The story
I am so overwhelmed by the pianobook community, that I also want to contribute some instruments. It is a must do – you are all so generous and creative.
Because I gave my Piano to a good friend for his children to learn to play, I begin with an instrument which sounds quite a bit like an electric piano.
It is my oldest electro acoustical Instrument: called the “Hohner Guitaret” from 1963 (one year younger than me).
It is an lamellophone with build in pickup, played with the fingers – mostly the thump by holding it like an E-guitar.
Depending on the velocity it can sound like soft E-Kalimba, a Pianet-Celesta Hybrid or nearly an E-piano. Try to play it with the Sustain pedal, it gets very dreamy.
I sampled five velocity layers and five Round Robins.
This is my first attempt to build a Kontakt Instrument – so please excuse the poor GUI. (this scripting thing is a hard and strange journey)
All the best to you all and many, many thanks to Christian Henson for simply everything he do.
Regards and deep respect from Klaus Wagner, Berlin, Germany
Reviews for Hohner Guitaret
- Sound
- Character
- Playability
- Inspiration
- GUI
Leave a review to let others know what you thought of the instrument!
A Sound That Plucked the E-guitar Strings of My Heart
If I had to choose one sound to capture the stillness of a late summer evening when the sky is clear, the moon is full and bright, and there's just the faintest hint of autumn in the air, I would choose this Hohner Guitaret library every single time. What a vibe!
Not what i was expecting
i expected this based on the title to be some guitar type instrument that i wouldn't like. As a guitarist i find sampled guitars really unrealistic and not worth using. I wasn't familiar with this instrument but when i heard it it really suprised me. It sounds like a really mellow marimba/ glokensphiel. It immediately made me think of lo fi hip hop or lo fi house music, both of which i think it would sound great in. Theres five round robins and five dynamic layers which is awesome and much appreciated. I named this nostalgic bells on my pianobook drive because thats what this sound is to me and will allow me to know what it is off the bat. Really good job with this.
Sounds good but could use some tweaks!
This is a cute instrument if you have some time to play around with some settings and definitely worth a try. It sounds like a marimba, an e-piano and a jazz guitar at the same time. Be sure to tweak it a little bit at first. The higher you go in the register, the more of its character you will hear. Sadly the range is not that big, it's more on the low side, and the entire sample placement is a little lower than a piano pitch.
While the GUI is not great, there are some useful settings there, such as a Delay and a Reverb, a Pan randomizer I guess? Luckily there is an attack and release setting which turned out super useful to me. As a note, I like to set the release at least at 60, because there is a very noticeable click sound that I am not a fan of. Also some single notes have a little bit of dissonance, but it's not big deal, since it kind of ads to its character.
Close but no Cigar-et
Its a little dull sounding for a Guitaret. Perhaps running through an eq and compressor when recording the samples is the answer? Saying that there are some nice tones to be found in this instrument. The delay knobs serves as a great tool for create Rhodes like lines reminiscent of The Doors. Awesome!
A Good Guitaret
Guitarets are interesting and unusual instruments. The GUI leaves something to be desired on this library, and it seems be be shifted two octaves higher on the keyboard than you would expect it to be. As a result, you end up playing really high notes to reach the top of the instrument's range. It's a little muddy, but there are moments when you need something just like this.
