Hoard Picked Acoustic is a Kontakt guitar library with velocity-switched legato articulations, performance sustains, fret noises, and room tone patches for expressive, realistic acoustic guitar parts.
Purpose and Design
Hoard Picked Acoustic is a sample library for Kontakt, designed to deliver expressive acoustic guitar performances without keyswitching. The main patch, Master Legato Main, combines three legato articulations that switch automatically based on velocity, allowing fluid melodic playing across a wide range of musical phrases.
The library also includes a palm-muted legato patch with a distinct timbre, plus performance sustain patches with five velocity layers, including softer palm-muted and slightly palm-muted samples. This structure supports nuanced dynamics and phrasing in both lead and accompaniment roles.
Key Capabilities
The velocity-controlled legato system assigns velocities 41-90 to natural plucked legato, 91-127 to hammer-ons and pull-offs up to a major second, and 1-40 to slide-to-pluck gestures ranging from a minor third to an octave. Slides can be sped up using the modwheel, and slides without plucking occur up to a major second.
Performance sustains offer five velocity levels, broadening expressive range. A fret noises patch adds subtle string sounds, while the Room Breath & Movement patch introduces ambient room tone and human presence, useful for adding warmth to exposed guitar parts. Tuned and doubler patches support double-tracking, and the Chugs Scrapes & Slaps patch enables muted strumming effects.
Workflow Integration
The library is designed for seamless melodic play, removing the need for keyswitch changes during performance. By relying on velocity to trigger different legato types, players can maintain a natural playing flow while switching between plucked, hammered, and slide articulations in real time.
The included doubler patches are intended to be used as secondary guitar tracks for left-right double tracking, and the tuned variations suit specific musical contexts. Combining short chug samples with Muted Sustains creates a convincing muted strumming effect, as demonstrated in the Prism demo. The room tone and breath patches can be layered subtly to enhance the perceived depth of a composition.
Practical Applications
This library suits a variety of musical genres, from bluegrass and folk to rock and pop ballads. Its expressiveness makes it ideal for melodic leads, fingerpicking patterns, and rhythmic comping, while the palm-muted and muted sustain patches handle softer, more intimate sections.
The legato articulations support fast passages with hammer-ons and pull-offs, and the slide control adds a human touch. For producers, the room tone and fret noise patches help blend virtual guitars with live recordings or add realism to exposed tracks. The doubler patches simplify creating wide, double-tracked guitar parts in a mix.
Key features
- Velocity-switched legato: plucked, hammer-on/off, slide-to-pluck, slide-no-pluck
- Modwheel-controlled slide speed in legato patches
- Palm-muted legato patch with distinct tone
- Performance sustains with five velocity layers including palm-muted variants
- Fret noises and room tone/breath/movement patches for realism
- Tuned and doubler versions for double-tracking
- Chugs, scrapes, and slaps for muted strumming effects
Best for
Best for composers and producers needing an expressive acoustic guitar for melodic lines, realistic fingerpicking, and double-tracked rhythm parts in genres like folk, bluegrass, and pop, where velocity-based articulation switching speeds up workflow without compromising performance nuance.