (sound swell)
• FeedBacker (harmonic feedback)
• Wah-Wah (MIDI CC control, Auto, Modulation)

Guitar FX processor

• Supports external VST3 guitar FX processors
• Over 200 carefully crafted presets for open-source Guitarix.vst virtual guitar amp bundled with each guitar
• Saves and recalls guitar and FX processor settings as a whole

Articulations and techniques

• Up/Down strokes
• Hammer-On/Pull-Off
• Legato
• Slide Up/Down (automatic and manual)
• Tremolo, Trill
• Bend auto
• Reverse Bend auto
• MonoBend (Unison Bend)
• Muted Strums Up/Down
• Slow Strums Up/Down
• Strum Speed adjustable
• Strum layers (string groups) control
• Number of strings used in strums adjustable