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Show HN: Guitoro, a virtual guitar you strum with your keyboard

129 points • by talccc • today at 7:11 PM • 42 comments • view on HN

Guitoro is a free browser guitar using recordings of real instruments. You can strum with your keyboard, mouse, or touchscreen, choose acoustic, classical, electric guitar or bass, and see chord fingering and each stroke. Song practice can be slowed to 20%, and there are free chord tools and tuners. No signup or download.

1 minute video demo: https://youtu.be/DtcluMLdSgs

I would love feedback on how the strumming feels and sounds.


Comments

paaloeye • today at 9:38 PM

Next steps: add Guitar Hero controller or/and Rock Band interface support

mbo • today at 9:22 PM

In solo mode, there should be a horizontally flipped version, such that such that the 0 key plays open E on the 1st string, and the 9 plays F on the 1st string, etc. That would allow me to hold my wireless keyboard backwards, facing the screen, rely on the muscle memory of my hands.

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jtumbot • today at 9:31 PM

Very nicely done, at first I thought it was gimmicky but it's actually playable

orliesaurus • today at 8:46 PM

I just spent 30 minutes playing with this. It's incredible, well done to the author!

_spduchamp • today at 8:41 PM

This looks great!

I noticed that the strumming seems a bit off on chord changes. A good default is to let strings that don't change on chord change to continue to ring through. Just think about the strings as actual strings and the kinds of things that happen to them when you play.

Also, different songs will have different techniques like bar chords that may have less brightness, palm muting etc.

I'm working on a physical guitar digital luthier kit right now as part of a project at Toronto Metropolitan University working with disabled musicians. Our aim is to release it so anyone can build one.

Here is our documentation of examining an existing assistive guitar built a few years ago in the UK. https://www.designingsoundfutures.org/kellycaster-mark-1/

Now we're taking lessons learned from that and working on robust versions for touring musicians, and variations to adapt to different assistive and artistic needs.

Great to see others doing nifty work with this guitar based music stuff.

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onlyrealcuzzo • today at 9:24 PM

Been working on something similar (a DAW, to learn more about music) - and just wanted to say that your guitar voice is quite good! Bravo

waerhert • today at 8:29 PM

Very well done! When adding a chord on a key, I'm missing a small preview of the chords as they appear in the autocomplete list, or would be nice to be able to assemble a chord on a fretboard view. What made you start work on this app? And what is the logic behind how the chords are laid out on the keyboard?

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taybin • today at 9:25 PM

This was much better than I expected. Nice job.

TomGarden • today at 8:55 PM

Had fun with this on my phone! Any chance of calculating velocity based on speed of pick movement? I'm sure some super basic ASDR and maybe a low-oass would get you to a very satisfying place

ssteeper • today at 8:35 PM

It's great! As far as I can tell, the toggle for Let ring is not working: when i disable it, notes still ring out after letting go of the key (in solo mode on electric guitar currently)

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Rygian • today at 8:09 PM

Why does it show a left-handed guitar on Player view, and a right-handed one on Audience view?

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jamesdelaneyie • today at 8:56 PM

Really really enjoyable, but how do I turn on drive for the electric guitar?

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LewisOrton • today at 8:22 PM

Before I knew it, ten minutes had gone! good job

vdev123 • today at 9:08 PM

This is really good.

ZeWaka • today at 8:47 PM

This is super fun, thanks!

fellowniusmonk • today at 7:41 PM

This looks very interesting, I may finally learn wonderwall.

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mbil • today at 8:37 PM

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel:

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  SSSSSS
  DDDDDD

  FFFFFF
  FFFFFF
  SSSSSS
  SSSSSS
  AAAAAA
  AAAAAA
  DDDDDD
  DDDDDD
iamben • today at 7:55 PM

This is absolutely amazing. Well done.

lefstathiou • today at 7:44 PM

This is excellent. Thank you.

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gtruong78 • today at 8:09 PM

This is great, great design, great functionality, TY!

jrflo • today at 8:15 PM

Holy shit, this is incredible. As a guitar player this actually feels like playing a guitar. So cool.

Only suggestion I would have would be to make all 6 strings strummable independently in the chord instead of just the 4, so you can do finger picking on it.

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paaloeye • today at 7:53 PM

That's awesome!

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vegnus • today at 8:04 PM

Sick, love it

tamilini92 • today at 9:31 PM

[flagged]

flowinfo • today at 7:51 PM

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worldsavior • today at 8:17 PM

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SamInTheShell • today at 8:48 PM

This is kinda cool, but it's nowhere near as fun as being able to play the real thing. Sounds better IRL.

It is nice that it shows the chords.

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