RADIAS - Guitarish leads?

Faithfull · Post by **Faithfull** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 9:50 pm

Hi all,

I very recently bought my RADIAS, and loving it so far. What I was wondering though was whether anyone knows of a patch that can to a decent extent emulate an electric guitar lead. The closest preset I can find is the "Fusion Lead" from the "Fusion Split" program, but that sounds a little too retro to be from an electric guitar.

If anyone knows the basic dynamics and process behind making an electric guitar-ish lead from scratch that'd be great too.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Thomas A. · Post by **Thomas A.** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 4:24 am

Normally, Guitars are more the domain of workstations like M3, Fantom and so on. But I'm sure that the Radias can do great guitar-like sounds. What's about a small guitar patch contest in this forum?

slammah2012 · Post by **slammah2012** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 7:09 am

Thomas A. wrote:Normally, Guitars are more the domain of workstations like M3, Fantom and so on. But I'm sure that the Radias can do great guitar-like sounds. What's about a small guitar patch contest in this forum?

What would a guitarist do???

Start with a clean guitar sound in the pcm section...filters wide open
add the "Pickup" function to amplitude in the waveshape section...set medium low
under FX 1 find the Tube amplifier simulator...build your distortion base... mix total wet...not too distorted
under FX 2 find the Cabinet simulator.... you want the air set around 120 to get that cabinet / mic compression effect....
Use the master fx to leak in delay to your liking....
Now revert to the pickup under waveshape and play with your volume....
you should be able to go from a twang to crunch to a scream....

gdh · Post by **gdh** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 12:41 pm

Adding to the above - don't forget about adding any external pedals that you may have into your chain. I have found that using some of my boxes are better than trying to use just the internal fx. I do tend to use my Roland jd-990 and 800 for guitar sounds over the Radias. If you have a guitar moddelling box ie. pod, digitech, vox tonelab etc. these are a lot of fun. I have a tonelab and have been known to put my Voyager and JP8 through it. Note if you use an external fx box make sure you turn the internal fx off on your Radias. Have fun and turn them knobs.

meatballfulton · Post by **meatballfulton** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 1:48 pm

The trick of emulating guitars is knowing how a guitar is played more than getting the sound. A simple one oscillator square wave patch sounds a lot like an overdriven guitar right out of the box.

When doing bends, only bend up in pitch. On the Radias don't use the LFO for vibrato as it allows pitch to go down (some other synths have sine or triangle LFO waves that are positive only), use the pitch bender or an expression pedal. Listen to guitarists and pay attention to what notes they choose to bend and which ones they do not. Know what the lowest and highest notes are on a guitar and don't play outside that range.

If you play chords, learn how they are voiced on guitars...an E major shape barre chord will be voiced R-5th-R(up an octave)-3rd(up an octave)-5th(up an octave)-R(up two octaves), an A major shape barre chord will be voiced 5th (below the root)-R-5th-R (up an octave)-3rd (up an octave)-5th (up an octave). Neither is how a pianist would voice that chord! Notice that the 3rd only appears once but the roots and fifths are doubled or tripled across multiple octaves. "Power chords" used in rock are voiced R-5th-R(up an octave).

Etc.

slammah2012 · Post by **slammah2012** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 2:34 pm

meatballfulton wrote:The trick of emulating guitars is knowing how a guitar is played more than getting the sound. A simple one oscillator square wave patch sounds a lot like an overdriven guitar right out of the box.

When doing bends, only bend up in pitch. On the Radias don't use the LFO for vibrato as it allows pitch to go down (some other synths have sine or triangle LFO waves that are positive only), use the pitch bender or an expression pedal. Listen to guitarists and pay attention to what notes they choose to bend and which ones they do not. Know what the lowest and highest notes are on a guitar and don't play outside that range.

If you play chords, learn how they are voiced on guitars...an E major shape barre chord will be voiced R-5th-R(up an octave)-3rd(up an octave)-5th(up an octave)-R(up two octaves), an A major shape barre chord will be voiced 5th (below the root)-R-5th-R (up an octave)-3rd (up an octave)-5th (up an octave). Neither is how a pianist would voice that chord! Notice that the 3rd only appears once but the roots and fifths are doubled or tripled across multiple octaves. "Power chords" used in rock are voiced R-5th-R(up an octave).

Etc.

absolutly......true however I would pick sin over square for the oscillator using analog type waveforms due to the Odd harmonics square waves would cement in place.......I would use the pickup in wshape to move the harmonic structure around so you arent always picking in exactly the same spot....
you have to always take in the limitations of what both instruments can do if you want to successfully emulate them....

The radias has 24 voices, the guitar has 6 or less at the best of times....
the bends on a guitar are polyphonic, the bends on a Radias are monophonic, like a whammy bar(in which negative pitch on a tremelo will come into play)
a guitar, pitches down slightly from the original excitation....
a slight pitch EG can be used with a long exponential decay...

However, My best guitar sounds still are achieved on soft synths......
The AAS "string studio" is the best stringed instrument builder out there...
even fret rattles and intonation buzzes.....
For live however, I would need an instance of it in a Muse receptor, which oddly also has an input for guitar.......

nemmo · Post by **nemmo** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 6:55 am

You should focus in the fx processing. As Jan Hammer once said, everything can be played as a guitar if droven through the right effects.

Try a combination of AutoWah-Amp simulator-Delay. If possible, use a monophonic lead sound for a start.

I did this with a Radias:

http://www.robotgigante.cl/audio/guitars.mp3

slammah2012 · Post by **slammah2012** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 8:17 am

nemmo wrote:You should focus in the fx processing. As Jan Hammer once said, everything can be played as a guitar if droven through the right effects.

Try a combination of AutoWah-Amp simulator-Delay. If possible, use a monophonic lead sound for a start.

I did this with a Radias:

http://www.robotgigante.cl/audio/guitars.mp3

I wouldn't exactly say this was a good example of an emulation of a distorted guitar.....

It sounds like a synth with distortion....

Ryowolf · Post by **Ryowolf** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 6:44 pm

I'm afraid you bought the wrong instrument if you wanted guitar sounds! I suppose a RADIAS can sound like a guitar, but don't expect it to be one

kvnvk · Post by **kvnvk** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 2:26 am

the beginning of that audio sample nemmo did sounds pretty decent, I think it's when it gets into doing more sustained notes and chords the sound starts betraying its synthesized roots.

nemmo · Post by **nemmo** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 1:29 am

Check this one.

http://www.robotgigante.cl/mp3/nemmo-cena2.mp3

Near the three minute mark i play some very decent guitars with a Roland MC-909.... (in this case the Radias plays the bass and the synth line).

CharlesFerraro · Post by **CharlesFerraro** » Sat Feb 20, 2010 4:01 am

nemmo wrote:You should focus in the fx processing. As Jan Hammer once said, everything can be played as a guitar if droven through the right effects.

Michael Winslow using his voice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31kdfa_iCis