Guitar is obsolete from now on (kind of)

I think the tone sucked. If I bought that profile I would not be happy.

Keep in mind that drummers have had to deal with this since the rhythm machines of the 60's, all the way through EZDrummer and BFD, and I can find no shortage of drummers. They are as relevant as ever.

As a guitar player myself though, I welcome this new technology. I can assure you that in some stage of production for these new products, there are guitar players. There are also probably many guitar players using products like this. I'd love to have a controller like the one in the video. I'd use it for keyboard sounds, but then I guess there'd be no keyboard players either.

Quote from Netheravon

Agree totally. I like the vibrato lots but the overall sound is not really like a guitar imho

I agree, but for me a better guitar as playing a keyboard via a guitar. (As I ever have heard .)

... and use pinch harmonics, touch harmonics, e-bow, dildo, plucking, hammering... so many things that would make sampling and controlling / calling up the layers downright near-impossible, if not extremely-impractical.

you forgot the drill Monkey!

LOL

There're also the facts that open strings sound different, and that notes can be fretted in any of several positions.

MOTU adressed this using clever scripting for its Tele instrument (called Telematic) that was included in the Mach Five (its sampler) factory library. This single guitar preset is 8.3G in size!

Still, that only addresses one of the many issues I've mentioned, but the effort was admirable nevertheless, IMHO.

I had read an article in a magazine, interview with Angus Young, on how AC/DC lead was played in Back in Black.

He was pretty cool about saying it was his brothers composition and he couldn't quite ever play it the same way.
So he was suggesting others not try and mimic him, but find their own way and not be bothered with such perfection. (my own words)

Anyhow, he pointed out how he played a particular part, that in one spot he used the open A and in another spot (part of the same lick)
he used the 5th fretted E string A note.

So I brought this to the local shop where they have teachers and shared it.
They told me that they argued about this particular passage and each had their own way to teach it.
They were shocked that Angus's way was one of the harder scenarios to do this, which they had dismissed.
They assumed he played one of the easiest ways, or only used open A since it sounded fuller.

But he explained in the article why he chose using both ways, wanting the different tones. He didn't mention how hard it was or learning it.
THAT was the way it should be to his ears, not his fingers. Good lesson there.

This also came up when discussing the Beatles TAB book, put together by some Japanese musicologists. And it's clear, that while they are brilliant theorists, they aren't guitarists.
Because the tab isn't where George often plays his parts. The thing about guitar is, many parts are played where they can be bent easier or leave room to slide up or down, hammer on, etc. Plus we have actual video showing where he played some of these things to prove the TAB book wrong.

One day though, we will be able to control these sounds with our minds through scan helmits, and choose any sound available, manipulate them with our hands, feet and voice.
So, enjoy this last period of vintage guitar playing.

It gets worse... When the Baby Boomers die off, the high priced vintage market will dry up. Most of the new music will be done from loops, editors, plugin transpositions, crafted synths, etc. And when they need a "live" musician with actual "skill", robots will take those jobs. And it will only take 1 robot to do the orchestra because it will all be midi -> triggered wav files. Maybe they'll have holograms of seeming live players. And we won't be going out to see it. Just like I get my shit off Amazon now, rather than drive to an actual store, this will be wirelessly transmitted to your living room.

Quote from db9091

Most of the new music will be done from loops, editors, plugin transpositions, crafted synths, etc. And when they need a "live" musician with actual "skill", robots will take those jobs. And it will only take 1 robot to do the orchestra because it will all be midi -> triggered wav files. Maybe they'll have holograms of seeming live players. And we won't be going out to see it. Just like I get my shit off Amazon now, rather than drive to an actual store, this will be wirelessly transmitted to your living room.

Will be done? No, I'm afraid we are already there for a large part. Look at the now-so-popular dance scene, today we have things like Tomorrowland were all the bigger producers (David Guetta, Steve Aoki, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, to name a few) perform, just by playing a DJ set, which is often pre-recorded. Also, many of the top-40 radio hits are spinoffs of the electronic genre and are produced entirely on a computer.

Not that there is anything wrong with EDM or other dance music (in the end there is no such thing as bad music, only misunderstood music). But I started wondering, if there is such a thing as bass, rhythm and lead guitar in a rockband, why don't you do bass, rhythm and lead keys, and perform electronic music live? It's possible, look at Netsky... But I'm afraid that I know the answer: most of the audience doesn't bother, let alone that they would apreciate the hard work involved with being a good musician. They just want fancy light shows and decoration (compare woodstock's stage in 69 to that of tomorrowland today)

And in the end, it's not just electronic music which is to blame. Through the decades of pop culture, tape-acts, singers playbacking, unconnected keyboards on stage, where always amongst mainstream music acts. They just didn't make it to the music festivals until recent years.

But does that mean guitar is dead? Meh, actually I don't care, every kind of music has it's place, most important thing is you are enjoying yourself. I'm a DJ myself, and had the luck to have stood in front of 3000 people once in a while, tons of 500+ gigs, blah blah blah. But few years ago, I had the urge to buy a guitar: By the time I really master this guitar-playing thing I will probably play in an old-people blues band in a small bar of 50 people or so. Guess what: I'm looking forward to this. If this was a popularity contest I would have stayed with my turntables. It's about the fun of learning something new and the ability to express yourself with improvising, and bends, slides, hammers, pulloffs, and god knows what you can do with a guitar.

db's last two paragraphs were tongue-in-cheek - at least, that's how I saw them.

I took his statements as a humorous exercise in hyperbole.

Fun.,, but it aint no guitar,,and he plays like a keyboard player,, not a picker,,
also,,sounds like its under water,,,Id be glad to go head to head with him ,, see how it compares to the real thing side by side, then youd hear its a gimick,,aint nutin like the real thing baby,,wheres the feed back,, string pinchs, big bends ( smoothly) etc,,it will be in the bargin bin in a year ,but still a cool toy,,good for something,,prob,,

There are still plenty of kids learning to play classical instruments right now. Though most kids want to do things cutting corners in whatever way and quit anything that requires lots of effort and patience, there will be a few that are in for a long ride. Sure it is a bit depressing to see what music is successful nowadays. Collage and rererevisited songs.

Monkey_Man's on to me! haha

This is a cool tool, but remember, the Doors Ray Manzarek played bass on his keyboards better than most 60's bassists.

So the tech has been there to a degree. And Strawberry Fields didn't replace flute players. So we're safe.

The only problem is that widely available credit and cheaper manufacturing has brought any instrument into the mainstream.
So the vast numbers of players make the field hard to make a living in. You need to be multi-talented, ambitious, and lucky.

My daughter played some of the latest EDM that they had at Bonnaroo and I was a bit underwhelmed by the categorical title.
I think of Electronic as something akin to 80's german electronica (think U2's Zooropa) and of course more modern loop/synth mostly underground.
Not my thing (ie Moog festival, which is right in my backyard in Durham now, moved from Asheville)

I like to see talent, and this guy in the video is definitely quite talented.

I really think we're looking at this instrument in a very negative light because of the thread title, i.e. "the guitar is obsolete".

The ROLI is definitely a step in the right direction, an expansion of the capabilities of an instrument. People used to think the electric guitar was too far-fetched when they were first built, for example.

I'm not saying the ROLI is like the electric guitar, but anything that can enhance the capabilities of an instrument should be applauded.

There may not be a whole lot of software for it yet, but I'm pretty sure more will come out down the line.

The company that makes the instrument apparently has Dream Theater's Jordan Rudess on board, btw.

Quote from db9091

One day though, we will be able to control these sounds with our minds through scan helmits, and choose any sound available, manipulate them with our hands, feet and voice.
So, enjoy this last period of vintage guitar playing.

It gets worse... When the Baby Boomers die off, the high priced vintage market will dry up. Most of the new music will be done from loops, editors, plugin transpositions, crafted synths, etc. And when they need a "live" musician with actual "skill", robots will take those jobs. And it will only take 1 robot to do the orchestra because it will all be midi -> triggered wav files. Maybe they'll have holograms of seeming live players. And we won't be going out to see it. Just like I get my shit off Amazon now, rather than drive to an actual store, this will be wirelessly transmitted to your living room.

Geez
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And... future music will be made up on the spot using your biorhythms as the seed for evolving arpeggio algorithms.

People will get this pumped to their helmets by the government (you know, the suits you have to wear because the environment was destroyed back in the early 2000s)
and then there will be this great revolution by the masses who realize that nature had cleaned itself up and "the boss" was just continuing to repress the people.

But they WILL get together, and assembled, blissfully ascend into rapture through ONE NOTE of universal music.

[and they dude who came up with this fantasy was sober!]

Now that´s my kinda folk history - wonder where Mr. Tr**p fits into all this...

When I first heard this, I was fascinated at Townshend's forward thinking creativity:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifehouse_(rock_opera)

Blues, jazz, classical, bluegrass....as long as these genres exist there will be players of musical instruments including guitar. Just because there is garbage music out there doesn't mean everybody is listening to it.

Quote from HCarlH

Blues, jazz, classical, bluegrass....as long as these genres exist there will be players of musical instruments including guitar. Just because there is garbage music out there doesn't mean everybody is listening to it.

True.
Days ago I said to my daughters that a great musician, G. Allman, had just passed away. One of them said, "So what? Who's that guy? Nobody knows him". Kids live in their own world, and perhaps we were not so different. It takes a while for us to go back to the roots, to the music that inspired the later artists we listen to. When I listened to Led Zep I was no expert on Dixon or Johnson! Years ago L Kravitz was a top artist and Robert Plant was opening for him. Kravitz said it was a shame kids loved him and came to concerts without having any idea of who this Plant guy was! Probably Page and co. felt something similar in the 70s as far as the bluesmen they loved and that had inspired them so much. The problem I see now is that whereas years ago you could trace the roots and new artists were constantly evolving the "old" music, now most kids listen to very bad copies, or parodies rather, of pop, country, disco and rap. Any new Beatles in the horizon? Some Jackson? Prince? In the 80s synths dominated pop, but we also had punk, heavy rock shredders and SRV, Van Halen, Metallica and later came others like Bonamassa. And Nirvana, etc. The tree, roots and branches, was still there. And great pop rock banda like Roxy Music or later U2 can make the most of the synths plus guitar combination. Just as Pink Floyd had done earlier. Each band with personality, and sometimes the sound (obviously in the case of Gilmour, Manzanera, the Edge) defined by good taste and creativity, not by incredible technique. I love guitar -oriented music, but sure you can create great music without using guitars. I don't think virtuosity is compulsory either. Talent is. And the music industry doesn't let it grow that easily. Too many singers out there who are not musicians. Too much collage. Etc.