Newbie -Looking for machine translating guitar to other instrumenes

  • Thread starter Thread starter fig000
  • Start date Start date
F

fig000

New member
Hi,

New to digital recording. This could be a fairy tale but I was told about a machine that will take guitar notes and change them into realistic notes from other instruments in the final recording. If there is no such thing what would all of you recommend to record me and my acoustic guitar

I appreciate any advice.

Fig000
 
That sounds like a guitar with a MIDI pickup.
 
'Realistic' - you get what you pay for. Read all the sticky threads at the top of this section of the forum regarding computer recording. Read all you can about MIDI.
 
That's not really do-able in any meaningful or useful way. Technology is really great but not that great. There are devices that can convert pitch-to-MIDI but they have latency and tracking issues and require really precise playing in order to operate in a musical fashion. At best the guitar>MIDI converters are best for single-line leads or bass and really don't track chords all that well. You need to limit MIDI pitch bending in your sampled content to avoid ghost notes and stair-stepping.

You're really better off with a MIDI keyboard and getting some keyboard skills.

If you want to mess around with guitar>MIDI a good place to start is the Sonuus G2M. About $100US, maybe less now because I don't think these things ever really caught on. I have a first generation model and the tracking is pretty slow below the 9th fret or so. I play around with it every once in a while but have never tried to do any recording with it. It's fun to play a Moog Voyager with a guitar!

What would be way better IMHO is a pitch > Control Voltage that could be set at either .97v or 1-volt per octave. Even better if it also did Hz/octave. With a device like that you could play any of the monosynths. Again, the main drawback on any of these devices is the latency in making the conversion. If somebody could figure out a way to make these devices instantaneous you could play any MIDI or CV-controlled instrument with just about any other instrument. That would be far out.
 
Thanks for your answer. I had feeling you would say what you did. I have had limited experience with MIDI but I have always found it to be a bit tinny and not all that realistic. That was why I said that the machine I had heard about might be a "fairy tale". I heard a song supposedly recorded with it and the trumpets that were supposed to have come from a guitar routed through the MIDI interface sounded quite real. I am now thinking that I was misinformed or misunderstood.

My issue is that I don't have the time to spend on learning how to use loops to create realisitic sounding "instruments that aren't there". I have messed with fruity loops a bit but I am juggling to many things to put a lot of time into learning software. That was why I hoped there was a machine for me as opposed to DAW software.

Any recommendations for a machine? I've seen a few mentioned on digital music sites. If I end up recording just me and the acoustic guitar for a first CD it wouldn't be so bad.

Thanks again,
Fig000
 
There are two different ways that midi produced music can be called realistic. I think there's been a crossover here.

The 'performance' can be made to sound realistic through great use of an input device, or great programming.
I'm talking about things like timing, varied velocities, bends, natural deviations from 'the grid', etc,

or the sound of a virtual instrument can be realistic. By that I mean the virtual trumpet sounds like a real trumpet.

The software in use is entirely responsible for how realistic a virtual instrument sounds, in the latter sense.

It doesn't matter if you click and point, use a keyboard, or use a guitar with a midi pickup.
If you play a midi keyboard like a boss and trigger a yamaha MU50 trumpet patch with it, it's still gona sound like something outta Seinfeld.


To say that 'midi sounds tinny' doesn't work. I could use a midi keyboard to trigger the star wars sound track. It'll still sound the same.
Hope that helps.
 
fig000 said:
Thanks for your answer. I had feeling you would say what you did. I have had limited experience with MIDI but I have always found it to be a bit tinny and not all that realistic. That was why I said that the machine I had heard about might be a "fairy tale". I heard a song supposedly recorded with it and the trumpets that were supposed to have come from a guitar routed through the MIDI interface sounded quite real. I am now thinking that I was misinformed or misunderstood.

My issue is that I don't have the time to spend on learning how to use loops to create realisitic sounding "instruments that aren't there". I have messed with fruity loops a bit but I am juggling to many things to put a lot of time into learning software. That was why I hoped there was a machine for me as opposed to DAW software.

Any recommendations for a machine? I've seen a few mentioned on digital music sites. If I end up recording just me and the acoustic guitar for a first CD it wouldn't be so bad.

Thanks again,
Fig000
Click to expand...

Actually there are some pretty great sounding sample sets out there for a wide variety of instruments. The bummer is they ain't cheap. And then as Steenamaroo said you really need some programming skills to make them come off as realistic in a music production setting. Drums don't sound right if you're not a drummer. I'm a guitar player and don't know anything about drums. In the wind instruments I think the samples lack some of the breath sounds you would get from a real musician wailing on a solo. Stuff like that. Some guys like Danny Elfman and Mark Mothersbaugh can make MIDI-sequenced stuff sound as natural as a fuzzy little hippy girl. It takes time and talent.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top