As I continue to edge closer to a live performance/recording rig that meets all my needs, it has become more and more apparent to me that despite the significant amount of technology required to make the rig possible, the more appealing textures are all very acoustic.
For example, I can simulate pretty much any guitar and or amp configuration I might dream up - and fairly convincingly I might add - but a simple acoustic guitar seems to create the most musically satisfying timbre. Maybe a bit of delay but nothing to involved. It losses it's musicality very quickly for me if I take it too far. Similarly I can generate fairly complex percussion and drum elements but the most simple of bass drums seems to generate the most engaging momentum to play along to.
In fact this dichotomy of musical realities has gotten to the point where I feel that one of the final steps is that the guitar I use needs to be an acoustic - or at least appear to be an acoustic - not the current electric I am using. True that is all only visual as either way the Roland GK-3 pick up (or similar) is needed, but none the less, there is something about the "feel" of a performance if I can be in a full acoustic mode for both myself and the audience.
Of course there are some serious considerations. Most significantly is that to do what I need it to do, the guitar - whichever guitar - cannot have it's actually "real" strings resonating through the rig. The performance technique I'm using requires so much polyphonic transposition of individual strings that everything must be generated by the Roland VG-99 (I'm working to similarly hack a GR-55 but no luck so far) that the origin pitches of the strings may well not fit into the actual chords I'm creating.
What this means is that if I use an electric it's not problem as the electric itself it solid body and will not resonate much if at all, and certainly will not carry through the rig unless I specifically tell it to. On the other hand, an actual acoustic has far more visual appeal, but by nature is highly resonant so must be somehow completely deadened in order to work for me needs. Basically, I'm gonna have to acoustically destroy the instrument to allow it function as I need it, which I am still trying to formulate the acoustical execution and, to be honest, the musical ethics, to do it.
The other choice is the make the solid body electric appear more acoustic. This is also a bit of a trick but I am looking at perhaps the careful use of what would be a bogus sound hole cover to give the audience the allusion of an acoustic instrument, at least visually.
Honestly, it's a bit of a coin toss right now as to which I will pursue. It's very possible that in the long run I will do both but for now I've got to start somewhere. All I know is that the notion of acoustic is becoming more and more significant as we move forward. How strangely unexpected, yet wonderfully and musically delightful. All this technology and yet, in the end, less really is more.
No comments:
Post a Comment