pitch to CV converter

[Tom May]

b 0 r <bor at arthur.avalon.net> writes:

> hi-- i'm new to the list, looking forward to seeing what comes my way...
> 
> my main impetus for joining here was my desire to build a monophonic analog
> guitar synth. most of the dedicated "guitar synth pedals" out there are way
> too expensive for what you get; the ones i *can* afford (EH microsynth
> reissue) just don't do it for me (i play keyboards too, so i guess i've
> been spoiled by sliders)... i note that there are numerous schems out there
> for simple CV controlled synths that would fit into a (large) stompbox.
> cool. now, the obvious problem is getting CV *into* such a device. does
> anyone have a recipe or a link to a schem for a pitch to CV converter? 

It's harder than it seems at first glance to take an arbitrary wave
and extract the pitch from it in a reasonable amount of time.  That's
why all the old guitar synthesizers are rumored to suck (I don't know
personally, I've never tried them).

What I have tried and can recommend (although it's expensive) is an
Axon guitar-to-midi converter driving a midi-to-cv converter.  The
Axon uses a neural net and works pretty damn well!  I use a JKJ-5
midi-to-cv converter which works great for keyboards but has a few
idiosyncrasies that make it less than ideal for guitar.  I was
communicating with the designer about some simple tweaks that would
make it better for guitar but I got out of touch with him.  I should
get back in touch . . .

Axon: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/bluechipmusic/
JKJ: http://www.tiac.net/users/jkjelec/

fTom.