Synth Effects

Synth effects fall into two categories:

• Those that pitch shifting, EQ'ing, and distortion in unique ways to emulate the sound of synthesizers
• Those that actually detect notes played on guitar and convert it into MIDI or MIDI-like information to base true synthesized sounds upon

For the latter category, some devices can do this using simply the output of the guitar's magnetic pickups. However, most use special hexaphonic pickups to do so.