double footswitch, or MIDI controller 70. The same holds true of bringing in a "chicken-pickin''' patch (a variation on the "pluck" patch) or sample.

’Ä¢ A l2-string guitar uses six pairs of strings, with the lowest four pairs tuned in octaves. You can emulate the tuned pairs by using two instruments or two oscillators tuned in octaves, with an extremely short delay between them to account for the time it takes to pick both strings in a pair. The low note sounds first on downstrokes. This also can be accomplished with a sequencer by transposing duplicate notes up an octave and very slightly time-shifting the transposed notes.

Signal Processing
Any effects processors guitarists use are available to keyboardists. Chorusing, flanging, delay, distortion, and reverb are fair game. But synths and samplers output line-level signals far hotter than passive guitar pickups, so if you process your signal with a guitar effects box that expects to see a direct signal from a guitar, remember to pad down the synth's output level considerably.

Electronic instruments also have a dynamic range far wider than that of an electric guitar. Before you add effects, it's a good idea to compress the dynamic range to about 6 to 12 dB, as experimentation dictates. It's best to do this within the patch, but you also can use an outboard compressor. Guitarists often use compressors ahead of their distortion devices, but this is mostly to increase sustain by keeping the signal from decaying too fast, which isn't as crucial with a properly programmed synth-patch sample.

Before routing the signal to an effects device, roll off the extreme highs, using your synth's filter or a parametric equalizer. Otherwise, the extraordinary high harmonics generated by a synth will aggravate clipping when put through a distortion device. The distortion box should give you all the highs you need.

A large part of the classic electric-guitar sound is the amp and speaker combination. Sometimes there's nothing like the real McCoy. Try using an old tube amp with separate channel and master volume pots and a pair of 12-inch speakers. By sending the processed signal to this rig, overdriving the channel circuit, and miking the speakers with a Shure SM58 or similar mic, you can get that classic tube amp sound. Alternatively, you can use a classic amp with a Marshall SE100 speaker emulator (reviewed in the November 1991 issue of EM), or a Tech 21 Sans Amp (reviewed in August 1991). The Sans Amp does a little emulation of its own to produce classic amp tones without an amplifier and is plugged directly into the mixer.

Get Together
It's a blast to watch a guitarist's jaw drop when a synthesist comes impressively close to The Sound. Using a synth or sampler to emulate a guitarist also somewhat reduces the need for the genuine article. And with ten fingers and strong chops, you call go beyond mere emulation and pull off licks and chords no guitarist can play. But I still prefer having a hot guitarist around. The biggest thrill conies from challenging each other and combining forces to really rock the house.