KVR Audio

Moe Shinola · Post by **Moe Shinola** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 4:28 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO4ei2mo ... e=youtu.be

You may think this video's kinda boring, but I'd like to share the progress I'm making with these two instruments together. I'll also post this on the YRG forums, with my questions; 1) Why am I not hardly hearing anything when I pluck the low E string on the YRG? 2) Why then does the pow of contacts that correspond to that string sound in Tap mode? 3) Is there a way, when I slide up and down a "string"(row of contacts) to make it sound more natural, like a real string, instead of hearing the harsh attack on every single fret? I dunno, it's like the YRG is fighting me. I expected playing on it to be easier than it is, what with all the cool YouTube videos that make it look so easy. Some of the notes drop off, I have to sort of walk on eggs around the neck to make sure all the notes sound like I want them to. Maybe I wanted to much from this controller. Thoughts?

tapper mike · Post by **tapper mike** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 8:10 am

It's simply not a very good instrument for midi. I threw mine out.
1) Why am I not hardly hearing anything when I pluck the low E string on the YRG?
You have a bad setup for the laser/optical reader. I had the same thing with my b-string. This is what happens. A light passes across the string. When the string is plucked it forces the string out of alignment with the light. Which causes the light to pass thru. On the other side is a receptor that measures the amount of light and determines the velocity of the attack.

2) Why then does the pow of contacts that correspond to that string sound in Tap mode? We ztarist's refer to this as retrigger. It was prolly a marketing decision. Due to the way the fretboard is set up the only way to get anything resembling a slide is to have the tap mode. Some folks like to slide up and repeat the note. If you adapt your technique so that you pick and hit the note at the same time you might be able to get away with sliding.

3) Is there a way, when I slide up and down a "string"(row of contacts) to make it sound more natural, like a real string, instead of hearing the harsh attack on every single fret?
No it's not that complex an instrument is part of the story and the other part is how well your midi device accepts polypressure. If you wanted a true legato... well part of that is dependent on how your midi reciever works and part of that is how midi is sent from the YRG (or isn't) Imagine that all the frets were active all the time. Meaning you could play more then one note per string at the same time.

Or Don't just watch me having a bad hair day explaining ztar chords
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_yX7cwWntw

If you could do that play multiple notes on the same "string" then you could set your midi device to run in mono. In mono only one note can be transfered at a time and it goes up or down as long as you have a note below (to the open strings)

In my humble opinion..."String Triggers" are better then "Strings" (Yes even on ztars)
Though I prefer to use the TCA for tap picking over the "string triggers"

$600 USD (not including shipping)
http://www.starrlabs.com/index.php?rout ... duct_id=50

Moe Shinola · Post by **Moe Shinola** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 2:48 am

I went ahead and returned the YRG, it just didn't seem to be working out. Also, the LCD was showing different numbers for the onboard presets than what the paper chart indicated should be there. Maybe I'll get the Alesis Vortex and just use that. It's going at an insane discount online right now, just a hundred dollars from Sweetwater.

tapper mike · Post by **tapper mike** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 5:05 am

Midi on a guitar shaped instrument is always a complex affair be it a key based system or a pitch to voltage system. And most of it is in the fact of how we become accostumed to playing a guitar vs the basics of how midi operates.

The earliest of Guitar-Synths were not midi based and there for didn't have to go through the midi mill. They were extremely expressive but you couldn't hook them up to a midi based device.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtUrpzkfeuI

trigdamiiu · Post by **trigdamiiu** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 5:07 pm

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Disclaimer: I work for YRG - this is simply an informative reply a repetition of this same post on our forum.

1) Why am I not hardly hearing anything when I pluck the low E string on the YRG?
2) Why then does the pow of contacts that correspond to that string sound in Tap mode?
3) Is there a way, when I slide up and down a “string”(row of contacts) to make it sound more natural, like a real string, instead of hearing the harsh attack on every single fret?

1 and 2. the MIDI velocity coming off the Low E string should be the same as all the other strings. Is it possible that the sensitivity has been set to a lower level? It may be worth setting the global settings back to factory default to see if that helps (instructions on our FAQ: http://yourockguitar.com/support/faq-manuals (http://yourockguitar.com/support/faq-manuals)) If this doesn't help, please open a support ticket.

2. you should set the Slide Range to 12 and then turn the SLIDE button on. You have to match the octave slide range on the Korg as well. On the YRG you can use the PC control panel which you can download from here (http://yourockguitar.com/support/docs-updates (http://yourockguitar.com/support/docs-updates)) or do it on the panel of the guitar in Layers Sub-Menu 3. Note that different slide range can be set for both the SYNTH layer and GUITAR layer so make sure that you adjust the appropriate layer (or both). Remember to save the preset (hold MUSIC and press RECORD)

Aother note about SLIDE. We use MIDI pitch bend to implement this feature and if you are transmitting on a single MIDI channel, it will only use pitch bend if you are playing a single note. If you are plying polyphony, you need to set both the KORG and the YRG to MIDI MONO mode (one channel per string) This can also be done in Layers Sub-menu 3

See the manual page 18 for using the sub-menus.
http://yourockguitar.com/support/docs-updates (http://yourockguitar.com/support/docs-updates)
http://yrgmusic.net/yrgdocuments/gen2/Y ... uall09.pdf (http://yrgmusic.net/yrgdocuments/gen2/YRG_gen2_Usermanuall09.pdf)

trig

You Rock Guitar MIDI controls Korg Volca Bass