RE: The Ultimate Sitar Guitar

["Krispen Hartung" <info@krispenhartung.com>]

Title: Message

Ah, yes, hex pickups...that opens up a whole new world of possibilities. I used to own the GR-30, and I loved the sitar patch. It combined, as you say, the sitar sound with the droning Tanpura (that is the typical droning stringed instument in the background of most Indian music).  I think I saw that Boss WP unit in a store before, and I was lusting over it until it said I had to have a hex pickup. Darn.

 

Basically, this is what I did on my Boss VF-1 last night.

 

Autowah

 

Mode=BPF

Polarity=up

Sensitivity=50

Frequency=86

Peak=20

Rate=50

Depth=50

Level=100

 

EQ

 

Low = -20db (all the way down)

High = +4db

Low-Mid Frequency=800Hz

Low-Mid Q=1.0

Low-Mid level=0

High-Mid Frequency=4k

Hi-Mid Q=1

Hi-Mid Level=0db

 

Flanger

 

Rate=3

Depth=70

Manual=50

Rsonance=60

Level=75

 

With some reverb and delay added to taste.

 

Kris

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: ArsOcarina@aol.com [mailto:ArsOcarina@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2005 10:03 AM
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Subject: Re: The Ultimate Sitar Guitar

Kris,

I don't use it very often but the Boss WP-20G ($189.97 @ Sweetwater: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/WP20G/) has a fair-to-middling
faux sitar patch. The catch is that you have to have a Roland GK hex
pickup on your guitar. BTW, some of the Roland guitar synths have sitar
patches as well -- as long as were mentioning hex pickups. The best fake
sitar I've ever been able to achieve has been blending the sitar patch on
a GR-1 with a similar Indian instrument sample (maybe sarod, veena or the
drone instrument I can't remember) from an EMU Proteus III World. The
ensemble of sounds seems (correctly or incorrectly) to match much better
what folks "expect" to hear. It sounds more Beatlesque than authentically
Indian though, and a little too polished. I'm definitely NOT well-schooled on
any form of World music (Indian or any other). So I usually eschew using
sounds I don't know at least something about the way their "supposed" to
be played -- or have a really good feel for. That's also why I very seldom
play a real "blues" tune. I have no "feel" for it. It always sounds wooden
and inauthentic to me -- coming from my own fingers and instrument.

Best regards,

tEd ® kiLLiAn

"Different is not always better, but better is always different"

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