Electric Guitars

For electric guitars, which are mainly about the vibrating string and subsequent effects processing, we pick up where §6.7 left off, and work our way up to practical complexity step by step. We begin with practical enhancements for the waveguide string model that are useful for all kinds of guitar models.

---

Subsections

• Length Three FIR Loop Filter
• Brightness and Sustain Control
• One-Zero Loop Filter
• The Karplus-Strong Algorithm
• The Extended Karplus-Strong Algorithm
• Nonlinear Distortion
  • Tension Modulation
  • String Length Modulation
  • Hard Clipping
  • Soft Clipping
  • Enhancing Even Harmonics
  • Software for Cubic Nonlinear Distortion
  
  
• Amplifier Feedback
• Cabinet Filtering
• Duty-Cycle Modulation
• Vacuum Tube Modeling

---

Previous: Virtual Musical Instruments
Next: Length Three FIR Loop Filter

Order a Hardcopy of Physical Audio Signal Processing

---

About the Author: Julius Orion Smith III
Julius Smith's background is in electrical engineering (BS Rice 1975, PhD Stanford 1983). He is presently Professor of Music and Associate Professor (by courtesy) of Electrical Engineering at Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), teaching courses and pursuing research related to signal processing applied to music and audio systems. See http://ccrma.stanford.edu/~jos/ for details.