Music Lab Real LPC Virtual Electric Guitar Plugin

Enhancing Composition for Electric Guitar

As a composer, working in notation software with uninspiring sounds—especially for electric guitar—has always been frustrating. These days, I primarily compose in Dorico Pro, which allows me to experiment with ideas and refine decisions before stepping into a studio or rehearsal space. It’s a process I value and one I teach to my college students.

Many songwriters and composers rush into a DAW too early, boxing themselves in creatively. I used to make the same mistake—recording before knowing how a track would start or end, or how to develop it harmonically, rhythmically, or dynamically.

Studying with master composers taught me a vital lesson: Don't record until you're ready, unless it’s an improvised piece. Embracing this discipline dramatically improved my writing, arranging, and recording. By treating the DAW like a real studio and delaying "booking time" until I’m prepared, I can focus entirely on capturing the right sounds.

From Sibelius to Dorico Pro

I began with Sibelius and used it for years despite frustrations with Avid. However, its inability to keep up with modern needs—especially mock-ups within the software—became a dealbreaker. Exporting MIDI to a DAW, assigning samples, and manually adding dynamics and articulations was tedious and uninspiring.

Switching to Dorico Pro was a game-changer. Dorico supports higher-quality sample libraries, making compositions far more inspiring. While mapping articulations takes effort, it’s far easier than with Sibelius. Now, I can hear realistic playback directly in Dorico, which has streamlined my workflow and raised the quality of my mock-ups.

Why Use Guitar Sample Libraries?

As a professional guitarist, I often compose using a guitar sample library. While initial ideas come from the guitar or piano, I prefer fleshing them out mentally rather than relying solely on the instrument. Occasionally, I’ll return to the guitar to check playability, but I strive to write what I hear in my head—not what I’ve played before.

Writing on an instrument can create "musical loops," as your hands tend to fall into familiar patterns. I avoid these traps by composing away from the instrument and letting my creativity flow. The process is simple: hear, transcribe, and then learn to play.

While commuting to SUNY Purchase, where I teach music, I often work on compositions with a hard drive full of sample libraries. Realistic playback inspires me and provides clear direction for the final recording.

RealLPC: Solving Virtual Guitar Challenges

Electric guitars are notoriously difficult to emulate. Subtle variations in picking technique and dynamics are difficult to replicate, and many virtual instruments sound mechanical. After extensive searching, I found MusicLab’s RealLPC, which impressed me with its realism and flexibility.

Investing in sample-based virtual instruments can be stressful—refunds are rare, and many libraries don’t live up to their promises. However, MusicLab has been honest and thorough in its representations. RealLPC stands out for its depth, offering complex expressions that rival live performances.

Enhancing Playback and Workflow

Most of my work with RealLPC involves simple articulations like palm muting, which I’ve programmed into Dorico. RealLPC allows dynamic palm muting based on velocity and offers varying levels of muting for greater realism. Left-hand mutes, often neglected in notation software, are also well-handled in RealLPC with key switches or velocity for authentic playback.

Using a virtual guitar library doesn’t replace real musicians. Instead, it enhances the creative process, enabling composers to explore ideas more fully before hiring session players. Many times, I’ve been hired to record parts initially mocked up with virtual instruments.

Tips for Writing Guitar Parts

Creating realistic guitar parts requires understanding the instrument. Poor voicings—like stacked thirds—don’t translate well due to the guitar’s tuning. If you’re writing for guitar, invest in a chord book and learn proper voicing techniques. Remember, some genres favor parallel movement over strict voice leading. No sample library can compensate for poor writing.

Expression Maps

I often need to trigger palm muting, harmonics, and left-hand muting (chukka). This setup covers most of my current needs as I score parts that will ultimately be played live but benefit from improved playback in the interim.

In Dorico, I created an expression map called RealLPC. I assigned a few CC switches to adjust velocities for the palm muting technique. For instance, I set a velocity of 40 to trigger palm muting and a velocity of 127 to trigger chukka. Since Dorico doesn’t have a built-in chukka technique, I repurposed the choke playing technique instead, assigning it to velocity 127.

Now, when I add the palm muting playing technique to notes, they automatically play back at velocity 40. For chukka effects, I add the choke technique (hidden in the score) to trigger playback at velocity 127.

If I wanted the most realistic performance possible, I'd consider a two-phase workflow. First, I’d use my current method to write out the ideas. Then, I’d create another track and manually perform the composed parts on the keyboard using all the well-thought-out key switches, reading them as I go. This approach combines the precision of deliberate composition with the expressive possibilities of RealLPC’s guitar-centric performance features.

Black Friday

Let’s examine “Black Friday,” a song in progress for my band, Silver Tooth Cactus. I wanted time to think about the variations I would use in each pre-chorus. Although each pre-chorus is similar, there are slight differences in the riff. Because we don’t get much time to rehearse together, having your ideas more collected before we enter the room together saves time.

On another composition I’m working on, Tripwire, I knew I wanted to spend some time considering how I would voice the polychord in the bridge. I’m using an Ab major chord over a G major chord. The chord's effect is intense and unresolved. However, the choice of voicing and the limitations of the electric guitar required some consideration. It’s interesting how the voicing of a chord can change its personality.

Using RealLPC, I discovered that I liked the interlocking voices where guitar one ends and guitar 2 begins. I think of them as being welded together. Polychords retain their identity the most when they are two serpent entities. In this case, even though two voices in the polychord are interlocked, they still retain an identity.

This is what happens when you let a classical composer into a rock band.

Deep Features

The options in MusicLab's RealLPC are so refined that we can create authentic sounds of hammer-ons, pull-offs, tapping, and pick scrapes. We also have choices regarding the guitar pickups used and the placement of the guitar pick on the strings, which makes a significant difference in tone.

Amp Tones

RealLPC comes with the Guitarix VST amp sim. Here’s what they have to say about the Guitarix Amp sim.

“Our experts have thoroughly examined guitar tones used in most popular songs played by the greatest guitarists and came up with more than two hundred authentic presets which sound similar to what they heard, ready to be used in your next song. We recommend using an open-source Guitarix. vast virtual guitar amp (included with RealLPC installation) as a robust and versatile solution to use these presets. Combining a virtual guitar and an FX processor allows you to store a guitar sound and an FX processor preset at the same time, which is a real time saver.”

However, you can also use your own amp sim, which is a nice option. I’ve been using Amplitube, and MusicLab offers a convenient feature that connects to your amp sims to save presets. This is very helpful, especially when you often return to a couple of core sounds.

RealLPC may be the deepest virtual instrument I’ve seen, but that doesn’t mean it’s hard to use. You can explore as deeply as you desire, but when you first open It, it’s not overwhelming. Dig in.

Conclusion

RealLPC has significantly improved my workflow, especially when working on arrangements for my band, Silver Tooth Cactus. Its realistic playback helps band members envision the final product, sparking new ideas and creativity.

For composers and arrangers, RealLPC is an invaluable tool—not a replacement for live musicians but a means of bridging the gap between composition and performance.