The DijonStock Digital Home Recording Support Forum

Does anybody happen to have any knowledge on how I can apply the correct kind of musicianship/techniques, or "how to play" the "non-keyboard" instruments that I am trying to emulate on my Yamaha keyboard (Clavinova CVP-207.)...any synth will work though...

Things like the guitar, bass guitar, and percussion are very hard for me to learn how to master them using a keyboard, even trying to recreate different "Styles"...

..are there any websites out there that discuss techniques when applying the non-keyboard instrumenst to emulate on a digital keyboard, like bass, strings, woodwinds, percussion, guitar....etc...

Thanks so much everybody!....

Sincerely,
-Mitch-

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OH.I.See.....Wait...No I Don't!
-The RIAA sucks!-

I'll start this one off with a guitar patch tip.

For guitar parts to sound convincing, you should have a good working knowledge of the guitar fretboard for starters, and become familiar with the voicings of guitar chords. For example, playing a simple E major triad with a guitar patch just sounds crappy. However, if you voice it this way:

Begin with the E that's two down from middle C, then add the B above that, then the E above that, the G# above that, the B above that, and the E above that --- then "strum" the keys in a sort of frenzy-paced arpeggio, you get an open E chord as most guitarists would voice it.

A great guitar sample and/or effects can do wonders if the technique is there.

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Incredible Ricky. I have used guitar patches on high end synths and thought, man, that sounds like crap. Now I know why.

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Honor is a debt you owe to those that see it in you.

I'd always layer 'em with something real nasty and call it distortion.

I think Ricky's method will work much better!

Tune in to my strummin' / blowin' tutorial at TexasStock - and get your minds outta the gutter you dirty sick fuckin' bastards

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Honor is a debt you owe to those that see it in you.

WoW....thanks Ricky!

I gotta try that technique....would you recommend using a sustain pedal to create the sound of the "strum?"

curious....do any of your keyboards auto transpose the instruments, like Bass, Flute, Organ, or any other an octave higher/lower?

mine does...

Too bad when you buy a keyboard with all the patches, they expect you to already know how to play them correctly too w/o giving you a book, or studying that instruments technique. I only studied piano technique...my strings are getting better though!..now to work on the brass, bass, guitar, percussion and other non keyboard techiques....

...thanks again guys!...

keep it coming...

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OH.I.See.....Wait...No I Don't!
-The RIAA sucks!-

Hey Mitch,

The sustain pedal can be useful when switching between different chords, but for the most part I stay off of it when faking a guitar part. I just visualize which strings should be vibrating for which chord voicing and hold down the associated keys.

You might find it useful to split your keyboard at around middle C and assign the same guitar patch to both halves of the split, but transpose the right half down an octave (or two if you like)... this way you can pull off (pun intended) some pretty convincing riffs - essentially it allows you to play the same note with either hand. It's also great for some very cool Genesis/Gentle Giant type guitar arpeggiations that one might achieve by using alternate tunings on one's guitar (should one be so inclined).

Gotta go

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Hey....That's Cool.....gotta try that out too!

_________________
OH.I.See.....Wait...No I Don't!
-The RIAA sucks!-

I use a pitch wheel a lot on my guitar lead patches. An arpagiator (Yamaha's esp.) helps some too for certain styles. I use a pedal progamed to do the mod wheel for those tasty end note vibrato sustains.

On horns (esp. saxes and trombones) if you can adjust the keyboard's attack and release times then convincing parts can be made. I have since gone to a special board that allows a breath controller , 2 pedals , and the pitch wheel to modulate the basic horn voice. I save the right hand to play the melody.

msg

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THE MUSIC IS DOWN IN HERE
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Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

I do all that in reverse.

I play guitar, using a Roland GR-33 guitar synth, to recreate keyboards, horns, etc with varying degrees of success.

Anybody here play using sheetmusic?
I usually rely on sheet music, then I rearrange it....but the bass part on the piano, does/can a bass guitar also play those notes that the piano handles on the left hand side (bass clef)?...like layering a piano w/ a bass guitar on the left side playing together....musical sin or not?

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OH.I.See.....Wait...No I Don't!
-The RIAA sucks!-

I can't get my mind outta the gutter. It's stuck.

If it's a sin I'm going straight to hell! I split my boards all the time. The triton actually lets me cross split voices. I spilt both of mine 3 ways at times on stage. Motif ES in the performance (or song) mode can also change the splits on the fly with a single button press or pedal switch.

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THE MUSIC IS DOWN IN HERE
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Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

A note on pitch-bending "guitar solos": Many synthesizers' pitchbend wheels default to plus/minus one full tone on powerup, which is sometimes a bit much for those more subtle "idiomatic" string bends. I usually set my PB wheel at plus one semitone for the up-bends, and anywhere between minus three-12 semitones for the divebomber whammy-bar effect on the down-bends. Also, I try not to max out the PB wheel with each bend... it's much better to apply random amounts of pitchbend to different notes - guitar players rarely bend up exactly a semitone, or exactly a tone - which is exactly what you get when you max out the wheel... a perfect interval.

Another thing I avoid is using the modulation wheel for applying vibrato to a guitar note - a more realistic effect can be achieved by rolling your own vibrato, again by using the pitchbend wheel. The mod wheel on most synths typically introduces a periodic sine wave vibrato that practically screams "HEY!!! I'M A PROGRAMMABLE LOW FREQUENCY OSCILLATOR WITH NO HUMAN FEELING!!! Great for syncing a cool vibrato-tremolo thing to your drum machine or sequencer, crappy for emulating a real geetar.

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MSG....Glad to know i'm not the only one who splits the piano with the bass guitar patch....

All I can think of is one of the songs from the rock opera "Hair" in which the song's called "Goin' Down."

"Elevator Going Down, Going Down...Going Down..."

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OH.I.See.....Wait...No I Don't!
-The RIAA sucks!-

I do the same thing.Ricky as you described above and I never hit the stop with the pitch wheel. Dead giveaway.

But I can program my mod wheel almost endlessly. One way for guitars another for say a flute.

msg

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THE MUSIC IS DOWN IN HERE
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Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

We need to talk about that!

All this synth talk is leaving me feeling...well....synthetic.

Call me old school, but I love the feel of my fingers on the fretboard.

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The Euphrates:

Yesterday I was born here

Tomorrow I'll be gone

Yeah, I do the same thing.

errrrr.....what was that again?

Hey 60's,

You should try my Casio DG-20 digital guitar then... ahh, there's nothing quite like the feeling of sliding your fingers along it's rubber finger"board", caressing each of the six tiny microswitches in every fret while strumming it's black polymer strings, watching them dance as they trigger off the velocity sensors under the bridge - and oh my goodness, that crazy bakelite body and the built-in speaker is to die for!

It is kinda old school too, no? Long since discontinued item, the DG - but my students love the thing!

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