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Show HN: Guitoro, a virtual guitar you strum with your keyboard (guitoro.com)

1 points by talccc ↗ 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. I would love feedback on how the strumming feels and sounds.

160 comments

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fellowniusmonk
This looks very interesting, I may finally learn wonderwall.
talccc
Thanks you, Good luck with wonderwall!
lefstathiou
This is excellent. Thank you.
talccc
Enjoy (; and tell your friend
iamben
This is absolutely amazing. Well done.
gtruong78
This is great, great design, great functionality, TY!
Rygian
Why does it show a left-handed guitar on Player view, and a right-handed one on Audience view?
talccc
Hi Rygian, Good catch.

Player view does show a left handed guitar. Two reasons: 1. matches what a right handed player sees looking down at their own guitar: low E on top, neck on the left. 2. players without guitar, to lined up with the pc keyboard that is on the left.

True Audience view is like you watch right hand guitar player.

bibimsz
" matches what a right handed player sees looking down at their own guitar: low E on top, neck on the left"

no, it's wrong

rrr_oh_man
Yeah, Tab + Player is the right one.
djeastm
That's interesting because I think of Low E on the "top" as meaning close to me, which puts it on the bottom of the screen in this app. That matches what happens when I twist a real guitar face towards me when I've got one strapped. So I just switched it to Tab view and it all felt better.
dalmo3
Thanks for adding Tab view. Much more intuitive.
jrflo
Holy shit, this is incredible. As a guitar player this actually feels like playing a guitar. So cool.
talccc
Good idea. I've added it to the list of upcoming improvements. Thanks!
worldsavior
So many positive comments, you got to suspect. Anyway, nice graphics. Though, why the guitar is left handed?
LewisOrton
Before I knew it, ten minutes had gone! good job
waerhert
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?
talccc
Thanks! Both good ideas, noted.

I wanted to play some chords when Im away from my guitar and none of the browser online guitars I found were at the level I was looking for.

The keys follow the song's key: A row = the 5 main chords (I IV V vi ii), Q row = their sevenths Z row = color chords

ssteeper
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)
talccc
Thanks for reporting! I will look into it. Did it happen on all notes?
mbil
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel:

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  FFFFFF
  FFFFFF
  SSSSSS
  SSSSSS
  AAAAAA
  AAAAAA
  DDDDDD
  DDDDDD
_spduchamp
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.

talccc
Thanks, great input! Letting the shared strings ring through chord changes makes a lot of sense and I will look at it. Song techniques like palm muting are on the list too.

Your project sounds wonderful. Good luck with it, I'd love to see it when it's out.

orliesaurus
I just spent 30 minutes playing with this. It's incredible, well done to the author!
ZeWaka
This is super fun, thanks!
SamInTheShell
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.

TomGarden
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
jamesdelaneyie
Really really enjoyable, but how do I turn on drive for the electric guitar?
talccc
Thanks! Click Sound button on the right nd pick one of the electric presets. For more control, open Amp & FX in the same panel and choose Overdrive, Distortion or Fuzz.
jamesdelaneyie
Don't know how I missed that, thank you! Even more fun now!
mbo
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.
onlyrealcuzzo
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
taybin
This was much better than I expected. Nice job.