Electric Guitar using XG MIDI (part 2)

OK, if you've already set-up your XG MIDI file as described in part 1 then I bet you've had a sneaky play with it too, haven't ya!

Well let's crack on and finish your electric guitar sound using MIDI XG

Chunky Guitar Chops

Cool. The foundations are laid, let's now get down to the finer points of roughing up the sound by recreating the pushing and pulling of the whammy bar. We'll then finish off by pre-warning other band members of your intention to smash up the gaff before setting fire to your guitar.

This is difficult to put into words but if you download and listen to the midi electric guitar demo file for this tutorial you'll hear very short "chunky-sounding" plectrum strikes to the string that give the impression of a dampened note.

This is a dead easy effect to achieve actually and simply requires you to insert short notes - Experiment with 1/6's or 32nd's, it's hard to say what will work with your music as it depends on the BPM but if you add 1 or 2 of these plectrum chops before a chord for instance, it can add a nice chunky feel to a song as demonstrated on the MIDI XG demo file.

Portamento - AKA: Guitar Slide-Dumps

Nice effect if done correctly and tastefully - especially useful for emulating a fretless bass guitar.

Ok, key-things we need to do is to control the range of notes we want to slide and the length of time it takes for the note to slide down to its "destination" note, if you will.

Take a look at the table below which reveals the parameters used for the demo song you downloaded.

Parameters to switch on and set-up portamento.

L1	L2	L3	Type	Value1	Value2
0047	01	010	XG Prm Prt001 Portament SW	On	43 10 4C 08 00 67 01 F7
0047	01	020	XG Prm Prt001 Portament Time	70	43 10 4C 08 00 68 46 F7

View images from within XGWorks piano roll and list editor

• CNTRL #65 = Portamento Switch
• CNTRL #5 = Portamento Time

Interpretation:

Bar 47 Beat 01 Tick 010 - We switch on the XG parameter, Portamento, and target it to our assigned guitar channel which is Part 1

Bar 47 Beat 01 Tick 020 - Set the Portamento Time to 70
Portamento Time is the speed with which the pitch "slides".

• Minimum = 0
• Maximum = 127

Now, at this particular juncture of the piece, I want the note to slide down so you'll notice that I've "staggered" the notes - see the piano roll image in the link above to see better what I mean.

First you'll notice that one of the notes that starts at bar #47 has a longer duration than the other. This is so I can control the rate and pitch of where the slide is eventually going to finish, ie...I want to make sure it remains in tune and doesn't fall too "steeply" and quickly.

At bar #48 I trigger the last note - a long one - which acts as the "destination" for the guitar slide to finish. I begin the note before the previous note ends so as to give a smooth slide. Because of the way the notes fall, the note-changes are hardly perceptible, they "flow" from one to the other.

If you don't give it a destination note to target, it won't know where to go. You can also just reverse the above theory so as to have a "sliding-up" effect.

Screaming Guitar Feedback

The end of the demo song finishes off with some feedback screaming.

Reversing the slide-dump theory above, we "slide" the notes up the scale to finish at the final note which is sustained at just the right pitch to give us the scream we need.

As we have chosen to use the Feedback Guitar in Part #1 - coupled with the distortion techniques outlined - all you have to do is move up the scale to find the right note that fits with your song and makes the ears of your fellow band-members bleed!

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