Electric guitar -> acoustic

Liquid Len · Post by **Liquid Len** » Sun Jun 06, 2004 5:17 pm

Right now I am trying to equalize or otherwise process an electric guitar to make it sound like an acoustic. I realize the best solution is to obtain an actual acoustic guitar, but that's not going to happen right now. Can anyone give me suggestions as to how to treat the signal in order to 'fake' an acoustic sound? I have Celmo's Bass Amp Modeller, Psy-Q, and am using a direct box between the guitar & mixer.

blazesboylan · Post by **blazesboylan** » Sun Jun 06, 2004 5:58 pm

Hi Liquid Len.

Haven't actually tried this, so take it with a grain of salt.

But I'd probably start with:

1) Thick strings! Thickest you can find.

2) Play up toward the neck a bit to get a fairly full-bodied sound. It can almost give you the feel of a soundbox.

3) Add EQ at the bottom (maybe around 400 Hz?) and top (maybe around 5 KHz?). Maybe some "air" too (10 KHz). I'd use PEQ4 but there are other filters that can do the same job.

4) If you can figure out where they sit in the frequency range, add boost for the "squeak" of fingers sliding and the "tick" of the pick hitting the string. I would guess the squeak might be around 3-5K. Not sure about the tick. Maybe the 400 Hz boost will bring that out...? Or maybe a very narrow peak at a really low freq (80 Hz or something) will be necessary.

5) Probably add some kind of envelope to increase sustain a bit. Or even a compressor: fast attack, long decay, threshold around the bottom of the signal, 2 x ratio, and some make-up gain at the output.

6) Add a very subtle chorus (so subtle you can't hear it) to the mix.

7) Add a mic!

Seriously, a mic up at the headstock to pick up the squeaks and some air might add an acoustic-y feel to the mix.

You'll undoubtedly have to tweak settings by ear. Again, I haven't tried this, but it's a starting point anyway...

Cheers Liquid Len,

Johann

Immanuel · Post by **Immanuel** » Sun Jun 06, 2004 6:09 pm

Single Coil mode if possible (me thinks)
Maybe some parallel processing, where you compress some signal, gain it up a few dB, and give it some good metal resonance EQ.

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Mon Jun 07, 2004 2:19 am

For sustain, try SPL Transient Designer

Or Dominion if you don't have TD

darkrezin · Post by **darkrezin** » Mon Jun 07, 2004 8:47 pm

I heard of a VST plugin called 'Bodilizer' which aims to simulate an acoustic guitar from an electric signal. I have no clue whether it sounds good or even usable. There is a demo to try:

http://www.ijdata.com/bodilizer.html

Liquid Len · Post by **Liquid Len** » Mon Jun 07, 2004 10:18 pm

Thanks everyone for the helpful advice

Post by **hubird** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 10:25 am

On 2004-06-07 21:47, dArKr3zIn wrote:
I heard of a VST plugin called 'Bodilizer' .........

Amazing what this plug does, have a listening to the demo files on that site

siriusbliss · Post by **siriusbliss** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 12:11 am

In a pinch I've used the neck position double-coil pickup and tweak EQ. But that was never very satisfactory for my ears.

Also try doubling the part by playing/recording it twice (two tracks).

Better yet, find an electric guitar that also has piezo pickups in the bridge, like Brian Moore's or Godin's do.

I also have a Boss AD-5 that works really well for just this type of application.

I realize that these suggestions go beyond just EQ'ing or using plugins, but hey, I've been there, done that, and at least this way you can also do the tracks live if necessary.

Have fun

Immanuel · Post by **Immanuel** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 3:54 pm

Maybe use an enhancer?
I just realise, that I have never realy thought too much of defining the differences between electric and acoustic guitars (and guitar is my main instrument).

(off topic: I played a beautifull acoustic Ibanez at a friends house yesterday at a party. It was great. Very responsive, great ergonomics (for me) and good looking - made me a better guitar player, while I used it.

bassdude · Post by **bassdude** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 9:10 am

Any chance of borrowing a cheap acoustic?

Goa303 · Post by **Goa303** » Mon Jun 14, 2004 7:28 pm

If you dont mind modifying your guitar,
take a look at Ghost piezo pickup system:

http://www.tusq.com/ghostineed.asp

As a bonus, if you buy the total kit, you will have the best guitar for wiring to an Axon or other guitar to midi converter.

spiderman · Post by **spiderman** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 4:23 am

gk2A and VG88

spacef · Post by **spacef** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 4:36 am

another trick ? : I put a small napkin delicately on the strings close to the bridge to forbid sustain and to shut the chords with string resonance ('frisage' in fr), i get a pretty convincing... sitar...

. Everything is in the material of the napkin and the pressure on the strings.... More or less pressure=more or less resonance. (and in the freqs/amp tones, but this is not so hard to do). wool is pretty nice.
I've also noticed this
http://www.native-instruments.com/index ... itarrig_us

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: spacef on 2004-06-15 08:30 ]</font>