The Yamaha EZ-EG Guitar Midi Controller Thread

[knot0fvipers]

"I've got a preset saved on it that lets me fret chords and tap the rhythm out on two little pads that are about the size of an American silver dollar. It's like hand drumming with your left hand, and it brings out some nice syncopated things that one wouldn't normally think to do on a guitar."

you mean you use the pads to actually trigger the notes on the z? I need to figure out how to do this, my z has 16 pads
Is that a macro or an actual preset in the first menu screen on yours?

[Shane Sanders]

"I've got a preset saved on it that lets me fret chords and tap the rhythm out on two little pads that are about the size of an American silver dollar. It's like hand drumming with your left hand, and it brings out some nice syncopated things that one wouldn't normally think to do on a guitar."

you mean you use the pads to actually trigger the notes on the z? I need to figure out how to do this, my z has 16 pads
Is that a macro or an actual preset in the first menu screen on yours?

My miniZ has this OS: 5010.Z6-S

There is a newer version, so these instructions may not apply to you, but I'm betting it'll be close even with the newer OS.

1. Power Up and press the "Edit" button
2. choose "Sensor"
3. from the "Sensor" menu, make sure the cursor is active on the <SENSOR> dialog. On my it is already selected, and the first in the list is Trigger 1.
4. Use your scroll up/down arrows to navigate to Pad 1
5. Consult your manual to know precisely which pad this selection corresponds to. On my instrument, Pad 1 is the left most pad in the row furthest away from me when I'm actually holding the instrument.
6. Now select the <Effect> area so that the cursor is active on it.
7. Scroll up/down until you have chosen "Chord Trigger"
8. Press "Edit" again to leave this screen
9. Make sure that Triggers are deselected and that you are in Poly mode (not Guitar mode).

10. Press "Write" to save these changes to an open preset space (anywhere beyond the first screen of presets which can't be overwritten)
11. Test it and then do all this again for Pad 9, which, if you have 16 pads, will be the left-most pad nearest to you. So, you'll end up with the first two pads active for triggering whatever is fretted on the fingerboard. I only have 12 pads, so it's 1 and 7 for me.

If you power off, it won't remember that you've turned on Poly mode. So you'll have to make that choice manually all the time. It's no big deal. I'm referring to the G/Poly button on the face of the instrument (the one that allows for hammer-ons/pull-offs versus being able to fret a chord on a single string).

Also, in you "Utility" menu, make sure your fingerboard sensitivity is on "0" as this will give you the widest velocity dynamic (4-127). In this same page, set your "TRIG" to 2. This is the second most sensitive setting for the pads. I've found that 1 is overly agressive and tends to drive note velocities into 127 too easily. Your mileage may vary so you have settings 1-4 to choose from there, with 4 being the least sensitive.

[knot0fvipers]

hey, nice info shane.
Unfortunely i dont think i have the chord effects, i follow you on all this but i dont have a menu on my OS called <effects>. I was able to get the pads to play a note, something i hadnt figured out before.

[Shane Sanders]

hey, nice info shane.
Unfortunely i dont think i have the chord effects, i follow you on all this but i dont have a menu on my OS called <effects>. I was able to get the pads to play a note, something i hadnt figured out before.

I'm almost certain that you do have this capability but the nomenclature may be different. Harvey wouldn't take away features, especially on a ztar with no string triggers. Having the pads is the only way to really explore the instrument unless you only two-hand-tap on the neck.

When you say, "...to get the pads to play a note...", did you mean the pad trigger it's own note or that by fingering a note on the neck you were able to trigger any note via the pad?

[knot0fvipers]

I actually just put my ztar up for sale on ebay for $600 if anyone is interested in one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 7308412164

[AndrewSimon]

Hey

Where is everbody?

Bump

[SecondSkin]

Playing with our EZ guitars, I suspect...

[Markleford]

Started Aikido practice this month, been researching traffic law for my arraignment yesterday and my trial within the upcoming month (unfair tickets suck!), and have a film score due on April 1. I'd like to even get in a KVR Monthly Competition entry by next week, but even that looks unlikely.

So don't anticipate anything new from me in the next few weeks.

- m

[Shane Sanders]

Hey

Where is everbody?

Bump

working on new atonal stuff over here...

[pedro40]

2 Questions:

1) Does anyone know if it's possible to use the scripts on a Mac? I'm pretty much a novice with midi. I found an application called MidiPipe that may do the same thing as Midi Yoke but I don't know how you'd get the scripts to work with it. Having read through this entire thread it sounds like I would not be able to do what I want with it without the scripts.

2) Did everyone here mail order their EZ-AG or EZ-EG? I have checked with just about every music store, consumer electronics store, department store and toy store in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and I can't find anyone that stocks it. I might mail order it eventually anyways, but I would like to see it in person first if possible.

great thread and thanks in advance for your help!

pedro

[SecondSkin]

2 Questions:

1) Does anyone know if it's possible to use the scripts on a Mac? I'm pretty much a novice with midi. I found an application called MidiPipe that may do the same thing as Midi Yoke but I don't know how you'd get the scripts to work with it. Having read through this entire thread it sounds like I would not be able to do what I want with it without the scripts.

2) Did everyone here mail order their EZ-AG or EZ-EG? I have checked with just about every music store, consumer electronics store, department store and toy store in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and I can't find anyone that stocks it. I might mail order it eventually anyways, but I would like to see it in person first if possible.

great thread and thanks in advance for your help!

pedro

You'll almost certainly need to mail order one...I don't think any music instrument store stocks them and those that did certainly didn't have a sales staff bright enough to sell them (you can be sure that they were treated as 100% toys). Anyway, don't worry about internet/mail sales -- the guitars are well packed for shipping.

As far as the mac stuff goes...can't answer that one, except that I doubt you'd be able to get a script working on one. You could get a really cheap PC to handle the script, though...

[AndrewSimon]

As far as I know EZ-EG is only available in the US from Amazon or J&R.
EZ-AG (my favorite) is more common but don't know any stores in your area.
As far as I know you can not find it at the usual suspects like Guitar Center or Sam Ash.

In any case I would wait for an answer about the mac.
It is pretty much a worthless toy without the software.

[Markleford]

I hear that some Sharper Image stores carried them, but there are none in my area.

Can't use these scripts on Mac, but there's nothing stopping a Mac developer from doing the same thing: the MIDI implementation spec (including SysEx data) is all laid out in the manual.

- m

[Aleatoric]

As far as mac scripts:

There is one that comes with MidiPipe's example scripts called Aleatorics Script (written for me) it will filter out the fretted notes so you can play it like a regular guitar. enjoy.

[braj]

As far as mac scripts:

There is one that comes with MidiPipe's example scripts called Aleatorics Script (written for me) it will filter out the fretted notes so you can play it like a regular guitar. enjoy.

Hey thanks, definitely an improvement!