Native Instruments Session Guitarist Picked Acoustic – Vintage Martin, 70% Off

Programming a convincing acoustic guitar part is notoriously hard; performing one takes a player, a room and a great guitar. Picked Acoustic removes the problem by sampling one properly: a vintage 1973 Martin 00-21 steel-string, captured in the detail the Session Guitarist releases are known for, and organised into two instruments that cover both ways producers actually build guitar parts.

Patterns for Speed

The pattern instrument triggers picking rhythms, arpeggios and strumming performances that stay in sync with your project. The content runs to 194 patterns organised across 37 songs, with each song providing related performance material, so verses, choruses and bridges built from the same song family stay cohesive instead of sounding like a lucky dip. For songwriting and demo work this is the fast lane: audition patterns against your chord progression, find the one that moves correctly, and an arrangement goes from blank to believable in minutes.

Melody for Control

When the part needs to be yours, the separate melody instrument plays individual notes with the same sampled character. Its articulations include open, muted, flageolet and harmonic playing plus tremolo, and the documented performance techniques cover slides, fret noise, hammer-ons and pull-offs — the connective tissue that makes a programmed guitar line sound played rather than typed. Between the two instruments you can sketch with patterns, then replace or answer them with your own melody, all inside one consistent guitar sound.

Three Microphone Setups, One Vintage Martin

The 1973 Martin 00-21 was recorded through three stereo microphone setups, each a different tonal perspective: a Condenser AB arrangement for a natural, modern stereo sound; a Dynamic MS setup with a vintage-oriented character and adjustable stereo width; and a Ribbon Blumlein pairing for a richer, warmer vintage tone. Add stereo width control, doubling, and a built-in effects section — delay, plate reverb, chorus, vintage compression and tape saturation — and the same performance can be mixed toward folk intimacy or pop polish without leaving the instrument.

MIDI Drag and Drop and Working Specs

Patterns are not locked inside the instrument: MIDI drag and drop moves generated or selected performance material into your DAW for further editing and arrangement, so a pattern can become the skeleton of a part you then humanise yourself. The library is an 8.4 GB download and runs in the free Kontakt Player 7.6 or later, or the full Kontakt 7.6 or later. Singer-songwriter beds, folk and indie productions, pop tracks, film and TV cues and commercial work are its home territory.

From First Demo to Finished Track

The two-instrument structure mirrors how guitar parts are actually written. Demos begin with feel: a pattern instrument performance against the chord progression establishes the groove while the song is still fragile, and because the patterns come organised by song, the parts you try belong to the same musical family. When the arrangement settles, the melody instrument takes over the lines that need to be specific — the answering phrase in the chorus, the picked figure under the vocal — played with articulations and techniques like slides, fret noise, hammer-ons and pull-offs that sell the performance. Film and TV composers use the same split for cues under deadline, and commercial and jingle work, where an acoustic bed has to sound expensive by the second bar, is exactly the environment this instrument was built for.

The Deal

At $29.99 against a $99 list price, Picked Acoustic is 70% off. One afternoon of use undercuts a single hour of session-player fees, and unlike a session player, the Martin never cancels, never needs a break and is available at 3 a.m. when the idea arrives. For any producer whose tracks keep needing a real acoustic guitar, this is the standing solution at a one-off price.