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Topic: So Far, No-one has Replicated the Sound of the Pedal Steel |
Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 7 Mar 2016 12:09 pm |
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Technology has so far left musicians behind. Modern electronics has not only allowed for the synthesis of the sounds of instruments, but producing that sound electronically by sampling, and then playing it on a keyboard, has become ordinary. Where it fails is where the physics of the instrument and its syntheis diverge. For instance, you cannot produce chords on a saxophone, but you can synthesise them. There are fingering patterns than you play on a guitar which cannot be replicated on a keyboard, and vice-versa. When you take MIDI inputs from a keyboard, or from a guitar, and play around with the instruments, this becomes immediately apparent to musicians, but not to the public.
Eventually, in hundrds of years time, there will be many other forms of MIDI input. What will bands of the future look like>
I think that, in hundreds of years time there will be a reversion to acoustic instruments, so, if we survive that long, get your Dobros ready. |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 7 Mar 2016 1:18 pm
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| So Far, No-one has Replicated the Sound of the Pedal Steel |
I dunno. The ride in this song sounds awfully close to something Hal Rugg or Jimmy Crawford might have done, but it was done on a synthesizer. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag6S9mTLeNM&list=PLeZzMt86gfS8PjSlP7HyKsi9xK4CyLtkA&index=5
But, I do think that in "hundreds of years", nothing (not midi, not pedal steel, nor even guitar) will exist as it does today. All these will likely be like steam engines are today...past oddities of little popularity or practical value.  |
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Mark Eaton
From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
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Posted 7 Mar 2016 1:22 pm Re: So Far, No-one has Replicated the Sound of the Pedal Ste
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| Alan Brookes wrote: |
I think that, in hundreds of years time there will be a reversion to acoustic instruments, so, if we survive that long, get your Dobros ready. |
Surprised to see this from you since you are an instrument builder and as I recall part of a luthier's organization here in Northern California.
We don't have to wait hundreds of years. Not that discarded electric instruments will be clogging up landfills any time soon, but I would be willing to be bet that in per capita purchases in the U.S., acoustic stringed instruments since about the year 2000 are enjoying their greatest sales figures over a 10-15 year period of any time in history.
Take the most venerable American builder of acoustic guitars, C.F. Martin & Co.
They are doing quite well these ways. In the early to mid 1980s they very nearly went out of business. I have read some articles where the banks were calling their loans in those days. In the era of pop bands with big hair and lots of gel, and guys on stage with weird portable electronic keyboard instruments hanging on a strap from around their necks, Martin and other acoustic instrument builders were hurting in a big way.
Things have changed dramatically beginning in the early to mid 1990s with a groundswell of popularity in the acoustic instrument field.
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Mark |
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Pat Chong
From:
New Mexico, USA
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Posted 7 Mar 2016 5:31 pm
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Alan, I agree with what you say. The Yamaha keyboard that I have does "play" the steel via sampling, as you said and it sounds ok, but lacks the proper sound when playing chords. Playing it is not the same, either.
We know that pressing A & B pedals raises 1 string 1 step and another string 1/2 step. This can not be done on the keyboard when using the "pitch bend" knob, as all notes raise the same amount, depending on the setting. (Although there is a "pedal steel" on the Yamaha that alters only the lowest of 2 or 3 notes, I moved to the "real thing" before I learned how to use it.)
And supporting what Mark said: There is "Folk Punk-rock". They use acoustic instruments, including guitar and banjo. There is also a group "Iron Horse" that plays modern rock in a bluegrass style, which I am sure many people know, but I thought this was interesting........
....................Pat |
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Brett Lanier
From:
Hermitage, TN
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 9 Mar 2016 10:34 am Re: So Far, No-one has Replicated the Sound of the Pedal Ste
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| Mark Eaton wrote: |
| Alan Brookes wrote: |
I think that, in hundreds of years time there will be a reversion to acoustic instruments, so, if we survive that long, get your Dobros ready. |
Surprised to see this from you since you are an instrument builder and as I recall part of a luthier's organization here in Northern California... |
True, but most of the instruments that I build are acoustic. I dabble in lap steels from time to time, but most of the instruments that I build are folk instruments from pre-Renaissance times.
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=270995&highlight=side |
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John Goux
From:
California, USA
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Posted 10 Mar 2016 3:35 pm
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I played guitar on the Dolly/Kenny track that Donny posted. The "pedal steel" licks were played by the inimitable Jim Cox on an OBX synth. There was no MIDI involved. You may have seen him playing piano with Mark Knoffler, James Taylor and Lyle Lovett. The guitars were myself and Fred Tackett.
As a newbie pedal steel player now, I'm just as impressed with this steel imitation as I was decades ago.(don't think I've heard it since then)
Just goes to show, for the zillionth time, it really is about music, and not the equipment used.
John |
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