Guitarists may have always envied synthesists for the amazing breadth of sounds possible from digital instruments. There have been numerous synthesizers for guitarists, but all have required special pickups or custom “guitar-like” controllers. Well, this is a golden time to be an sonically adventurous guitarist because there are more options than ever that just require your favorite axe and a standard guitar cable.
First of all, the number of synth stompoxes has not only grown, but the offerings themselves have gotten really good — gone are the days of simply labeling any pedal that can go two octaves up a “synth” pedal. The Red Witch Synthotron and the Electro-Harmonx Superego are each unique and usable. The Eventide Harmonizer offers some algorithms that effectively “synthesize” your guitar signal into something crazy. And DOD, Behringer, and BOSS all offer bass synthesizer pedals. Then there are the Electro-Harmonix B9 Organ Machine, C9 Organ Machine, Key9 Electric Piano Machine, which allow you to use any guitar to create organ and piano sounds.
But even true “guitar synthesizers” have reached a milestone, with BOSS’s release of the SY-300, a virtual-analog, three-octave synthesizer that uses the HRM (harmonic restructure modeling) Roland has been using in their guitar synths for decades, but now works without a special pickup. This means that anyone can plug any guitar into it and have a fully functional synthesizer, controlled by and processing their guitar.
It’s a great time for guitarists seeking to expand their sonic palette!
