It's fair to say that most who have gone completely down the rabbit hole eventually switch to keyboard synths. There are many guitarists that have dabbled in guitar synthesis over the years. However, it's also possible to create synthesised sounds using a delay buffer, by a technique known as granular synthesis. Some manufacturers like Fender and Strandberg even make guitars with a built-in hex pickup.įinally, it's worth noting that when people talk about synths, they tend to mean monosynths, polysynths, or sample-based synths. The most sophisticated pedals are made by Roland, and they make a dedicated GK hex pickup you can attach to your guitar. This could be a pad on the lowest string, and a lead sound on higher ones. These have the benefit of complex options - often each string is on a separate MIDI channel, so can be used to trigger different synth voices. If you do understand synth voices and oscillators, you're likely to find that more streamlined units are restrictive compared to the options available on even a simple keyboard synth.įor more complex routing, for example MIDI-through to control other devices, then you're going to need a hex pickup and a more expensive unit. Typically the number of voices is specified for a polysynth, but as the guitar has only six strings, the practical maximum is six. Simply, a monosynth has one synth voice - which means it can only sound one note at a time. The main bit of theory that's worth knowing is the difference between a monosynth and a polysynth. The downside is that these pedals are less deep, with fewer options and avenues for sound design and customisation. Dedicated hardware all day long over soft synth/IOS apps, etc.The benefit of these new, simpler units is that you can get up and running quickly, regardless of whether you understand synthesis or not. The GT1000 seems to be correcting that mindset but who knows if that will trickle down to a new guitar synth release from them combining all the great things from the past releases. That combined with the historically perceived attitude of the manufacturer knows best, not the customer and it has probably given them some fairly big hills to climb Not sure if Boss doesn't want to 'cannibalize their sales', but by not releasing updated/consolidated gear in this vein they are letting other manufacturers cannibalize their sales. I'll definitely echo Marc's sentiments and would love an updated gR55 with onboard fx loop, flexible signal chain and some updated amp modeling. Caveat also for I am sure I've said this 176 times in a thread here previously Caveats announced ahead of time for upcoming armchair business analysis. Niche product with a workflow and UI making the process even more confusing to the end user. Guitar synths as a whole are a different beast altogether.

Roland vg 88 patches