[sdiy] MIDI to CV question - no Triggers?

[Michael Bacich]

On Mar 4, 2006, at 2:12 PM, Jason Proctor wrote:

>> This would not be an issue when using the MIDI-CV with a  
>> polyphonic MIDI guitar controller.  Although the guitar is a six- 
>> note polyphonic instrument, guitar strings are inherently  
>> monophonic. That is to say, on a guitar,  it is not possible to  
>> play two notes simultaneously on one string.  Or potting it  
>> another way, you can't "press down a second note without letting  
>> the first one up".
>
> oh but you can. changing fretboard position without plucking  
> another string is an exact analogue of holding two notes and  
> releasing the last played.

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.

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!

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!

MB


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