MIDI guitar controller

ToMess · November 2017

@zhoe said:

@ToMess said:
Audio to midi is not reliable and has lag. This is an technical issue impossible to over with. You need midi mics to get ok results, and even most of midi mics wont satisfy everyone(and you still need to adjust your playing style). What you really need to get good results is to have sensors for every string under every fret. This kind of monsters cost A LOT.

There are ofc small differences between apps(i dont remember which one was the best since i got a midi pickup to my guitar quite a while ago), but audio to midi is not reliable at all in general and you can forget playing many strings at the same time. Or well some app might get small chords right sometimes..

Yeah, that Sounds about right. I tried these apps, but it’s going all over the place. I hear four notes in succession instead of one.

It gets a bit better if you adjust the settings just right and change your play style drastically to something that doesent even feel like playing guitar. You know no fast moves, try to pick the string just right and the same way every time etc. Low notes also have more latency because it needs to read longer waveforms to figure out the note, higher pitch notes have a shorter wave, so if it for example calculates between 10 waves, there is considerably less lag on higher register. Too high might get more unreliable tho, so finding a sweet spot and transposing the synth up or down helps

hellquist · November 2017

@MusicMan4Christ said:
Yeah please I don’t have FB.

I might have spoken too soon. When I typed my previous comment I did so because I saw they had lots of videos. I assumed they were linked in from YouTube and Vimeo et al. As we know, "assumption is the mother of all"...etc as it turned out they, for the most part, were actually videos uploaded directly to FB.

I did find their channel on YouTube though, which seems to contain user generated content as well (so not all sales pitches): https://www.youtube.com/user/JamOriginVideos
Some of those videos can be for the desktop version though.

Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr · November 2017

@ToMess said:

@zhoe said:

@ToMess said:
Audio to midi is not reliable and has lag. This is an technical issue impossible to over with. You need midi mics to get ok results, and even most of midi mics wont satisfy everyone(and you still need to adjust your playing style). What you really need to get good results is to have sensors for every string under every fret. This kind of monsters cost A LOT.

There are ofc small differences between apps(i dont remember which one was the best since i got a midi pickup to my guitar quite a while ago), but audio to midi is not reliable at all in general and you can forget playing many strings at the same time. Or well some app might get small chords right sometimes..

Yeah, that Sounds about right. I tried these apps, but it’s going all over the place. I hear four notes in succession instead of one.

It gets a bit better if you adjust the settings just right and change your play style drastically to something that doesent even feel like playing guitar. You know no fast moves, try to pick the string just right and the same way every time etc.

This was my experience too. To the point that there is really no advantage using the guitar as a controller. If I can't cut loose, and if I can't play chords easily, might as well just use a keyboard or geoshred.

zhoe · November 2017

@Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr said:

@ToMess said:

@zhoe said:

@ToMess said:
Audio to midi is not reliable and has lag. This is an technical issue impossible to over with. You need midi mics to get ok results, and even most of midi mics wont satisfy everyone(and you still need to adjust your playing style). What you really need to get good results is to have sensors for every string under every fret. This kind of monsters cost A LOT.

There are ofc small differences between apps(i dont remember which one was the best since i got a midi pickup to my guitar quite a while ago), but audio to midi is not reliable at all in general and you can forget playing many strings at the same time. Or well some app might get small chords right sometimes..

Yeah, that Sounds about right. I tried these apps, but it’s going all over the place. I hear four notes in succession instead of one.

It gets a bit better if you adjust the settings just right and change your play style drastically to something that doesent even feel like playing guitar. You know no fast moves, try to pick the string just right and the same way every time etc.

This was my experience too. To the point that there is really no advantage using the guitar as a controller. If I can't cut loose, and if I can't play chords easily, might as well just use a keyboard or geoshred.

Yeah, I totally agree with this.

zhoe · November 2017

@Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr said:
Here's a free one:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jam-synth/id732618765?mt=8

thanks, this is actually pretty good!

zhoe · November 2017

@teleb said:
I wonder if this one is any good: Zivix Jamstik+

I've checked some videos,. and it looks pretty useful, but boy, not the prettiest star, aesthetic-wise..:)

ToMess · November 2017

@zhoe said:

@Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr said:

@ToMess said:

@zhoe said:

@ToMess said:
Audio to midi is not reliable and has lag. This is an technical issue impossible to over with. You need midi mics to get ok results, and even most of midi mics wont satisfy everyone(and you still need to adjust your playing style). What you really need to get good results is to have sensors for every string under every fret. This kind of monsters cost A LOT.

There are ofc small differences between apps(i dont remember which one was the best since i got a midi pickup to my guitar quite a while ago), but audio to midi is not reliable at all in general and you can forget playing many strings at the same time. Or well some app might get small chords right sometimes..

Yeah, that Sounds about right. I tried these apps, but it’s going all over the place. I hear four notes in succession instead of one.

It gets a bit better if you adjust the settings just right and change your play style drastically to something that doesent even feel like playing guitar. You know no fast moves, try to pick the string just right and the same way every time etc.

This was my experience too. To the point that there is really no advantage using the guitar as a controller. If I can't cut loose, and if I can't play chords easily, might as well just use a keyboard or geoshred.

Yeah, I totally agree with this.

Yep. Even the midi guitar i have doesent feel good enough to be much fun for me and its better than any software i have tried(i tried some on desktop too and the ios ones). I rather use keys, even tho im not that good with keys, but if im likely correcting the midi sequence when playing with guitar, i might just as well use keys, more likely that i get it right with them..

One of those cheapist midi "guitars" that doesent have real frets or strings, but buttons on frets and some short strings for triggering the note could be fun.

richardyot · November 2017

I don't see MIDI Guitar as replacing keys - that's the wrong way to approach it. What it does is to allow guitar style phrasing, that can't easily be achieved in other ways. Hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends, slides, and even vibrato if you do it wide enough.

Maybe it depends on your playing style, but I don't find the need to change how I play at all, but then as I said I don't shred, just pay regular melodic lead lines. For that MIDI Guitar works perfectly.

hellquist · November 2017

@richardyot said:
I don't see MIDI Guitar as replacing keys - that's the wrong way to approach it. What it does is to allow guitar style phrasing, that can't easily be achieved in other ways. Hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends, slides, and even vibrato if you do it wide enough.

Maybe it depends on your playing style, but I don't find the need to change how I play at all, but then as I said I don't shred, just pay regular melodic lead lines. For that MIDI Guitar works perfectly.

+1 on that.

Also, being a guitarist first and keyboardist secondly, I think phrasing and chord progressions completely differently when I use my guitar compared to when I use a keyboard. With a guitar I "know" and I can "see" what it will sound like, without needing to think too much, and a lot less trial-and-error, compared to when I play keyboard, which is lots of trial-and-error and I'm mentally quite exhausted afterwards (as I of course put rather high demands on what it should sound like, which is 20+ levels higher than I currently actually am on keyboard).

Philh0954 · November 2017

I’ve been revisiting MidiGuitar2 since this thread surfaced. It had been awhile. Having a great time with it again. I had purchased the Midi outputs to play around with various synth patches. So many more to choose from now with your synthronics, zeeons, Kauldrons etc. Some patches work great but most don’t really work very well. I’ve been adding a MidiGuitar folder into some synth apps and saving the patches that work well. I haven’t tried it yet but I think Yonacs Kauldron should be pretty cool to try with the Spawn function. Having the ability to generate random patches within certain parameters should be a blast.

richlum · November 2017

@richardyot said:
I don't see MIDI Guitar as replacing keys - that's the wrong way to approach it. What it does is to allow guitar style phrasing, that can't easily be achieved in other ways. Hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends, slides, and even vibrato if you do it wide enough.

Maybe it depends on your playing style, but I don't find the need to change how I play at all, but then as I said I don't shred, just pay regular melodic lead lines. For that MIDI Guitar works perfectly.

I agree. Things like strummed chords, arpeggios and just the timing of notes in melodies are much easier to do with either MidiGuitar2 or the Jamstik than on a piano keyboard. I can hammer out some chords and basic melody on a keyboard controller, but my skills are not good enough to have the timing for some melodies or to do arps or imitate strummed chords.

JeffChasteen · November 2017

@Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr said:

@ToMess said:

@zhoe said:

@ToMess said:
Audio to midi is not reliable and has lag. This is an technical issue impossible to over with. You need midi mics to get ok results, and even most of midi mics wont satisfy everyone(and you still need to adjust your playing style). What you really need to get good results is to have sensors for every string under every fret. This kind of monsters cost A LOT.

There are ofc small differences between apps(i dont remember which one was the best since i got a midi pickup to my guitar quite a while ago), but audio to midi is not reliable at all in general and you can forget playing many strings at the same time. Or well some app might get small chords right sometimes..

Yeah, that Sounds about right. I tried these apps, but it’s going all over the place. I hear four notes in succession instead of one.

It gets a bit better if you adjust the settings just right and change your play style drastically to something that doesent even feel like playing guitar. You know no fast moves, try to pick the string just right and the same way every time etc.

This was my experience too. To the point that there is really no advantage using the guitar as a controller. If I can't cut loose, and if I can't play chords easily, might as well just use a keyboard or geoshred.

I approve this message.

u0421793 · November 2017

Since the late 90s I’ve had a Roland GI-10 guitar midi interface and GK2a pickup screwed to my Hohner G3T LH guitar. Before that I had other cheaper left-handed guitars and other older guitar to midi interfaces. A few years ago when I bought the MIDI Guitar for GarageBand app on macOS (or OS X as it was known as back then) I took my Roland hex pickup off and packed the GI-10 away. I also bought it for the iPad, but tend not to use it there.

(The GI-10 and pickup is still packed away, if anyone in East London wants to try one — I doubt I’ll use it again thanks to the JamOrigin apps).

receder · November 2017

@u0421793 said:
Since the late 90s I’ve had a Roland GI-10 guitar midi interface and GK2a pickup screwed to my Hohner G3T LH guitar. Before that I had other cheaper left-handed guitars and other older guitar to midi interfaces. A few years ago when I bought the MIDI Guitar for GarageBand app on macOS (or OS X as it was known as back then) I took my Roland hex pickup off and packed the GI-10 away. I also bought it for the iPad, but tend not to use it there.

(The GI-10 and pickup is still packed away, if anyone in East London wants to try one — I doubt I’ll use it again thanks to the JamOrigin apps).

Interesting. I had a GR-55 which I sold and still have a GI-10 and Godin xTsa with GK output. I keep meaning to compare the GI-10/GK combination to normal guitar plus JamOrigin app. By the looks of it you find it as good as the GI-10/GK solution? In which case that'll be one more item for Ebay :-)

Rubooch · November 2017

https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/17844/best-guitar-to-midi-solution-for-ios/p1

u0421793 · November 2017

@receder said:

@u0421793 said:
Since the late 90s I’ve had a Roland GI-10 guitar midi interface and GK2a pickup screwed to my Hohner G3T LH guitar. Before that I had other cheaper left-handed guitars and other older guitar to midi interfaces. A few years ago when I bought the MIDI Guitar for GarageBand app on macOS (or OS X as it was known as back then) I took my Roland hex pickup off and packed the GI-10 away. I also bought it for the iPad, but tend not to use it there.

(The GI-10 and pickup is still packed away, if anyone in East London wants to try one — I doubt I’ll use it again thanks to the JamOrigin apps).

Interesting. I had a GR-55 which I sold and still have a GI-10 and Godin xTsa with GK output. I keep meaning to compare the GI-10/GK combination to normal guitar plus JamOrigin app. By the looks of it you find it as good as the GI-10/GK solution? In which case that'll be one more item for Ebay :-)

Well, “as good as” is a bit of a single dimensional continuum illusion. I’d say they fail in different ways. Fortunately I’m not a fast player, what with having to look up the music, then look up in a book to see what that note is called, then look up in another book to see which fret and string that corresponds to, then redraw it because the book was right-handed, then play the note. Then the next note-hitting process begins, and so on, by which time I’ve forgotten where we are.

Increasingly though, I’m not integrating guitar (or ukulele these days) with anything electronic – they’ve become separate pursuits.

receder · November 2017

@Rubooch said:
https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/17844/best-guitar-to-midi-solution-for-ios/p1

Thanks @Rubooch

@u0421793 said:
(The GI-10 and pickup is still packed away, if anyone in East London wants to try one — I doubt I’ll use it again thanks to the JamOrigin apps).

@receder said
Interesting. I had a GR-55 which I sold and still have a GI-10 and Godin xTsa with GK output. I keep meaning to compare the GI-10/GK combination to normal guitar plus JamOrigin app. By the looks of it you find it as good as the GI-10/GK solution? In which case that'll be one more item for Ebay :-)

Well, “as good as” is a bit of a single dimensional continuum illusion. I’d say they fail in different ways. Fortunately I’m not a fast player, what with having to look up the music, then look up in a book to see what that note is called, then look up in another book to see which fret and string that corresponds to, then redraw it because the book was right-handed, then play the note. Then the next note-hitting process begins, and so on, by which time I’ve forgotten where we are.

Increasingly though, I’m not integrating guitar (or ukulele these days) with anything electronic – they’ve become separate pursuits.

Thanks @u0421793 I hardly use MIDI input for guitar any more either. Then again if it was as easy as using MIDI Guitar 2 I would probably use it more often or maybe even use it live with an iPad synth or two.

freemobil64 · November 2017

;-)

Loopy Pro: Create music, your way.

MIDI guitar controller

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