What are your favourite tools for quick and polished songwriting demos?

Hi there. This is my first post. Really cool community here...

So I'm an aspiring songwriter that's been recording several demo songs (mostly country) for competitions etc. I can play guitar pretty well and always dismissed automated software because I just assumed it would sound artificial BUT I just discovered Acoustic Strummer 2 by Native instruments. Wow! When I saw the demo and then when I actually tried it, I had a polished sound with very little engineering imperfections that I have from my recordings (cheap mics, gear). It sounds real and after the relatively short learning curve, I had my song complete and sounding much better.

My question is...are there similar tools that you have found that allow you to get that polished sound so quickly and easily? Particularly with traditional country instruments like (piano, banjo, slide, mandolin).

I'm far worse at piano and I can see Native instruments has some sample pianos but I don't think they are "session" instruments like the acoustic guitars. Are there any out there on the internet by other companies that sound good for these other traditional country songs?

I found his other site called amplesound.net ...has anyone used these?

Thanks so much, I'm so glad I found this community.

I'm far worse at piano and I can see Native instruments has some sample pianos but I don't think they are "session" instruments like the acoustic guitars. Are there any out there on the internet by other companies that sound good for these other traditional country songs?

Ah, what about the Green (midi) Apple Loops.

Remember, these are MIDI files and they're played properly, meaning, the velocity was recorded by how the person played the midi file, not with all velocities at 127.

So with that in mind, you can "reuse" the playing part of it and just put in your own "chords" and now you have a properly played piano, bass, guitar, synth, etc... part but using your own chords. BTW, this idea I got from Synfire.

Also remember I mentioned Green (midi) Apple Loops but why couldn't you apply that to other midi files?

I'm far worse at piano and I can see Native instruments has some sample pianos but I don't think they are "session" instruments like the acoustic guitars. Are there any out there on the internet by other companies that sound good for these other traditional country songs?

Ah, what about the Green (midi) Apple Loops.

Remember, these are MIDI files and they're played properly, meaning, the velocity was recorded by how the person played the midi file, not with all velocities at 127.

So with that in mind, you can "reuse" the playing part of it and just put in your own "chords" and now you have a properly played piano, bass, guitar, synth, etc... part but using your own chords. BTW, this idea I got from Synfire.

Also remember I mentioned Green (midi) Apple Loops but why couldn't you apply that to other midi files?

Here's a prototype Logic Pro X scripter I'm working on to do just that, reuse a MIDI pattern but with new chords that I tell it to use.

I checked your vids on youtube about your great Logic Scripts.

Awesome work!

Do you have any info about when you gonna release these scripts ?

I think many people will be really interested in them, me included.

Warm Regards.

I checked your vids on youtube about your great Logic Scripts.

Awesome work!

 

Do you have any info about when you gonna release these scripts ?

I think many people will be really interested in them, me included.

 

Warm Regards.

Thanks.

While I like the "random" part of generating chords, I'm testing out random but with chord maps.

While it appears that this is for major or minor scale, I'm going to take it a step further and apply it to 7 note scales and see how it goes.

Spitfire Audio has there free Labs plugin you can try. They have released 4 instruments including a nice drum kit and will be adding more!

The included pianos in Logic can sound a bit underwhelming compared to the large sample libraries out there, so try the patches in the library that have added EQ and other plugins to modify the sound.

You may also want to try the free content that comes with Kontakt Player. Maybe there are some instruments in there that take your fancy.