KVR Audio

ariajazz · Post by **ariajazz** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 10:08 pm

PITCH BEND, PITCH BEND, PITCH BEND CC MESSAGES, VERY IMPORTANT

AdmiralQuality · Post by **AdmiralQuality** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 10:55 pm

ariajazz wrote:PITCH BEND, PITCH BEND, PITCH BEND CC MESSAGES, VERY IMPORTANT

Sounds like they're working on it, which is amazing news. It really will shake up the MIDI guitar market if they can make this work. But I don't blame them for taking this in steps, let's help them get straight-notes working first.

And yes, aside from the real-time performance aspect, the after-the-fact transcription angle is really big too.

Like I pointed out, correlating note to string isn't absolutely vital, though I can think of some situations where it matters. (It matters a lot if you want to map different sounds to different strings -- I saw Adrian Belew back in 1989 play a whole band's worth of music from his MIDI'ed guitar. Bass on one string, percussion on another, chords and lead on the rest. Amazing!)

But for playing the same sound from each string, it hardly matters which string is making which note. (Except, as I pointed out above, in the case of sounds with long release segments, where you don't want the sound getting cut off by a new note on a different string... still, that's a fairly rare case.)

I wish them luck. They're re-writing the rules! (There used to be a standing prize, I think from an MIT professor, for anyone who could write software that could accurately transcribe a piano performance. I wonder what ever happened to that. I've tried to look it up a few times and haven't found anything. Anyone know anything about it?)

Anyway, this is a holy grail and it looks like JamOrigin are well on the way to finding it! I'll get my guitars back to the office tomorrow, can't wait to try it!

ariajazz · Post by **ariajazz** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 11:10 pm

Admiral you're completely right on all you just said. I'm very enthusiastic too with this project that can become revolutionary in the midi guitar world.

Back in 1989 Adrian was probably using a Roland GR1 unit, which I own, fantastic piece of gear. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

terry_oi · Post by **terry_oi** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 11:34 pm

Haven't tested extensively yet but these are my results so far (v0.2.2):

Overall best (polyphonic) audio to midi software i've tried so far!
Polyphony works pretty good but still needs improvements at least with my setup (Squier Stratocaster with single coil pickups). When strumming full chords there are some wrong/extra notes being played and some aren't played at all, especially when playing a bit fast.

I found Pitch Prediction 1 to work best for me. 2 seemed to trigger more wrong notes and latency seemed to be about the same as 1.
When playing 'almost' mono (eg. emulating a bass guitar) while in poly mode, it works great and note recognition is excellent.

No pitch bend..That's a big disadvantage but as i understand it will be available in the future?
Latency is minimal. Not perfect but very playable as is now.
As others have said a built-in tuner would be a great option to have.

Overall excellent job so far but i'm sure (hope?) it can be improved. Will let you know any new findings after some more testing.

Jaxo · Post by **Jaxo** » Fri Nov 02, 2012 1:00 am

Tried it on my Seymour Duncan Invader pickups and Sustainiac. Sustainiac works as normal with MIDI Guitar, same for the Invaders. I know that MIDI Guitar is meant for guitars tuned to E, and this guitar was tuned to Drop D, and I had some strange findings:

The low D did not register at all. If I played a low E (2nd fret), it still didn't register. Even higher up the neck, nothing on the low D string was recognized. MIDI Guitar must not look at pitch, but timbre, which is very interesting!

farfadetfarfelu · Post by **farfadetfarfelu** » Fri Nov 02, 2012 2:22 am

Hello, this is a very impressive piece of software much better than previous audio to midi vst solutions. There is really no comparison.

> With the version 0.1 i was getting false note triggers on the attack of notes and chords, i don't notice this anymore with v 0.2.2 (i'm using a strat style guitar with single coils).
The most challenging stuff is probably the detection of notes in chords when strumming fast. Sometimes when strumming chords, it will not detect the whole 6 notes, it will play like 4 or five notes out of 6 and trigger the notes whithin the chords quite randomly. I'm not used to playing midi equipment so maybe my playing is too messy.

It is totally detecting the low D here when tuned to drop D.
However when doing fast G > F# > F note runs on the low E string the F# and F will play at the same time instead of F# shutting of when F is played. It only seems to happen in this area with lower notes.

> I'm using my audio interface at 128 samples per second and latency seems really small. I'm not into fast soloing so can't really comment on latency at higher speeds.

Is there a specific method to be sure to set up the best detection settings (sensitivity/prediction) or is it only trial and error ?
Thanks.

CapnLockheed · Post by **CapnLockheed** » Fri Nov 02, 2012 4:55 am

Just got my beta license today....very eager to put it through it's paces.

let's help them get straight-notes working first.

I agree 100%...one thing at a time and the fundamentals MUST come first.

Back in 1989 Adrian was probably using a Roland GR1 unit, which I own, fantastic piece of gear. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I still own a GR-1 as well...and no, I won't correct you....it is a great piece of kit....not the best for external MIDI,(I use a GI-20 for that), but still one of the most tweakable and best tracking units in the whole GR line IMHO.

Cheers.....CL

ariajazz · Post by **ariajazz** » Fri Nov 02, 2012 5:02 am

Still testing and playing a lot with this thing. Today I tried with Cakewalk Dimension Pro Synth. Did work nice and chords with some pads sounded beautiful, although sometimes it is hard to get all the six strings sounding in a chord.

Very few ghost notes, that's good considering that even Roland hex systems produce them as well. Sensitivity level is a parameter that changes for each guitar used so I cannot determine a "standard" setting for this. Keeping the input level high enough but not clipping is also a tip for good tracking. It would be nice to have a "dynamics" control along with the sensitivity one.

I've been in mode 2 for the Pitch Prediction setting. Just read about getting good results in mode 1, I'll give it a try tomorrow.

Tony Ostinato · Post by **Tony Ostinato** » Fri Nov 02, 2012 6:33 am

even if this were to work like crap it still deserves to stand as a technical marvel.

just working at all is amazing, the better it works is just gravy.

CapnLockheed · Post by **CapnLockheed** » Fri Nov 02, 2012 9:01 pm

It would be nice to have a "dynamics" control along with the sensitivity one.

I wonder if perhaps putting a hardware compressor in-line might help?....I'll have to give that a try...also going to try writing some presets on my Vox Tonelab and Roland GS-10 to see if I can come up with an output this puppy likes.

Cheers.....CL

memyselfandus · Post by **memyselfandus** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 4:29 pm

I wonder how we could get this to show up as a midi input in a daw without using something like midiox?

shanecgriffo · Post by **shanecgriffo** » Mon Nov 05, 2012 9:46 am

Just to let you know the new version with pitch change function is working well for me in ableton.. Hey i was thinking ,well wondering, is it a big stretch to add an intelligent harmonizer.. You know, where you specify the key and it harmonizes set intervals to your guitar within that key ? That would sound pretty cool

B.A.Tech. · Post by **B.A.Tech.** » Mon Nov 05, 2012 11:29 am

Sent email!

Best regard from B.A.TECH.

korakios · Post by **korakios** » Tue Nov 06, 2012 7:33 pm

ariajazz wrote:PITCH BEND, PITCH BEND, PITCH BEND CC MESSAGES, VERY IMPORTANT

Indeed!
I tested the beta 0.2.3 and I admit I played with my cheap Squier Tele amazing synths!However I noticed that it doesn't always send noteoff messages on low notes.That was my biggest problem

.And it still needs improvement on tracking chords...maybe a switch for selecting single-coil or humbucker pickup?

ariajazz · Post by **ariajazz** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 5:16 pm

I've been testing the new release v2.3 and I must say that it has some little improvements in overall performance. I've been playing with ALBINO 3 soft synth and it tracked very well. Tried other softsynths such as IK SAMPLE TANK, NI KORE 2, Camel ALCHEMY, and some other analog type synths and they all react different.

My conclusion is that MidiGuitar is a great achievement in note to midi recognition software. No other software is able to do polyphonic midi tracking, this one does, not perfectly but it does the job.

You have to TWEAK MidiGuitar and TWEAK the synths also, there're so many elements involved in making a synth sounds good specially driven by this guitar to midi device. Every piece of musical gear in the world is TWAKEBLE and this is not the exception. It is not plug and play. However, with no doubt it's the BEST Guitar to midi software I've tried to date.

Some tips:

When playing chords some notes can be omited or may be like hidden in the overall chord sound. Placing a compressor before MidiGuitar can help making all the notes play even and getting through the input stage of MidiGuitar lets say equally. In this way MidiGuitar "translates" this information better. This trick also applies for dynamics in some synths.

Balance between input signal level and sensitivity control in MidiGuitar its also necessary. It is like when you properly adjust a GK hex pickup and settings in a Roland system.

Not all synths and patches respond well, I've said this before in previous posts. So choose the right ones.

What would I improve in the next versions.

- Overall tracking which is good but can be improved (getting rid of ghost notes)

- PITCH BEND IS A MUST

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