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

121 points talccc 2 hours ago 37 comments

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.

fellowniusmonk 1 hour ago | parent

This looks very interesting, I may finally learn wonderwall.

talccc 1 hour ago | parent

Thanks you, Good luck with wonderwall!

lefstathiou 1 hour ago | parent

This is excellent. Thank you.

talccc 1 hour ago | parent

Enjoy (; and tell your friend

paaloeye 1 hour ago | parent

That's awesome!

talccc 1 hour ago | parent

Thanks!

iamben 1 hour ago | parent

This is absolutely amazing. Well done.

vegnus 1 hour ago | parent

Sick, love it

gtruong78 1 hour ago | parent

This is great, great design, great functionality, TY!

Rygian 1 hour ago | parent

Why does it show a left-handed guitar on Player view, and a right-handed one on Audience view?

talccc 1 hour ago | parent

Hi Rygian, Good catch.

Player view does show a left handed guitar. Two reasons: 1. matches what a right handed player sees looking down at their own guitar: low E on top, neck on the left. 2. players without guitar, to lined up with the pc keyboard that is on the left.

True Audience view is like you watch right hand guitar player.

bibimsz 19 minutes ago | parent

" matches what a right handed player sees looking down at their own guitar: low E on top, neck on the left"

no, it's wrong

Aboutplants 17 minutes ago | parent

Yeah, and I would rather see the “normal” presentation of chords. At least provide a selector to be able to toggle the view.

rendleflag 12 minutes ago | parent

Okay, it’s not just me. It was breaking my brain trying to understand the chords on the screen vs. when I play.

jrflo 1 hour ago | parent

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.

talccc 56 minutes ago | parent

Good idea. I've added it to the list of upcoming improvements. Thanks!

LewisOrton 1 hour ago | parent

Before I knew it, ten minutes had gone! good job

waerhert 56 minutes ago | parent

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 41 minutes ago | parent

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

ssteeper 51 minutes ago | parent

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 38 minutes ago | parent

Thanks for reporting! I will look into it. Did it happen on all notes?

mbil 48 minutes ago | parent

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel:

  AAAAAA
  FFFFFF
  SSSSSS
  DDDDDD

  FFFFFF
  FFFFFF
  SSSSSS
  SSSSSS
  AAAAAA
  AAAAAA
  DDDDDD
  DDDDDD

_spduchamp 44 minutes ago | parent

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 31 minutes ago | parent

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.

orliesaurus 39 minutes ago | parent

I just spent 30 minutes playing with this. It's incredible, well done to the author!

ZeWaka 39 minutes ago | parent

This is super fun, thanks!

SamInTheShell 37 minutes ago | parent

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.

Sherveen 34 minutes ago | parent

What an insightful contribution.

SamInTheShell 11 minutes ago | parent

I said it's kinda cool. Like what more do you want? I could point out how useless it is in general, I can't say it would make a good learning tool, because it doesn't. But it is a novelty site that does make sound and show correct chord positions. Can you use it to compose something? Sure but the sound cutoff between chords and the need to pick a chord that strums down first before you can strum up means you'll always produce a sound you don't want and you can't even replicate picking.

It's not a tool, it's a toy man. Chill out.

TomGarden 31 minutes ago | parent

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

jamesdelaneyie 29 minutes ago | parent

Really really enjoyable, but how do I turn on drive for the electric guitar?

talccc 15 minutes ago | parent

Thanks! Click Sound button on the right nd pick one of the electric presets. For more control, open Amp & FX in the same panel and choose Overdrive, Distortion or Fuzz.

vdev123 17 minutes ago | parent

This is really good.