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Re: Guitar synth..take it (or leave it ) for what it is



Gotta agree with Kim here, given that the ideal MIDI guitar control
would be one that feels and behaves like a guitar, but give MIDI output.
After all, keyboard players don't have to relearn how to play the
instrument just to play synths, and neither should guitar players. As a
mostly fingerstyle guitar player, as much as I lust for a MIDI
controller, nothing I have ever played is even close to acceptable. It
has nothing to do with sounds, but with how well the controller itself
works. I actually had a brief discussion with Kim about this at NAMM, as
we both agreed (or at least I got the impression we did) that the only
way to get around some of the basic limitations of a guitar controller
is to wire the frets for initial pitch information, then morph over to
the string vibration for dynamics and other such esoterica. We're
talking about a pretty expensive toy, here, (wiring underneath a
fretboard and the like, possible with segmented frets so each string has
its own trigger is no trivial task) as no pitch to MIDI (or pitch to
voltage) conversion is EVER going to track smoothly and quickly enough
to be more than a curiousity. At least for me, and I've tried just about
everything that's out there at this point.

George

Kim Flint wrote:
> 
> >At 12:02 AM 02/14/2000 -0600, you wrote:
> >>
> >>   Well guitar synth,pretty much my subject, I agree with Kim, forget 
>about
> >>trying to sound like other instruments,I turn my guitar signal into a
> >
> >actually..(correct me please Kim??)-- i feel what's unfair about Kim's
> >response is he IS rating guitar synth via sounds that never will work
> >"well" on them -like sax, trumpet, ac gtr, etc(and indeed-depending on 
>your
> >musical needs, they may)
> >
> >by this formula:
> >
> >a violin sucks-since one don't sound so good doing the intro to 'pinball
> >wizard'
> >
> >a piano sucks-- trying to cop all those bernie worrell lines on
> >'flashlight', or the emerson solo at the end of 'lucky man'
> >
> 
> no, that's absolutely nothing at all like what I was saying. That's just
> what you decided I said so that you could make some other commentary.
> 
> you do recall that I spent 3 years of my engineering career working on 
>what
> was supposed to be the be-all and end-all of guitar synths? When I say 
>they
> all suck, it's a technical commentary on the technology.
> 
> kim
> 
> ______________________________________________________________________
> Kim Flint                   | Looper's Delight
> kflint@annihilist.com       | http://www.annihilist.com/loop/loop.html
> http://www.annihilist.com/  |