Electronic music - pickups: Difference between revisions
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==Electromagnetic pickups== | ==Electromagnetic pickups== | ||
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'''Electromagnetic pickups''', a.k.a. '''magnetic pickups''', means | '''Electromagnetic pickups''', a.k.a. '''magnetic pickups''', means | ||
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When you move a magnet near a wire, current flows. | |||
This is how an electical generator works, turning movement into electricity. | |||
A guitar does something similar, but instead of moving the magnet, it moves the wire very near a magnet. | |||
It's not that the strings are magnetic, it's that the pickup has two distinct parts: magnets, and a coil. | |||
The magnet is there to set up a field strong enough for the coils to then notice the variation in it. | |||
In that setup, the vibrations of the string becomes the signal on the coil, ''fairly'' directly. | |||
This is why such guitar pickups only work with metal strings, | This is why such guitar pickups only work with metal strings, | ||
and do not pick up anything acoustic | and do not pick up anything acoustic, so the rest of the guitar's design barely matters to the sound - except perhaps to | ||
things like hitting the body (impacts end up soft vibration of the strings), shaking the guitar (varying the strings's vibration enough to work out as [[vibrato]]). | |||
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'''Single coil or humbucker''' | '''Single coil or humbucker''' | ||
Coils are by nature an antenna. | |||
That makes them good at picking up any electromagnetism happening nearby, the strongest of which is usually the 50Hz / 60Hz power hum. | |||
And this hum can be made more noticeable by certain audio effects, including distortion, fuzz, compressors <!--(often when they effectively reduce the dynamic range)-->. | |||
The simplest pickup is a '''single-coil''' pickup, which don't address this at all. | The simplest pickup is a '''single-coil''' pickup, which don't address this at all. | ||
There are some ways to reduce hum (e.g. don't be near a powered object), but not by a lot. | |||
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* and one with its magnets flipped. | * and one with its magnets flipped. | ||
This is a clever trick, but it involves two parts, so if you want to actually understand them, you probably want to work this out on paper. | |||
Due to being hooked up opposite, anything that both coils in the pickup receive the same amount ends up being subtracted. | |||
So why doesn't that happen to the strings as well? | |||
That's where the other part comes in: due to one coil having the magnets flipped, the signal from these coils are idential but one of them is flipped - and subtracting a wave from it's flipped form works out as addition again. | |||
And yeah, that subtraction is far from perfect for a few reasons (e.g. the fact that the coils cannot be in ''entirely'' the same place), | |||
but it's pretty decent for lower frequencies, and sources that are further away. | |||
Mains hum is both of those, so it works pretty well. | |||
{{comment|Technically, you can connect humbuckers either in series or in parallel, | {{comment|Technically, you can connect humbuckers either in series or in parallel, | ||
but series is more typical due to the output signal (and the effect{{verify}}) being a little stronger.}} | but series is more typical due to the output signal (and the hum-reducing effect{{verify}}) being a little stronger.}} | ||
Single coils tend to | Single coils tend to work out a little brighter (and used in surf, sixties sounds), humbuckers tend to be bassier. | ||
And then there are distinct designs of each. | And then there are distinct designs of each. | ||
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<!-- | <!-- | ||
This isn't a difference in the coils (usually), it's a difference in the magnets{{verify}} | |||
Most pickups have little circuits. Those are effectively the ends of magnets. | |||
Why give each string its own pole? | |||
It's not actually necessary - as long as there's a strong enough magnetic field near all strings, | |||
it'll work fine. | |||
I've seen plenty of basses that just throw two pickups under apparently purely because one wasn't wide enough (they are still wired as single coil). | |||
In a way, rail pickups do that same thing but are a little more honest about it: they have one long conductor getting that magnetic field out there. | |||
Is there a difference? Sure. | |||
Individual poles under the strings may (or may not) be screws that let you extend these to put them closer to the strings, | |||
focusing the magetic field and making for somewhat stronger output - or lower noise if you dial down the volume. | |||
And the ability to do that per string lets you alter the relative volume of each string a bit, e.g. if you feel the lowest string is | |||
From that explanation, you can expect rail pickups to maybe be a little lower signal to noise. | |||
That said, they run less risk of becoming quieter when bending a string (further up the neck). | |||
And as a footnote, you might get humbucking rail pickups as small as a single coil, | |||
meaning you can install in guitars designed for one-coil witout modifying them | |||
--> | --> | ||
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Active pickups (a.k.a. hot pickups?) are any that are powered, whatever the style {{verify}} | Active pickups (a.k.a. hot pickups?) are any that are powered, whatever the style {{verify}} | ||
Pickups give enough signal that they do not need to be powered, | Pickups give enough signal that they do not need to be powered | ||
for circuits to receive what they do -- yet placing the amplification (and more importantly, impedance change) | |||
close to the signal generation avoids some loss and noise issues, | |||
and that motivation is also why active pickups are usually humbuckers. | and that motivation is also why active pickups are usually humbuckers. | ||
--> | --> | ||
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'''Coil tap or split coil?''' | '''Coil tap or split coil?''' |
Revision as of 14:35, 2 September 2023
Piezo elements
A piezo element (often in disc form, sometimes in others like a guitar pickup's rectangular pellets) responds to bending/stress on its surface with voltage.
This makes them useful to sense vibration (including sound), impact (they are common in electronic drumkits), and in theory sense something bending, though there are more robust ways to do that.
There are piezo-based kinetic switches - e.g. battery-less RF buttons that operate from the energy you put in.
You can also use them as actuators, but only for very small movement - small sounds, small actuators in microscopy, maybe some haptic feedback.
(They are seen in some vandal proof buttons, because there can be a serious amount of hard material in between button and piezo. Yet they are not the only or often even best way to do that.)
On piezo polarisation
Electromagnetic pickups
Electromagnetic pickups, a.k.a. magnetic pickups, means
- a coil,
- close to a permanent magnet (practically often around, it's useful positioning),
- with both oriented and positioned so that a nearby conductor moving in that field affects the field in a way that makes it into the coils
When you move a magnet near a wire, current flows.
This is how an electical generator works, turning movement into electricity.
A guitar does something similar, but instead of moving the magnet, it moves the wire very near a magnet.
It's not that the strings are magnetic, it's that the pickup has two distinct parts: magnets, and a coil. The magnet is there to set up a field strong enough for the coils to then notice the variation in it.
In that setup, the vibrations of the string becomes the signal on the coil, fairly directly.
This is why such guitar pickups only work with metal strings, and do not pick up anything acoustic, so the rest of the guitar's design barely matters to the sound - except perhaps to things like hitting the body (impacts end up soft vibration of the strings), shaking the guitar (varying the strings's vibration enough to work out as vibrato).
Single coil or humbucker
Coils are by nature an antenna.
That makes them good at picking up any electromagnetism happening nearby, the strongest of which is usually the 50Hz / 60Hz power hum.
And this hum can be made more noticeable by certain audio effects, including distortion, fuzz, compressors .
The simplest pickup is a single-coil pickup, which don't address this at all.
There are some ways to reduce hum (e.g. don't be near a powered object), but not by a lot.
People then thought up humbuckers, a setup that takes
- two such coils,
- hooked up in opposite polarity,
- and one with its magnets flipped.
This is a clever trick, but it involves two parts, so if you want to actually understand them, you probably want to work this out on paper.
Due to being hooked up opposite, anything that both coils in the pickup receive the same amount ends up being subtracted.
So why doesn't that happen to the strings as well? That's where the other part comes in: due to one coil having the magnets flipped, the signal from these coils are idential but one of them is flipped - and subtracting a wave from it's flipped form works out as addition again.
And yeah, that subtraction is far from perfect for a few reasons (e.g. the fact that the coils cannot be in entirely the same place),
but it's pretty decent for lower frequencies, and sources that are further away.
Mains hum is both of those, so it works pretty well.
Technically, you can connect humbuckers either in series or in parallel,
but series is more typical due to the output signal (and the hum-reducing effect(verify)) being a little stronger.
Single coils tend to work out a little brighter (and used in surf, sixties sounds), humbuckers tend to be bassier.
And then there are distinct designs of each.
Individual pole or rail
Passive or active?
Coil tap or split coil?
Single coil hum
Sustainers
A guitar sustainer is an electromagnetic pickup coil, plus amplifier and driver coil.
It sends out what it receives (due to typical design largely focuses on lower frequencies),
which on a guitar amounts to forcedly resonating the tone currently being played.
Sustainers are often sold as separate products.
Some guitars have sustainers built in (this is often custom), which will often look like regular pickups, and could even be used as a pickup when not active, should you want to.
Sustainers are often used for spacey sounds or other genre-specific things, because while it's good at controlling slow volume swells, tremolo, and some other expressiveness that you otherwise cannot easily do on guitars (and are more commonly associated with other instruments, like violins - which is e.g. where the e-bow gets its name), the same long sustains don't combine too well with strumming or fast playing.
The E-bow is one brand of hand-held sustainer, aimed to work on one string, to add expressiveness to phrasing. It has grooves to the side to rest on other strings you're not playing, and indicates where it most picks up and excites.
Its designer found that if you reverse the driver coil, it dampens the fundamental frequency and amplifies overtones/harmonics a bit more. This is presumably all that the harmonics switch does.