Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site rtech.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!lll-crg!dual!unisoft!mtxinu!rtech!bobm From: bobm@rtech.UUCP (Bob Mcqueer) Newsgroups: net.music.synth Subject: Re: MIDI controllers (Guitar Synth's) Message-ID: <590@rtech.UUCP> Date: Sat, 10-Aug-85 21:26:51 EDT Article-I.D.: rtech.590 Posted: Sat Aug 10 21:26:51 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 14-Aug-85 02:40:32 EDT References: <1726@saber.UUCP> Organization: Relational Technology, Alameda CA Lines: 68 > Of course, the real problem these days is that a corresponding box does > not currently exist for MIDI, to my knowledge. The only nonkeyboard controller > type in which there seems much commercial general interest is the electric > guitar - Roland and New England Digital (the Synclavier folks) have inter- > faces to MIDI, but are part of (e.g. Roland) or options for (Synclavier) their > synthesizer systems. My own instrument is guitar, and I am not happy with either > performance and/or price on both of these units. I myself was not terribly happy with the Roland unit's capabilities to price ratio either. I sent them a long letter with my criticisms for what it's worth. Another name to look into is "SynthAxe". Shortly after MIDI got going, they got themselves a MIDI id. I don't know what their status is these days, though. I can't seem to find their address right now (all I remember is that they're in London), but if somebody's real interested I may be able to dig it up. Or IMA will have it. > The basic idea on a violin or guitar synthesizer is to provide one pickup > (usually magnetic, so you usually can't use nylon or gut strings, etc.) for each > string on the instrument. Separate pickups for each string are necessary > because two or more fundamental notes playing at the same time will almost > invariably "confuse" the following pitch-extraction electronics. Yes, definitely. Given this, one of the things I disliked about the Roland unit was that it THEN merged all it's data into one midi channel. This might be what you want sometimes, but it seems to me that sending each string on a seperate (assignable) channel would be a very good feature - you can imagine something analogous to a "keyboard split" on your guitar neck, educational software which can realize what string you're playing a given note on, or tablature generation for the folkie types. > amplitude/trigger information may control either a local synthesis system, > be sent out over MIDI to another unit, or both. Trouble is, MIDI is a terribly keyboard oriented specification. They may call it musical INSTRUMENT digital interface, but it is clearly prejudiced towards keyboards. It does not have a good way of representing glissando, quavers, or semitones. The pitch wheel message is all you have, and it doesn't specify a standard step, requires continous update to affect a slide, and affects all notes which are playing. MIDI is going to have to be expanded somehow to adequately represent "shaking" a note on guitar, or playing one of those expressive sounding quavers on a violin. And MIDI can't be expanded without doing more piggybacking of further opcodes onto unused data bytes in the control message if you want to transmit a channel number with the status, or adopting some really ugly conventions to make use of the leftover "system" opcodes. The pitch wheel messages may be OK for a single voice instrument, but even there I have my doubts, and if you want your instrument to be able to drive another synth directly with pitch wheel messages, it better come equipped with a calibration setting to adjust how many pitch wheel steps there are per half step. By the way, I'm still working off of 1.0 spec., in case there has BEEN any standardization of pitch wheel increments, or new extensions which I don't know about. My apologies if I'm out of date. > ***** PERSONAL NOTE ***** : I am in the process of designing a hopefully > low-cost MIDI guitar synthesizer system. Still, ( FLAME ON!!!! ) WHY haven't > the major synth companies more fully addressed the nonkeyboard musician who > wants to play synth? I'd like some more competition out there when I get the > bloody thing built! If there are any aspiring guitar , violin, etc. synthesists > out there in netland, please let's start some dialogue in this newsgroup. Ok, let's. I'm interested in what you're doing. Bob McQueer amdahl!rtech!bobm