In honor of the late Les Paul, MusicLab has introduced RealLPC (Mac / Win; $249 MSRP), a new virtual guitar instrument plugin that brings the virtual, next-best-thing-to-the-real-thing Les Paul Custom Guitar sound to your studio setup.

The sample-based virtual instrument models and emulates guitar techniques and makes them playable on a standard MIDI keyboard. RealLPC's performance modes (Solo, Harmony, Chords, Bass and Chord, Bass and Pick, Direct), simple keyboard layout, and advanced key / pedal / Velocity switch system allow users to perform guitar parts realistically, according to the manufacturer. Numerous Les Paul Custom sounds, articulations, and techniques are offered in this plugin, including mute, bridge mute, harmonics, pinch harmonics, unison bend, strumming, picking, chord chopping, scrapes, and more.

RealLPC is rife with the following technologies:

• Multichannel Layering Technology that incorporates a custom library of specially recorded samples taken from every fret of all six strings of a real guitar
• Floating Fret Position Technology that imitates fret position changes on the neck
• Guitar Touch Technology, which imitates basic guitar techniques (strumming, plucking, sliding, bending, muting, and so forth), using standard MIDI keyboard and MIDI controllers
• Sound Humanize Technology that reduces the "machine gun" effect on note repetition

In addition, RealLPC includes a Pattern Manager that contains the complete MusicLab Guitar Pattern Library for creating guitar accompaniment tracks. RealLPC ships with IK Multimedia Amplitube 2 DUO software. It can be played as a standalone instrument or as a plugin in VST, Audio Units, and DX instrument formats. For more details, visit MusicLab online.