<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><BR><DIV><DIV>On Mar 4, 2006, at 2:12 PM, Jason Proctor wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">This would not be an issue when using the MIDI-CV with a polyphonic MIDI guitar controller.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>Although the guitar is a six-note polyphonic instrument, guitar strings are inherently monophonic. That is to say, on a guitar,<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>it is not possible to play two notes simultaneously on one string.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>Or potting it another way, you can't "press down a second note without letting the first one up".</FONT></P> </BLOCKQUOTE><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><BR></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">oh but you can. changing fretboard position without plucking another string is an exact analogue of holding two notes and releasing the last played.</FONT></P> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR><DIV>There are two issues at work here: 1. Notes that are played legato (as you described), either by hammering-on or by sliding without re-picking, and 2. Notes that are played on two different strings at the same time, whether arpeggiated or played simultaneously. What shall a monophonic MIDI to CV converter do in each of these two cases? Please read my second message to DAF on the subject for a more detailed discussion of the problem. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Regarding semantics, I can see how my paraphrasing of someone else's statement "you can't press down a second note without letting the first one up" could be misconstrued. To be more clear, I should have rewritten it as "you cannot sound a second note without stopping the sound of the first one" -- since a single guitar string is inherently monophonic, regardless of your picking technique. Which is another way of saying what I first said: On a guitar, you cannot play two notes simultaneously on one string. You didn't think I was unaware of hammering and sliding, did you? Pat Metheny, modern master of expressive legato guitar technique, is one of my all-time heroes!</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>And yes, I do realize that if one picks just right (or wrong), that one can sound both a fundamental and one of its harmonics and clearly hear them both at the same time (a la Billy Gibbons, etc). This, indeed, is one of the real-world problems that pitch to MIDI and pitch to CV converters have to deal with. This doesn't mean that guitar strings are sometimes not monophonic -- they always are. They're simply single oscillators with a beautifully complex and expressively dynamic harmonic structure. If only VCO waveforms could respond so dynamically!</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>MB</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV></BODY></HTML>