Anyone here doing MIDI guitar?

[msmcleod]

Realtime guitar to MIDI is always going to be a challenge, especially on lower notes.  It needs enough of a complete waveform (or more likely enough several complete waveforms) to correctly detect the pitch, but by that time there's an audible latency.

You can get used to it over time and learn to anticipate the notes with a lot of practice, but I suspect that time is better spent getting more proficient at learning the part on keyboard,  or even entering melodies via PRV or staff view.  

[smallstonefan]

2 hours ago, msmcleod said:

You can get used to it over time and learn to anticipate the notes with a lot of practice, but I suspect that time is better spent getting more proficient at learning the part on keyboard,  or even entering melodies via PRV or staff view.  

This is exactly the conclusion I came to!

I'm also going to experiment with recording guitar melodies and just converting them to midi using Ableton's native function or Melodyne. It's not real time but might move me forward.

[Zargg]

9 hours ago, Shane_B. said:

Yeah. Mitch at Sweetwater makes it seem like anything is possible with that thing. He shows bends and vibrato with the whammy bar but unless I missed it he didn't do any hammering. Here's a link to his vid on utoob. I've always wanted to try to emulate steel guitar triggering samples with something like that.

That video was the tipping point for me when getting it.

I got mine 2nd hand, and "had to" get a license for Synthmaster, to use it in standalone mode, which I never do.

I've got some of the EW libraries, espesially made for it, and it's fun to play.

I mostly use it as a regular MIDI device, triggering any synth I feel like.

All the best.

[smallstonefan]

So it turns out I didn't do any of the calibration necessary to customize the GR55 to the guitar. I had not idea this needed to be done.

My Sweetwater rep sent me instructions. I'll unbox everything and give it one more shot before returning it.

Stay tuned!

[Byron Dickens]

You have to adapt your playing for guitar MIDI to work. If you try to play  like a rock guitarist, you won't get good results.

[Tim Smith]

I never get good results regardless. I never thought to play like a rock guitarist because I can't play like a rock guitarist.

Oh you said 'try'. I have done that.

[Sheens]

sorry wong form

 

[rsinger]

A couple videos of the GR-55

Jack changes voicings around 4 1/2 minutes in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvM8HAcyjJw

Alex Hutchings - 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syebI6c30cI

[Gswitz]

On 5/8/2022 at 9:16 PM, James Foxall said:

I had a absolutely zero interest in the Roland. It was just used to generate midi to the computer. $800 is an expensive midi converter. 

Yeah, given that you have Melodyne et al and you are not interested in real-time music creation, there's no need for you to have the Roland. I like being able to hear the synths... play on them... play with them. Sometimes I run it through the computer and sometimes I just play with the roland into my amp. I tend to run 1 guitar cable into one amp input and the roland into the other. I use 2 cables to the guitar. I never liked the guitar sound going through the Roland myself.

[kennywtelejazz]

I have been playing midi guitar since 1982 . My first was a Roland . Then in 1986 I went with the Ibanez IMG2010. A 24 pin into a rack mount midi interface only.  No self contained synth sounds . At the time it came out the interface was meant to trigger hardware midi keyboards and rack mount synths .

     Stock photo of the guitar ... mine is the same as the photo and resting comfortably in it's case                 

                                

About 8 or 9 years ago I decided to use a software guitar midi interface called Midi Guitar by Jam Origin . I give the edge to this interface over anything that is out there currently . I'm not gonna sit here and do a blow by blow on why I feel that way.......I don't care ....? I found what I need ?

Aside from the proven fact that it tracks fantastic , Midi Guitar can host VST synths , plugs and can be used as a self contained Audio and Midi software interface as both stand alone and as a VST in your DAW. ....Also I can play any guitar I own . And yours to! ??

Anyway I'm gonna post 3 examples of my midi guitar playing .

First one up

On this tune I played in real time all my midi guitar parts ...all synths , pads , and melodies that are not typical guitars were actually done using a guitar .

The Bass part is me playing real Bass and I did my drums as parts as I figured out as per what was working with the song ...meaning placeholders drum parts that I edited until I found something that worked for my song .

 

Second tune , features a lot more midi guitar parts that I worked up and kept as midi until I was ready to add my audio parts ...The advantage to working that way in midi was it let me play my midi parts at a tempo I can play them at and keep it  clean ...Then when I liked what I did ....I can lay down all my audio at the correct songs tempo ..

Last but not least ,

Here's my  #3 Midi Guitar demo track . The story on this one is I was learning the tune Song For My Father by playing along with an Aebersold track.I wanted to play keyboard only VIA midi guitar in real time and hear what kind of lines I can come up with ....

This little recording session is just a practice session I decided to post . It is rough around the edges , at least you can get an idea how fast a midi guitar can track by a person who has worked with a midi guitar for a while ...

thank you ,

HTH

Kenny

Edited May 10, 2022 by kennywtelejazz

[craigb]

*Sheesh!*  Does Kenny even belong here? ?

I mean, he actually KNOWS how to play! ?

[Zargg]

@Shane_B.

I didn't check the link you provided properly, and found out that I have another Tripleplay than the one he used in your vidoe.

This is the video that sold me on the Fishman Tripleplay:

https://fb.watch/cW8bnyAYAn/

Edited May 10, 2022 by Zargg
Getting stuff right

[smallstonefan]

So I followed the calibration process and things track MUCH MUCH better! 

But I have two issues I don't know how to resolve.

1. The high E string is triggering notes about an octave lower than it should. It was doing this right out of the box so it wasn't anything I change.

2. No midi notes are sent to the pc for hammer-ons or pull-offs. that means every note has to be plucked which would greatly reduce the playability for me.

It's a hell of a lot closer than I expected it to get - I'll be curious to see if I can solve these issues...

[Shane_B.]

16 hours ago, rsinger said:

Jack changes voicings around 4 1/2 minutes in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvM8HAcyjJw

That video is truly unbelievable. I mean. Really. I don't believe it. I think there has to be some studio trickery going on there. I didn't think you could hammer like he is doing in that video with any of these midi rigs.

For me I would only find this useful for making realistic sounding strings and like I think I said before trying to do some realistic sounding steel guitar parts for live and recording. I'm pretty good at faking it on keyboard to get the synth sounds I like but for big band type instruments like horns, strings, flutes, and so on, something like this would be a lot easier than having to go in and edit midi after the fact to tweak it how you would like it. I've spent hours editing strings. I would think/hope it would be a lot easier for me to get the nuances I'm looking for if I did it on my guitar to begin with.

[Shane_B.]

4 hours ago, kennywtelejazz said:

I have been playing midi guitar since 1982 .

All three songs you posted were great. My favorite was the 2nd one called Midi Guitar Moods V 2.5.

[Bapu]

FWIW my son recently got a BOSS SY 1000 and for him he says the tracking is 'amazing'.

[Bapu]

6 hours ago, kennywtelejazz said:

About 8 or 9 years ago I decided to use a software guitar midi interface called Midi Guitar by Jam Origin . I give the edge to this interface over anything that is out there currently .

I have that one and the bass version but actually never got around to fully trying it out.

[rsinger]

2 hours ago, Bapu said:

FWIW my son recently got a BOSS SY 1000 and for him he says the tracking is 'amazing'.

The SY-1000 is more a successor to the VG-99. One of the synth models is a dynamic synth - it doesn't really track, it modifies the wave form of the guitar's strings signals. There is no real latency and it's very expressive. It can model the common analog wave forms. There is also an OSC model, but that can get some latency and demands clean playing. It also has the ability to do gtr2MIDI, but then you have the usual tracking issues.  I like the SY-1000.

[rsinger]

5 hours ago, James Foxall said:

So I followed the calibration process and things track MUCH MUCH better! 

But I have two issues I don't know how to resolve.

1. The high E string is triggering notes about an octave lower than it should. It was doing this right out of the box so it wasn't anything I change.

2. No midi notes are sent to the pc for hammer-ons or pull-offs. that means every note has to be plucked which would greatly reduce the playability for me.

It's a hell of a lot closer than I expected it to get - I'll be curious to see if I can solve these issues...

Is 1 true when playing PCM sounds in the GR-55? If so that would indicate a problem with the Godin. Note that you have setting up the GK pickup (or piezos), setting up the PCM sounds in a patch, setting up MIDI, and if you're using vsts or software or external HW they have to be setup as well. 

Hammer-ons and pull-offs work fine for me. Again, does it work with PCM models on the GR-55? When you start working with external MIDI equipment they need to be setup to work together. Do the bend ranges correspond?

[rsinger]

5 hours ago, Shane_B. said:

That video is truly unbelievable. I mean. Really. I don't believe it. I think there has to be some studio trickery going on there. I didn't think you could hammer like he is doing in that video with any of these midi rigs.

I've been playing guitar synth for over thirty years and all the equipment I have works with hammer-ons and pull-offs. I started with a Roland GM-70 back in '87 or '88. I like synth sounds or I use modelling, say for bass guitar, so I've been using a VG-99 and now an SY-1000. For MIDI I often use a You Rock gtr.