Two questions for the guitar players in the Ableton community...
(1) Assuming I have a realistic acoustic guitar instrument preset for my soft synth, how would I go about producing the strumming you can see here, on a cover version of Tonic's hit "If you could only see": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqlcJSp20rw I'm clueless about guitars in general -- does strumming mean you play a chord swiping your hand down across the strings, then swiping it up while still holding that cord? Or is strumming even possible in Live?
which leads to my other question:
(2) I'm trying to program this very song in MIDI, but can't find sheet music for it. I do have an mp3 for a karaoke version of the original, which is pretty much what I'm trying to produce. But with a solo guitar, not the full instrument version.
What I am finding, tons of, are something called "guitar tabs". So I'd like to translate a guitar tab for "If you could only see" into sheet music that I can then program as MIDI in Live'. This MIDI track would then drive the guitar plugin mentioned in question #1.
Thanks in advance for any help on this.
Guitar questions
Re: Guitar questions
in my opinion if you don't play guitar do a version that doesn't include guitar. Strumming cannot be emulated anything even remotely close to the real thing. This is such that any attempts just ruin the whole experience of hearing a good song
but for your info , basically strumming is a sweeping of the pick or fingers across the strings in both directions. one idiosyncrasy is to momentarily lift the fingering and sound the open strings very quickly either on one chord or while changing chords. Again, none of this can be convincingly emulated to any degree worth the effort. however, emulating finger picking (plucking the strings) gets closer to the real thing
acoustic guitar samples are another problem for another day
but for your info , basically strumming is a sweeping of the pick or fingers across the strings in both directions. one idiosyncrasy is to momentarily lift the fingering and sound the open strings very quickly either on one chord or while changing chords. Again, none of this can be convincingly emulated to any degree worth the effort. however, emulating finger picking (plucking the strings) gets closer to the real thing
acoustic guitar samples are another problem for another day
Re: Guitar questions
Sowhowso is right, it'll pretty much always sound rubbish if you try to emulate strumming. To expand a little on what has been said:
A "strum" is a sweep across two or more strings in a single direction in the same hand movement (as opposed to "picking" which focuses on hitting one string at a time). When people say "strumming", it usually involves a rhythmic sequence of "strums" including both upward and downward sweeps.
If you really want to try to emulate it, your best bet is probably going to be to draw the chord you want, then offset each successive midi note by a tiny amount so that each one activates a fraction of a moment after the previous one. This will still be a long way away from the "real" sound of strumming though, because alot of the character of guitar strumming is in the way the fingers move over the frets whilst changing the chords (fret noise, etc) which is quite seperate from the strumming action.
In regards to tabs, you need at least a rudimentary knowledge of how to play a guitar in order to know how guitar tablature works. Even then, translating into notation can be hit or miss, especially because most tabs on the internet are pretty badly written and better for giving a general idea of the feel of a song than the specifics of it.
That's all my opinion, of course. Hope you can get the sound you want somehow though!
A "strum" is a sweep across two or more strings in a single direction in the same hand movement (as opposed to "picking" which focuses on hitting one string at a time). When people say "strumming", it usually involves a rhythmic sequence of "strums" including both upward and downward sweeps.
If you really want to try to emulate it, your best bet is probably going to be to draw the chord you want, then offset each successive midi note by a tiny amount so that each one activates a fraction of a moment after the previous one. This will still be a long way away from the "real" sound of strumming though, because alot of the character of guitar strumming is in the way the fingers move over the frets whilst changing the chords (fret noise, etc) which is quite seperate from the strumming action.
In regards to tabs, you need at least a rudimentary knowledge of how to play a guitar in order to know how guitar tablature works. Even then, translating into notation can be hit or miss, especially because most tabs on the internet are pretty badly written and better for giving a general idea of the feel of a song than the specifics of it.
That's all my opinion, of course. Hope you can get the sound you want somehow though!
Live 7.0.18 | Axiom 61 | Launchpad | Homous | Nanokontrol | Saffire 6 | Ibanez Jazzmaster Bass | Biscuits
Soundcloud (solo stuff) | One Gear Go (my band)
Soundcloud (solo stuff) | One Gear Go (my band)
Re: Guitar questions
You'll get a better result if you find a guitar sample that contains strummed chords. But if you are trying to produce a reusable GM style MIDI file it's not an option.
You would still have to put a lot of work into the exact timing and velocity of each strum to get a reasonable result that doesn't sound completely mechanical.
You would still have to put a lot of work into the exact timing and velocity of each strum to get a reasonable result that doesn't sound completely mechanical.
"The banjo is the perfect instrument for the antisocial."
(Allow me to plug my guitar scale visualiser thingy - www.fretlearner.com)
(Allow me to plug my guitar scale visualiser thingy - www.fretlearner.com)
Re: Guitar questions
Thanks everyone for the responses. You've definitely convinced me this is something that needs to be done by a human player. And the reasons you gave are some great background info for me. Even when (in cases like this) the answer is "no", I think it's always good to understand the reasoning behind it. 
Re: Guitar questions
what you should do is ask someone to record the guitar parts for you and link you the files. if i had a guitar with me in korea i'd do it for you. i'm sure there's someone around right now. request a collab in the "link your music" forum and see whats up