Digital audio processing of the amplified electric guitar
Benoiît Courribet University of Paris 8 CICM
A second and (very different) Benoiît showed us his work exploring implementations of the classic analog effects using digital implementations in Max/MSP.
Much of his presentation was spent showing the surprisingly rich vocabulary that emerges from changing waveforms and timing of the modulator in tremolo (AM) effects. This was an important reminder that guitar sound effects can't be simply categorized and organized as operating on timbre or rhythm as they may work at multiple levels according to the particuilar control parameters. This was an early hint of an important theme to emerge in the conference: imitation and synthesis of vocal and percussive gestures and sounds with the guitar.
Benoiît also played some interesting sound examples taken at different stages along the effects and preamplifier chain sharing with us his attempts to understand the role of each element in shaping the raw pickup sound.