CGI Slide Guitar

In the movies, CGI stands for “computer-generated imagery.” But, here, it stands for a “computer-generated instrument” that relates to slide guitar.

Yes, I can play slide. And I can play keyboards—sort of. (If my keyboard technique was a car, it would be a Yugo). But, for the studio, here’s a variant on slide guitar that combines guitar and minimal keyboard skills. Although traditional slide allows for far more nuanced playing, the keyboard-meets-slide approach produces unique sounds that recall steel and slide guitar.

To hear what this sounds like, go to https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/craiganderton, and click on the free preview of the song, “Play the Game, Spygirl.” (The solo at the end is a real guitar, by the way—keyboards can’t do that.)

CREATE YOUR INSTRUMENT

Open your recording software, and record a major and minor chord in all 12 keys. Let the chords ring out as long as possible, and leave a space between each chord. Split the chords into individual samples with a short fadeout (around 200ms) so that a chord fades out, rather than just stops dead. You might also want to record some individual notes, so you can have a few notes available that aren’t chords.

Next, map the samples to keyboard keys. How to do this varies for different programs. Sample One (Fig. 1) is fairly typical. You drag in the samples, specify each sample’s root note, and the note range over which it plays (which will be a single keyboard key for each chord).

THE CGI SLIDE TECHNIQUE

Create the slide by moving the pitch-bend wheel. For example, start with the wheel rolled back, hit a key