The steel guitar sound has a lot to do with how the original instrument is being played, physically. What you can do is to study how they are tuned and what strings are being slided and at what range to morph between chords. Then set up a Logic patch with several instruments on unique MIDI channels set to the appropriate pitchbend ranges (one set to 2 and a second set to 1 is usually good - and then of course a third instrument/channel for the 'strings' that won't be bended). This way you can get very close to the real thing. Pedal steel is a complex instrument, with foot pedals and knee levers that raise or lower individual strings in pitch.
In addition, it's played with a steel bar that can slide across the length of the fretboard. The volume pedal also plays a big part in the overall pedal steel sound. All of this makes it somewhat tricky to get a reasonable emulation going live via MIDI, though an acceptable result could be achieved with lots of MIDI Draw envelopes added after recording a basic pass.
MIDI track conversion to tablature capabilities, set up any tuning for any 6, 8, 10, 12, or 14 string guitar, up to 15 pedal/knee lever set ups per file or tuning, tab creation by simply clicking on the guitar strings, MIDI tab play back with guitar play along feature, convert tab to text file for easy emailing, and more. Feb 6, 2013 - Here's a short primer for this thing: A real pedal steel guitar has 10 strings. Bend a group of strings by using midi CC 64 (UP) and 67 (DOWN).
There are sampled pedal steel instruments for sale outside of Logic's built-in sounds, but they usually rely on 3rd party plugins (like Kontakt) which have scripts to render the pitch bends etc. Here's one for example: I haven't tried it so I can't comment on quality.
I dont know if this might help you. But band in a box in the long dim distant past i seem to remember might have such a patch. Its software that lets you build song ideas very quickly. There is something called a megapack that has god knows how many styles of music. Basically, what you do is choose a style ( ithink you can even build your own styles) and as the name implies it lets you quickly build a back up band in software.
Its very usefull for people who dont have other folks to play with. For example you can build a back up band using many different instruments.
In your case eg.drums, base, steel guitar,keyboard etc etc. I just dont know about the depth of steel guitar. Heres the link for biab. You might want to email pg tech support, and ask for details on the steel guitar patch and get lots of info.peace.hope this helps.
I think you could get there faster with playing slide guitar. It doesn't take long to get the basics down and if you use a real 'country' sounding tuning like E6 (E-B-E-G#-C-E, low to high) you can get instant gratification, especially with an electric played lap style. Otherwise.I'm a believer in an instrument speaking with its own voice.
If you want steel sound, play a steel. I know Roy Buchanan was famous for his 'pedal steel licks' but they would never fool a pedal steel player. They were just cute tricks (and, after all, RB was the king of cute tricks). Steve, As a long time steel guitar player (and studio owner) I think you will be hard pressed to find anything in the sample world that can convincingly emulate the sound of a steel guitar. You might consider sending a rough guide mix to a real steeler and have him lay a track on your song for you. Lots of great steel players have studios these days and could do this for you.
I might be able to help you, or you could check out the steel guitar forum on the net to find a player. You may even find one close to you. Players from all over the world belong to this forum. All the best, Tommy Detamore. I also play steel guitar (among other things) and have tried various things over the years to get midi to do steel work. The biggest problem of course is that the ear's clue to a steel guitar is the fact that two note or ten note chords involve some notes sliding up (pedals) or down (knee levers) while other strings drone the same notes.all at the same time.
Plus there's the effect of the continually moving volume pedal effects. A dobro or slide guitar ain't gonna simulate this. The most involved midi setup I came up with a few years back.that worked better than everything else I tried.was this. At least five sound modules or instances of soft synths.each set to a different midi channel (this is important). In the case of a gm setup, set one of the modules to receive a channel.say midi chnl 4. Set this module to be a clean electric guitar or jazz guitar sound. This is the attack part of the note.
Set a second module to the same midi channel.but set it for a nondescript organ sound. This is the sustain part of the sound. Balance the two sounds so that the clean gtr patch is slightly louder than the organ patch. Trigger these from a midi keyboard to test. Or have a couple of duplicate midi tracks of chords that pipe to these channels to trigger. Now.set two of the other synths to an entirely different midi channel.say channel 5.
Same sound scheme as above. These two together will handle 'up bending notes.
Finally, set up two more synths to a different channel.perhaps channel 6. Same sound scheme as above. These will be used for your 'down' bend notes. Overdub the various types of bends/drones/single note runs you need.although you'll have to spend some time listening to real steel parts on recordings to get the hand of how notes interact with each other.
With this monstrosity set up.and being a pedal steel player myself, I was able to think and overdub and create midi steel parts that were sorta close to the real thing. Of course, you have to know when to choke notes on sustaining chords while you overdub and bring in bending notes on the alternate channels. A little hard to explain.but any of you steel players will understand. Bottom line.this thing worked in the context of several songs I did years ago as experiments.
But I only tried it a few times because it was a whole lot easier for me to just play a real steel part rather than take the time to set that midi scheme up. Plus, no matter how you cut it, there is nothing that sounds like the real thing. Especially pedal steel guitar. In fact, if you're a guitar player, it might just be easier to use a volume pedal and simply overdub guitar parts using a similar overdub technique for droning and bending notes.