Guitar synthesizer

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A guitar synthesizer is a musical instrument with synthetic sound generation. In contrast to the keyboard , the instrument is not controlled by a keyboard , but by strings , which allows it to be played like a guitar . Early instruments consisted of a control guitar (analogous to a keyboard) and the actual sound generator in a floor effect housing. The Japanese company Roland had several such combinations in its range in the 1980s, for example the G-707 control guitar and the GR-700 sound generator. In the mid-1980s, further development led to the guitar-to-MIDI interface, which generated a MIDI data stream using special pickups on the guitar.

SynthAxe (1986)

principle

For almost 30 years, manufacturers of musical instruments and studio equipment have been trying to bring solutions to the market that use different principles to convert notes played on the guitar into digital MIDI data:

MIDI guitars

MIDI guitars are special guitars that are only intended to digitally scan notes played and to deliver MIDI data. MIDI guitars can be played like traditional guitars, but most of the time they do not have real strings. The data is produced here by a large number of sensors that are present on both the neck and the body. The advantage of a real MIDI guitar is that a large number of MIDI parameters can be interpreted directly when playing, the latency times are comparatively low and a MIDI guitar is more cost-effective than solutions to make real electric guitars MIDI-capable to retrofit.

MIDI pickups

Various manufacturers offer special pickups for standard electric guitars and basses, which, depending on the design, are either screwed on or glued under the existing pickup. The additional pickup is connected by cable to a converter box that is attached to the body of the guitar. However, the pickup does not yet digitize the string vibrations, but only samples them individually to produce an audio signal that can be digitized very easily. If a MIDI pickup is used, an additional converter is required to produce the actual MIDI signal. Alternatively, a special synthesizer can be used that has an input for MIDI pickups. The advantage of this solution is that almost any electric guitar can be retrofitted with MIDI capability and, despite retrofitting, it can still be played like a conventional electric guitar. Current MIDI pickups are also often designed in such a way that they can be easily removed and then installed on another guitar. The disadvantage is that this is a very expensive solution. While MIDI pickups including converters can be purchased for 100 euros, the necessary converter is rarely available on the market for less than 500 euros. Synthesizers that can directly process the signal of a MIDI pickup are not available for less than 1,000 euros.

MIDI converter

As the most cost-effective solution, converters are available for less than 100 euros that scan the analog sound signal of a guitar in order to generate MIDI data from it. Special or modified guitars are not necessary for this. Disadvantages are the high latency times and the fact that only single notes can be converted into MIDI data and not chords. This solution requires a lot of patience on the part of the player and usually does not allow conventional guitar notes to be played on a synthesizer.

The guitar synthesizer converts the vibrations of the strings into digital sound information ( MIDI ), which a (built-in or external) synthesizer can convert into almost any sound.

application

The area of ​​application is the same as that of the "normal" synthesizer , only that the possibilities are also open to the guitarist and not just the pianist or keyboardist . So you can imitate real instruments / sounds with a guitar or create fantasy sounds. The guitar synthesizer can thus be used as an alternative to the keyboard. Often a synthesizer sound is mixed in with the normal guitar sound, which creates a kind of unison . Also MIDI -Einspielungen in sequencer - and music programs are possible with a guitar-to-MIDI converter such as the guitar synthesizer is also called.

Many guitarists see the guitar synthesizer as a useful tool that offers a variety of possibilities for sound generation. Pat Metheny saw this as an opportunity to approach sound synthesis in a way comparable to that of B. Saxophonists tried it with the Lyricon or other wind players with the EWI (Electronic Wind Instruments) transducers from Akai. Others see the connection between guitars and digital technology as an insurmountable paradox .

Restrictions on use

Since electric guitars deliver an analog output signal, whereby the vibrations of all strings are transmitted on one channel, it is difficult to recognize and convert the individual notes of a chord . So you need a hexaphonic piezo pick-up , which picks up the vibrations of the strings individually. This is mounted on the guitar and connected with an extra cable to the guitar synthesizer or to a polyphonic instrument-to-MIDI converter. As an accompanying effect, such an additional pickup output delivers a guitar signal that comes along with an almost acoustic touch even with a solid body guitar. The mixture between magnetic and piezoelectronic pickups can be found, for example, as a permanently implemented feature of various guitar models from the manufacturer Parker.

Another problem is what is known as tracking . The vibration of the string must first be converted into a MIDI signal. This requires computing time, which means that the sound is still slightly delayed, even with modern devices. The pitch of the note played is crucial. The deeper the tone, the higher the latency between the struck string and the synthesizer sound. As a result, fast tone sequences can sound choppy or unclean. It also makes it difficult to have correct timing in the game. The detection of so-called bends does not always work properly either.