Polyphonic Guitar to MIDI VST/AU "MIDI Guitar"- BETA TEST

[ariajazz]

I just downloaded and run MIDI GUITAR V6 on my regular computer, not the main DAW/PERFORMANCE one. After having little problems making it run and configure the audio interface INFRASONIC QUARTET I finally could play with it in the stand alone mode (haven't try it as a plugin yet).

These are my impressions:

1.- I'm having some problems with audio configuration with some discrepancies with the latency buffer settings, they seem not to match when changing them (MIDI GUITAR 6 and sound card) for example: MIDI GUITAR shows a 512 buffer setting all the time and when I switch to 256 or any other it only responds using the "configure" button (switching on the sound card) and MIDI GUITAR still shows only 512 setting, weird. Switching from 512 to 256 increments CPU usage dramatically getting to the RED area of the meter, being 512 about 5%
Any way I don't trust that INFRASONIC card too much.

2.- MIDI GUITAR 6 is now tracking BEAUTIFULLY, no false or spurious notes any more (at least until now). What it does some times is that triggers an octave down of a random note of a chord played, not too much of an issue considering that it is a chord note anyway.

3.- As I said before several times in this thread: some synths and patches respond better than others, it is a matter to choose the right ones.

4.- I don't know or understand what "velocity gain" slider does. I don't feel or hear any changes in volume or dynamics when tweaking it.

5.- Pitch bend (GREAT!!!) works and reacts nicely in both mono and poly modes (one note/string only in the latter, completely understandable and explained here before several times).

6.- Everything else is working as expected and with no problems. Loading synth plugins into MIDI GUITAR is a nice feature although it does not show synth patches for some synths.


I will test MIDI GUITAR v6 more extensivelly in my REAL GEAR PC in a few days, I'm wating for my new ESI MAYA 44 XTe audio interface to arrive and I'll post my experiences about this great piece of software. Very very good job Ole, as I read before maybe Roland's days are over, still some work to be done to make MIDI GUITAR reliable, equivalent, good or even better than the hardware counterparts.

[AdmiralQuality]

3.- As I said before several times in this thread: some synths and patches respond better than others, it is a matter to choose the right ones.

Of course. Welcome to the world of synths. They don't know you're playing guitar, the MIDI paradigm is keyboard, particularly when using only a single channel as MIDI-Guitar still does. Not well suited for guitar, as on keyboard there's only one of each note where on guitar it's possible to play two or even three of the same note. And also pitch bend on keyboard applies to all notes (usually, ultimately it's up to the instrument to interpret what to do with the pitch bend). MIDI guitar was intended to be done on 6 separate MIDI channels (as if there's a separate keyboard for each string). Then you can have duplicate notes, as well as independent pitch bend for each string. We're still waiting on that vital feature in MIDI-Guitar.

So it's not that MIDI-Guitar (or any other hardware guitar to MIDI converter) is doing anything wrong with some sounds, it's just simply that you don't like that sound. Not every synth sound is appropriate for every application. Sounds that match the guitar's volume envelope (fast or instant attack, long decay, low or no sustain, and a relatively quick release time) will feel more natural when played from guitar. But that doesn't mean you can't control a string section with a slow attack with it. Or a bell with long release. Just like a keyboard player, you need to adjust your technique to suit the sound you've chosen or programmed.

But 99% of the time, if you feel like a sound isn't working well, it's the attack or the release setting on the synth or sampler's volume envelope. Make both the attack and release short, and you'll probably feel it's "tracking" the guitar better.

[rcat]

The EBow is your friend, trust me. You will be able to do amazing things with it and this software.

[ariajazz]

3.- As I said before several times in this thread: some synths and patches respond better than others, it is a matter to choose the right ones.

Of course. Welcome to the world of synths. They don't know you're playing guitar, the MIDI paradigm is keyboard, particularly when using only a single channel as MIDI-Guitar still does. Not well suited for guitar, as on keyboard there's only one of each note where on guitar it's possible to play two or even three of the same note. And also pitch bend on keyboard applies to all notes (usually, ultimately it's up to the instrument to interpret what to do with the pitch bend). MIDI guitar was intended to be done on 6 separate MIDI channels (as if there's a separate keyboard for each string). Then you can have duplicate notes, as well as independent pitch bend for each string. We're still waiting on that vital feature in MIDI-Guitar.

So it's not that MIDI-Guitar (or any other hardware guitar to MIDI converter) is doing anything wrong with some sounds, it's just simply that you don't like that sound. Not every synth sound is appropriate for every application. Sounds that match the guitar's volume envelope (fast or instant attack, long decay, low or no sustain, and a relatively quick release time) will feel more natural when played from guitar. But that doesn't mean you can't control a string section with a slow attack with it. Or a bell with long release. Just like a keyboard player, you need to adjust your technique to suit the sound you've chosen or programmed.

But 99% of the time, if you feel like a sound isn't working well, it's the attack or the release setting on the synth or sampler's volume envelope. Make both the attack and release short, and you'll probably feel it's "tracking" the guitar better.

100% true.

I've been playing synth and midi guitar since 1995 when I got myself a Roland GR1 system which I still own. This playing requires special techniques, you have to adopt new fingering and plucking abilities according to the patch and sound used. Even the Rolands have some patches that don't suit to normal guitar playing. As Admiral is saying, you can improve things by tweaking attack, decay, release, sustain, etc. but it won't always work.

In many cases you have to adopt a keyboardist or a saxophonist player mentality and performance approaching to get a natural and smooth music passage. Strings react very different than keys and in the midi world this becomes more noticeable.

[AdmiralQuality]

Yep.

Another thing for guitarists new to synths to be aware of is some patches (programs) are set to be monophonic, meaning they only play one note at a time. So even if MIDIGuitar is in Polyphonic mode, it can't make a monophonic synth polyphonic. A monophonic synth can also have different note priority modes. This is how it decides which of the possibly many notes you're holding to play. Usual options are last note, high note, or low note priority. There's also the issue of legato retriggering. (Meaning the envelopes won't be retriggered if the previous MIDI note-off message comes after the new note-on.) This allows you to accent stacatto played notes, but blend together legato played notes. (And the portamento/glide can also have this function, where only legato played notes glide smoothly from one to the next.)

The number of voices is another factor. Some softsynths are unlimited, but real classic hardware polyphonic synths always had a limit as to how many voices (notes) they could play at once. Oberheims and Jupiter 8 had 8. Jupiter 6, Junos and JXes, Prophet 600 had 6. Prophet 5 had 5. Etc... So if you're not hearing the whole chord, check the instrument software and make sure it's set to at least 6 voice polyphony.

Synth 101.

[JamOrigin]

Thanks guys for all the feedback!

0.6.1 is already out with some relatively minor fixes:

http://jamorigin.com/midi-guitar/MIDI-G ... .1-Win.zip
http://jamorigin.com/midi-guitar/MIDI-G ... .1-Mac.zip

[AdmiralQuality]

Thanks guys for all the feedback!

0.6.1 is already out with some relatively minor fixes:

http://jamorigin.com/midi-guitar/MIDI-G ... .1-Win.zip
http://jamorigin.com/midi-guitar/MIDI-G ... .1-Mac.zip

404

[JamOrigin]

Ups now the links work in my post above.

[AdmiralQuality]

Ups now the links work in my post above.

I'm still getting 404s. Maybe it needs time to make it to a North American mirror?

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[AdmiralQuality]

Thanks guys for all the feedback!

0.6.1 is already out with some relatively minor fixes:

http://jamorigin.com/midi-guitar/MIDI-G ... .1-Win.zip
http://jamorigin.com/midi-guitar/MIDI-G ... .1-Mac.zip

Fixed links.

http://www.jamorigin.com/midi-guitar/MI ... .1-Win.zip
http://www.jamorigin.com/midi-guitar/MI ... .1-Mac.zip

[terry_oi]

The links work fine now.

[AdmiralQuality]

Weird. I think it's KVR that broke the links actually, as when I quoted you, above, they became fixed! (For some reason there's a dot instead of dash before the version number in your original post.)



Even weirder, they're all working fine now! WTF? (I think the redirect was changing the a dash to a dot in the link.)

[tboneUS]

sensitivity is now working wonderfully, plugin did not have any issues in the short time I tested it, going to test again tomorrow.

Any idea when the paramaters will be exposed to the host? It would make life easier if I could map values to a midi controller instead through the ui

[spinedoc]

6.1 appears stable for me in Sonar 853. I seem to be getting less false triggers and ghost octave notes as well as the note off is a bit snappier now.
Been playing around with the pitch bend and boy is it a treat. String bands are such an important part of expressive playing for a guitarist that to translate this over to MIDI is really incredible. I used to try to use pitchbend on my old roland G.I. 20 but the little bit I Fiddled around with that it was always way too sensitive And would have a hard time holding the anchor note when I wanted it to instead of pitch bending. It was probably more user error programming the hardware than anything but I didn't spend a lot of time with it. The whammy bar on my midi you rock guitar was functional but you don't get the same expressiveness as you get with real string bend that guitarist innately uses in his musical flow.
A question for you synthe people about pitch bend though.
As I scroll to the patches on my two of my favorite synthesizers, AAS analog and massive, I noticed that they have some patches that respond to midi guitar string bend and some that don't respond at all. Actually most don't respond. When I plug in my you rock guitar and use the Whammy bar ,which is set to pitchbend by defualt I believe, all the patches will respond to the pitch bend that it generates. This is without any set up on the synthesizer at all, just plug it in and they all work with it. What can I do to make this connection between Midi guitar and all Soft synths. Or in other words, how do I make synths respond to the continues controller data that midi guitar is producing by default.? I am such a preset guy that I almost never go beyond something like using midi learn to map a knob to my midi floorboard pedal controller.

Spinedoc

[ariajazz]

A question for you synthe people about pitch bend though.
As I scroll to the patches on my two of my favorite synthesizers, AAS analog and massive, I noticed that they have some patches that respond to midi guitar string bend and some that don't respond at all. Actually most don't respond. When I plug in my you rock guitar and use the Whammy bar ,which is set to pitchbend by defualt I believe, all the patches will respond to the pitch bend that it generates. This is without any set up on the synthesizer at all, just plug it in and they all work with it. What can I do to make this connection between Midi guitar and all Soft synths. Or in other words, how do I make synths respond to the continues controller data that midi guitar is producing by default.? I am such a preset guy that I almost never go beyond something like using midi learn to map a knob to my midi floorboard pedal controller.

Spinedoc

Check Pitch Bend settings in MIDI GUITAR. In order to work propperly it has to match with the synth's Pitch bend value. Most Synths work at 2 or 12.

Notice that if the preset/sound is sample based pitch bend will not work.