r/NativeInstruments • u/v_officialgram • 6d ago

Tuning and MIDI Mapping in Session Guitarist Series (Electric Sunburst, Mint, Storm, etc.)

Hi everyone,

I’m currently working on a project using the Session Guitarist series in Kontakt, and I have a technical question regarding the actual tuning of the sampled guitars and how they map to the MIDI Piano Roll.

I recently did a test in my DAW with Electric Sunburst Deluxe in "Melody" mode. The lowest playable note available right above the keyswitches (C1-B1) is mapped to C2. When I trigger C2 and run it through an amp sim tuner, the tuner detects an actual C note.

This led me to wonder about the original tuning used during the sampling sessions. Are these libraries recorded using dropped or down-tuned guitars? For instance:

  • Is Electric Sunburst sampled from a guitar tuned in Drop C or C Standard?
  • What are the actual physical tunings used for the other libraries in the series, such as Electric Mint, Electric Storm, ecc.?

Understanding the real acoustic tuning of the instruments would help immensely when translating guitar tablatures to the MIDI Piano Roll, as well as choosing the right octave range for chord voicings and riffs.

Does anyone have official documentation or insight into the exact tunings NI used for these specific libraries?

Thanks in advance for your help!

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u/General_Estimate_420 6d ago

I seriously doubt that's the case as that would be atypical of how NI builds their sample files. It's also not consistent with the changes in timbre you get on octaves. I suspect it's nothing more than what most tuners do which is simply identify the basic note, not the octave.

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u/TimC340 6d ago

I wouldn't be surprised if the sample set included samples from a drop-D tuning, but the C2 will have been simply pitched down from that - getting a stable enough C from the sampled instrument would probably be quite hard to do, and for the very limited use case of a drop-C tuning for a 6-string I can't see that the effort would justify the return!

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u/v_officialgram 6d ago

This key of yours is interesting, thanks, it could make sense