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Electri6ity | EQ Magazine

Reviewer: Craig Anderton Back to Electri6ity product details

Electri6ity is an ambitious, complex virtual instrument/sound library that takes playing guitar on keyboards to new levels. Like other Vir2 products it's based on the Kontakt Player, but this one pushes Kontakt 4 further than I've seen before-especially in terms of scripting. (Kontakt allows custom scripts that process incoming data; a simple example is assigning successive string notes to alternate between up and down strum directions.)

Vir2 gets around the "sample dry or processed?" dilemma by doing clean samples of the eight guitars (Les Paul, Les Paul P90, Strat, Tele, 335, L4, Danelectro Lipstick, and Rickenbacker, all with over 24,000 samples per guitar). With "Amped" versions, the Player provides some effects a la Guitar Rig; or load "DI" versions and use other amp sims, or send the out to a physical guitar amp. There's 27GB of samples, so Vir2 recommends 4GB RAM-but go for more if you're running a 64-bit operating system.

You'll need an 88-note keyboard to access all keyswitching and articulations. You could use a smaller keyboard, as you can simply ignore the built-in articulations. Then again, you could drive a Porsche without getting out of second gear, but you wouldn't want to.
The Systems setting page alone is mind-boggling: Set characteristics for individual strings, like velocity and volume, as well as body resonance and 4,544 other parameters (okay, it's not really that many, but it seems like it sometimes). Thankfully, someone obviously spent a lot of time on presets, so what you load is ready to go. But, being able to change the sound with this level of detail means Electri6ity isn't just for keyboard players. Even though my primary instrument is guitar, Electri6ity isn't irrelevant because I can create "impossible" guitar parts that nonetheless sound like guitar.

A Performance page is where you change parameters like which pickup you're using, the guitar's tone control, pick position (closer to the neck or bridge), pick direction (up, down, or alternate), how morphing is controlled, and much more. A real-time Fretboard page shows notes being plucked and mapped (with artificial intelligence to map notes in a "guitaristic" way, although you can turn this off); with Amped presets, an additional page offers effects.
This is a remarkable virtual instrument, and yes, the manual does need all 54 pages. You can just load presets and go, or get lost in an amazing level of detail. This is an instrument with a serious "wow" factor. Wow. - Craig Anderton

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