This is probably a dumb question but I am new to the guitar (about a year in to my learnings with a teacher).
I have some pedals but I want to branch out into getting a synth as well to experiment with the sound.
Does there exist a device that I can plug in to my pedal chain so I can drive it with my guitar AND play it on it’s own to create sounds? Also hoping synths have a drum machine because I would like to play with a beat.
I know pedal synths exist but that isn’t really what I am looking for, want a synth on its own that I could also use with the guitar but not only with the guitar if that makes sense.
Am I thinking about this wrong? Does this mythical device exist? If not anyone have some relatively entry level devices I can look at?
Potentially instead I need to hook my pedal chain into my computer instead, and learn a DAW and get a MIDI controller?
This is all so new so I am pretty lost.
Yes you can do that. You need a midi controller (to control your software synth), an audio interface to plug the guitar chain into, and a DAW to bring it all together assuming you want to record.
Edit: you don’t need a midi controller since you can play synths with mouse clicking in midi, or even on a computer keyboard (at least in some DAWs), but the piano playing experience is great, and having some knobs to twist to control synth parameters gives you more freedom too.
Edit 2: you could go for a hardware synth, but imo that’s a lot more expensive and limited than having all the software synths at your disposal for the price of a single midi controller
I’ve gotten into a setup like this recently. Feel free to ask any questions.
oh sweet thanks! yeah part of why i was thinking synth is that since I am learning music theory having piano keys to play with might be nice.
So what initially got me down this line of thinking is that I have been playing with guitar drones through my loop pedal with my delay and echo pedals, and was thinking it might be nice to be able to shift the pitch of the drone or try to speed it up or slow it down.
I am still trying to figure out what “my sound” is and there is so much stuff that I get lost. Also I really want to find out how to have drums of some sort through my looper pedal.
Keys do feel more comfortable than guitar to think about theory imo. And you can play and hear chords without having to click in each note separately.
Definitely something a DAW can do. You can automate pitch, FX parameters, and everything else you can think of.
You can program drums, or get drum loops and arrange them in the DAW. Not sure how to go about that with a loop pedal. I think DAW would be easier and more flexible, especially for fills and variations.
I would suggest trying Reaper for a DAW. Guitarists and others I’ve known have spoken highly of it. Free 60 day trial, and it doesn’t even make you pay after that if you don’t want to. Be ready for a steep learning curve with any DAW you may try, there’s a lot at first.