MeldaProduction offers €30 in exchange for a few minutes of your time

[cclarry]

Are you a guitar fan? Then you might be interested in helping MeldaProduction with creating a new secret guitar weapon. The concept is secret, but we may say we are creating an extensive instrument analysis database our new technology will use. For that, we need a few short recordings of your guitars.

We want no help for free
For every guitar recording you contribute to our project, you'll earn €30 EUR in credits.

Please find all instructions and details (and contribute) HERE.

https://meldaproduction.com/guitararchive/guitar/

The gate closes on November 15th.

[Kirean]

Since I don't own a guitar, I wonder if they notice if I try my best Michael Winslow impersonation?

[mettelus]

Hmmm, not sure what to make of that once I read it. It comes across as a VSTi being inbound and a quick way to build a sample base for it, but the dry/wet runs hint at a profiler being inbound as well.

[Kirean]

19 minutes ago, mettelus said:

Hmmm, not sure what to make of that once I read it. It comes across as a VSTi being inbound and a quick way to build a sample base for it, but the dry/wet runs hint at a profiler being inbound as well.

Maybe I'm jaded but to me it read like they might be feeding the samples to an AI. At least they're paying people for the clips.

[JT3Jon]

Is there a limit?

[Brian Walton]

7 hours ago, Kirean said:

Maybe I'm jaded but to me it read like they might be feeding the samples to an AI. At least they're paying people for the clips.

Honestly doubtful but maybe some machine learning...there is a difference and many confuse the two.

That said, who cares he is basically just asking for some clips that will hopefully give us a cool product.  VSTs that sound like an unprocessed guitar are sorely lacking - and I mean that actually sound like a real guitar to a guitar player.  Buy asking for a boat load of the real thing, maybe he can fix that.  

The reward here seems super generous.  I'm going to take a few of my guitars and see how long it takes and what happens.  Seems like I could knock out a few in a single hr.  Based on the ask.

The only concern I have here is he isn't asking for dynamic playing which I wonder how it will impact authenticity.

Edited November 4, 2023 by Brian Walton

[mettelus]

12 hours ago, Brian Walton said:

The only concern I have here is he isn't asking for dynamic playing which I wonder how it will impact authenticity.

The step 2 basically is, and fairly open as to the "performance" part.

MDrummer has one of the more massive sample libraries out there, so there may be similar for guitar coming down the pike. If they are working on a profiler, that would be icing on the cake (for me... I do have use for that). It is easy to speculate, but have to see what it materializes as.

There are actually a lot of nice clean guitar libraries out there already (have to shut off all VSTi processing to check), but they tend to be 1) instrument specific (and often pricey) and 2) locked in a propriety format so you have to use the VSTi to play them (which is actually a good thing so it isn't just a "mess of files").

[JT3Jon]

My guess is he is gathering test files for some sort of “amp match” feature.

Edited November 5, 2023 by JT3Jon

[Brian Walton]

35 minutes ago, mettelus said:

The step 2 basically is, and fairly open as to the "performance" part.

MDrummer has one of the more massive sample libraries out there, so there may be similar for guitar coming down the pike. If they are working on a profiler, that would be icing on the cake (for me... I do have use for that). It is easy to speculate, but have to see what it materializes as.

There are actually a lot of nice clean guitar libraries out there already (have to shut off all VSTi processing to check), but they tend to be 1) instrument specific (and often pricey) and 2) locked in a propriety format so you have to use the VSTi to play them (which is actually a good thing so it isn't just a "mess of files").

It is, but the average guitar player honestly doesn't play dynamically and playing direct without the feedback of the amp likely won't help.   Of course just speculation on how this will be useful.  Interesting the plan here since he isn't asking for the same dry and the processed source...which is what you want for machine Learning.  I'll provide some files this way but also interesting this isn't what he asked for.

What examples actually sound like a legit clean guitar source?

 

 

[Brian Walton]

34 minutes ago, JT3Jon said:

My guess is he is gathering test files for some sort of “amp match” feature.

They already integrated NAM so I'm guessing this is more on the instrument creation side which can be fed into MGA for theoretically authentic sounds.

[JT3Jon]

55 minutes ago, Brian Walton said:

They already integrated NAM so I'm guessing this is more on the instrument creation side which can be fed into MGA for theoretically authentic sounds.

Didn’t realize this! I’ll have to look into how it works! Does it analyze a recording and give you a matching amp?

 

edit: I’m probably missing something but searching “melda amp match” on google and reading the features on guitar architect and mturbo amp I can’t seem to find anything on amp matching. Sorry to bother but do you mind point me to the product with “integrated NAM?”

Edited November 5, 2023 by JT3Jon

[Brian Walton]

Just now, JT3Jon said:

Didn’t realize this! I’ll have to look into how it works! Does it analyze a recording and give you a matching amp?

No, but you can load captures of actual amps into it that are some of the most accurate on the market...at the cost of cpu consumption.

Electrum which is based on melda framework has an amp match function, but not as good as one might hope.

 

Since Melda already has some eq matching abilities in the suite I'm sure what most things of as matching isn't hard to get to, real amp matching is far more complex to get feel, saturation, harmonics right than just an eq of the input vs output.

[mettelus]

4 hours ago, Brian Walton said:

What examples actually sound like a legit clean guitar source?

Maybe I should ask for clarification on "legit clean," since to me "legit" is a sampled instrument, and "clean" is dry (or DI), and most would (or should) fit that bill. Am I confusing something here?

AmpleSound is the one I am most familiar with, but you have to shut off each FX channel individually (all 4 of them) as well as the amp to hear the dry samples for each instrument. On the main screen itself there is also a "DI" toggle for "Sound Mode," as well as toggles for the doubler and fret sounds. Pretty much all of those are on by default (even for clean presets), so need to be shut off. Some VSTis like Heavier7Strings have a much more complex FX processing (some all over the face of the main screen), but even with that all of the samples in the sample library are dry for the pickup selection(s) used. There are just a whole lot more FX (and tweakable settings) in play with that one.

[MrFigg]

40 minutes ago, mettelus said:

Maybe I should ask for clarification on "legit clean," since to me "legit" is a sampled instrument, and "clean" is dry (or DI), and most would (or should) fit that bill. Am I confusing something here?

If you're asking if you can use sampled instruments then the answer is no. It must be a real guitar or bass connected directly. You also have to include a photograph of the guitar used.

Edited November 5, 2023 by MrFigg

[Brian Walton]

6 hours ago, mettelus said:

Maybe I should ask for clarification on "legit clean," since to me "legit" is a sampled instrument, and "clean" is dry (or DI), and most would (or should) fit that bill. Am I confusing something here?

AmpleSound is the one I am most familiar with, but you have to shut off each FX channel individually (all 4 of them) as well as the amp to hear the dry samples for each instrument. On the main screen itself there is also a "DI" toggle for "Sound Mode," as well as toggles for the doubler and fret sounds. Pretty much all of those are on by default (even for clean presets), so need to be shut off. Some VSTis like Heavier7Strings have a much more complex FX processing (some all over the face of the main screen), but even with that all of the samples in the sample library are dry for the pickup selection(s) used. There are just a whole lot more FX (and tweakable settings) in play with that one.

Yes I do mean an unprocessed sample of a guitar.  The problem with many that I've heard is that they don't sound like they were recorded with the proper impedance which is important to get the right sound reamped.   Or it lacks some sort of dynamic articulation or oddity in decay of a note...that sort of thing.  

I think I've only tried the free Martin and Bass from AmpleSound.  

[Lemar Sain]

I've noticed in the past that Msoundfactory has a guitar category yet has zero guitars. Hopefully this is an attempt to remedy that with the help of users....?

[mettelus]

@Brian Walton  Roger that. Neither of those are good choices for what you are asking. I just did the following for this file. You can download and play with that and see how it measures up if you want to play with re-amping it.

1. AmpleSound Peregrine Falcon (i.e., PRS), neck pickup.
2. All FX are off, is set to DI mode (so the output can be run into another amp sim).
3. The samples unto themselves are sort of boring, so I loaded in the "Hotel California.gpx" (Guitar Player) file that is on AmpleSound's site.
4. Since they are played through the VSTi, it outputs in stereo.
5. There are empty bars (6 bars after the intro) in the actual performance, so I deleted those.

Basically, this is a DI performance of the gpx file, only the raw samples are used.

Edited November 5, 2023 by mettelus

[Brian Walton]

44 minutes ago, mettelus said:

@Brian Walton  Roger that. Neither of those are good choices for what you are asking. I just did the following for this file. You can download and play with that and see how it measures up if you want to play with re-amping it.

1. AmpleSound Peregrine Falcon (i.e., PRS), neck pickup.
2. All FX are off, is set to DI mode (so the output can be run into another amp sim).
3. The samples unto themselves are sort of boring, so I loaded in the "Hotel California.gpx" (Guitar Player) file that is on AmpleSound's site.
4. Since they are played through the VSTi, it outputs in stereo.
5. There are empty bars (6 bars after the intro) in the actual performance, so I deleted those.

Basically, this is a DI performance of the gpx file, only the raw samples are used.

Thanks!   I just checked it out running through some ToxeX profiles.  Some parts certainly sound better than others and obviously hinges quite a bit on the MIDI file as many notes certainly sound "keyboard triggered" instead of picked with a guitar and the various dynamics you get there.   The core tone itself does at least sound like a guitar DI (unlike some others I've heard).   That said, I ran through my very poorly played examples I've been working on to load into Melda's contraption and the recorded sound is light years better tonally than that the sampled instrument (though the same ToneX models).  But once everything is homogenized, I'd tend to expect similar results unless Melda has something interesting up their sleeve.

[Brian Walton]

1 hour ago, Lemar Sain said:

I've noticed in the past that Msoundfactory has a guitar category yet has zero guitars. Hopefully this is an attempt to remedy that with the help of users....?

This would be my guess also, but also hoping there is also something a bit broader here also but I'd guess that is the core of the project is to get a guitar instrument "library" into MSoundFactory.

Wondering what the size will be like though,  I have 6 sets of captures (Vintage Les Paul and a Heritage Prospect - more to come) in the method requested and it is a bit over 600 megs even at 44.1 16bit.  While I'm sure that gets truncated that is also reflective of a single "dynamic layer" so hopefully this doesn't balloon into another 60+ GIG required library.

[Bruno de Souza Lino]

The first attempt I did of submitting it was rejected because I was missing one of the steps and "didn't send mp3 files," even though the video that comes before the form tells you to "ideally send FLAC or WAV files."