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Forget The Electric Guitar, It's Time To Go For The Digital Guitar
from the analog-is-so-last-millennium dept
Growing up, I always thought the coolest thing my father owned was a beautiful Les Paul Gibson electric guitar. The famous electric guitars really haven't change all that much over the years since they were introduced, but they're finally catching up to the digital age. Gibson is getting ready to start selling a digital version of the guitar. It looks and plays like a regular Les Paul, but the sound is sent out digitally, making it easier to manipulate. Instead of regular audio cables, you'll plug in an ethernet cable (no WiFi?). Of course, some traditionalists are upset, and others point out that people will need all new equipment to use such a digital guitar. Among the features of the guitar will be the ability to upgrade the guitar as the digital offering improves. My first thought on reading this, though, was how soon it would be before someone hacks their guitar. We no longer need amplifiers that can go to 11, because we'll just be able to overclock our guitars.
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The future of guitars.....
Beyond the Gibson offering, there are other mutant strains of guitar-like instruments for the PC. For example, there is Slayer 2 by reFX, a "plug-in" for Cubase virtual studio (among other digital audio workstations) which uses mathematical models (called physical modeling) of guitars to produce its tones.
Beyond physical modeling, there have been great advances in software sampling technology in the last few years, as well as a new wave of MIDI guitars which can result in unbelievable realism from a completely synthetic environment. Now anyone with rudimentary knowledge of chord structure can create complex and expressive (not necessarily realistic) guitar lines right from the desktop.
Websites of note:
www.refx.net (Home of Slayer 2)
www.nativeinstruments.com (kontakt softsampler rules)
www.sampletank.com (as does sampletank 2)
www.steinberg.net (to find out more about VST "plug-ins")
www.starrlabs.com (makers of the best MIDI guitars available)
www.plugsound.com (makers of "Fretted Instruments" VST-plugin)
www.sonicimplants.com (Their "Amps & Pickups" line are some of the best guitar sampler patches around)
ATA
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Les Paul Gibson Guitar
I still have the guitar and even play it on rare occasions. It's now a collectors item so I'm pretty gentle with it.
Mike's Dad
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