Musical Instrument Simulators

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

Today I was bored enough to drop by a few key shops in Miami (well, in Kendall) and one of the shops I visited had a pretty complete assortment of current stage and studio musical equipment. From guitars to lighting.

I've been out of this business for about 10 years, and was surprised to see many things absolutely not changed, and others completely different or new.

The availability of cheap digital multitrack recorders that are more affordable than the 4-track cassette recorder I once owned was staggering. As were the USB-variants of well-known voice microphones.

But the musical instrument and studio equipment simulator was best. It combines a very nice model of the actual front plates of the simulated stuff (from Moogs to recent digital reverbs) with, apparently, very good approximation of its performance, often licensed or in cooperation with the original equipment manufacturer.

Want to add West-African instruments? Add a package and here they come, with user interface, sounds, and even some pre-arranged typical riffs and rhythms.

As always, I look at this as an engineer, as the artist in me yet has to come out. I know what tools like these can do in the hands of a skilled artist (notice the skilled, I don't believe really in unskilled artists).

How do the real musical and studio artists look at these wonderful tools?


Jeroen

[Hardy Heinlin]

You were bored? Still not enough work? :-)

I, for one, am open to pretty all kinds of virtual instruments. It's nice if you can simulate the sound of an acoustic guitar by playing a solid body electric guitar. You don't need 5 cars for all the equipment.

The only thing I hate in this digital world is that yodeling "Cher effect" (human voice with auto-tune). I don't know why I hate it. It must be an archaic reflex against this kind of yodel tone. Many people love it, obviously.


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[John Golin]

Oh gawd - autotune - the spawn of the devil.  What amazes me is that people can't pick autotune.  To me it is obvious, and I am not an audiophile...

However I was awesome on Singstar on Saturday night...

[Hardy Heinlin]

However I was awesome on Singstar on Saturday night...

Karaoke?

[John Golin]

However I was awesome on Singstar on Saturday night...

Karaoke?

Well, the equivelant 'at-home-on-the-Playstation-3' version of it, yes...

I recall that I was awesome - however my memory might be a bit hazy...

[Pierre Theillere]

I recall that I was awesome - however my memory might be a bit hazy...

Jack Daniel's?

[Matt Sheil]

ah!!!   Singstar at WorldFlight next year John, Just for you.

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

You were bored? Still not enough work? :-)

It's called Thanksgiving. People close work places. Silly habit.

[Shiv Mathur]

Everyone in the commercial industry here uses 'soft-synths'.
You have your sequencer, banks of instruments, sounds and riffs on your hard drive. Connect a keyboard via USB, and you're good to go.

Unfortunately, it's more or less driven the live musicians out of business,
except for some film work, where some still use live musicians.  (I think they
really do that for humanitarian reasons.)

I think it's fantastically useful for people who can't get (afford) live
musicians.  But I for one find it impossible to get a genuine sounding
guitar strum on a keyboard.  And as for the myriad nuances of attack
in a string section ...

shiv

[John Golin]

I recall that I was awesome - however my memory might be a bit hazy...

Jack Daniel's?

No, lots of white wine