KVR Audio

tattiemannie · Post by **tattiemannie** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 5:17 pm

Hi, I know this has been covered before, but the threads are old ... so, in hope that there's a bit of progress, and a body of new knowledge and experience to tap, here's my query.

I have a little bit of cash scraped together ..£300 if I try a little harder, and I want to buy a midi pickup ... a guitar one will be fine, but I would hope to use it with a banjo, or a single strung bouzouki.

Now, I can easily buy something like a Roland GK3, but that would leave me a little short of options re. the rest of the stuff required to produce synth sounds from the guitar/instrument wouldn't it?

Is there any decent option to play/record midi from guitar ( not necesarily live ) for the price I mentioned? ... or do I have to busking for a couple of years?

Chester Desmond · Post by **Chester Desmond** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 5:26 pm

personally I've been thinking seriously about the Axon stuff..

tattiemannie · Post by **tattiemannie** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 5:33 pm

Yeah I looked at that, I would be a happy bunny if I could get all the necessary stuff for £300 .. I might shop around online and see what I can find.

siriusbliss · Post by **siriusbliss** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 7:25 pm

your budget may need to go higher to really get good MIDI guitar happening.

Ideal configuration is a Shadow type bridge using piezo pickups wired in Roland configuration using an Axon unit.

In the meantime attaching a GK-3 to your guitar, making height adjustments for optimum performance etc. will work, but that still leaves you the MIDI interface. So, there may be some Roland bundle deals around for a GK-3 with a Roland GI-20 interface for relatively cheap somewhere. You can probably find some used GR-33's on ebay - they aren't bad, but Roland interfaces are notorious for having latency/delays when tracking with external hardware or soft-synths.

e-bay may be your friend with this, but you may still need to get a bit more cash together.

Greg

tattiemannie · Post by **tattiemannie** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 7:46 pm

Cheers siriusbliss, I'm not rushing into a purchase, so yeah, I can have a look around for a while before making any decision ... might even scrape some more together by then ... mind, you, if I get a tenor banjo for less than I've budgetted for, then maybe I'll have a bit more to play with.

RunBeerRun · Post by **RunBeerRun** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 9:28 pm

The Roland pickups are made to work with standard guitar string spacing, so if you want it on another instrument of a different size, some of the sensors will just be floating around in nowhere.

jkleban · Post by **jkleban** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 9:39 pm

+1 for the AXON/Shadow pickup... I had the ROLAND stuff for years and it just didn't do the trick... the AXON setup is alot better but beware not spot on. Don't waste yer money on the ROLAND stuff, it is almost useless.

I wound up getting a GODIN guitar with the built in MIDI pickup and the AXON 50... blew away the ROLAND rig.

Jim

siriusbliss · Post by **siriusbliss** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 9:58 pm

RunBeerRun wrote:The Roland pickups are made to work with standard guitar string spacing, so if you want it on another instrument of a different size, some of the sensors will just be floating around in nowhere.

which is why I recommend going with piezo pickups in the bridge.

My systems are:
Brian Moore DC-1 with piezo/GK3 circuit embedded in bridge - driving either GR-33, VG-99, or older Axon AX-100 interfaces.
Chapman Stick 12-string Grand with GK-3 pickups next to bridge - optimized configuration - driving same (or both) interfaces.

The GR-33 and VG-99 both work great stand-alone, but as I said, Rolands are NOT good for driving external hardware or VST synths.

Greg

Muzik 4 Machines · Post by **Muzik 4 Machines** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 9:59 pm

you'd need a different pickup for each instrument, i suggest the piezzo route especially for the banjo as the GK2/3 would never fit properly there

tattiemannie · Post by **tattiemannie** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 10:39 pm

Cheers for the comments guys, very helpful so far

... the bridge spacing is not a problem really, I've built a few instruments so I have no fear of adapting or even building a bridge to accomodate whatever works!

I see there's a shadow pickup for banjos ... I thought this was purely for audio amplification. Is there a different 'shadow' for use with midi? If not, ie. if the 'shadow' is for audio as well as being compatible in a midi setup, then that's cool cos I would want a pickup on the banjo in any case.

I'll go search

siriusbliss · Post by **siriusbliss** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 12:07 am

I'm sorry - it's the GHOST pickups that are the system to look into.
http://www.graphtech.com/products.html?CategoryID=2
also:
http://www.iguitar.com/happening.asp

Greg

tattiemannie · Post by **tattiemannie** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 12:21 am

OK, ignore the comments above re. shadow pickup .. I see there are loads of shadow products.

Still searching through various options

Cheers for the link siriusbliss .. I'll chech that out

tattiemannie · Post by **tattiemannie** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 10:47 am

OK, a bit of progress ..... Got myself a tenor banjo on ebay last night for about £70 less than I'd budgetted

... So that puts my MIDI guitar budget up to around £350!

The more I read, the more I think I should ask Santa for an Axon AX100 and a hex pickup. I gather the built in sounds of the AX100 are not great, but it tracks well, and has midi out and thru to link with other stuff.

siriusbliss · Post by **siriusbliss** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 9:15 pm

OK, good luck...

http://www.axon-technologies.net/
http://www.axon-technologies.net/forum/

The AX-100 sounds are fairly generic GM samples.

Greg

Midi pickup advice wanted