Prototype for polyphonic Guitar-Synthesizer finished

[MCCY]

Couldn't resist. At least it "works".


LISTEN
http://www.planetz.com/phpBB2/download.php?id=2863

The non polyphonic version works MUCH better so far.

Non polyphonic: http://www.planetz.com/phpBB2/download.php?id=2858

[Neutron]

Thats cool, i am thinking of making a synthesizer for guitar to midi setups, 1 chan for each string. more to compliment the gutar sound and do pads though due to guitar to midi slowness (on my vg-99 anyways)

by the way those single string pickups you made, are they just some magnet wire wrapped around a screw or something? how many winds and what gauge?

[MCCY]

Cool, that other people expand that Scope-guitar-topic too!!!

Neutron, nice to finally have a little chat with you! I have a dozen of those coils as I once ordered wrong stuff from an electronic-shop. I kept them in a small box and now remembered... I also thought about a line6-ish solution with piezos, but as I need as much bottom & less high mids as possible I thought it would be easier this way. They fit perfectly in size & I was surprised how much and "nice" sound comes out! Don'tr know how they were called though...

One of the main problems seems to be kicking the gate for OSC while playing guitar the dirty way. Monophonic it works nearly "perfect", the polyphonic needs some adjustment.

MIDI is exactly the next step I have in mind. I think it shouldn't be difficult with the monophonic version. After that we'll see. Polyphonic is more an experiment - if I really want it I'll buy some roland stuff too, but the monophonic version really pleases me & it's really fast!

Martin

B.T.W. If I'll ever release it: I used your joystick xy fader in the Gu2Ba synthesizer which was finished before the Gu2Sy b.t.w. THANKS FOR THAT!!! It's a bass synthesizer named KNOTOR originally.

[pollux]

Cool, that other people expand that Scope-guitar-topic too!!!

+1

I'm finishing setting up my home studio and will start playing with these babies with my guitar and bass..

setups like:

guitar -> pre -> input -> compressor -> synth -> dynatube MB (driven like a mad) -> delay -> output -> actual tube head -> 4x12" -> bleeding ears

[astroman]

...One of the main problems seems to be kicking the gate for OSC while playing guitar the dirty way. Monophonic it works nearly "perfect", the polyphonic needs some adjustment.

MIDI is exactly the next step I have in mind. I think it shouldn't be difficult with the monophonic version. After that we'll see. Polyphonic is more an experiment - if I really want it I'll buy some roland stuff too, but the monophonic version really pleases me & it's really fast!...

pretty cool
actually one can use whatever coil (or combination of coils) is available and there will be some usable output... some more, some less.
but for midi note detection the single piezo elements under the strings seem to have some advantage. Afaik they aren't expensive at all, but you may have to change your bridge...

with one coil per string you have essentially the same as a Roland hexa-coil
if you feed it to a multi-channel input, you should be able to do 6 mono note detections, and that's poly then.

cheers, Tom

[Neutron]

Those coils were nice and big though. and they are going to be output rather than input device. (think of an "e-bow" for each string with a key or button and its own amplifier) i already have an old roland hex pickup for the input.
maybe i will even make the keys triggerable from MIDI for some robot guitar

[paulrmartin]

An Ebow for each string! The mechanism would probably be quite bulky if you want to take advantage of all this device's capabilities. I am mostly thinking of the pseudo slow attack when gliding towards the rhythm pickup to get that extra distortion and volume. How would you control the separate strings if you want each string to have this effect at different times as in an arpeggio?

Nice idea though...

[Shroomz~>]

Nice gaffa tape there Martin.

[Neutron]

An Ebow for each string! The mechanism would probably be quite bulky if you want to take advantage of all this device's capabilities. I am mostly thinking of the pseudo slow attack when gliding towards the rhythm pickup to get that extra distortion and volume. How would you control the separate strings if you want each string to have this effect at different times as in an arpeggio?

Nice idea though...

Not really that big. the guitar does not need its pickups any more since it is only ever used with VG-99, and there is lots of space under there. the slow attack is being adressed as well. the main reason ebow is so slow is mainly because it just a very low power necessary to work for a reasonable amount of time with a 9 volt battery.

There is power coming in from the vg-99 cable, which will be used to power some more beefy op-amps (line amps actually) and the attack will be a pulse sent when the key is hit(for a sharp attack) or a low rise (for slow attack)hopefully based on velocity if i can figure it out without much extra circuitry.

btw i looked at the e-bow patent. it is just a pickup, an opamp and another transducer to feed the wave back in to the string. the "harmonic" mode is just a rectifier diode.

each transducer would be controlled by a button or key placed somewhere (i havent decided yet) easy to use but not interfere with regular playing, and how to deal with the whole 5 fingers, 6 strings thing .

so if you wanted to play an arpreg or chord. you just finger the strings you want and hit the appropriate keys.

[PsySamurai]

Lemme get this straight:
you're using a single chord coil to act as a transducer to feed a midi brain and extract midi notes to play a synth in scope?

[Neutron]

Lemme get this straight:
you're using a single chord coil to act as a transducer to feed a midi brain and extract midi notes to play a synth in scope?

no each string has its own pickup

[PsySamurai]

So, 6 pickups feed 6 jack inputs into midi brain into midi to control cw synths?

[Neutron]

no the roland hex pickup only uses one jack, its a (lot of pins 13 i think) DIN plug, most midi and DSP guitar controllers use that now. the pickup itself is actually smaller then a normal single coil, but usually you have a big chunk of plastic with a knob and some buttons, and the output jack. it sits behind the strings. Fender does make a strat with all that stuff built in, as well as Godin and probably some other guitar makers.

the DSP in the VG-99 does its work separately on each string, which is DSP and realtime and why its better than line6 or any of those amp modellers . it also happens to have a MIDI out which sends data on seperate channel for each string.

you can send them to scope synths or whatever you like.

however guitar to MIDI is not instant and you cant play sounds with a fast attack, especially on the lower strings it takes a couple of cycles to detect the frequency.

Ther is a guitar to midi controller with much faster response than anything else, it has some patented way to extract the note from the attack of the note. its called axon, (now owned by terratec) unfortunately the new one is USB

i like to use the guitars attack, and then use a synth for the sustain part.

[YiannisK]

Axon 100mk is the one I use along with a godin guitar and the latency is great even with really fast picking.

Never tried the usb model but I'm sure it's just as good

[MCCY]

Happy to see all this nice informations about Guitar2Synthesizers! Glad to have started this Announcement!

[Neutron]

doh how to delete?

[Neutron]

Axon 100mk is the one I use along with a godin guitar and the latency is great even with really fast picking.

Never tried the usb model but I'm sure it's just as good

I was tempted to get one. i really like G2M i just dont like any more USB stuff thanks it starting to interfere with one another.
i see non usb ones on ebay now and again though.

couple of q about it,
is it really as instantaneous as they say?
and can it output seperate chan for each string?