Digital Guitar Power!: The Comprehensive Guide

by Marc Schonbrun

MIDI guitar has finally taken off and computer tools for guitarists are multiplying rapidly. This book provides a view into the fusion of computers and guitars and shows how computer technology and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1592009328
• ISBN13: 9781592009329
• Release Date: March 2006
• Publisher: Course Technology
• Length: 387 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.4" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

A Wealth Of Information

Well written , well researched, and well organized. I spent many hours on-line trying to piece together information about MIDI guitar systems and couldn't find much of what I was looking for. This books lays it all out: from the history of the technology to the the products currently available. An excellent resource and fun to read!

Thorough and interesting but not really persuasive.

Perhaps more than any other group, guitar players have resisted the digital revolution, sticking to their traditional guitars and tube amps. Ever wonder why superstar guitarists, who can afford $10,000 guitars with serpent inlays still play their beat up old Fender and Gibson guitars? Two reasons. These simple old guitars and amps sound great and are so damn easy to use, they become intuitive, much like playing a musical instrument. This isn't lost on Line 6 or Brian Moore (not sure if Roland has figured this out) but lacking the ability to sound exactly like a great guitar and tube amp the digital folks have played to their strengths such as low noise and the ability to make your guitar sound almost like the real thing. (I would argue that sounding almost right is worse than sounding good but different, but that's just me.) Digital Guitar Power is a great explanation of the history of digital MIDI guitar and what's on the market now. The bottom line is that things are getting simpler although there is a very, very long way to go, with 250 page books on something as "user friendly" as GarageBand. And if you want or need a single guitar to sound almost like a Strat, almost like a Les Paul and almost like bagpipes and a marimba, your ship has come in. But if almost isn't good enough you may want to use this book as a reference for some digital dabbling while holding on to your antique amp and those noisy stompboxes. After all, your tube amp will hold its value while your POD will be a doorstop as soon as something that sounds a little more realistic is released. Don't get me wrong; I think Robbert Fripp and David Torn sound great. And I'm sure that younger folks, who've grown up with unnecessary complexity will have a great time with this stuff. But given the choice, I'd rather sound like Eric Johnson and when I look down at my feet I want to see individual devices whose function is obvious, not rotary encoders, expression pedals and banks with hundreds of numbers. But that's just me.

Only Book of it's kind.

This book is really amazing. Just got it to go along with a new synth and Guitar Rig I just got. I've never seen a book that dealt with all the different aspects of guitars and computers like this before. The writing is very clear, there are tons of pictures, and it's very informative. It's even making me want to try some guitar synth! It's well done from cover to cover and very in depth: over 400 pages! I recommend this book highly!