In the early 1960s Rickenbacker® history became forever wedded to one of the biggest music upheavals of the 20th century: the invasion of the mop-top Beatles from Liverpool, England. The Beatles created unprecedented, international interest in Rickenbackers.
John Lennon would own at least four models, George Harrison's double-bound 360/12 (the second one made by the company) defined a new tone at the other end of the audio spectrum. Its ringing sound embellished "You Can't Do That", "Eight Days a Week", "A Hard Day's Night", "Ticket To Ride" to name just a few.
Jim McGuinn made the bell-like quality of its tone the foundation of the Byrds' early style. The Who's Peter Townshend, Creedence Clearwater Revival's John Fogerty, Steppenwolf's John Kay, and many other well-known 1960s guitarists became faithful Rickenbacker® users. Groups like Oasis, Pearl Jam, Radiohead, U2, and other of today's top acts include Rickenbacker® guitars in their musical arsenal. Rickenbacker® is the principal guitar of artists such as R.E.M.'s Peter Buck and Against Me!'s Laura Jane Grace, and many others.

REALRICK - sample-based virtual instrument with an innovative approach to guitar sound modeling and guitar techniques emulating on a standard MIDI keyboard.

RealRick provides incredible playability based on the unique performance modes and easy-to-use keyboard layout as well as the advanced key/pedal/velocity switch system allowing a keyboardist to perform guitar parts with a whole new level of realistic expression. RealRick covers practically all sounds, articulations, and techniques a professional guitarist can produce on his Rickenbacker®, including mute, bridge mute, harmonics, pinch harmonics, unison bend, strumming, picking, chord chopping, scrapes, and much more...

24-BIT 96 KHZ - high quality dry samples recorded directly from pick-ups let you easily create any desired guitar sound using your favorite amplifier simulator.

• 6-string - Mono
• 12-string A - Mono, 3rd string pair tuned in OCTAVE
• 12-string B - Mono, 3rd string pair tuned in UNISON
• 6-string (Stereo/Double-track):
  - full Stereo (emulates 'Rick-O-Sound' stereo output) when used in RealRick single output version
  - double tracked patch when used in RealRick two output versions
• 12-string A and B (Stereo/Mono):
  - main (sustain) sound is Stereo (6/6 strings split), additional sounds/noises are Mono
• 12-string A and B (Stereo/Double-track):
  - full Stereo (emulates 'Rick-O-Sound' stereo output) when used in RealRick single output version
  - double tracked patch when used in RealRick two output versions

REALRICK INNOVATIONS:

• Multi-channel layering technology, incorporating a custom library of specially recorded samples taken from every fret of all 6 strings of a real guitar.
• The unique Floating Fret Position technology, which imitates change of fret position of a guitarist's hand on the neck. This gives you the possibility of playing on up to 140 guitar frets using just 46 keys of a standard keyboard!
• Guitar Touch technology letting you easily imitate basic guitar techniques (strumming, plucking, sliding, bending, muting, etc...), using standard MIDI keyboard and MIDI controllers, such as Pitch Bender, Modulation Wheel, Sustain Pedal, Aftertouch.
• Sound Humanize technology allowing to wholly reduce 'machine gun' effect on note repetition (tremolo, strumming, plucking, etc...).
• Guitar Rhythm Pattern technology providing powerful Pattern Manager completed with huge MusicLab Guitar Pattern Library for easily creating guitar accompaniment tracks. All you have to do is to find the appropriate rhythm pattern(s) in the Pattern Manager tree view, copy it to the needed number of measures, start your sequencer and use MIDI keyboard to play chord changes, or alternatively add chords to a MIDI track via sequencer's editor.
• The unique Struminator technology letting you use alternative MIDI controller (standard Guitar Hero game controller for Sony Playstation 3 by Activision Inc.) for creating authentic guitar accompaniment parts with ease and fun. 

These technologies allow to closely emulate live guitar sound and performance, letting you create guitar parts with a whole new level of realistic expression.