Let’s talk about the best acoustic guitar Kontakt libraries, with one that we recently added by Native Instruments!
Before that, here is our list in a nutshell:
1. NI Session Guitarist – Acoustic Sunburst Deluxe
2. NI Session Guitarist Picked Acoustic
3. Heavyocity Scoring Acoustic Guitars
4. Orange Tree Samples – Evolution Modern Nylon
5. Vir2 Acou6tics Acoustic Guitar
With that said, let’s dive right in:
1. NI Session Guitarist – Acoustic Sunburst Deluxe NEW*
Session Guitarist Acoustic Sunburst Deluxe is one of the finest digital acoustic guitar simulations.
t’s a great tool for producers and composers with no guitar skills, as it provides you with harmonically rich and pleasing tones that you can play in various styles, from muted to strumming to arpeggios and more, with customizable rhythmic options and extensive sound design capabilities. It has a huge collection of 250+ strummed/picked patterns and 59 songs.
Key Features:
- Pattern Browser window
The plugin has a massive library of patterns that are classified into Open/Muted/Mixed, Strum/Arpeggio/Phrase, and time signatures (1/4, 3/4, triplets) categories. You can also browse, preview, and select chords from the chord menu and record or set their rhythmic patterns.
In the main window, you can also select from a library of patterns and set the style of melody (open, muted, flageolet, etc.) or chords. You can set how you play them with its plectrum/finger or Poly/Mono toggle buttons.
- Song Browser
The plugin lets you find presets and sounds classified as genres (pop, rock, fingerstyle, etc.) and time signatures in its Song Browser window menu.
- Amps & FX browser
You can set the tone of the guitars using FX pedals or rack emulations in its amps and FX browser. Here, you can find various effects ranging from different types of EQ, compressor, reverb, delays, distortions, and more.
- Tone Sculpting
There are various ways by which Session Guitarists lets you customize your tone. It gives you different micing techniques, a doubling (DTs) button, a stereo-width knob, and knobs for the following characteristics in sounds: Muted, Resonance, Noise, and Intonation.
Compatibility:
NI Session Guitarist Acoustic Sunburst Deluxe is compatible with free Kontakt 7.1.0 (or later) players/engines. It requires you to have Windows 10/11 or macOS 11 (or later) operating systems, along with DAWs that support VST, AU, and AAX plugins. It’s also available in a standalone version of Kontakt.
2. NI Session Guitarist Picked Acoustic
An extensive sample catalog might make you think twice about whether you should get a virtual guitar plugin or rather a Kontakt library like this one. It is the Session Guitarist Picked Acoustic by Native Instruments.
When we talk about Native Instruments, we mean a famous company that has been on the market for 25 years. It was founded in Berlin and now has offices in Los Angeles, Toronto, Tokyo, London, Paris, and Shenzhen.
Native Instruments specializes in developing software and hardware for computer-based audio production and DJing. And, of course, they are the creators of the famous Kontakt player themselves.
With the Session Guitarist Picked Acoustic library, you get the rich sound of a vintage guitar with both fingered and picked. The samples were recorded on a small-bodied 1973 Martin 00-21 by a studio veteran.
Besides that, the creators claim that they also used boutique and vintage microphones and high-end outboard gear. But this is not all the advantages of the library. In addition, you can experiment with a variety of effects.
Key Features:
- Play Styles
There are various rhythms, arpeggios, and string patterns in different styles and musical genres. You can also polish your performance with vibrato, hammer-ons and pull-offs, and advanced playing techniques such as harmonics and tremolo.
- Mic Section
You have a choice of three microphones. For example, Condenser helps you get an authentic, modern-sounding stereo image. Dynamic is a vintage microphone to replicate the rock and folk sounds of the 70s. And the Ribbon will give you a rich and warm vintage sound.
- FX
Speaking of effects, the library lets you adjust stereo width, add doubling and high-end studio effects. For example, there is a built-in REPLIKA delay, plate reverb, chorus, vintage compression, tape saturation, and more.
Compatibility:
The library is available for the free and paid versions of Kontakt 6.1 or higher, which runs on Windows 7 or higher, and macOS 10.13 or higher, 64-bit only.
Summary:
The Session Guitarist Picked Acoustic library from Native Instruments gives you the first-class sound of a Martin 00-21 acoustic guitar. There is an intense sampling here that gives you the ultimate impression of realism.
In addition, you can experiment with your tone by using different types of microphones and applying effects that are also of high sound quality.
3. Heavyocity Scoring Acoustic Guitars
If you’re looking for the sound of cinematic guitars that have an epic atmosphere and feel to them, this is the way to go. It is Scoring Acoustic Guitars by Heavyocity.
Heavyocity consists of professional composers and sound designers who create world-class virtual instruments for today’s composers and sound designers. Their assortment includes libraries of guitars and basses, keyboards and synthesizers, percussion, orchestral, vocals, and various effects.
Giving a cinematic feel to our guitars from scratch can be tricky, and sometimes it can get complicated, especially if you’re a beginner or intermediate producer. Heavyocity developed this acoustic guitar library that has just about everything you need to get that epic soundscape.
The Scoring Acoustic Guitars library is the latest addition to the award-winning Heavyocity GRAVITY Packs line of virtual instruments. It runs on the GRAVITY engine and can provide a vast collection of tempo-synced acoustic phrases.
For example, you’ll find complex pads, pulses, guitar scapes, and multi-sampled rhythmic strums and pedals.
Key Features:
- Variety of sounds
This library is based on folders with a collection of different sounds and guitar phrases. They are divided into Acoustic Guitarscapes, Melodic Pulses and Phrases, Pads, Performance Palettes, Rhythmic Harmonies, and Rhythmic Pedals. In each folder, you’ll find different harmonies, nylon or steel guitar sounds.
- Main controls
In the middle of the library window, you will see three categories of control: Punish is responsible for adding aggressiveness to your sound; Twist – twists up the tonal properties of the patch; with Sample Tab, you can see the waveform of your sample and adjust the tune, pan, level, starting point and randomize the samples.
- FX
You get quite an extensive number of effects, including Reverb, Chorus, Delay, and Distortion. They all have separate settings to get the tone you want as much as possible.
Compatibility:
The library is available for the free and paid versions of Kontakt 6.4.2 or higher, which runs on Windows 7 or higher, and macOS 10.12 or higher, both 64-bit only.
Summary:
If you’re tasked with writing soundtrack and need a quality acoustic guitar library in a cinematic style, Scoring Acoustic Guitars is the perfect vibe for you. You’ll get plenty of samples in all-important keys and many of options for tweaking effects.
The developers of this library make sure that you can convey your emotions as accurately as possible with this sound.
4. Orange Tree Samples – Evolution Modern Nylon
Orange Tree Samples shows off how much their libraries and engines have been advancing with the Evolution Modern Nylon library in the last few years.
Orange Tree Samples is a California-based company that creates high-end sample libraries that sound virtually indistinguishable from a live performance. On their website, you can find many packs with acoustic and electric guitars, basses, banjos, and keyboards.
The Evolution Modern Nylon Kontakt library contains various sounds and features that make it a great choice regardless if you are a music producer, sound designer, musician, etc. Its organic and vivid sound is a somewhat particular characteristic.
Orange Tree Samples created the samples of this library in collaboration with the Rosewood Recording Company, one of Utah’s most respected recording studios. The creators used analog audio equipment to skillfully sculpt and emphasize the rich tonal qualities of the nylon guitar.
Key Features:
- Play Styles
The articulation of this library includes sustains, palm mutes, harmonics, plus special effects such as body hits, string slaps. There are also legato samples for slides, hammer-ons, and pull-offs. In addition, there is a strum pattern editor for authentic guitar strumming.
- FX Rack
This section includes over $10,000 effect models, including tremolo, wah-wah, reverb, EQ, compression, chorus, flanger, and delay. There’s also an amp and cabinet emulation.
- Accurate Mapping
MIDI mapping within this library is probably one of the most straightforward ways of carrying it out. Having a menu at the bottom tells you which parameters are mapped and which are not as well as the MIDI value set to them (from 0 to 127).
Compatibility:
The library is available for the free and paid versions of Kontakt 5.5.2 or higher, which runs on Windows 7 or higher, and macOS 10.9 or higher, both 64-bit only.
Summary:
Evolution Modern Nylon is an excellent library of guitar samples from Orange Tree Samples that will give you a very natural and realistic sound.
It has all the possible articulations you’ll need for your creative process. In addition, the creators have filled the library with a mass of effects so that you can find the tone you want.
5. Vir2 Acou6tics Acoustic Guitar
Acou6tics has a wide variety of presets and sound, resulting in a handy tool for any music producer looking for a raw acoustic guitar tone.
The last on our list of libraries will be a product from Vir2 Instruments. It is an international team of sound designers, musicians, and programmers, developing virtual instrument libraries. Their products cover different genres of music and include guitars, basses, percussion, orchestral, and many other instruments.
Acou6tics Kontakt library gets a number six right in the middle of its name for a reason as that is the number of acoustic instruments recorded to make it possible.
Having a steel-string guitar, a nylon-string guitar, a twelve-string guitar, a ukulele, a guitalele, and a mandolin, this library brings a lot of sonic versatility and flexibility to the table.
Key Features:
- Organization
The Acou6tics library offers a well-organized way of interaction that presents you with four different pages that go from a playback page and a key switches page to a chords page, mics, and effects one. It doesn’t matter what you want to do with it. Finding your way through this Kontakt library is simple and very user-friendly.
- Count Patterns
Folks at Vir2 got to pack some MIDI files that go beyond your typical 4/4 count patterns, going as far as adding 3/4 and 6/8 patterns, just in case you would like to go a bit crazy with time signatures in your tracks.
- Mix & FX
There is also a Mics & FX page to work on the perfect tone for your project. Here you can control the volume and panning of the mics and the distance of the mic from the instrument. In addition, Acou6tics provides various effects, namely EQ, compression, chorus, delay, and convolution reverb with hand-picked impulse responses.
Compatibility:
The library is available for the standalone version of Kontakt 5 or higher, which runs on Windows 7 or higher (both 32 and 64-bit), and macOS 10.7.3 or higher.
Summary:
The Acou6tics library from Vir2 Instruments will be ideal for those who want to get several virtual instruments at once. Here you will have the possibility to use steel, nylon, twelve-string guitars, mandolin, and even ukulele.
The library has all the articulations and effects kit you need to create a mix-ready guitar tone.
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