Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 Stars
There are, so to speak, a plethora of choices for anyone looking for a virtual guitar instrument. As such, a developer has to offer something with a unique selling point (or three!) in order to make an impression with potential users. So, what might Indiginus’ Electric Blue — built by sampling a classic Les Paul‑style electric guitar — have to offer to give it an edge within a very competitive marketplace?
Created for the full version of Kontakt (v5 or above), Electric Blue offers two performance modes. Solo Mode provides multiple articulations that can be triggered via keyswitches or via a user customisable velocity‑based articulation switching system, where you can define up to three of the 12 available articulation options for velocity switching. This is very nicely implemented and the two switching systems can be used together. There is also a very effective auto‑harmony mode with a number of different harmony options.
However, it’s Strum Mode that particularly pulled me in. Some neat MIDI mapping lets you manually trigger chords with different strum styles, but you also get a very impressive Strum Pattern system, where the patterns can trigger up/down strums, muted strums and accents with velocity control. A collection of pattern presets (also with keyswitching) is included but you can also customise these and create your own. Rather wonderfully, Electric Blue will attempt to voice your MIDI chords in a fashion to suit a guitar and you can also define chord voicings if you have something specific in mind. Yes, there is a bit of a learning curve involved given the range of possibilities provided, but it’s worth the effort because you can create some genuinely realistic performances with very precise control over how they are played.
The instrument includes a very respectable guitar amp, cab and effects suite and, while the ‘blue’ in the title might suggest it was primarily aimed at blues guitar, that’s not really the case as the presets for the amp/effects modelling — with labels including the likes of Clean Twin, Spaghetti West, Le Funk, Epic Lead and Smokin H2O — span a wide range of tones from clean through to overdriven. They perhaps don’t get you into modern metal, but you can, of course, bypass the internal modelling and use a third‑party guitar rig plug‑in of your choice if required. The underlying DI‑style samples are up to the task, and the virtual pickup selector also provides useful out‑of‑phase and stereo options for good measure.
The underlying guitar tones are very good, and I thought it was particularly effective for atmospheric/ambient parts.
So, have Indiginus given Electric Blue the necessary edge in features and performance to make it worth exploring? Well, on that front, the obvious highlights for me are the Strum Mode options, but the underlying guitar tones are very good, and I thought it was particularly effective for atmospheric/ambient parts, whether solo lines or chords. Perhaps the final thing to note is that all this rather clever functionality and sound is provided at a very accessible price. If you still have room for additional virtual guitar options in your own studio space, Electric Blue is well worth checking out.