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Posted by talccc 2 hours ago

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

133 points | 43 comments
paaloeye 7 minutes ago|
Next steps: add Guitar Hero controller or/and Rock Band interface support
orliesaurus 59 minutes ago||
I just spent 30 minutes playing with this. It's incredible, well done to the author!
mbo 23 minutes ago||
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.
jayknight 19 minutes ago|
There was something like this that came with an old Sound Blaster card back in the day that I spent quite a lot of time with. It had something like this, where you could pick individual strings with the number pad and change chords with the F buttons.
_spduchamp 1 hour ago||
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 51 minutes ago|
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.

jtumbot 14 minutes ago||
Very nicely done, at first I thought it was gimmicky but it's actually playable
onlyrealcuzzo 21 minutes ago||
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 1 hour ago||
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 1 hour ago|
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

TomGarden 50 minutes ago||
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
taybin 20 minutes ago||
This was much better than I expected. Nice job.
ssteeper 1 hour ago|
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 58 minutes ago|
Thanks for reporting! I will look into it. Did it happen on all notes?
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