From your own experience can you suggest any guitar to MIDI convertors that track well. Latency can often be a problem as I understand it but there has to be a compromise somewhere, and latency can be easily resolved through editing.

Here's my situation: I can't play keyboard well at all, but I can, play guitar well. MIDI is a godsend to use for sound to video/post-production which I occasionally do, and for experimental guitar tracks. Im looking for a cheap way to track MIDI in to a DAW such as Logic and Pro Tools with a Guitar. I don't want to spend more than £150 (whatever that translates to in $) so can anyone suggest a worthwhile option for guitar to MIDI? I have for example been looking at a few options such as the monophonic Sonuus G2M V2 (signal converted through jack to jack) or the Roland GK3 Pickup but I think that this can only be used through one of the Roland guitar synth pedal units such as the GR-20 (which cost a bomb for what I want to use it for). I understand you have to play cleanly to track well, but what impact does hitting a muted string have on tracking? Will it disregard it and take the loudest string signal? Or is the whole thing just not worth the hassle?

--------------------
Honour Thy Error As A Hidden Intention; Trust In The You Of Now

Within your budget there really is only one option.

The Roland's are great, but not ideal as MIDI only devices and even the GK3 pick-up will eat most of your budget. The Sonuus is the same but less sophisticated, monophonic only and as a pitch to voltage device you will have subtle MIDI timing issues to learn.

The Starr Ztar series are ideal for your needs, but seriously expensive and well beyond your budget. But they are by far the best guitar centric MIDI keyboard.

However, within your budget, if you shop around, and giving you 90% of everything the Ztar can do...

The You Rock Guitar is the only game in town. List is about £200, but a quick Google shows you can shop around and get it for £150 or less.

I'll put my hand up and admit that I haven't tried one yet myself, but I have plenty of experience with the Roland/Axon system and have put the YRG on my personal shopping list. It looks like a toy, but don't be deceived. The SOS review from August is here, it's on the borderline, but should be free to read for non-subscribers now or very soon as it is about 5 months old now.

Andy

--------------------
When the going gets weird, the Weird turn Pro.

I've just bought a YRG in Maplins (Stockport) for £79. I did try to talk myself out of it having made a few impulse buys recently but... what can you do?

--------------------
Ohm's Law states, "Your PA isn't as powerful as you think it is".

Yeah I've had a look on the Youtube after you two and someone on Gearslutz suggested it. I think it's a better buy than the Sonuus, mainly because it's not monophonic, and since all the parts are made for each other (I.E not a pickup made for a standard guitar already on the market) it should be the best tracking option. Also a bonus: it's reduced from £200 to £117 on Amazon so I may very well get it in the next few weeks/month. The only worry is that all the decent promo videos on youtube have been video edited, so you wonder how many takes they have done before they have got it to sound viable. If I get it and it doesn't work out how I want (although I should think it should) I could always use it to piss about with or just buy GuitarHero for it. One downside is that you can't string bend, you have to use the tremolo arm (which from what I've seen sounds awful and doesn't sound remotely like a string bend) but I think there is a mod pot (down by the tone and volume controls) which means it has the same limitations as a MIDI keyboard in a pitch bend sense.

What shop is that in Stockport by the way? Purple Turtle Music by any chance? If I can get it for what you said you got it for then it's definitely worth a punt! Good to see another Manc with some near local suggestions!

If anyone else is interested: You Rock Guitar Review - Midi Guitar Review With Dan Mumm - YouTube

--------------------
Honour Thy Error As A Hidden Intention; Trust In The You Of Now

The reason the YRG is so good is precisely because it isn't a guitar. It is a keyboard that is laid out to suit a guitarist. And because it is a keyboard it is ideal for generating MIDI. So I really wouldn't worry about string bending, you can always go in and edit the MIDI data on your DAW of choice after. You can add pitch bend then using the graphical editing tools and tweek it until it feels right. And if you want to experiment with pedal steel type multi-string bends, you can do that too. Even bend some notes down rather than up.

Go for it. And then just spend a few days just jamming along and having fun to get used to it.

Andy

--------------------
When the going gets weird, the Weird turn Pro.

Any thoughts how well it would work driving a Roland GR20 via MIDI?

I suppose I could always record the MIDI then feed out if latency was a problem for live...

Hewesy

Cheers, I'd be messing around with it through my amp for 6 months until I get a loan through for Uni to buy a decent bedroom mixing setup. Im hoping by the time Im at Uni theres a few thunderbolt audio interface devices on the market, its worth the wait if it really is x4/5 times faster than firewire. Got my LIPA interview 6th Jan, fingers crossed for that!

In regards to driving a GR-20 with the YRG thats an interesting idea since there shouldn't be the latency issues you'd have with a guitar and a pickup. Since there is a MIDI out on the YRG it should work with it as long as there is a MIDI in on the GR-20 (I should think! But there may be some reason for both units fighting with each other that I'd check up on first)

--------------------
Honour Thy Error As A Hidden Intention; Trust In The You Of Now

Quote MancSound:

---

Yeah I've had a look on the Youtube after you two and someone on Gearslutz suggested it. I think it's a better buy than the Sonuus, mainly because it's not monophonic, and since all the parts are made for each other (I.E not a pickup made for a standard guitar already on the market) it should be the best tracking option. Also a bonus: it's reduced from £200 to £117 on Amazon so I may very well get it in the next few weeks/month. The only worry is that all the decent promo videos on youtube have been video edited, so you wonder how many takes they have done before they have got it to sound viable. If I get it and it doesn't work out how I want (although I should think it should) I could always use it to piss about with or just buy GuitarHero for it. One downside is that you can't string bend, you have to use the tremolo arm (which from what I've seen sounds awful and doesn't sound remotely like a string bend) but I think there is a mod pot (down by the tone and volume controls) which means it has the same limitations as a MIDI keyboard in a pitch bend sense.

What shop is that in Stockport by the way? Purple Turtle Music by any chance? If I can get it for what you said you got it for then it's definitely worth a punt! Good to see another Manc with some near local suggestions!

If anyone else is interested: You Rock Guitar Review - Midi Guitar Review With Dan Mumm - YouTube

---

Mmm... I've just been looking on the Maplin website to post a link and can't find it in stock which makes me wonder if I just happened to be in the right place when they sold it as a one off.

Things gone my way? Had to happen sometime.

(voice of Marvin the depressed robot)

I don't suppose it'll last.

--------------------
Ohm's Law states, "Your PA isn't as powerful as you think it is".

Yeah I looked myself and couldn't find so Im gonna ring up the store first, nice one.

--------------------
Honour Thy Error As A Hidden Intention; Trust In The You Of Now

I've got a YRG - been gigging it for 6 months now. Just got to the point where I've exhausted the scope of its onboard sounds, so I've got myself a Roland XV-2020 (on advice from folks here) to do a rather better range of noises. The Roland also lets me do some other useful stuff like different sounds for different strings, which the YRG can't do itself. (Yet. Splitting by string or by fret position is on their to-do list, apparently, but don't hold your breath.)

The bad news on the YRG is that its detection of picking is not at all good. A basic strum is fine, but anything else seems very unreliable. Plectrum is a bit more successful, but fingerstyle is a complete non-starter. Maybe my technique isn't perfect - dunno. I think it's a design problem though, bcos the sensor only picks up side-to-side string movement and not at all on vertical movement, and of course there's always more or less vertical component on a plucked string.

(Edit: Just seen the review. I'll try slackening the strings right off and see if that helps. Certainly the sensitivity settings didn't do anything for me. But I don't need the strings anyway because...)

Where the YRG really wins is two-handed tapping, though. It's a total monster for this - it really is the unsurpassable Platonic Ideal of a tapping guitar. Intuitive feel, perfectly-spaced frets bcos you're not limited to string-based fret spacings, and just basically works great. Treat it like a keyboard, and that means using both hands to play it.

Edited by grab (23/12/11 12:48 AM)

I just bought a YRG a few hours ago. Had to ring up Maplin in Collyhurst near me, they didn't have it, rang Stockport, they said Bolton have 1 in stock, went to Bolton and got it for £79 which I thought was well worth gambling on since I hadn't tried it.

I've tried absolutely everything I can think of but plucking open strings does not work at all, not the slightest bit of sound. The only sound I get from playing the YRG is in tap mode and by tapping the frets which won't cut it for what I want to use it for. I also loosened the tension a bit which didn't help solve anything. I'm at a loss to what it could be. I've tried it with each string set to a different MIDI channel, and with trigger sensitivity set to 10 (max) and also individual string gain set to 10 (max) and also tried it with other options such as auto open string damping (or whatever they were) on and off. Didn't work.

Any ideas? (Running off a plugged in Macbook via USB, tried through Garage Band and also through amp via jack to jack) Basically everything works except for open strings/plucking strings.

--------------------
Honour Thy Error As A Hidden Intention; Trust In The You Of Now

That's odd. If tapping produces sound, then not a problem on that connection. Presumably no orange LEDs show on the display when plucking then? (These show which strings are currently sounding.)

Silly question, but have you also tried zero for sensitivity? Can't remember if it's a sensitivity or a level. Other settings (apart from volume) won't stop the sound completely.

Short answer though is that it sounds like you may have a duff one.

No I didnt try the sensitivity the other way round, I.e 0 ill try that first thing in the morning but it was first on 5 so being halfway should have yielded some sound. Yeah I emailed the customer support who said they have never had this problem before so they could organise their german branch to do an exchange. Don't fancy paying to ship it so ill just take it back to maplin and get an exchange at Maplin in wigan. The pickup system must be dud, can't really formulate my opinion on the thing atm though not being able to pick anything. One worry is the string frets though, they look like they could wear out pretty easily and end up affecting responsiveness. The fret responsiveness on tap mode seems good so hopefully the responsiveness of the strings will be just as good at the same volume output. One thing getting used to when I have a working version is not to play percussively or naturally mute anything (well, try to) should be well worth the £79 though i should imagine

--------------------
Honour Thy Error As A Hidden Intention; Trust In The You Of Now

Yeah - like you, I'd be guessing a problem with the strings bit. Internally it's about 5 separate bits with ribbon cables between them, so it's fairly easy for one bit to be not working and other bits to be OK.

The neck is pretty robust. The outer coating seems to have a risk of silicone peeling. Mine is going slightly, but doesn't seem to affect feel or playing. It's been raised on the YRG forums, and YR have said they'll replace them.

After trying many guitar to midi converters over the years and realising the all basically do a similar job - ive ended up with one of these which i find as expressive as any - and cheap

And with the link !!! http://www.sonuus.com/products.html

That's only monophonic though, so it won't give you MIDI for two or more strings making a noise at the same time. Fine if that's all you want, but it is going to give you a more limited set of options.

I just did a completed items list search on eBay and a couple of GR50s with pickup and lead have gone for around £150

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Roland-GR-50-Guitar-Synth-GK-2A-Pickup-all-cable s-and-Manual-/290643842369?pt=UK_Guitar_Accessories&hash=item43abb91541#ht_500wt_1413< /a>

...or this one that went for a little more but had all the bells and whistles which would could have sold on at a profit.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Roland-GR50-Guitar-Synthesiser-plus-FC100-Footsw itch-GK2-Pickup-EV5-Exp-Pedal-/230718756492?pt=UK_Guitar_Accessories&hash=item35b7e8d6 8c#ht_500wt_1156

The GR50 is not a bad unit - I owned and gigged one for several years. At the time I didn't think the GR1, GR30 or GR09 were any improvement in the pitch to midi capabilities, and arguably they sounded worse - at least the GR50 had a proper synthesiser instead of a sound canvas unit for its sounds. So I didn't upgrade my GR50 until I bought an Axon AX100MkII. If you are planning on putting together a multi-synth rig then the 50 may be the only game in town as - if ever I was so foolish to consider selling it - I'm sure I could offload my Axon on eBay for at least the same money as it cost new from Thomann.

So if the yourock guitar doesn't float your boat, then the GR50 would be my recommendation. But saving for a GR33 would be the best bet really.

Steve

--------------------
arK music

Edited by arkieboy (29/12/11 06:44 PM)