Computer-Guitar Effect Using Digital Signal Processing

By Guitar Kit Builder
Mar 05, 2012
in Guitar Kit Builder - Pedals & Effects

Pierre Massat, guitarist with the French band Pierre et le loup (Peter and the Wolf) has been developing a computer-augmented guitar effect system using digital signal processing and the Pure Data (Pd) audio programming language. Pd is a real-time software system for live musical and multimedia performances. To create a program in Pd, you connect little boxes to one another with the mouse using graphic “patch cords.” Once you've created or loaded the patch, you can interact with it by sending MIDI messages to your computer and by using onscreen sliders and buttons. In Pierre's video below, he is controlling Pd with a DIY foot controller interfaced through an Arduino microcontroller board. Check out the video:

As Pierre explains "For the cost of a few analog stompboxes, it is now possible for a guitarist (or any musician, actually) with some knowledge of computers to develop computer-guitar effects for her instrument with virtually no limit but her own imagination." Pierre's effect system can be heard on these tracks from a recent Pierre et le loup recording:

<a href="http://pierreetleloup.bandcamp.com/track/we-own-the-sky">We own the sky by Pierre et le loup</a> <a href="http://pierreetleloup.bandcamp.com/track/nyctalope">Nyctalope by Pierre et le loup</a>

Learn more at Pierre's blog Guitar Extended.