Electric Guitar Synth

[technominds]

Ive been trying for ages to make my own synth electric guitar sound... what, if at all do people use for a decent electric guitar synthed sound?

heres my attempt...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWjWACJGdaE

TM

[c7sus]

Check out the demo of the MF-107. It syncs a VCO/LFO to your audio signal and generates an envelope signal as well. Allows you to use FM to modulate the VCO as well.

http://bigbriar.com/detail.php?main_product_id=21052

The demo is just beneath the pic.

[technominds]

I was looking for a Synth for the keyboard to be able to play a realistic guitar sound on keys, not the reverse... but thanks for the link, very interesting!

[Farview]

The problem you run into is the way keyboard players form their chords.

A key player will play root, 3rd, 5th in the same octave. A guitar player will play root, 5th, octave, 3rd, 5th, octave.

A lot of times, all it takes for a more convincing sound is to play the part like it would be played on the guitar.

Another problem would be that on a keyboard, there is only one C3. On a guitar, there are several C3's and they all sound a little different.

[noisewreck]

1. Use Sync if you have synths capable of it (a lot of analogs and VAs do).
2. Use two oscillators tuned a perfect 5th apart, play low notes and put the whole thing through some nice guitar distortion pedal or something like Guitar Rig or Amplitube.
3. Do as Farview says.

[noisewreck]

Originally Posted by Farview

The problem you run into is the way keyboard players form their chords.

A key player will play root, 3rd, 5th in the same octave. A guitar player will play root, 5th, octave, 3rd, 5th, octave.

A lot of times, all it takes for a more convincing sound is to play the part like it would be played on the guitar.

Another problem would be that on a keyboard, there is only one C3. On a guitar, there are several C3's and they all sound a little different.

Agree 100%. As a keyboard player this has always been my biggest challenge. Not only chord voicings, but other gestures that are very idiomatic for the guitar such as slides, bends and such. It takes a lot of doing to pull it off on keys, just because the differences between the interfaces.

Finally: You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Farview again

[technominds]

What do you guys recon of my video then?

[DavidK]

Originally Posted by technominds

What do you guys recon of my video then?

I enjoyed it, you did a great job

I have a top secret technique for getting a good guitar sound on a keyboard: I get a real guitarist I cant do it, I dont have the skill or the mindset. You did very well, I couldnt do it as good. I just do crappy block chords.

[jpmorris]

Try and check out 'Return of the Giant Hogweed' by Genesis, on the 'Nursery Crime' album. The opening lines were actually done on a Hohner pianet. Someone had to point this out to me - most people naturally assume it's a guitar.

For myself, the closest I've managed to do are power chords using the 'Lounge Lizard' electric piano software with a strange custom patch I devised.
Probably my best example of the technique can be found here: http://www.dougtheeagle.com/adatpf/adatpf07.mp3 (This was one of my earlier songs, so be gentle)

I'll check out the video later.
**EDIT**
That's pretty amazing.

[noisewreck]

That's a pretty decent sounding patch! The LFO gets a bit... well... LFO-y if you know what I mean and you need to work on the chords and such (specially when you do bends), but the solo sound is really good.

[mixmkr]

nice vid. You need to check out some Jan Hammer stuff if you haven't already. I agree the LFO is too "constant" and you got a pretty heavy sawtooth wave form happening there... no "cream" in it to smooth it out. Put a square wave in with it, if you can.

However, as stated previously, it is totally in the playing imo. Maybe some more stacatto feel thrown in here and there for good measure... and bend UP to some notes as grace notes.... a dash of pepper, simmer to taste.

One last thought... your velocity setting seems set...like an organ. Make for some varying velocity settings...like how hard you hit the note, eh? And, to keep going, like these new fangled drum programs, as the velocity increases/decreases...the sound matches to it and changes accordingly also with its' sound.

You'd love Jan Hammer... His stuff with Jeff Beck is some of rock and rolls best imo.

[mikeh]

I spent years trying various synths and samples (and working on keyboard technique) to get relatively decent guitar parts from keyboards - after spending waaaay too much money and time I finally decided it could not be done well. Sure, ripping lead parts (ala Jan Hammer) are relatively easy to pull off (not in anyway to suggest Hammer is not a fine player) - but strumming, etc. simply can't be done well.

While I could always play some guitar - I did not have the chops or the tone to play "sessions". Trying to find guitar players when I needed them (and players who were not the typical "hey look at me I'm a guitar player" type) never seemed to work well for me.

I finally decided to spend the time (and money) learning to play guitar better and trying different amps & amp sims. It has turned into much more of an obsession than I had planned - but now, after buying several acoustic and electric guitars and going through various amps - I can finally get authentic guitar sounds.

While it may have been easier (and cheaper) to simply try to hire "session" guitar players - I wanted to be as self contained as possible. So, even though it took a lot of time and money - I am now a decent guitar player and have completely enjoyed the journey.

So - as DavidK suggests - the secret to tracking authentic guitar parts is indeed track real guitar parts.

[noisewreck]

Originally Posted by mikeh

So - as DavidK suggests - the secret to tracking authentic guitar parts is indeed track real guitar parts.

Or do it on the Korg KARMA