Digital Guitars

[rabjet]

Ok, I'm working through my first guitar, being quite happy with the woodwork and shaping/fretting and all that good stuff, but I will shortly be freaking out as to what to do with electronics/pickups/everything else. The basics of the guitar are all nailed down, and it's decision time (almost).

A guitarist friend of mine was raving about Lou Reed's guitarist on their last tour using a digital guitar, with which he was capable of all sound output possibilities, and even modulation to replicate the sounds of other instruments. He claimed that using the Gibson digital system, only one guitar was ever needed (aside from an acoustic or spanish).

Is there any reality in this? I have looked in my native Dublin for suppliers (no luck), have looked on the web for more info (Gibson are even scant with information) and now I'm utterly confused. The idea of one guitar encompassing all styles and types of electrics (all things to all guitars - hee hee) is a wonderful one, but is it true?!? Also, if it is true, where the hell would I obtain a digital system?

Again, I'm confused,

Rabjet

[mledbetter]

I think lou reed's guy plays one of the Gibson MaGIC equipped guitars.. They are bleeding edge. It's a cool technology, Gibson developed a delivery system that pushes enough bandwidth to carry 32 realtime uncompressed audio channels through a standard Cat5 network cable.. They show prototypes of completely digital PA systems where you have a series of Cat5 cables replacing the good ole snake.. folks on the stage playing and the dude in the back with a touch screen monitor that has a powerful DSP managing a digital mixer, effects, routing, etc.. all in a digital environment.

The guitar, you can gind it at www.gibsondigital.com i believe.. is a les paul with the Cat5 output that lets you have complete control over each string in a digital environment. You could mess with stereo effects, plug into special effects units that work with the MaGIC interface that could let you make the bass strings sound like and acoustic and the high strings a lead solo tone.. the possibilities are endless.

Whats cool (and i'm of the camp that doesn't care much for gibson) is they developed this as a separate company and as a developer you can go get the developers kit and hardware resources to develop your own MaGIC based technology.. so as soon as it takes off it should proliferate the digital music and audio production world if it in fact does all that it claims to do.

The tech specs and some other things are at www.gibsonmagic.com It blew my mind the first time i saw it and I am a little worried that it hasn't caught on by now.. maybe something about the tech isn't ready for prime time. This has been going on for a couple of years.. But once someone comes up with a way to dump all the analog audio delivery mechanisms we rely on, i would bet it would be nothing short of revolutionary.. Probably more info than you wanted but i thnk it's a really cool idea they had. Much cooler than the midi guitar..

[jnewman]

It's a cool idea, and I hope they keep it up and get it working better and better - but I'm personally in the camp that says "maybe I'll try it once I hear a solid-state amp that sounds as good as a good tube amp." It's absolutely possible that there'll be a solid state amp that sounds as good as a tube amp eventually, but I haven't heard it yet, and at this point I feel the same way about digital guitars (and other instruments).

Feel free to yell at me for being old-fashioned. I'm not quite 20 yet, so I think I can handle it .

Edited April 20, 2005 by jnewman

[mledbetter]

Feel free to yell at me for being old-fashioned. I'm not quite 20 yet, so I think I can handle it .

←

lol.. i hear ya.. i'm the same way.. i'm all about digital recording though.. nice thing about the gibson digital and the breakout box is you can output to whatever you want.. It's just digitally carrying the audio signal.. at the end of the chain you can run through tubes, or into a modeling rig.. or into one of the fx units they are developing for this thing...

Also, 100 feet capability over Cat5 with no latency. That's another thing.. Cat5 is CHEAP.. it's a heck of a lot cheaper than standard guitar cable.. You got a short? No problem. just grab an rj45 connecter and crip it on and you've got a new cable.. @15-20c per foot, making patch cables and stuff would be cheap and easy.

My "geek" factor is really coming out here.. i'm a programmer and have been immersed in computers and networking for the last 10 years or so, so it's cool to see things come full circle.

I would eventually see this crossing paths with what Line6 is doing with the variax.. They are two different technoligies with two different end goals, but you pair digital audio transport with digital modeling and tone generation and you've got about as futuristic a solution as you can imagine. And again, the nice thing about the varix is it's only designed to affect the line level signal.. so you can still output to whatever you want.. I know it's new and unproven but I can't imagine how far along that stuff will be in another 2-3 years.

I guess in 5 years there will be no tuning machines because they aren't needed you just pick your tuning and key, your guitar model, your stereo separation and your effects and start jamming. lol.. (no tuning machines.. MasterMind won't know what to do with himself ) I am joking of course.. i don't really expect that to happen that fast, or that way - i feel the need to say that before i get flamed..

[stageleft]

My feeling on this is the same as my feeling on the variax. Part of what I get when I pick up a different guitar is a different feel. I have a different feel when I go from a tele, to a les paul, and a 12 string.......its not just about the sound, but the feel. And i kinda like it that way.

George

[Gorecki]

It seems many are missing the bottom line of Gibsons efforts. MIDI guitar has suffered in many ways primarily due to tracking issues and no one as of yet has been able to incorporate the feel guitar players are use to in a MIDI controller. AXON's unit is probably the best on the market for the money but still pricy when it comes down to the same old tracking variants. I've stuck with my Roland GK rig because I believe I've got it dialed in a way that the AXON can't really improve upon much. But man, if someone offered a pickup system that accurately conveyed the players expression in MIDI...I wouldn't care how much it was..I'd buy it!

I use MIDI A LOT to integrate instrumentation I would otherwise not be so proficient in playing. Maybe Gibson will be the one to break the barrier for those of us who want to compose and/or create music, not just guitar stuff!

Edited April 20, 2005 by Gorecki

[mledbetter]

It seems many are missing the bottom line of Gibsons efforts.  MIDI guitar has suffered in many ways primarily due to tracking issues and no one as of yet has been able to incorporate the feel guitar players are use to in a MIDI controller.  AXON's unit is probably the best on the market for the money but still pricy when it comes down to the same old tracking variants.  I've stuck with my Roland GK rig because I believe I've got it dialed in a way that the AXON can't really improve upon much.  But man, if someone offered a pickup system that accurately conveyed the players expression in MIDI...I wouldn't care how much it was..I'd buy it!

I use MIDI A LOT to integrate instrumentation I would otherwise not be so proficient in playing.  Maybe Gibson will be the one to break the barrier for those of us who want to compose and/or create music, not just guitar stuff!

←

well I can't comment on the midi area.. i have never ventured there.. but this gibson opens up a lot of possibilities.. not so much in midi but in recording, and in the versatility of the guitar's signal in processing.. I'm blown away by how this will revolutionize processing.. The sound man at a show could be doing everything on a PC with a big touch screen.. Racks of effects aren't needed.. The recording studio could be the same way.. all audio routed over Cat5 cables, all digital i/o, routing and mixing would be a breeze, and again, outboard effects would not be needed. Everything could be done on a virtual mixer.

I think that si the best thing about this, is it lets the guitar be itself.. You could just as easily have this installed in a strat or an ibanez.. whatever.. I would love to see what guitarists liek Vai, Satch, etc.. could do with some of this from a tonal/textural point of view.. Total control of stereo field, string level tone control, etc.. I'm sure it's a couple years out t least though before it gets any real attention.

[thedoctor]

Of course I am VERY old-school but I have been operating under the flimsy premise that ALL guitars were digital. I mean, Hendrix played with his tongue but the man was a genious! The rest of us are forced to using our fingers unless........better leave it right here.

[Kyle Cavanaugh]

I'm making a guitar that has flat frequency response magnetic pickups and runs through a specially designed analog filter than should in theory be a little more accurate on modeling electric guitars, at least as far as the pickups go. It will pick up and cancel out harmonics just like a normal pickup would because of what area of the string is being picked up. It's been a long road designing it, but I have less than a month to be done with it as it's my senior project for electronics.

Since the pickup design I came up with is hexaphonic (one for each string), I was actually thinking whether or not I could make a MIDI pickup that had better tracking this way, instead of with piezos, but that I'll have to save for later.