Looking for a Thesis subject

[jacobyjd]

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/LPDGBMNH/

I sat in on a demo at Sweetwater where they had this guitar running through a 6.1 surround system.

It offered some creative possibilities that would otherwise be impossible--1 effect for each string (if you want), infinite EQ possibilities, ability to edit out minor flubs easily, etc.

Uses CAT5 cable, packaged with software to cover any need you could want. (I'm not sure about the pitch-shifting, but once you have a separate track for each string, pitch shifting becomes easy, software-wise.

Very expensive, but very cool. Has the analog outputs you're looking for.

[levon]

This idea is something ive always wanted to do, have separate outputs for each string so i can put different effects on each one. hopefully something i say here might be helpful to you.
reiterating what has already been said:

The GK3 pickup has a separate audio feeds for each string, the GR-20 or 33 etc guitar synth pedals runs a pitch to MIDI conversion on each string, and uses midi to play GM sounds. i think the GR-33 you can even plug a mono guitar in, but it will only do pitch to midi mono-phonically.

Looking into the HD Gibson guitar.. and the new darkfire out in a few weeks (darkfire is basically the robot guitar and HD guitar built together and upgraded) these have separate hex pickups in the humbucker pickups, so you would get a tone very close to that of a normal humbucker.
Where as the Roland GK3 pickup is a single pickup for each string that goes right near the bridge of the guitar, so the tone would be very light and tinny. suitable for converting to a midi signal, but wouldn't sound that good direct. similar with a peizo pickup on each string, its not going to sound like a 'real' guitar.

Now the Roland VG-99 uses the same GK3 pickup, but has tone modification and modeling to replicate different pickups, or even synth sounds. so the sound of the pick up is what you are hearing, though heavily processed, and not MIDI.
The VG99 allows pitch shifting on each string, and a distortion prior to mixing down into 2 channels of effects. so you can re tune the guitar, distort each string individually for a cleaner distortion sound. then pan the string between 2 effects chains, and then mix them at the end, or pan left and right.
This allows say the EAD to have distortion and GBE to be clean with chorus and delay.

Putting effects on the natural guitar sound, one output for each string, and leave out the pickup modeling part for me would be the ideal solution.
The darkfire has a Break out Box like the HD guitar, but it also comes with Guitar Rig 3, and the BoB has a firewire interface as well, which i think is a good way of doing it, rather then needing to have 6 effects processors, one for each string.

separating 6 strings from a mono output, i think would be quite hard to do, and there would be quite alot of tone loss. as im sure you are aware, playing 2 guitar strings adds harmonics, and like has been stated before, how do you tell the difference between the same note on 2 different strings.

I came to the same conclusion as hoopshot, if you have a 6 individual piezo pickups, and a normal guitar pickup, you could use the piezo pickup to know which string is being played, and subtract it from the mono guitar pickup. i guess there would be a fair different tone between the pickups, but it could make it easier to determine what is being played.

[carrejans]

Hi guys,

Here a small update from my project.

I did a research for deviding the signal into the six signals. Conclusion: not possible yet!
I read a lot of papers (about 70) about doing this. With the most advanced algorithms, it is pretty good possible; but not in real-time.
There need to be made a lot of complex calcutlations, that require a lot of processor time.
If someone is interested, I can mail you the papers. (most of them are from IEEExplore)

I lost a lot of time doing this research. Now I changed the subject a bit.
I will just use a hex pickup; and focus more on the digital effects.
I probably going to focus on distortion. Why?
Because, not many guitarist like the digital distortions. Now, I read something interesting in some papers. They devided an audio signal into three bands (like treble, mid, bass); and then distorted them separatly. Then they joined the three distorted signals back together. The total signal was superior to a distortion on the whole signal.
I have to reread the papers; (it's been weeks that I read them; have had examinations in the mean time) but I think that if I will distort the six signals separately, I can make a better distortion then other digital ones.

I will see how long, this will take. I can also make delay and pitch shifters. Pitch shifter can be interesting too, I think.

Now I have to buy a hexafonic pickup.
I have a question. The midi pickups; do they also have six analog outputs, before they are converted into midi-signals? If so, I can use them, I think.
Do you think, that the hex pickup from the digital gibson is available separately?

If you guys are interested, I will try to keep you updated.

I will open a new thread, for the dsp development board I'm using. Think it can be interesting for other people too.

[carrejans]

I have a question. The midi pickups; do they also have six analog outputs, before they are converted into midi-signals? If so, I can use them, I think.
Do you think, that the hex pickup from the digital gibson is available separately?

Can anyone help me with this question? Can't find this info on the web.

[scaesic]

Secondly, isn't MIDI the standard on all of today's synthesizer systems or have I missed an innovation to replace that technology.

---------
Jimbo

yes, but networkprotocols are tipped to take over as midi is so archaic.

Check out http://opensoundcontrol.org/ protocol instead.

How about doing this for your thesis:

Write all your effects on a pc.

Get yourself a beefed up multicore computer that can handle realtime processingof multiple inputs.

Get yourself/make yourself an N (lotsof bandwidth) wireless lan receiver/transmitters.

Use network protocols to stream the digitised audio and compress it (you could do some fancy stuff here, is there a way you can send only "key" information, let the computer know what guitar and pickups you have, and have the computer "reconstruct" the full sound, and stream it real time wirelessly to pc running aformentioned effects.

Wirelessly send the processed data to a PA and a monitor.

Control effects parameters using another wireless foot controller.

Finally, get the computer to control effects for multiple instruments simultaneously, and stream the audio to Monitors and PA's.

Now you have a wireless band! no more wires trailing around the stage to snap/trip over! And now your band just needs to worry about having a pc and wan equipment ateach venue, no more effects pedals, heavy amps or drums to cart around!

You could also think about adding in multi-touch screen "Mixers" for each musician.

Now you have a wireless stage AND you've done away with the soundman!

One more idea - make yourself a device that produces a variety of noises/pulses and analyses the acoustic response of the room, then have apeice of software model the rooms acoustics exactly. Now you can sound like you're playing  guitar remotely and wirelessly in big cathedrals!

[carrejans]

Thanks for the tips; but I already started the project. I'm programming on a dsp development board from freescale. (it has 8 mono inputs) The board is called: Symphony SoundBite.

[carrejans]

I have a question. The midi pickups; do they also have six analog outputs, before they are converted into midi-signals? If so, I can use them, I think.
Do you think, that the hex pickup from the digital gibson is available separately?

Can anyone help me with this question? Can't find this info on the web.