20 Feb
2004
20 Feb
'04
6:16 p.m.
On Friday 20 February 2004 21.27, Paul Winkler wrote:
On Fri, Feb 20, 2004 at 02:34:54PM -0500, Pete Bessman
wrote:
How about *recording* it instead of trying to emulate it? That is,
separate the excitation impulses from the string resonance, and use
that to drive a plucked string synth.
The next step would be to resynthesize the impulses. Not trying to
understand them or how they're generated; only replacing the sampled
audio impulses with something more compact, while still sequencing
them like percussion sounds or whatever.
At Fri, 20 Feb 2004 18:23:52 +0100,
David Olofson wrote:
if I were a synth, I would not be able to play guitar, lacking
fingers; but since I am myself, I can play guitar or synth
depending on what I want ;-)
I guess I misjudged the direction of the conversation.
I do think it's interesting to think about realistic synth
emulation of guitar, but not very practical - it's just so thorny.
Palm-muting is just one of the many tricky issues.
Think of the variables introduced by common picking techniques:
at the least you have to consider stiffness of plectrum (or
finger), force of pluck, and distance from bridge. > Tricky. To get crunchy hard-rock guitar
sounds like Pete's
> (nice track pete!), you'll have to realistically emulate
> palm-muting, which I've never heard in a synth. And how would
> you control the amount of muting? Map it to a CC and play a
> slider?
Don't think realistic. Think like a synth. If I was a synth,
how would I play guitar? Much more practical, I think, is to do as you
suggest:
invent synth sounds that capture something of the character
and attitude of a given guitar sound without trying to
duplicate it sonically.
Yes, that would be the first approach, given that it's really about
creating something that sounds good. Starting out with emulation
might be a good way of "inventing" new, interesting synth sounds,
though.
In fact, I'm more interested in finding expressive synthetic
alternatives to guitars than I am in accurately emulating guitars, or
any other instruments for that matter. However, if I can't hear the
exact sound I want in my head, the best bet is to start with
something that can at least serve the same purpose as that yet to be
heard dream sound.
Or I can just hope that I'm lucky and accidentally run into the next
Holy Grail(TM) of sounds. ;-) (Electric guitar, distorted guitar,
TB-303 filter sweeps,... what's next?). Even then, the chances are
probably a lot better when doing something. Doing insane and/or
generally weird stuff probably improves the odds. :-)
//David Olofson - Programmer, Composer, Open Source Advocate
.- Audiality -----------------------------------------------.
| Free/Open Source audio engine for games and multimedia. |
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