Show HN: Guitoro, a virtual guitar you strum with your keyboard

145 points - today at 7:11 PM


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.

Source

Comments

pseudosavant today at 9:52 PM
Very well done. Looks and sounds great.

A couple of UX thoughts I had while using it:

1. Since the chords are all within a specific key, have you considered using the numbers 1 through 7 to play the respective chords? That way playing a 1-4-5 or a 2-5-1 would be very intuitive?

2. Have you considered using modifier keys (shift, ctrl, alt) to control whether a chord is strummed down versus up (e.g. pressing A would be down, but Shift+A would be up) or major/minor (A would be major, Alt+A would be minor)? I guess Ctrl could be a 7th chord modifier too.

Just some thoughts. Great tool!

MartijnBraam today at 9:50 PM
The chord names not matching the keys on my keyboard are throwing me off a lot on this, but that's difficult to get anything other than major chords. Maybe it would be playable by using modifiers to shift to minor and 7th etc.

Another idea I had was being able to bend by holding two keys like monophonic synths.

orliesaurus today at 8:46 PM
I just spent 30 minutes playing with this. It's incredible, well done to the author!
_spduchamp today at 8:41 PM
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.

mbo today at 9:22 PM
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.
waerhert today at 8:29 PM
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?
paaloeye today at 9:38 PM
Next steps: add Guitar Hero controller or/and Rock Band interface support
pageandrew today at 9:50 PM
This is so cool.
onlyrealcuzzo today at 9:24 PM
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
jtumbot today at 9:31 PM
Very nicely done, at first I thought it was gimmicky but it's actually playable
TomGarden today at 8:55 PM
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
ssteeper today at 8:35 PM
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)
taybin today at 9:25 PM
This was much better than I expected. Nice job.
Rygian today at 8:09 PM
Why does it show a left-handed guitar on Player view, and a right-handed one on Audience view?
jamesdelaneyie today at 8:56 PM
Really really enjoyable, but how do I turn on drive for the electric guitar?
LewisOrton today at 8:22 PM
Before I knew it, ten minutes had gone! good job
vdev123 today at 9:08 PM
This is really good.
fellowniusmonk today at 7:41 PM
This looks very interesting, I may finally learn wonderwall.
ZeWaka today at 8:47 PM
This is super fun, thanks!
mbil today at 8:37 PM
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel:

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  AAAAAA
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iamben today at 7:55 PM
This is absolutely amazing. Well done.
lefstathiou today at 7:44 PM
This is excellent. Thank you.
gtruong78 today at 8:09 PM
This is great, great design, great functionality, TY!
paaloeye today at 7:53 PM
That's awesome!
jrflo today at 8:15 PM
Holy shit, this is incredible. As a guitar player this actually feels like playing a guitar. So cool.

Only suggestion I would have would be to make all 6 strings strummable independently in the chord instead of just the 4, so you can do finger picking on it.

deleted today at 8:14 PM
vegnus today at 8:04 PM
Sick, love it
tamilini92 today at 9:31 PM
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flowinfo today at 7:51 PM
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worldsavior today at 8:17 PM
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SamInTheShell today at 8:48 PM
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.