Why MIDI Lead Guitar sounds fake - revelation!
Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2015 5:59 pm
Im sure this will be obvious to many but it only just dawned on me for some reason. Even since the 80's and trying to put a DX7 guitar sound thru a BOSS Heavy Metal pedal and immitating Jan Hammer, Ive wondered why it dont sound like guitar. Its easy enough to record guitar leads dry/clean then add them thru Dynatube or Rack Extensions but the distorion is not quite right. Better to record via distortion fx in preamp then put that thru dynatube / RE.
And I always thought it was somehow related to style & articulation, but couldn't quite put my finger on it.
Then a revelation whilst recording / cut and pasting (coz I cant play fast enough) a lead solo - playing real guitar solo you DO put your finger on the fretboard evey note. But some notes you pick, and some are hammer on only - typically every second note may not be picked. When I had put the solo thru a Vermillion Rack Extension, the tone was so-so - having recorded clean - Vermillion did a reasonable Guitar Amp/Cab impersonation.
But it still sounded more like a MIDI solo ! This was a real guitar sounding like a fake general MIDI strat !
This was due to the way I cut and pasted individual notes - so they all had the same attack - no hammer ons were recorded. And thats why it sounded like MIDI.
SO - I figure a virtual guitar instrument should have an option to reduce the attack on every second note to imitate a hammer on.
And I always thought it was somehow related to style & articulation, but couldn't quite put my finger on it.
Then a revelation whilst recording / cut and pasting (coz I cant play fast enough) a lead solo - playing real guitar solo you DO put your finger on the fretboard evey note. But some notes you pick, and some are hammer on only - typically every second note may not be picked. When I had put the solo thru a Vermillion Rack Extension, the tone was so-so - having recorded clean - Vermillion did a reasonable Guitar Amp/Cab impersonation.
But it still sounded more like a MIDI solo ! This was a real guitar sounding like a fake general MIDI strat !
This was due to the way I cut and pasted individual notes - so they all had the same attack - no hammer ons were recorded. And thats why it sounded like MIDI.
SO - I figure a virtual guitar instrument should have an option to reduce the attack on every second note to imitate a hammer on.
