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From: hedger@ada-uts.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.music.synth
Subject: Re: Re: MIDI controllers (Guitar Synth's
Message-ID: <30100005@ada-uts.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 15-Aug-85 09:04:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: ada-uts.30100005
Posted: Thu Aug 15 09:04:00 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 24-Aug-85 00:01:53 EDT
References: <590@rtech.UUCP>
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Nf-ID: #R:rtech:-59000:ada-uts:30100005:000:2016
Nf-From: ada-uts!hedger    Aug 15 09:04:00 1985


I am a synthesist(keyboard) who has been trying to gather information
about guitar/midi conversion for a bassist friend of mine....we're not
so interested in 'synthesized' bass as we are in converting the bass
to midi for the purpose of controllinga midi-equipped sampling
machine....the pitchrider mentioned in the response note to you
sounds good....just a couple more notes.......................
I am not (as yet) a member of IMA and have never delved into the
innards of the spec, but I did read somewhere that there would soon
be an update to the existing spec(not a new release) to stabilize things
like pitch bend information etc....as far as why none of the big companies
except roland are designing guitar synths??? I think the answer is
somewhat obvious....when Roland first came out with the guitar and bass
synths (gr-303???), very few people bought them. Granted they needed a lot
of work, but so did all synthesizers then(they still do!!!). However,
guitar players on the whole displayed very little interest in the product.
Roland went one step further with the gr-707 and tried to make improvements
despite the fact that the previous synths didn't sell well. Keyboard players,
on the other hand, bought the products and displayed an interest in furthering
the technology, consequently we've seen a real boom in the technology and
instruments available over the past few years...not to mention the steady
decline in prices for most products...I have as many problems with the big
instrument manufacturers as anyone and this isn't meant to sound like a press
release, nor is it a criticism of guitar players, but I don't think we are
going to see anyone producing affordable efficient guitar synths until
guitar players are willing to buy  products and support the development of
these instruments...I would be interested in discussing these as well
as any other topics of interest.....
****************************************************
Keith Hedger- Intermetrics
e-mail:ihnp4!inmet!ada-uts!hedger