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Sampling with a guitar pickup

Posted: 15 Nov 2023
by challism
This is a cool method. I'm going to try it out. Could be a fun project with some interesting results. I wonder what different electronic devices around the house would sound like through a pickup. I wonder if a drill would spin the objects fast enough? Has anyone reading this ever tried this method?

I downloaded the DecentSampler demo. The 5 presets sounded pretty good. Demo here: https://www.decentsamples.com/product/m ... -hilowitz/

I can't see spending $30 on it because it's $30 and times are tough. But it is a great idea and I really want to give it a try.


Re: Sampling with a guitar pickup

Posted: 15 Nov 2023
by Bes
cool share
i didn't know about pick ups, let us know if you can make it work

Re: Sampling with a guitar pickup

Posted: 15 Nov 2023
by Loque
I am really interested in it. Experimenting with pickups, also not magnetic ones, is on my to-do list.

Re: Sampling with a guitar pickup

Posted: 16 Nov 2023
by crimsonwarlock
So, it is basically reinventing the tone wheel organ.

Re: Sampling with a guitar pickup

Posted: 16 Nov 2023
by Bes
dang, kinda yeah

"A tone wheel organ uses a series of spinning metal discs, each of which is shaped like a tuning fork. As the discs rotate, they pass by a pickup coil, which induces an electrical current in the coil. The frequency of the current is determined by the speed of the disc, and the amplitude of the current is determined by the size and shape of the disc."

Re: Sampling with a guitar pickup

Posted: 16 Nov 2023
by selig
I have fun with a bag of cheap contact microphones (about $2 per mic), which are somewhere between a pickup and a microphone. Gives a different perspective on common sounds. Can turn just about anything you can hit into a drum sample…

Re: Sampling with a guitar pickup

Posted: 16 Nov 2023
by challism
crimsonwarlock wrote:
16 Nov 2023
So, it is basically reinventing the tone wheel organ.
From what I just read about tone wheel organs... not reinventing but reinventing the WHEEL (literally). Expanding on the idea by spinning other objects than wheels. The method from the video gives us unlimited things to spin and sample. That idea is pretty exciting to me. Makes me want to take my laptop, audio interface, and pickup (and contact mic.. thank you for bringing that up, Selig) to the nearest metal recycling center and have some fun.

The video method is more like a rompler, (unless you want to try your luck spin the objects and amplifying their sound live). That sounds more time consuming than building your own rompler out of found sounds.
selig wrote:
16 Nov 2023
I have fun with a bag of cheap contact microphones (about $2 per mic), which are somewhere between a pickup and a microphone. Gives a different perspective on common sounds. Can turn just about anything you can hit into a drum sample…
Thanks for bringing this up. I'd never heard of contact mics before. That must have been what that removable "pickup" was on a 2nd hand guitar I bought years ago. This is definitely the way to sample electronics around the house (and elsewhere). Fun! I'm ordering some now.
https://vi.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-- ... e.search.0

Re: Sampling with a guitar pickup

Posted: 16 Nov 2023
by Loque
selig wrote:
16 Nov 2023
I have fun with a bag of cheap contact microphones (about $2 per mic), which are somewhere between a pickup and a microphone. Gives a different perspective on common sounds. Can turn just about anything you can hit into a drum sample…
Exactly. Use it with Objekt and it opens a wide range of sounds. Ist zwei pickups and you have stereo sounds. Maybe in my next holiday I have the time to try it out...