How to get a specific sound

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crochambeau
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Re: How to get a specific sound

Post by crochambeau »

Glass_Season wrote: Sun May 30, 2021 8:56 pm Dumb question, but is there any way I could plug 1 of those Sampling Keyboards, or any sort of Sampling device, into my guitar (or into pedals that are plugged into my guitar) and 'play' a short sound sample (like in the Ferris Bueller's Day Off scene with the cough noises) with my guitar?
Yes.

I'm a hardware person, so I will describe what is involved with hardware. I will assume it's easier (and cheaper, make no mistake) to do this with a computer.

Your guitar signal needs to turn into a MIDI command to drive the sampler.

This typically involves a hex pickup feeding frequency to note converter (Roland guitar synth, etc). There are more rudimentary engines to take a pitch and output a MIDI note, but response time gets sloppy when the little conversion engine is dealing with a full bandwidth sound (as opposed to a single string ala the hex pickup).

Now get a sampler that responds to MIDI, learn it, and map the sound you want to use to the note range you're playing on guitar, align the MIDI channels between the data send and sample receive and have fun. Adjustments to playing style/etc are probably going to be required.

It's not cheap. I'm not doing shopping for you, but shooting from the hip - given the spike in prices this past year for used music gear, I would expect to have to cough up about a thousand bucks to put something like this together from scratch.

There's probably a collection of free or cheap programs you can load into a computer that would only require you wrapping your mind around what it will take to get them all to play well together. But again, this is not my department and I have no advice beyond my plausibly misguided notion that such a thing "should" exist. They will still benefit from a hex pickup, which isolates each string into its own output.
When in doubt, add resistance.

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Re: How to get a specific sound

Post by Glass_Season »

UPDATE:
So I was messing around the other day and had an interesting breakthrough: The notes I was playing were intense, but not the sound I was looking for. The feedback between notes, however, often had the exact sound, pitch, that I was looking for.
I have attached a file w/ the pedal settings I was using.
I foolishly didn’t photograph my amp settings, but if I remember correctly it was the settings I usually use (Gain, Drive, Level, High Mid & Treble maxed; with everything else at 0).
So what next? If I can get that sound with feedback, how do I get it with the notes I play? Or were those results just a lucky fluke?
Note that since I last posted on here (besides the Boss DS1) I’ve gotten a Guyatone MD3, High Pass Filter & an Orgeldream Twinn Swegan ( )
Any thoughts, ideas?
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Re: How to get a specific sound

Post by Indeterminacy »

Glass_Season wrote: Thu Oct 14, 2021 6:47 am
Any thoughts, ideas?
An image of your guitar and amp(s) is required.
Volume is a fantastic thing,
Power and volume - Pete Townshend
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Re: How to get a specific sound

Post by crochambeau »

Yeah, the main problem with feedback on top of played notes is balancing the two threads (1 being your input signal, and 2 being a signal surfacing through latent instability/room energy (I'm talking physics, not hocus pocus))(((but that can help too if you're into it))).

In many configurations, the latent feedback flutter just exists because it's not being pushed by a signal, and when you plow your signal in that feedback becomes overwhelmed/guided by your intent.

The trick is to make the feedback strong enough to stand its ground, and fluid enough to interact with external source. I tend to fall back on doing this shit in the electronic domain via interwoven circuit sections and so forth, but it can be done with the room as an active element.

Doing it in the room is very rewarding, and very complex and fraught with issues if you fall outside your operational window (ie: play live or record at some unfamiliar facility). Of course, the more you surf the better you get.. I still like contained circuits. Easier to sell that stuff than to explain a lifetime of study. Plenty of ways to skin that cat.
When in doubt, add resistance.

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Re: How to get a specific sound

Post by Indeterminacy »

Everything Curtis mentioned is spot on.

Especially this:
crochambeau wrote: Thu Oct 14, 2021 9:22 pm The trick is to make the feedback strong enough to stand its ground, and fluid enough to interact with external source. I tend to fall back on doing this shit in the electronic domain via interwoven circuit sections and so forth, but it can be done with the room as an active element.

Doing it in the room is very rewarding, and very complex and fraught with issues if you fall outside your operational window (ie: play live or record at some unfamiliar facility). Of course, the more you surf the better you get
( small edit)


I tend to explore a room on occasion as Otomo Yoshihide demonstrated on "Modulation With 2 Electric Guitars And 2 Amplifiers".
Playing a space against 2 amplifiers fed by 2 hollow body guitars. High volume is essential in many cases. (See my signature.)
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Feedback is a wonderful thing when you find those frequencies where everything vibrates in sync or finding clusters of frequencies that develop. For me it was this concept but with 2 12 strings.

As for getting a specific sound for me it comes down to knowing what my gear can do. I finally know what my latest rig can do.
But every single system I use has to be capable of filling a room. With authority.
Volume is a fantastic thing,
Power and volume - Pete Townshend
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