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We’re about 3 weeks away from Toontrack’s big announcement for 2024. Perhaps I’m reading more into this than I should, but based on what they’ve posted on social media since March 1st I’m thinking the next big release will be SD4. All the posts for March (so far) have been about drums: highlighting drum kits and the best/favorite SD3 features. It’s hard to believe that Toontrack isn’t trying to telegraph something to as. It feels like they’re building to a dénouement: start with a series of SD3 highlights, then bring it to a conclusion at the end of the moth with a statement like: “We’ve revisited all your favorite features from SD3. Now get ready for the next generation”.

If my prediction is right, this shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. There have been a lot of requests for SD4 and it is in need of an update. But unless it has some of the power features of Jamstix (ie, profiles based on professional drummers and the ability to mix elements from various player profiles a la carte to create your own unique drummer) I can’t see myself getting all that excited about SD4. So maybe there will not be an EZGuitar release this year. But what’s up with EZMix 3? It’s a plug in that’s in sore need of an update.

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Thanked by: Oscar Stern

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denisdrums1 wrote:

Salut ; oui ! mais toujours aucunes réponses ? ni de TOONTRACK ni de personne ? C’est quoi le problème ?

denis.

Toontrack never has (and never will) share information about future projects on this forum. If you want to know more about new projects it’s probably best to follow them on Instagram. Toontrack is not alone on this. Most of the major companies in this industry (Native Instruments, Reason Studios, Toontrack, etc) refrain from using public forums to share information about projects that they’re working on.

That is one of my criticisms of the big companies. I like the kind of interaction I can get from guys like Attila (RapidComposer) and Ralph (Jamstix). If you go onto their forums, you can make a feature request and get a response almost immediately. Attila is the best I’ve seen at doing this. Depending on the type of request, he’ll make it available on the next update later that week. And if it’s a request he can’t fulfill, he’ll decline the request and offer an explanation as to why. I really enjoy getting to have that kind of dialogue with the main developer of a plug in, something that’s missing from the bigger companies.  It makes it feel so much more personal.

If you are looking for a response from Toontrack about EZGuitar, you’re not going to get it here. Or anywhere, for that matter. At least not until it’s announced. We’re a week and a half away from March, so a big announcement could be forthcoming. But I think it’s more likely that their big annual announcement will not happen until April. Or maybe they’ll do something similar to what they did last year with EZKeys 2 and tease us with an announcement during the last week of March, then make the big announcement the first week of April.

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Tom.Nice wrote:

Was just about add a post but thought “Of course they’re making one!…it’s a case of getting it to release qualification” I can imagine the tons of variables that have to get PO clearance then resolved in QA. My guess is Q4, this year.

It’s hard for me to believe that someone somewhere is not working on the next generation of guitar VIs. Over on IK Multimedia’s KVR Audio forum, there is a thread that goes on for 20+ pages with requests for MODO Guitar. Most of the high quality guitar VIs currently available are clearly made with keyboard players in mind, not songwriters. I think that’s what makes Toontrack’s plugins so valuable: they are made for people who want to make music first. You don’t have to play an instrument to get the most out of them. Ample VSTs sound great, but since I can’t play the keyboard my use for it feels a limited. That’s why I think next generation guitar plugins are one of the most requested on many forums, not  just Toontrack. The first developer to crack the code will be handsomely rewarded.

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Thanked by: Si

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denisdrums1 wrote:

 

Bonjour ;

Quelqu’un peut me dire quand EZ Guitare va sortir ??Je voie sur la réponse de Oscar au dessus il y’a quelque chose ? Merci à vous de m’éclairer SVP

 

 

There is no information available about the release of EZGuitar, or if EZGuitar is even being worked on (though I’ve seen things around the Internet that lead me to believe that Toontrack is working on EZGuitar). About a year ago Rikk was directly asked in an interview if Toontrack is working on EZGuitar and his response was “It’s just as likely that we’ll release EZGuitar as it is that we’ll release EZAccordian” (that may be a paraphrase, but it’s essentially what he said). So it wasn’t an affirmative answer, but it wasn’t a “No” either.

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere on this thread, Toontrack’s pattern for the past 4-5 years has been to schedule one big release a year. It’s usually announced in March/April and released in April/May. I suspect they will follow a similar arrangement this year, which means that we’re a month or two away from a big announcement. If I were to guess, I think the next release will be EZMix 3, as it is a sorely needed update. I think it’s the only Toontrack plugin that hasn’t been updated to the VST 3 protocol. There was a huge sale for EZMix 2 and EZMix expansions a couple o weeks ago, which could be a clue as to what their plans are for 2024.

I don’t want to trivialize EZMix 3, but I hope they have something more than that to offer this year. It would be awesome if they could release it alongside EZGuitar. While anything is possible, if EZGuitar is not announced in a few months, it’s unlikely that it will be released this year. I’m hoping that I’m wrong.

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Cliff Turner wrote:

If you look at their past history of major updates / new releases it’s one a year .

EK 2 last year . EZB year before so they’re not going to be upgrading those .

They don’t do multiple new products each year , but when they bring one out it’s well thought out .

EZdrums is still relevant .

Do we need SD4 ?

My punt it EZ G in early 2024 .

cheers

Cliff

• This post was modified 7 months, 2 weeks ago by Cliff Turner.

I was planning to post here to make this same point. Toontrack typically does one major release per year, announced around March/April and released around April/May. I’m hoping that 2024 will be the year EZGuitar is released. I know that some people have been requesting SD4. But to be honest, EZD3 is good enough that I can wait until 2025 for SD4. And unless SD4 has some revolutionary feature that’s not available in any other drum VST, it’s unlikely that I will get it anyway. EZGuitar, on the other hand,  could be a game changer. If it’s not announced around March/April 2024, this it’s likely that it won’t get released until 2025. I’m trying to manage my own expectations so that I’m not disappointed if SD4 is released instead.

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Today, I came across an app for iOS called Riffler (not to be confused with Riffer by Audiomodern). It’s an app that generates guitar riffs that can be exported as either a wav file or a MIDI file. The creator of the app is at work on versions for Windows and Mac that he plans to release sometime this Fall. Since I don’t have an iPhone I haven’t been able to test the app myself. But I’ve watched several demos and it’s very impressive. All the riffs I’ve heard sound very realistic. At this point, I’m convinced that there is no excuse for Toontrack not to release an EZGuitar VI in the very near future. MusicLab just released version 6 of RealGuitar. Prominy announced it’s going to release SC 2 in the next month or so. And now some guy in his basement all by himself working without anything near the budget or manpower of Toontrack is releasing an app that does many of the things I was looking for from a possible EZGuitar plug in. I’ll be sure to buy his app when it’s available for Windows. But I hope that Toontrack either hires this guy for their team or uses his app for inspiration for what is possible.

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I think that EZGuitar is going to happen for a few reasons:

For one, it just makes sense to complete the line up. With drums, keyboards, and now bass covered, it will only be a matter of time before Toontrack completes the ensemble.

Second, during a recent random Internet search under, I discovered that Toontrack has trademarked the name “EZGuitar”. To be fair, this trademark was established several years ago and I’m sure the main purpose is to protect the brand name. But I think there’s good reason to believe that this means it’s a project that they are seriously pursuing.

Third, the engine that would be the basis for EZGuitar exists within EZBass. It’s only a matter of fleshing it out so that it can by applied to guitar. Starting with EZBass makes since, as most bass lines are monophonic. A lot more is expected from guitar performances (strumming, arpeggios, lead lines, etc). Now that the foundation has been laid, they have the tools to move forward.

Some features I’d like to see: I like the Riffer tool in the Ample Guitar VST. After choosing a chord and pressing the randomizer button it will output some very melodic arpeggios. A limitation I’ve noticed, however, is that I cannot select a chord progression in advance and fill it will arpeggios. Even more frustrating is that it only allows one chord at a time, meaning that I have to go through a process of cutting, pasting, saving, etc just to get a chord progression. But it’s a lot of fun to experiment with. Would love to see EZGuitar incorporate something similar, but without those limitations. For example, if I could create a chord progression in advance, as with EZKeys or EZBass, and then create an arpeggios for the entire progression (or for each chord, if I wanted) that would be a nice feature. And then go in and edit transitions between each chords as is possible with EZBass.

Another feature from EZBass that would be nice is if it would possible to drag chord progressions from EZKeys to EZGuitar and then I could choose between having it create either a basic strumming pattern or an arpeggiated sequence to match (also subject to further editing).

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Toontrack release something like an EZGuitar VST by the end of 2021. Not sure if it would have all the features I’m requesting, but hopefully they are reading this and taking notes.

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Thanked by: Si, Trevor, buzz_9 and 2 others.

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