Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ 4/5 Stars
Velvet Guitars by e‑instruments (who also produced Desolate Guitars) is a guitar library of almost 35GB that runs on Native Instruments’ Kontakt. Rather than emulating conventional guitar sounds its focus leans more towards cinematic textures by exploring a softer approach to the electric guitar, making it suitable for scoring for picture, ambient music production and sound design. Velvet Guitars requires either the full version of Kontakt or the free Player (8.5.1 or later) and its atmospheric repertoire runs from gentle sustains and reverse swells to bowed strings, shimmers and controlled feedback. It is also fully compatible with Native Instruments’ NKS2.
Offering 25 main presets and 20 FX Chain presets, some of the sounds lean towards the synthetic, others range from melodic, gentle plucks to pads and evolving textures, but all capture the organic quality of the guitar. The presets are arranged as banks: Chords, Specials, Sustains & Mutes and Textures. Where appropriate these incorporate smart mapping with a dynamic response that allows for expressive performance.
Underpinning the factory presets is a library that we are told comprises around 62,000 individual samples, encompassing multiple articulations and utilising bespoke processing chains with dynamic layers to impart a natural sense of movement. The designers say their aim was to use creative processing to add depth and complexity but without compromising clarity. There are plucked sounds here, but you’ll also find guitars played using violin bows, Ebow, coins and toothbrushes, so expect something a bit out of the ordinary.
Despite some unusual playing techniques, the amplification is more conventional. All the guitars were recorded through a pair of vintage amplifiers, using real spring reverbs where appropriate to keep the sound feeling naturally organic.
Velvet Guitars was made using five different guitars: Velvet Guitar is a semi‑hollow instrument, Mellow Baritone is a semi‑acoustic while Shimmer Guitar is described as a ’60s‑style solid‑body offset fitted with a floating vibrato. Semi Hollow was chosen for its rounded, expressive sound while Amped Acoustic uses an acoustic guitar with a magnetic pickup and played through the electric guitar amps. The initial recordings used Shure SM57 dynamic mics and Royer R‑121 ribbon mics, these processed through Rupert Neve Designs Shelford Channels, with each mic being phase‑aligned. Tremolo effects were modelled from the original amplifiers in addition to pedal‑inspired modulation, and include the option of DAW tempo sync.
As you’d expect from a Kontakt instrument, the interface provides user controls for tone‑shaping with variable spring reverb, tremolo and a balance fader to mix between two amplifiers. Samples can also be played in reverse. There’s also a set of six FX tabs providing access to things like compression, drive, delay, modulation and more reverb options, so creating complex effects chains is no problem. The mod wheel enables switching or blending between articulations, for example open and muted sustains or major and minor chord variations.
What you’ll find here is all about creating a mood through sound and texture while still feeling expressive and organic.
If you’re looking for an instrument that replicates shred guitar through a cooking valve amplifier, Velvet Guitars most definitely isn’t that. If you need rock or metal guitars there are plenty of other options to explore. What you’ll find here is all about creating a mood through sound and texture while still feeling expressive and organic. You’ll find chords, single notes and textures with plenty of scope for modifying them to your own taste. The range of sounds is correctly described as cinematic, though there’s plenty of scope for weaving the sounds in mainstream pop too.