Some people defend the possibility, other's say that no one could ever match the subtle nuances and tones of a real electric guitar -- but some have gotten pretty close.

Does anybody have any methods they could share? A bit of theory on why the electric guitar sounds like it does, and how we could replicate it? And really, can anyone say they have succesfully done it?

I'm trying to, and I'm trying just about everything. I know there are some programs like Steinburg VG, but I'm really after an authentic guitar sound that I plot notes to, without being a great guitar player.

you might get close but you'll never get the real thing. you'll never be able to emulate the speed at which the fingertip releases itself from the string and affects the wave of the sound traveling upon said string. you'll never properly emulate the way the sound is affected from the position of the actual player in relation to the amp, the distance, angle, position of the picking hand over the pickups. because those things are all done by the player as it's happening without much thought put to the process. hell even the place where you pick the note will affect it's tone significantly, try picking a note immediately in front of the bridge as compared to over the 12th fret or 12 frets away from the note you're fretting.

sure you might find some that come close, but it's never going to be the same deal. it's like trying to convince yourself that masturbating is as good as making love.

if all you want to do is plot notes for some other guitar player to learn then whatever, any program will do, even just a straight midi file would work. but if you're trying to fool people into thinking they're hearing an actual guitar player you're wasting your time.

"but if you're trying to fool people into thinking they're hearing an actual guitar player you're wasting your time."

Everything you say is true, Panbient, though I think the average listener (our main target audience) can be fooled quit a bit more than the actual artists.

I have faith that someday, we will be able to emulate a near-perfect guitar sound. Some may not desire that, would it make the instrument absolete, or push guitar players to come up with more innovate styles of playing? And if the sound itself can be synthesized, then it would be to guitar what Aphex Twin did with drums... some amazing sounds could come from it.

aphex twin didn't do shit with drums. what he did was do something with drum machines more than just using them as a glorified metronome, he treated it as an instrument as opposed to another device.

as for fooling average listeners, the fact that there are people who think people like britney spears are good 'singers' proves that you can feed average listeners shit and tell them it's chocolate and they'll line up for more and more.

the only way i can think of actually developing a near perfect guitar synth would be combining the guitar hero controller (especially the picking side of things) with a moog liberation. maybe have smaller keys running up the neck instead of a full size keyboard. it wouldn't be perfect but a more sensitive sensor bar for the 'picking' would allow the nuances of single string action to come through and a sensor bar like some autoharps have could work for strumming. but you'd still basically end up building something that will look and play like a guitar.... so why not just get the real deal?

Aye. I tend to use a mixture in my work. And as for "fake" guitar, i've gotten chords down to a fairly authentic tone.

Atleast I think so. I have some clips if you'd like to say otherwise: http://www.humblevoice.com/badname/newpage

"so why not just get the real deal?"

Well, I think it's simply a matter of liberation. Not to mention, someone who has great sounds in their head & can't play guitar won't have to wait a few years to get his ideas out, or put them in the hands of a guitar player who may completely twist your vision.

doesn't take THAT long to learn how to play guitar hehehe. all depends on what you're trying to accomplish.

Just to chime in quickly, there are some incredibly realistic "virtual guitars" on the market, but I wouldn't call them "synths", they're sample-based, and involve a lot of scripting to replicate the subtle nuance of a real player.

Chris Hein's Guitars are the best out there at the moment: http://www.chrishein.net/guitar/chg_...audiodemos.htm

Run those through Guitar Rig:
http://www.native-instruments.com/in...d=guitarrig3se

And the average listener would have a very hard time telling the difference.

All the instruments in the "improv rock" track under my name are sample-based virtual instruments, and I'm currently working on a metal tune using "virtual guitars" of lesser quality than the Chris Hein stuff, but it's coming out nicely...I'll post it soon.

And since you mentioned drums:

http://www.toontrack.com/dfh_superior.asp
http://www.toontrack.com/custom_vintage.asp

Incredible virtual drum-kits. Tomas Haake from Meshuggah was involved with the recording of the samples and provided one of the demo songs - sounds identical to what you would hear on a Meshuggah record (makes me wonder if they bothered recorded a live kit for their past few records. )

All of these would be able to be played "live" with any MIDI controller: keyboard, guitar, even a wind controller (flute -- that would be interesting to use with the drum patches.)

And some of us only play keyboards.