On a trip down London’s famous Denmark Street, I picked up a beautiful small-body Cort acoustic guitar for my son’s birthday. While it is a compact instrument, it has an immense amount of character. I was particularly struck by how rich, clear, and full the natural harmonics sounded.
I couldn’t resist bringing it into the studio to capture that magic. MG Steel String Harmonics is the result, and I am delighted to share it as a free download for the full version of Native Instruments Kontakt.
Guitar harmonics are often difficult to sample without them sounding static or artificial. To preserve the natural, organic warmth of the wood, I carefully recorded the notes with depth and movement in mind.
Instead of a rigid, sterile playback, the engine features:
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- 3 Velocity Layers: Captures everything from a delicate, glassy whisper to a bright, resonant ring.
- 3x Round-Robins: Ensures that repeating a note never triggers the exact same sample twice, avoiding that synthetic “machine-gun” effect.
The result is a highly responsive, expressive virtual instrument that feels alive under your fingers and responds naturally to your playing dynamics.
I wanted to give you the flexibility to transform these organic strings into atmospheric textures.
- Ambient Pad Effect: By dialing up the Attack time and holding down notes, you can soften the initial pluck. This morphs the crisp harmonics into a lush, evolving acoustic pad.
- Random Pan FX Switch: When activated, this custom script shifts the stereo pan position of every individual note by a completely random amount. It creates a beautifully wide, ethereal soundscape that moves across the stereo field—just like the textures heard in the demo track.
Whether you are scoring a delicate film cue or looking for a glassy, organic top-end to layer into an arrangement, MG Steel String Harmonics is designed to sit perfectly in your mix. It represents my approach to instrument building: creating simple, intuitive, and deeply realistic tools that help you express your music effortlessly.
Please Note: This free instrument requires the Full Version of Native Instruments Kontakt 5+.
