PLUCK

Controls

• ModelNylon Guitar / Steel Guitar / Harp / Koto / Pipa / Banjo / Muted Guitar / Dulcimer — The string instrument: Nylon Guitar, Steel Guitar, Harp, Koto, Pipa, Banjo, Muted Guitar or Dulcimer, each with its own decay, brightness, attack and body.
• Pick Position5 to 50% — Where the string is plucked, as a share of its length (5 to 50%): near the bridge it is thin and bright, at the middle round and hollow.
• Brightness0 to 100% — How bright the pluck and the string are (0 to 100%), from a soft thumb to a hard pick.
• Decay10 to 300% — Scales how long the strings ring (10 to 300%); low strings ring longer than high ones.
• Release10 to 2000 ms — How fast a string is damped when its key comes up (10 ms to 2 s); the sustain pedal holds the strings until it is lifted.
• Body0 to 100% — How much of the instrument's body resonance is heard (0 to 100%).
• Width0 to 100% — Spreads the strings across the stereo field by pitch and widens the body (0 to 100%).
• Velocity0 to 100% — How much the key velocity changes the level and the brightness of the pluck (0% plays every note the same).
• StrumOff / Down / Up / Down-Up / Folk / Offbeat — Off plays every key as you press it; Down, Up, Down-Up, Folk and Offbeat strum the chord you hold in time with the host's tempo (on its beat while it plays, from the first key while it is stopped).
• Strum RateQuarters / Eighths / Sixteenths / Eighth Triplets — How often the chord is strummed: quarters, eighths, sixteenths or eighth-note triplets.
• Strum Spread0 to 100 ms — The time from one string to the next within a strum (0 to 100 ms): short for a tight chop, long for a slow roll.
• Volume−24 to +12 dB — The output level (-24 to +12 dB).

Best uses

• Strummed acoustic rhythm guitar from held chords, synced to the song
• Fingerpicked nylon guitar and harp lines and arpeggios
• Koto and pipa melodies with the twang of the string
• Reggae skanks and funk sixteenths with muted, short strums
• Banjo rolls, dulcimer and plucked textures for folk and film

Properties

An instrument: MIDI in, stereo out, no samples, 12 voices (a note played again lets go of the string still sounding in 40 ms and takes a new voice; a 13th takes the oldest voice, released ones first, after a 2 ms fade). Each note is a Karplus-Strong string: a delay line one period long, read with interpolation and corrected for the loop filter so it is in tune, a one-pole low-pass and a loop gain from the decay time at the pitch. The pluck is low-passed noise and the triangle of a string pulled at Pick Position, combed at that position; Koto, Pipa and Banjo start slightly sharp and settle. The strings pass the model's body (three resonances) and a DC blocker. The strummer plays the keys held (or held by the sustain pedal, CC 64) at Strum Rate on the host's beat, low to high (down) or high to low (up), Strum Spread apart; up strums in Down-Up and Folk hit the top four strings, the beat's strums are louder. All notes off (CC 123/120) stops everything. Sample-accurate and the same in the JSFX, the GFX version and the VST3/CLAP.

Formats

• JSFXJSFX for REAPER, with REAPER's own sliders
• GFXJSFX GFX for REAPER, with its own interface
• VST3VST3 for any DAW
• CLAPCLAP for any DAW

Factory presets

Nylon Fingerpick · Nylon Strum · Steel Picking · Steel Folk Strum · Funk Sixteenths · Reggae Skank · Muted Pluck · Harp · Harp Rolls · Koto · Pipa · Banjo · Banjo Roll · Dulcimer · Cascade