GAS : Fishman Triple Play - MIDI Pickup

V8

I know Alan mentioned this a while ago on a seperate thread, but I couldn't resist posting the 2012 update.

http://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=5188.100

http://www.msretailer.com/msr/?p=936

http://www.harmonycentral.com/blogs/News-Fishman/2012/02/07/fishman-unveils-triple-play-wireless-guitar-controller-at-winter-namm

I'm excited enough to start planning which guitars to sell...Shipping sometime this year (allegedly), I'll hold off all other forms of GAS for this one ?.

I thought the Piano/Key sounds (from logic) in the youtube demo were nothing short of amazing. The drum 'solo' was a laugh! From the creator of the original AXON gear - It has some of the cooler functionality of the AXON gear (fret and string splits), seems to be very responsive in the demo and it's wireless! - connect your laptop up to a MIDI footswitch (FCB1010) and away we gooooo!

Ok, the guitar would still have to be plugged into a amp/sound interface if you wanted your original dry sound, but with a little luck the 2nd gen version is mooted to combine this in a similar fashion to the roland GK-3 hex pickup.

In my best Mask voice "Somebody stop me!"

AlanRatcliffe

Yeah, I was speaking to Andras Szalay the designer about it late last year on the MIDIguitar list. Nice to know someone is continuing with his pick sensing system. I asked Mr T to take a look at it at Frankfurt for me and what he saw was impressive (until the computer crashed and he ran out of time, so couldn't wait).

You realise it's a USB only device, right? That means you have to use it with a computer. So you're probably still better off picking up an Axon MKII off eBay or a GR-55 for a live setup. Plus it only works with it's own pickup, you can't plug a piezo equipped Godin or a Fender Roland ready Strat (or my Carvin Nylon string) into it. I'm also hoping they come up with a way to multiplex the guitar signal so you don't have to use a second wireless unit or a guitar cable.

Also it bears repeating that the system works best if you play with a pick - a fingerstyle player will not get the same kind of tracking speeds.

V8

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: You realise it's a USB only device, right? That means you have to use it with a computer. So you're probably still better off picking up an Axon MKII off eBay or a GR-55 for a live setup. Plus it only works with it's own pickup, you can't plug a piezo equipped Godin or a Fender Roland ready Strat (or my Carvin Nylon string) into it. I'm also hoping they come up with a way to multiplex the guitar signal so you don't have to use a second wireless unit or a guitar cable.

Also it bears repeating that the system works best if you play with a pick - a fingerstyle player will not get the same kind of tracking speeds.

I did start a thread many moons ago on GF, where I discovered your wealth of MIDI experience (and articles), after reading & looking at the Roland and Axon gear I was concerned with the amount of tweaking & MIDI learning I'd have to do... :-[

But in the interim I've switched over to laptop based processing (Guitar Rig/Rig Kontrol) and also setup my roland TD-8 drumkit to chat midi nicely to the DAW (Reaper) and send midi control messages to my friends VJ'ing setup. So the learning curve isn't as frightening as I first thought, although I'm still a noob doing simple things.

USB only is okay for me, as I want to try and stick to a laptop based approach to my guitar processing (live and recording) and I'm more comfortable with a pick. Slightly concerned that USB2.0 won't have the 'bandwidth' to process both sound interface and Tripleplay w/o latency issues, but we'll see?

Already there seems to be rumours abounding that Fishman may release a 2nd gen that multiplex guitar signal with midi signal wirelessly - but as the threads mentioned, it's vapourware.

What is making me excitable is that I can turn a guitar I'm already comfortable with into a midi controller - I see this as a killer app for controlling VJ'ing filters/effects - luckily latency and sound quality isn't as big an issue for visuals. We used the TD8 at a small gig few months ago and it worked really, really nicely for syncing the VJ filters/effects with the DJ set my mate was playing.

Yebo - A bit bummed that I won't be able to use it on a nylon string :'( But perhaps by the time I do develop a reasonable Picado technique (2030 at this rate :?) there'll be something compatible...(fingers crossed).