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Does anyone use or plan to use a Midi Guitar for composition, production, songwriting, performance?

This seems to me to be the future for guitarists and songwriting if you dont know how to/dont want to learn how to play the keys....

In my mind it seems like it would be ideal for laying down scratch tracks for some session players to cut once you get the song finalized.

Im eager to get a Midi Guitar, has anyone got any experience with them personally?

Definitely excited to see that the technology has come far enough already to finally go and splurge on one of these, rather than learning how to play keys.

Zero latency... Zero latency. zero latency!

After doing my research it looks like starrlabs are the best in terms of responseiveness, intuitiveness, and overall capability... They are expensive though it seems like a worthwhile investment for me.

Thoughts? Opinions? Suggestions?

This looks like a giant leap forward for midi guitar:

http://www.fishman.com/tripleplay

I have one on order and hopefully it will show up soon.


Chuck

I've had a Roland Midi pickup and related rig for quite a few years.

Some of the string squeaks and other odd noises get transmitted, so there's always a bit of editing. Most of them are very short duration so first thing I usually do is "filter by time" in Sonar and grab these en masse to delete them. There are probably ways to exclude them on the way in, too, by adjusting the sensitivity of the pickup, or via the DAW settings.

Even if you get great piano samples, it will often sound like a a guitar player. The timing, chord voicings, embellishments etc that a keyboard player will do are different than we guitar players normally do. Experiment with open strings to make cluster chords, and consider abandoning the pick.

Wow, I was just thinking about this tonight, thinking how much easier it would be if I could play midi with my guitar. Does anyone know if the Roland pickup http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/GK3/ can be used for general midi, can I record midi data into my DAW or do you need to use it with a Roland module?

I'm thinking that it looks like a company called starrlabs is the company that got it right. They've been building midi guitars since 1992 and have mastered the technology it appears...

At least for the top of the line capabilities and a full set of "exploited posssibilities" that could be built into a "midi guitar," such as the additonial programming and controller options. It's the closest thing i've found for what Im looking to be the keyboards replacement for guitarists primarily for in studio, but that could also be used live.


Look at Les Fradkin go lol! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bvc6u5t1yG0

This looks freaking sweet!

It sounds like there may be a little learning curve, but for serious musicians looking for the best....

Anyway, here's a couple reviews I came across...

http://www.emusician.com/gear/0769/star ... iew/139948
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb11/a ... ar-z7s.htm
http://www.synthtopia.com/content/tag/starr-labs/

marcblack30 wrote:Wow, I was just thinking about this tonight, thinking how much easier it would be if I could play midi with my guitar. Does anyone know if the Roland pickup http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/GK3/ can be used for general midi, can I record midi data into my DAW or do you need to use it with a Roland module?

The Roland GK3 connects to the Roland guitar synths and/or their VG series. (VG88 and VG99).

The new Fishman pickup does not require a module. It does come with software. The material on their website indicates the ability to use it with any DAW and any software.

I should have the pick up soon and will report back on it's features and functionality.

Chuck

Everyone i've talked to that has used the pickups says that they just can't compare for compositional purposes to real midi.

Anyone used both?

Real MIDI... That sounded weird.

Of course, much is going to be preferential, and dependent upon what you're looking for.

What else have you tried Chuck?


Excuse my approach, this is how I find answers.

I've had a Roland GR20 with a GK-3 pickup, and then sold that to get a Godin with the built-in Ghost system in it, and the Axon AX50 USB guitar-midi interface.

The GR20 is more for live gigs, and did not really have any useable sounds for recording, so I went with the Ghost-Axon setup instead. It works flawlessly. No more latency than a regular midi keyboard, really. For NI Kontakt there's a great software addition called Gtak by Evenharmonics as well.

I haven't used it as much as I've thought, though. I got it because I never had played keys, so I figured it would help me. And I've recorded some strings, some pads, a little horns, and some bass.

It's really great for those things. Very useful if you get Spectrasonics Trillian for instance. Playing bass on guitar saves you the instrument(s), the changing strings ect. Worth it for that alone, especially if you don't have a bass, but even if you have one it'll save you a fretless and an acoustic bass. But only if you use those things, or can imagine using it.

Horn lines is also great to play from guitar, if you have an ear for it. Especially Trumpet
Pads and led synths are easy, and while you can lay down chords for strings and keys, it requires a lot of editing afterwards. Doesn't sound natural at all.

What it did for me was it got me into learning keyboard. I record bass with a real bass, and play pianos, synths ect. on the keyboard now, so I've decided to sell my Godin and the Axon.

Also because I can use Melodyne to convert audio to midi, and it works really well. The new software from JamOrigin also makes it a lot cheaper than a hardware setup, if you don't have Melodyne http://www.jamorigin.com/midi-guitar/Wi ... index.html

So, that's my story on midi guitar. It's a really, really versatile tool. You can't do everything with it, but if you need it for what it's good at, it can be a great studio asset!

marcblack30 wrote:Wow, I was just thinking about this tonight, thinking how much easier it would be if I could play midi with my guitar. Does anyone know if the Roland pickup http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/GK3/ can be used for general midi, can I record midi data into my DAW or do you need to use it with a Roland module?

You need to have a midi-converter (interface), Marc. Roland makes them, Terratec (Axon) also does and a few more, which is not as good. Fishman is the exciting newcomer on the guitar-midi mrkt. Haven't tried any of theirs.

But if you don't want to get the big hardware system, you can also convert audio tracks to midi in Melodyne, you just record bass, guitar, vocals ect. record it into Melodyne, then save audio as midi, import it into the project and BAM you have a midi track from your audio.

The new Jamorigin software seems to work in a similar way http://www.jamorigin.com/midi-guitar/Wi ... index.html

thesongcabinet wrote:

marcblack30 wrote:Wow, I was just thinking about this tonight, thinking how much easier it would be if I could play midi with my guitar. Does anyone know if the Roland pickup http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/GK3/ can be used for general midi, can I record midi data into my DAW or do you need to use it with a Roland module?

You need to have a midi-converter (interface), Marc. Roland makes them, Terratec (Axon) also does and a few more, which is not as good. Fishman is the exciting newcomer on the guitar-midi mrkt. Haven't tried any of theirs.

But if you don't want to get the big hardware system, you can also convert audio tracks to midi in Melodyne, you just record bass, guitar, vocals ect. record it into Melodyne, then save audio as midi, import it into the project and BAM you have a midi track from your audio.

The new Jamorigin software seems to work in a similar way http://www.jamorigin.com/midi-guitar/Wi ... index.html

Yeah, good point converting audio to midi. Cubase 7 has has this feature as well, it's pretty awesome, you can make your pitch corrections with VariAudio, and simply export it as midi right into your project.... I think i need to explore and experiment with this feature some more. seems there will always be some editing involved.

Gonna check out some of these links now, Jamorigin video looks pretty cool!