EZ-EG Midi guitar

[SecondSkin]

Any suggestion where I can get one of these in the UK?
Thanks
Don

This has been asked a couple of times before, but I don't have a direct answer. If you absolutely cannot find it in the UK or EU, I would suggest trying some US merchants. I don't think shipping it would be too prohibitive, as it comes in a rather small box (its alot smaller than a regular guitar since it only has 12 frets and no headstock) and it is under 10 kg shipping weight.

Mark

[MrM]

I will test a EZ-AG next friday. I am considering getting one, but I don't know how to connect it.
I know it must go thru the midi in of my soundcard.
But then?
Will it be just like a keyboard, or do I have to install some kind of plugin?

I am using a very basic Cubasis version, it support VST and I use Chainer, but apart from that I have no special midi stuff.

Can I just plug in the EZ-AG and go from there?

[Polychrome]

I just got my EZ-EG today. It seems to be working fine. I checked out it's normal features, then quickly hooked up it's midi out, and it works! It shows up like any other keyboard or midi controller, with no drivers or anything like that needed. The tremolo bar works fine as a pitch bender, and should work fine re-routed as a mod-wheel or other random controller.

Actually, I'm having fun with the fact that it sends 2 notes normally. I'm knocking out techno arpeggio lines simply by playing the frets...essentially hammer-ons in guitar terms. Eddy Van Halen goes Goa

Playing the strings seems to send note-ons but doesn't send note-offs, which is super cool fun when playing with arpeggiators. You can play a string or 3, which builds up a pulsing groove, then add extra melodic lines on top of that by doing hammer-ons along strings that aren't sustaining. Doing a hammer-on on a string that is still "sustaining" will turn off the midi note. It sounds more complicated than it is...it was simple and intuitive to start playing in that fashion. It immediately leads to new approaches to playing arpeggiators, since keyboards function rather differently when it comes to selectively sustaining notes indefinately.

Wicked fun, but I'm sure it will be Much more fun once I fully remember how fretboards are laid out.

I haven't tried using a midi filter, but I imagine that will work fine, if I want to filter out the low-velocity fret notes, and just trigger notes from playing the strings. Presumably a midi filter can filter out low-velocity note-ons, while not filtering out any note-offs. If so, playing in traditional guitar style should function as intended.

[Markleford]

Presumably a midi filter can filter out low-velocity note-ons, while not filtering out any note-offs. If so, playing in traditional guitar style should function as intended.

What I imagined would be cool to do is to use the low-vel notes to trigger sounds on a separate MIDI channel than the picked ones. That way you could play a chord with the pick, sustain it with a hold pedal, and then hammer-on parts over it with a vibraphone sound or whatnot!

Have you figured out whether the strings can generate MIDI data each on a separate channel?

- m

[Polychrome]

Yeah, I think there will be several interesting ways to play around with how it generates it's midi data.

Yeeehaaa! I did a quick test, and it does in fact output each string on a seperate channel (1-6), a "feature" you probably can't disable, but who cares? That makes me guess that anytime you release a fret, it sends out an "all notes off on this channel" message, which may not be ideal, but midi filters can probably work around any problems. Time for me to get and learn to use a good midi filter. Yikes, the possibilities are wild.

It didn't seem to have many/any options on how it outputs midi, but coupled with a nice midi filter that should be ok, particularly with the multiple channel output as it's default mode.

I think one cool setup would be having the highest string dedicated to toggling off loops/phrases in Ableton live, then playing a couple of different vstis on the other 5 strings.

I'm not sure this thing was built to be able to stand up to real world gig abuse, so I think it needs to be treated sort of gently, and I won't be surprised if it breaks before a typical professional guitar synth might. At least it was affordable.

Jeez....fun fun fun fun.

[Markleford]

Yeeehaaa! I did a quick test, and it does in fact output each string on a seperate channel (1-6), a "feature" you probably can't disable, but who cares?

You could send it through a filter that merges them all to one channel, and most hosts can receive in "omni mode" already.

But yes, this adds all sorts of wonderful possibilities with assigning certain strings to certain functions, as well as being able to split the guitar above and below a fret, sending out separate channels.

If you have an MFX-capable host on hand, I have a little real-time MIDI-spy called "MFX PortDiag" on my site that you can try out to figure out more EZ-*G secrets!

- m

[Aleatoric]

how does the EZ-EG compare to the Roland GK2AH pickup.

[JEMSKIJEMSKI]

I just ordered a Yamaha EZ-AG from the US. I was essentially impossible to get one in Canada as most
web dealers won't ship here (and this things cost 399 CDN + tax and Shipping here!) . Fortunately my wife is going down to New York next week and she is going to bring it back for me; ah what we do for love! So it cost 199US, $5 shipping and possibly no duty!

Quick question. Is it only USB MIDI. i.e., is there no midi out connector on this puppy. That would be a bit of a shame. How is the latency?

It will take pride of place next to my Fender with a G2K and my Casio DG20.

[Polychrome]

I have an EZ-EG, not an EZ-AG, but in terms of midi tech they are probably similar.

The eg just has standard midi in/out ports. It comes bundled with a simple usb-midi interface, but the EG itself does NOT have any sort of usb port. Maybe the AG has identical midi in/out, but doesn't come with the midi interface. I would have been much happier if it had a single usb cable for all midi + power supply, but no big deal.

Frankly, I don't know the differences of the 2 models.

[JEMSKIJEMSKI]

Thanks for the info Polychrome. I should have read the spec. Yes its midi in/out.

I can ceretainly see the advantage of everything over usb. But even with a 2.0 USB card I still get weird USB problems that appear power related. I think things get dodgy as you add more and more power hungry devices.

I will probably go with the batteries (nimh are getting cheaper!) so it will only be one cable.

What ever happened to that wireless midi system
MAudio announced? That would be sweet.

[SecondSkin]

What I imagined would be cool to do is to use the low-vel notes to trigger sounds on a separate MIDI channel than the picked ones.

Yeah, that's exactly what I have been planning to do (maybe when I get Sampletank). Anyway, I've been having too much fun with it in the normal modes.

[Polychrome]

I just looked up a couple of wireless midi systems, and they are too expensive (500-1000 dollars). I bet withen a year or two someone will make a wireless midi system for 100 dollars or less, using some standard like Bluetooth.

That's a good idea about using batterys. I don't like have any cables, but 1 cable will be better than 2.

[JEMSKIJEMSKI]

I would be very interested in the opinion of owners
of the EZ guitars. How is the latency, how does
it compare to say the Roland GTK systems etc. Have you found it to be reliable etc.

Thanks in advance.

[Markleford]

8 months later, and my wife bought me an EZ-EG for xmas. She let me play with it a bit over the weekend to test if it shipped okay and if it suited my needs.

I already wrote up a MIDI-OX script to convert the output to a neutral grid of MIDI keys (and the strings to drum triggers), but tonight had to pack it up 'til Dec 25. I'll share my goodies when I get it back and can test the stuff a bit more!

Stay tuned...

- m