Let’s detail the triggers that are specific to each mode: in Solo mode, you can access two different sounds via velocity (harmonics, mutes, palm mutes, tremolo, slide, wah, violining, chucka, repetition, etc.), set the Legato by half and whole tone intervals, trigger a sound via a sustain or switch pedal, specify a zone for alternate bass playing...

In Harmony mode, you set the interval added to the played note (octave, two octaves, upper fifth, lower fourth, Power Chord 1 or 2), with an effect triggered by velocity (Slide Up or Down).

In Chords, you select the desired inversion (I to IV) or a rendering of what you are playing on the keyboard (Kbd knob). The latter sometimes causes some unreal chord changes. You define how many strings are played (from 1 to 6) and you still have the velocity triggered effect option (Strum or Slide). In Bass & Chord mode, there are the same inversion settings, but on only five strings, the sixth being dedicated to the bass line note. Alter Bass alternates fundamental and fifth and with Bass Mono you won’t be able to play two notes on the same string. In Bass & Pick mode, settings are the same, with the exception of the number of strings.

The Solo mode is strangely enough a... polyphonic mode, which lets you play chords or melodies. The chords will sound as played on the master keyboard, but will benefit from a guitar sounding inversion if triggered by the Repeat keys. If you allocate various playing techniques to Keyswitches and activate them (small yellow LED) and the KS mode (KS knob), it’s relatively easy to emulate realistic solo phrases in real time. Or by programming them if you’re not a good keyboard player. One nice detail: to quickly check what is active or not when in KS mode, if a Keyswitch is activated, a LED is added to the corresponding key, that key becoming blue when the Keyswitch is used. Please note that the KeySwitches are available in Solo mode only.

Bass & Pick Mode

Three triggering modes are available: Toggle (the KeySwitch remains active even if the key is released), Through (which allows the key to act as a KeySwitch and as a Repeat Key simultaneously) and Sustain (which adds the sustain possibility to the KeySwitch). MusicLab has done a great job on these features: you can activate the three modes at the same time, and the implementation has been done according to guitar playing limitations: you will not be able to do a bend on an open string or make slides from a note to another on two different strings.

Another strong point is the Floating Fret Position feature. You can place a virtual capo on the first five strings (right-click on the guitar neck), which is really handy when you only have a small MIDI keyboard. If you click on the Auto button, the capo will automatically place itself according to what you are playing. When manually activated, it doesn’t allow you to play under the capo limit.