guitar synth (r. barnett)

[1878]

Has anyone been successful with this...

http://www.epanorama.rackhost.net/schematicsforfree/Audio/Musical/Circuits/Guitar%20Synthesizer.pdf

There's a few posts knocking about but I haven't had much joy from them.

Thanks everyone.

[StephenGiles]

Completely and utterly useless I'm afraid. Don't waste your time.

[1878]

I did have a go at this not too long back and I got some sort of noise out of it. The tracking was terrible but the noise itself was pretty cool and synthy. Problem being, you'd play an A on the B string then a C# on the low E string and they'd both sound near identical ?!?!

Shame really

I'm thinking of building Tim Escobedo's PWM. Can anyone suggest any other synthy type effects. I've built the UglyFace (love it) so that sort of distorted, filtered madness is well and truly catered for. I'm after something more... clean and synthy ??

Thanks again.

[Radamus]

Can anyone suggest any other synthy type effects. I've built the UglyFace (love it) so that sort of distorted, filtered madness is well and truly catered for. I'm after something more... clean and synthy ??

I had a topic about this a while back (search "synth sound"). What most people recommended were the PWM, The Ugly face (which you've already built), the bazz fuss, and the blue box. The problem with guitar synth is that you can't easily control a synth sound from a guitar without problems. At best, you can play one note at a time. Your best bet is to find a fuzz that you like. I recently breadboarded the PWM and I really loved it. I don't know of anything softer.

[gijimmbo]

buy a roland synth module and the midi pickup.  lol        

[1878]

buy a roland synth module and the midi pickup.  lol        

To be honest, I'd thought of that too

I found this last night...

http://musicfromouterspace.com/analogsynth/GUITARSYNTHAUG2007/GUITARSYNTHAUG2007.html

It's exactly the type of thing I'm after. I'm gonna cost all the bits and bobs when I've got a bit more time. There's a lot of work involved, but it's not something you can get off the shelf so to speak. I shall ponder over the weekend.

Thanks again.

[DougH]

EH did some sort of analog "guitar synth" kind of thing and I think the schematic is floating around here somewhere. Don't remember what it is called, they may have it written up on their website. I believe it is only monophonic (and it would not be a trivial build).

Another idea, depending on your budget, is to just get a HOG, POG or mini-POG. I don't think the mini-POGs (if that's what they're called, can't remember) are that expensive. Think of a guitar synth as a series of building-blocks: this would give you the basic octave extracting/generating capability (polyphonic too, which is really handy), then you could add your own fuzz/distortion, delay, phase/flange/modulation etc to taste. It won't take much before it sounds very synthy. Just a mini-POG, distortion and delay would be a real effective minimal setup IMO. Combine this with an uglyface or PWM and now your talking.

One thing I think is nice for a synthy sound is a sweepable low-pass filter that is operated by a pedal. The HOG already has this built in but I'd be surprised if there wasn't a diy project of some sort that addresses this, or addresses something that could be modded to provide this. Pitch shifting comes in handy too, which could be covered by something like a whammy pedal or a PS-5. The thing is to build it up in small affordable pieces according to your taste and budget. It could be a mixture of diy and affordable commercial gear. And I would definitely start with a polyphonic core- being stuck in "mono land" would not be very satisfying (to me anyway).

[rhys]

One thing I think is nice for a synthy sound is a sweepable low-pass filter that is operated by a pedal. The HOG already has this built in but I'd be surprised if there wasn't a diy project of some sort that addresses this, or addresses something that could be modded to provide this.

Anybody know of anything like this.  Could you just use a simple booster circuit, add a normal guitar control low-pass filter on it and use a wah pot as the filter controller?  Or could you take an envelope filter, cut out the envelope section and replace it with a pot?

[StephenGiles]

"EH did some sort of analog "guitar synth" kind of thing and I think the schematic is floating around here somewhere. Don't remember what it is called, they may have it written up on their website. I believe it is only monophonic (and it would not be a trivial build)."

It was the Rack Mount Guitar Synth, which contained a superb fundamental extractor, and the tracking was very good, albeit monophonic as you say. As to the build - it depends upon your point of view. When I built it (on veroboard), I was between marriages and lived on my own, so I was able to concentrate without interruption. Not that I'm suggesting you get divorced or anything, but the circuits are not for beginners!

[DougH]

Sounds like a new expression is born:

"This is circuit is so complicated it will require a divorce to finish it"...

[DougH]

Anybody know of anything like this.

My guess is to build a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th order active low pass filter circuit which allows the cutoff frequency to be controlled by one resistor. Use a pot for the (variable) resistor, install in a wah shell, and you're done. Or use a voltage controlled filter (VCF) with an expression pedal input to control the voltage. But I'm just thinking off the top of my head without enough coffee yet this morning...

[StephenGiles]

Sounds like a new expression is born:

"This is circuit is so complicated it will require a divorce to finish it"...

If you can't have marriage sunny side up, try deeeeevorce over easy!

[slideman82]

Completely and utterly useless I'm afraid. Don't waste your time.

I don't like those 4007's buffers... wouldn't be better a 4049 instead of it?

Oh, why is completely useless? How does it sounds? Perhaps with a mix circuit between synth and clean signals would sound better.

[flo]

Sorry about being a bit off topic but these guitar-2-midi converters are great:

Yamaha G50 (used Axon technology, a old one already but works fine with great tracking perhas can be found second-hand)
http://www.yamaha.com/yamahavgn/CDA/ContentDetail/ModelSeriesDetail/0,,CNTID%25253D1143%252526CTID%25253D208500%252526CNTYP%25253DPRODUCT,00.html

Terratec AXON AX50 (same sort of technology as the Yamaha G50 but is new)
http://www.terratec.net/en/products/AXON_AX_50_USB_1808.html
http://namm.harmony-central.com/WNAMM07/Content/TerraTecProducer/PR/AX-50.html

[1878]

Completely and utterly useless I'm afraid. Don't waste your time.

I don't like those 4007's buffers... wouldn't be better a 4049 instead of it?

Oh, why is completely useless? How does it sounds? Perhaps with a mix circuit between synth and clean signals would sound better.

I built it using the original schem and the layout from Worth Ekik

http://www.geocities.com/worthekik/guitarsynth.html

You can get something from it, but the tracking was useless. I'm only a beginner so the chances are I made a mistake somewhere along the line. It's still on my bench though, so I might have another go at some point 'cos I quite liked the few noises I did get.

[zhx]

Hey, I built it too, but I get so much carrierblee/clock noise/whatchamacallit, that you can hardly hear the actual signal. Any suggestions.
The sound itself is quite good.

[Radamus]

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=69601.0

This topic seems promising.