Hi Sascha, I wonder, what to do with the chord-settings? They are usely wide and the number always limited to at the most 5 or 6 notes (you'll never play 6string-chords all the time specially not with more complex settings). Then I haveto wonder if it isn't easier just to use the matrix? Bob bhelsloot@... BOB'S MUSIC ->I'm using a MIDI guitar at home since several years and I must say that I >really love it at times, especially since I'm the last person you would call >a useable keyboard player... (my apologies to my piano teacher at the >university for having been such a lousy student). > >Anyways, I have the (kinda obligue) Roland GK2a pickup mounted to a bit >older Ibanez RG series (a "Saber" actually, who cares) guitar and a (pretty >cheap) Roland GI-10 interface. >I do mention the guitar here because this seems to be the weakest point of >the whole MIDI guitar story - proper adjustment is a MUST, otherwise most >likely you will never be happy with the thing at all. >Having said that, the Ibanez has a Floyd Rose vibrato system - it's radius >fits the radius of the GK2 pickup "so-so-ish", meaning that the radius of >the trem is wider than the radius of the pickup (originally they apparently >were designed to fit on a strat which has a much smaller fretboard radius >than most modern guitars and the GK2 doesn't offer individual adjustment of >it's pole pieces). >With a combination like that it's up to you whether you want the top or low >strings to track a bit better or if you would go for some sort of compromise >(which is what I do). >The best solution I have tried so far was one Godin guitar with the >hexaphonic pickup build straight into the bridge (these days I think you can >even get replacement bridges for quite some guitar models containing 6 >individual piezos - nice because you usually can even use them for a kinda >acoustic D.I. sound while at the same time midifying your guitar). >Maybe this is the reason why some people still like those kinda old-ish >Casio guitars - you just don't have to care about pickup adjustment. > >The next important thing is the converter. Older converters used to need >more string amplitudes to calculate a note while with modern converters this >has been reduced to 3 (?) half-amplitudes (I really don't know exactly, but >this has been improved significantly during the last years), so, if you >decide to go for a MIDI guitar you better don't get yourself a too old one. >A while ago I tried one converter of a german company called Axxon, >apparently it works pretty well, plus the thing is kinda "intelligent", >meaning that you can train it to fit your playing style a bit better (not >sure how good that feature works). Plus it's got quite some neat features >such as open tunings, fretboard split points (you can devide the fretboard >into ranges triggering individual MIDI channels horizontally) and stuff like >that. > >Finally, THE most important point is your playing technique! >Chord strumming for example doesn't work at all (at least it never did for >me). >Apart from single lines I allways play finger technique (or pick and fingers >for that matter) when using the MIDI guitar. A bit of nail helps as well to >get more clarity. >Also you will have to take care about finger vibrato, slurs and slides and >even bendings are a very sensitive thing to do via MIDI (if I just play >chords and lines that don't need any bending I usually switch off the pitch >bend option of the GI-10). >Well, even with the most careful playing you will most likely run into some >"rest notes" but it's just easy to build yourself a transformer that deletes >all notes shorter than XYZ (you gotta experiment a bit with this, depends a >lot on your technique) and/or with a lower velocity than X (again, >experiment) (Just the old Cubase "delete short notes" function). > >Then there's some tiny tricks: > >- It surely helps to use heavier strings (I use 0.011 - 0.054, plain >G-string for the MIDI one). > >-For basses it's very helpful NOT to play them on the bottom strings but >transpose your instrument down to two octaves in Logic (or even directly >inside the converter) and play in higher registers => you will have a >noticable tighter feeling as higher notes are converted faster due to faster >string amplitudes. Needs a while to get used to it for basses but it's worth >the effort. > >- Try to get used to the sustain pedal while playing chords. If you just >expect them to be sustained as long as your guitar sustains you will >sometimes run into surprises... a sustain pedal helps getting chord tones of >the same length. Also this is nice if you change chords as you have quite >some more time to do so => risks of glitches are reduced. > >Finally, the best triggering guitar I ever played again was some Godin, a >nylon model. >Apparently it produced way less glitches and unwanted notes than most >electric models. But well, this wasn't exactly cheap... > >So far for now, >Sascha > > >Unsubscribe: mail to logic-users-unsubscribe@egroups.com > > >>>>> Subject lines MUST contain: LAM/LAW/GEN/OT <<<<< >