International Computer Music Conference 2020

Guitar Virtual Instrument
using Physical Modelling Synthesis
with Collision Simulation

Department of Computer Science and Engineering
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)

Ho Ka Wing, Charles (kwho@link.cuhk.edu.hk)
Ling Yiu, Leo (yling@link.cuhk.edu.hk)
Chau Chuk Jee (chuckjee@cse.cuhk.edu.hk)

Powered by Physical Simulation

Each segment of strings is individually simulated using finite difference method, with collision, damping, stiffness and variable tension to produce realistic virtual strings that can be flexibly manipulated.

Diverse Articulations

Play with intuitive MIDI key-mapping and strumming mode to play like a real guitarist. Perform sustain, palm mute, tapping, slapping, sliding, and more, with fingerpicking or plectrum.

Modern User Interface

Flat modern design with responsive UI and real-time visualization.

Rich Customization

Add up to 12 strings and listeners. Control more than 240 parameters to create your own perfect sound and guitar, whether acoustic or electric, fretted or fretless.

High Performance

Accelerated with SIMD and multi-threading to enable high performance simulation with minimal RAM and storage usage.

Showcases

Our program can be used for many different genres of music.

Beyond - Amani

Instruments

  • Acoustic Rhythm Guitar (our plugin)
  • Eletric Lead Guitar (our plugin)
  • Eletric Bass Guitar (our plugin)
  • Drum (XLN Audio - Addictive Drums 2)

Download

Funk (original)

Instruments

  • Eletric Guitar (our plugin)
  • Eletric Bass Guitar (our plugin)
  • Drum (XLN Audio - Addictive Drums 2)

Download

Note: A bug (incorrect hand position on the guitar) is presented in the video. The bug has been fixed later.

Metal (original)

Instruments

  • Eletric Rhythm Guitar 1 (our plugin)
  • Eletric Rhythm Guitar 2 (our plugin)
  • Eletric Lead Guitar (our plugin)
  • Eletric Bass Guitar (our plugin)
  • Drum (XLN Audio - Addictive Drums 2)

Download

Depapepe - Start

Instruments

  • Nylon Guitar (our plugin)
  • Steel String Guitar 1 (our plugin)
  • Steel String Guitar 2 (our plugin)

Download

Jazz (original)

Instruments

  • Eletric Guitar (our plugin)
  • Eletric Bass Guitar (our plugin)
  • Organ (Native Instruments - Kontakt Factory Library)
  • Drum (Native Instruments - Kontakt Factory Library)

Download

Articulation Animations

Slowed down visualizations and sound examples of some of the articulation in our program.
The sounds examples are not one to one match of the visualization.

Sustain

A finger first presses down on the fretboard, then another finger pull on the string to pluck it before disappearing.
(Animation slowed to about 1/100 of original speed)

Slap

The slope of the fretboard colliders are reduced, and the plucking finger slap down on the string before retracting quickly..
(Animation slowed to about 1/100 of original speed)

Natural Harmonics

A finger is placed at a ratio of the full string length, canceling some of the harmonics when the string is plucked..
(Animation slowed to about 1/100 of original speed)

Legato Slide

The string is plucked, then the freting finger can slide along the fretboard to change the pitch.
(Animation slowed to about 1/50 of original speed)

Downloads

Updated (6th March 2023):
This is a prototype for our university final year project few years ago. The project is no longer being maintained and there are no plans for any further updates at this moment. Since we received many requests for the download of the program, we decided to release it so that you can have fun with it :)

This is an academic project, not a fully polished product, so please use at your own risk.

The default IR used in the program is the "Guitar Piezo Impulse (piezo.wav)" obtained from here:
https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~jiffer8/420/project.html

Standalone (Windows)

Download

VST3

Download