6 Channel GUITAR MIDI - ROUTING SETUP

[sadicus]

Looking for setup advice, anyone with experience with Roland GI-20  ~ OR ~ JamOrigin MIDI Guitar 2 + Cakewalk Setup, Each string  has it's own channel.
Trying to determine which is the best way to configure all this because it looks like there are several options.
* for the sake of setup simplicity, each "Piano" sound will eventually be replaced with different instruments.
*mostly interested in LIVE setup, but all options are welcome.
* Burr Johnson Axon mkII MIDI tracking example
 

Roland GI-20 monophonic Out + Hexaphonic Pickup

Quote

MONO (MONO MODE)
In this mode, each individual string uses a separate channel,
thus totaling six channels.
Since each string uses a different MIDI channel, you can
select different sounds for each string and continuously
change the pitch data when using string bending and other
special techniques with specific strings. However, this
requires a multitimbral sound module.

OPTION 1
DAW Cakewalk
(6) Multi-Instruments of Kontakt of Piano
 

OPTION 2
DAW Cakewalk
(1) Kontakt with (6) instance of Piano
 

OPTION 3a
DAW Cakewalk 6 Midi Channels sent to
         Vienna Ensemble Pro Server with
         (1) Kontakt with (6) instance of Piano
 

OPTION 3b
DAW Cakewalk 6 Midi Channels sent to
         Vienna Ensemble Pro Server with
         (6) Kontakt with of Piano

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Helpful THREAD
MIDI ROUTING WITH MTUNER

 

Edited January 3 by sadicus
updates

[Glenn Stanton]

is this for live performances or recording? if recording, the advantage of 6 separate channels would be to create multiple instruments (like string section) to perform the "chord" or small runs integral to the piece, and keeping it all in sync without "overdub".  

i'd probably go with option 1 - simpler and cleaner.

i've done some recording (and some live stuff) with people using expensive guitar MIDI gear - and ultimately, when recording, the challenge is getting a clean MIDI performance (even folks with great touch) to avoid errant notes. most times, we're simply resorted to using the guitar audio and Melodyne to clean up and convert, then split as needed across tracks.

live performance - most times you're outputting audio for the audience so the synths (yes, a number of people use several chained and i guess the VSL could do that as well) to get the full set of sounds -- but it requires lots of prep to get all modules and program switching etc setup (and the DAW can help or using other programs to coordinate).

will be curious to see what other folks have experienced.

 

Edited January 3 by Glenn Stanton

[msmcleod]

1 hour ago, Glenn Stanton said:

is this for live performances or recording? if recording, the advantage of 6 separate channels would be to create multiple instruments (like string section) to perform the "chord" or small runs integral to the piece, and keeping it all in sync without "overdub".  

i'd probably go with option 1 - simpler and cleaner.

i've done some recording (and some live stuff) with people using expensive guitar MIDI gear - and ultimately, when recording, the challenge is getting a clean MIDI performance (even folks with great touch) to avoid errant notes. most times, we're simply resorted to using the guitar audio and Melodyne to clean up and convert, then split as needed across tracks.

live performance - most times you're outputting audio for the audience so the synths (yes, a number of people use several chained and i guess the VSL could do that as well) to get the full set of sounds -- but it requires lots of prep to get all modules and program switching etc setup (and the DAW can help or using other programs to coordinate).

will be curious to see what other folks have experienced.

 

^^^ This

I've used both the Roland GI-10 (the GI-20's predecessor) and JamOrigin MIDI Guitar 2.

Both aren't great for latency - especially in the lower notes.  I was impressed that JamOrigin performed at least as good as the GI-10. The GI-20 may be better, but physics will always get in the way with the low notes.  You do get used to it, but be prepared to alter your playing style accordingly - i.e. anticipating the notes as required.

I've never used either live, but I'd be tempted to use an old multi-timbral sound module rather than a VSTi, which would add yet more latency.

For recording, I've found it much easier to just record the guitar and use Melodyne to convert to MIDI - tweaking the EQ as required to get the best Audio to MIDI conversion.

I guess if I practiced enough with the GI-10, it might prove a better solution, but I use it far too rarely to warrant the effort.

[John Vere]

Now I see why you tagged me in a thread from 2022. 

My experience is exactly same as @msmcleod 

I have a Godin and the GR50 which tracks really well live. Only downside is you are stuck with the GR50 sounds which is limited. I even have a bunch of expansion cards but it’s very clunky to navigate the menus. 
Connection using the midi results in about 15- 20 ms of latency so it’s useless for live triggers of anything else. 

Most definitely much easier to just use Melodyne of which I just upgraded to the Studio version to get full chords. 

It’s still far from perfect but the results are much less editing than midi input from the GR50. 

I’ve never set up the individual channels before but that might be fun to try . It might make less of a mess in PRV.

But it’s really hard to Quantize material that is that far off . Especially when the low notes are delayed by almost 3x what the hi notes are.  

Another good reason to practice your keyboard chops.  

Edited January 3 by John Vere

[rsinger]

I've done a fair amount of guitar to midi, but I'm not good enough to play multiple instruments at once. I've mostly used guitar synth to record bass, synth strings, synth brass, organ, ep, synth, and so on. That being the case I didn't use mono mode much. When the VG-99 came out I switched to that and now I'm using an SY-1000. For VSTi's I'm working on my keyboard chops. Have fun!