How To Play EDM On Your Guitar

Reader Jesse Gilsbach (3rd Earth) made this video to demonstrate how guitarists can play EDM and other of electronic music, using a standard guitar.

Gilsbach uses a Roland GK-3 pickup, connected to a Roland GR-55 guitar synthesizer. This is connected via USB to his computer, running Ableton Live 8.

MIDI Guitar App Turns Your Axe Into A Guitar Synth

MIDI Guitar

Jam Origin’s MIDI Guitar is a new app for iOS that is designed to translate the sound of any guitar into a polyphonic guitar-synthesizer or to record tablature by playing it.

MIDI Guitar is an iOS app that can transcribe guitar playing into MIDI. The transcription runs in real-time, and latency and accuracy – according to the developer – are comparable to hardware MIDI guitar solutions.

In order to use MIDI Guitar you need a iPhone 4 or newer, iPod 4th generation, or any iPad. You also need a guitar interface for best results. The developers recommend the iRig and are currently testing other interfaces.

MIDI Guitar uses WIFI-MIDI to communicate with digital audio workstations or Cable-based MIDI for lowest possible latency. It also drives other iOS synth apps using Apple?s virtual MIDI standard.

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gTar iPhone Guitar Has Three Levels Of Difficulty + USB/MIDI

Incident Technologies has introduced the gTar, a hybrid iPhone dock + music controller guitar that’s described as ‘the first guitar that anybody can play’.

The gTar uses digital sensors to sense your finger position and then the iPhone is used for sound generation.

The guitar offers three levels of difficulty/playability:

  • If you’ve never played the guitar before, start with Easy, where you only need to play the open strings. This gives you the chance to start playing your favorite songs right away while getting a hands on feel for the strings. SmartPlay is in effect here, so if you hit the wrong string, you won’t hear anything.
  • When you’ve graduated from Easy, you can move up to Medium and start playing the frets and strings at the same time. Smart Play is still in effect, so you can continue to play without the fear of messing up.
  • When you’ve mastered a song and want to take it to the next level, try playing in Hard. Here, the gTar will continue to display the correct notes, but allows you to play whatever you want. SmartPlay stops working here, so every note you play will ring out.

Several aspects of the gTar may make it interesting for electronic musicians:

  • The gTar is USB-MIDI compliant. Incident says that they’ll “be releasing some tutorials and hacks soon!”, if you’re interested in hacking the gTar to create/perform music.
  • They also plan to offer an SDK in the future, for people that are interested in building apps for the gTar.

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Software Editor For Roland GI-20 GK-MIDI Guitar Interface – GI20Editor 2.0

Developer Amedeo Farello sent word about his Mac software editor for the Roland GI-20 GK-MIDI guitar interface:

I have just completed version 2.0 of GI20Editor.

Besides being the only alternative to programming the device through a knob, a two digit display and a few buttons, GI20Editor can greatly simplify the guitar/synthesizer connection experienced through the GI-20.

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TabStrummer Programmable Guitar Tab MIDI Controller

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Tabstrummer is an unusual programmable MIDI controller that’s designed to let you play any guitar tab that can be played on a 12 fret guitar. 12 memory buttons can also be programmed into any of the 300 memory SONG locations of TabStrummers internal memory.

It has a MIDI out connection and an add on MIDI sound shield from Sparkfun Electronics with onboard audio out jack, so you can plug in your headphones or connect it to your sound system or TV audio input.

The strings are PCB traces that are touch sensitive. They are widely spaced on the top of the strum board so you can “pluck” each string.

See the TabStrummer site for details.

Shredder – A MIDI Guitar Synth For The iPad

Shredder Guitar Synthesizer

Yonac Software has introduced Shredder,  a new iPad guitar synthesizer.

The app lets you play a built-in synth using a guitar, connected through an audio interface. You can also use it as a guitar-to-MIDI translator and play software or hardware synths.

Features:

  • Connect your guitar to your iPad through the USB (such as Apogee Jam, Griffin GuitarConnect Pro, Sonoma GuitarJack 2), Jack/Mic (such as iRig), or use the iPad’s built-in microphone
  • Uses real FM/subtractive analog-modeling synthesis
  • Can also be controlled by the onscreen keyboard, or a hardware MIDI controller
  • Comes with three of our signature stomp boxes: Fuzz Goblin, Ghoul Vibrations, and Echo-Plasm
  • Over 100 presets to get you started; save an endless number of user presets
See the video below for a demo of the Shredder MIDI guitar app in action.

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