Harry's Rant was: Guitar synths (Don's rant)

[Don Tillman]

   From: "Theo" <t.hogers at home.nl>
   Date: Sat, 20 May 2000 12:18:45 +0200

   > I'm serious.  When you hear Miles Davis playing trumpet, are the
   > specific pitches he's playing the thing that sends shivvers up your
   > spine?  I doubt it.
   >

   Is it only the expressoin in the tones? I doubt that too.
   Melodie and pitch are a importand part of the expression.

Sure, having no control over pitch would be a mighty laughable
situation.  

But if Miles is playing, maybe just one note, you can tell it's him no
matter what note he's playing.  Same with Stevie Wonder playing
harmonica.  This is important.

What if the guitar synth doesn't get pitch accurately?  Well, a
guitarist might not get pitch accurately either.  If the guitar synth
missed the pitch in a musically useful way things would still be
fine.  That's the trick.

   > Look at what Roland did with their original technology guitar
   > synth. 

   This will not work with midi.

Right.  MIDI is completely inappropriate for guitar for about a dozen
serious reasons.  It's also completely inappropriate for voice,
harmonica, sax, and a lot of other instruments for similiar reasons.
MIDI was designed for a small set of keyboard operations and little
else.  I think it's important to keep MIDI in perspective.

  -- Don

-- 
Don Tillman
Palo Alto, California, USA
don at till.com
http://www.till.com