ALT TUNINGs

would be nice to have a device to tune each string independently like the VG-8 has. Then stack the tuning boxes on top of each other for super power chords or odd harmony. each box would have a mix adjustment to allow the input tuning to filter thru, like the opacity slider on Studio Artist or PhotoShop.

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You'd need a guitar that can output 6 streams of audio from one pickup...

Gibson Digital can.

The issue is the same as it was with VG8 -- the need for an external pickup. Folks just don't like drilling holes in their guitars!

 

actually, you don't need to drill any holes when mounting the GK-2a pick-up. It has a good adhesive tape supplied.

 

Which unfortunately (from experience) makes the pickup much more prone to errors and general oddness in its ability to pickup signals.

I used GK's until I was endorsed by Brian Moore. The RMC system is a work of art...

 

A friend of mine had an idea for a product which I thought was an awesome idea. You know how Roland/Boss is now making those double-width stomp boxes with GK input? How about one of those that does nothing but the Alt-tuning functionality formerly in the VG-8 series. With say, 6 detented knobs on it to individually detune the strings up or down in half-steps. And maybe some preset save/ recall functionality. Nice and simple.

I'd buy that *and* a guitar just to use it!

 

The Variax guitars from Line6 (http://www.line6.com/products/instruments/) already gives you what you want then? They've been out a few years and promise a lot of 'VG8' stuff like alternate tunings, sitar sounds and the like, all built into the guitar itself, but I haven't heard from anybody's expereince whether it works well in the real world or not... Not that expensive either.

 

I've got a Variax already, and it works OK if you don't work in intervals that are too wide. It's optimized for open tunings that are +/- 3 half-steps from standard tuning. I like to tune in 5ths, and it doesn't quite hold up to simulating this from standard tuning. I'd like to see somebody put more attention/processing power into this specific feature.

Now that you mention the Variax, though, it reminds me that my proposed stompbox wouldn't work without at least one guitar simulation built into it - the piezo outs "dry" wouldn't sound like much. So probably not a feasible product after all.

 

Hmmm... - for intervals as large as a fifth (away from the sting's actual pitch) I don't think there is any technology that will deliver a good result. The sound will lose power, or at least sound funny somehow. If you have ever worked with a keyboard sampler (or any sampler for that matter), trying to set up a natural sounding instrument, you will have experienced that it loses its naturalness when you stray a way from the root sample with more than just a few semitones; hence you need multisampling. The attack curve or shape if you like and overtone spectrum is not constant on any real instrument like a guitar; it varies across the range. A pitch shifting algorithm can alter the fundamental frequency quite easily (although it's hard enough - just listen to the Oktaver in GR2 - ouch!), but it will take the attack shape and overtone spectrum with it from one range to another unaltered, and that will sound funny because those important sound components are literally out of place then. The result can be a cool effect for sure (I like it!), but it will never sound totally natural.