NEMESYS MUSIC TECHNOLOGY

Jul 1, 2001 12:00 PM, By Zack Price

Jim Corrigan's Nashville High-Strung Guitars ($149) re-creates an accompaniment sound that has become a Nashville recording-scene staple in recent years. The high-strung guitar sound is produced with two six-string acoustic guitars on which the lower four strings (E, A, D, and G) are replaced with strings of a lighter gauge and tuned an octave higher than normal. The sixth string remains wound; whereas the other strings are replaced with unwound steel.

Each guitar is recorded in mono on a separate track. One guitar includes a capo set several frets higher on its neck than on the other guitar. The two guitars are then mixed hard left and hard right to create a stereo image. The result is a lighter, more airy guitar sound that lets vocals and lead instruments stand out unobstructed in the final mix and reduces the muddy midrange sound that often develops with standard bass-and-guitar rhythm tracks.

The Nashville Sound

To create the ideal Nashville tuned-guitar sound, Corrigan used a 1963 Martin D-18, a clean-sounding dreadnought guitar with low resonance. For the first guitar, he placed a capo at the first fret to eliminate buzzing at the nut. To produce the higher guitar sound with the second guitar, he placed the capo a perfect fourth higher on the fretboard.

Corrigan played each chord with an open tuning; no fingers touched the fretboard to create the chords. He retuned the guitar to produce each chord as an open strum without loops. Corrigan wrote a computer program to generate the 84 tunings and to calculate the proper string gauges and tensions needed for each chord to create a balanced sound. That resulted in a cleaner and more uniform sound that lacks the finger, fret, and string noises commonly found in guitar samples. Furthermore, he recorded separate downstroke and upstroke samples of each chord and provided chord damps for every chord to make the strums sound as realistic as possible. You can adjust the damp volume with the Mod wheel.

Load and Play

You “strum” the guitar by playing the chord root note and its alternating octave on your MIDI keyboard while holding down the sustain pedal. The downstroke strums for each chord span from C4 through B4; the upstroke strums span from C5 through B5. Before switching chords, release the sustain pedal, which causes the Damps patch to sound; select the next root note and begin strumming again. The Help file includes an AVI video that demonstrates the proper performance technique.

By default, selecting the root note plays a major chord for that key. To play other chord types — including minor, seventh, diminished, and augmented — select the appropriate key from a group of Chord Trigger keys. For example, to play a C-minor chord, press the E-flat key in the trigger group before playing the C strum notes; the same chord type continues until you press a different Chord Trigger key.

Pickin' and Grinnin'

In addition to its chordal strums and damps, Nashville High-Strung Guitars includes a Martin D-18 Single String patch that offers individual notes over a five-octave range. You can use it to play acoustic guitar solos, but it's especially effective for producing alternating bass note patterns and passing notes when combined with the chord strums. Simply sequence the chords in one pass and the bass lines and fills in another pass.

That patch also works particularly well for reproducing Travis-style guitar picking. The left hand plays an alternating bass pattern while the right hand fills in the melody notes. The Help file provides an AVI video that demonstrates how to play the technique on the keyboard.

City and Country

Don't be misled by the CD's title. Jim Corrigan's Nashville High-Strung Guitars could be an appropriate choice anytime you need a strummed-guitar sound that doesn't get in the way of the vocalist or other midrange soloists in the mix. Moreover, the Martin D-18 Single String patch is effective for reproducing many fingerpicking techniques other than Travis-style. If you use acoustic-guitar sounds in your work, you owe it to yourself to check out Nashville High-Strung Guitars.

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Overall EM Rating (1 through 5): 4.5

Nemesys Music Technology, Inc.; tel. (512) 219-9181; e-mail sales@nemesysmusic.com; Web www.nemesysmusic.com