>From: "Brousseau, Paul E (Paul)" <PaulBr@...>
>
>First off, appologies to Paul S. for my last e-mail-- I sent it before
>reading your request to stay on topic. My mistake.
>
>And now, drum roll please, some MOTM content! :) Last night I plonked down
>in my studio with the lofty goal of creating some kind of lead sound akin to
>a heavily processed electric guitar, at least in terms of the level of
>distortion, tone, sustain-character, etc. I ended up with a noisey bass
>patch that sounded really bad at higher pitches. Go figure.
Sounds much cooler than a boring old guitar sound to me!
>
>Does anyone have any ideas / hints on how to go about this? Part of the
>problem might be in the controller... a keyboard limited to velocity I
>suppose doesn't lend itself well. But at the same time, there isn't much
>controller interaction when you simply pluck an open guitar string-- it's in
>the strings refractions and the electronics / signal path. So, back to the
>question... any hints on the basic sound? How do I patch up a MOTM system
>to this effect? Thanks!!
>
I used to lust after Jan Hammer's lead synth sound, and tried mightily to
duplicate it. I believe his sound was a combination of Minimoog and SEM,
through a little flanging/chorusing and a heavily saturated guitar amp. The
envelope had a quick attack and initial decay, like the pick attack on the
string, and then a long and fairly high sustain. The sound itself was
probably pretty harmonically simple, with most of the character coming from
processing and distortion. The real trick is in the phrasing. You have to
think about how guitarists phrase their lines, how they bend strings,
things like hammer-ons and pull-offs, finger vibrato, etc. You have to
think like a guitarist (shudder)! I've done some fairly convincing
faux-guitar solos from my Nord Lead, through a fuzz box or a POD, but
generally, I'd rather just get a real guitarist.
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Dave Trenkel :
improv@... : www.peak.org/~improv/
"...there will come a day when you won't have to use
gasoline. You'd simply take a cassette and put it in
your car, let it run. You'd have to have the proper
type of music. Like you take two sticks, put 'em
together, make fire. You take some notes and rub 'em
together - dum, dum, dum, dum - fire, cosmic fire."
-Sun Ra
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