KVR Audio

polaris20 · Post by **polaris20** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 9:27 pm

forbiddensilence wrote:i may be given a GR-09 synth for £50... is this a win-win situation for me??..well at least until something new comes out with amazing tracking?

If you're going to try and use it to track VSTi's into a computer with a MIDI interface, no. It'll be dog slow and glitchy.

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 10:07 am

At the NAMM show, Sonuus told me their tracking is faster than even Roland's latest offerings. Also, they said it's entirely possible for them to accept a 13-pin signal in order to provide Roland's tuning and multitimbral functionalities.

polaris20 · Post by **polaris20** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 4:15 pm

Uncle E wrote:At the NAMM show, Sonuus told me their tracking is faster than even Roland's latest offerings. Also, they said it's entirely possible for them to accept a 13-pin signal in order to provide Roland's tuning and multitimbral functionalities.

Unless they came out with a new product that I've not seen anything about, the Sonuus stuff isn't faster than even my GI-20.

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 4:43 pm

polaris20 wrote:Unless they came out with a new product that I've not seen anything about, the Sonuus stuff isn't faster than even my GI-20.

They were talking about the i2M, which is faster than the first version of the G2M.

forbiddensilence · Post by **forbiddensilence** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 5:03 pm

Well, they're dirt cheap...perhaps this is what i need for vst instruments..and ditch the GR-09 offer ...so i've been advised.

forbiddensilence · Post by **forbiddensilence** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 5:12 pm

Sonuus i2M Musicport Hi-Z USB review with video
http://guitarchitecture.org/2011/04/11/ ... -overview/

zerocrossing · Post by **zerocrossing** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 6:02 pm

forbiddensilence wrote:As cool n cheap as itar sounds... im not into that whole touch thing..i get annoyed txting on touch phones! Imagine hitting the wrong string on the touch pad...hmmm

It's a shame there isnt a working guitar fretboard controller you can hold in your hand and just tap the notes/chords in the sequencer..like you can do with a keyboard.

What about a Z baby? is that really good?

For years I heard people talk about the Ztars from Starrlabs and I dreamed and dreamed. Then, I finally got one and my dreams were dashed. About the only thing that's "guitar" like about it is the fact that you can strap it around your neck. I had the Z7s. The neck felt like a 2x4. No taper at all. So if you think you're going to play a barre chord and you're not Chewbacca, you're out of luck.

The neck isn't touch sensitive. It's just a matrix of plastic buttons. Cheap feeling plastic buttons like you'd expect to find on something in the $200 range, not the $2000 price. Want to slide your hand up the neck?

Keep dreaming. They were supposed to be velocity and aftertouch sensitive, but the velocity never felt good to me at any setting and I never got it to transmit aftertouch despite many back and fourths between their support.

USB, no 64 bit driver.

Wammy bar? Nope. There was a cute little rubbery knob/button thing that actually worked really well. It was pretty much the best thing on the Z7s.

String triggers? Joke. Felt horrible. I guess the baby Z doesn't have them but I have a hard time imagining using them for anything. Muting notes? Worked about 1 in 5 tries.

Anyway, that's my take on the Ztar I had. To me, it felt like a cheap toy. As a matter of fact, I'd say the old Casio DG I used to have was a better instrument. My Yamaha D10 much better. Oh, here's the deal: if you don't like it there's a 15% restock fee even if you didn't order anything custom on it. So if you're still interested, try to find someone locally who has one before you plunk down the cash.

Anyway, I've played tons of MIDI and Guitar Synth systems including Adrain Belew's cerca 1983. My conclusion is... the time and effort you'll spend taking these imperfect devices and trying to mold yourself to their quirks is not worth the effort. I know you don't play keyboards, and I was the same way, but I found that with surprisingly little effort I was able to get fairly good. I'm a hack compared to a real keyboard player, but I'm good enough to do most of what I need to do. One "cheat" I do all the time is that I avoid having to learn scales in each key by using Live's MIDI translation plug in. In this way, the black keys of my Novation Remote (make sure you buy something of this quality or better, cheap keyboards are no fun to play) are nearly new.

In this way all you have to learn is getting your fingers used to a keyboard instead of a guitar neck. It's really rewarding in the end... and if you really need to, there's always a keytar.

forbiddensilence · Post by **forbiddensilence** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 7:02 pm

thanks for your thoughts man, very helpful, i still think life is too short to learn keyboard....but hey...as long as i don't buy anything...im still using my keyboard....so no harm done there.
But im asking you, why do i want one of these crappy things after watching this video?
I suppose everyones midi set ups track better than this?

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 8:12 pm

forbiddensilence wrote:Sonuus i2M Musicport Hi-Z USB review with video
http://guitarchitecture.org/2011/04/11/ ... -overview/

Cool! He missed the point about it as an audio converter, it's impedance matched for guitar, not a Pod.

zerocrossing · Post by **zerocrossing** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 9:03 pm

forbiddensilence wrote:thanks for your thoughts man, very helpful, i still think life is too short to learn keyboard....but hey...as long as i don't buy anything...im still using my keyboard....so no harm done there.
But im asking you, why do i want one of these crappy things after watching this video?
I suppose everyones midi set ups track better than this?

If I hadn't become comfortable with my keyboard I think I'd try one of those. The price is right, and it looks like it's doing a good job in that video.

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 9:52 pm

forbiddensilence wrote:But im asking you, why do i want one of these crappy things after watching this video?
I suppose everyones midi set ups track better than this?

It's fine for tapping but playing it with a pick really sucks.

polaris20 · Post by **polaris20** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 10:27 pm

Uncle E wrote:
polaris20 wrote:Unless they came out with a new product that I've not seen anything about, the Sonuus stuff isn't faster than even my GI-20.
They were talking about the i2M, which is faster than the first version of the G2M.

Gotcha. So are they coming out with a MIDI converter that accepts 13-pin? Seems to make sense, since there are so many guitars now on the market that have 13-pin.

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 10:32 pm

polaris20 wrote:Gotcha. So are they coming out with a MIDI converter that accepts 13-pin? Seems to make sense, since there are so many guitars now on the market that have 13-pin.

They said it's possible and actually quite easy to implement but that they don't have any plans for it now.

RunBeerRun · Post by **RunBeerRun** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 10:36 pm

I really hated the You Rock. Strings just weren't made of such a quality that it was fun to pick, neck was a bit too fat.

Good deal realistically, but there's like 4 or 5 $200 guitars out now if you count Ebay oldies.

polaris20 · Post by **polaris20** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 10:44 pm

Uncle E wrote:
polaris20 wrote:Gotcha. So are they coming out with a MIDI converter that accepts 13-pin? Seems to make sense, since there are so many guitars now on the market that have 13-pin.
They said it's possible and actually quite easy to implement but that they don't have any plans for it now.

Well the Fishman is going to eat their lunch if they don't. I can't imagine someone wanting to spend $150 on something they can't even do chords on, when you can get the Fishman for $150 more. Yes, double the price, but far more functionality.

Best guitar midi controller for VSTi and note input