Using Guitar as a Midi Controller

Charlie4

I need to do some scoring and I'm using a program similar to Sibelius/Finale. I don't have a midi keyboard to do note input with. I was wondering if it would be possible to use your guitar in a similar way? I am aware I would need to change the audio signal into a midi signal in order to do so.

Does anyone know how to do it and if possible, would I be able to use a Vox Tonelab as a midi controller and audio to midi converter, if that's the correct term?

Please share your knowledge. ?

AlanRatcliffe

You need a proper guitar synth to do it properly. Nothing else is going to cut it. You need the hexaphonic pickup and hex pitch to MIDI conversion that guitar synths use.

The best system for scoring would be the Fishman TriplePlay (a.k.a. FTP). While I love and use the Roland guitar synths for live use, and FTP is not right for me in a number of ways, if you specifically want to score, nothing else comes close to it. You'll probably also need to do a fair bit of MIDI editing to clean up extraneous note info if you want to print scores - guitar playing produces a lot of cr*p notes that you don't necessarily hear, but that will be included in the MIDI.

=

Otherwise if you just want to record keyboard parts for playback, the Roland GR-55 will do the job well and is a lot easier to find locally. There's a guy on the S.A. Guitar Shop page on Facebook selling a GR-55 with an Epi Les Paul fitted with the GK-3 pickup for R10K.

V8

Was just about to post this : http://www.ratcliffe.co.za/articles/midiguitar.shtml as a intro... ?

I've had my eye on the Tripleplay for a while now...they are available locally at around +/-R5500 from Music Connection.

There's also the option of the yourock midi guitar : http://yourockguitar.com/, I saw one on the SA Music Store FB page going for +/-R2500, the seller said it was around R4k to import.

AlanRatcliffe

Don't get a YouRock. Glorified Guitar Hero controller...

AlanRatcliffe

Just note with the FTP:
- It uses a PC and software.
- It cannot be used on a nylon guitar.
- It cannot be used with existing 13-pin guitars.

...all of which make it unsuitable for me. ☹

Malkav

There's actually a VST called Midi Guitar, it's capable of simply converting your guitar's incoming signal to midi without the use of a pickup at all, so no costly modifications.

=

As you can see in this video it has no problems tracking Tom Quayle, and he recons it's actually better than all the alternatives that do involve heavy modification, so I'd probably go with that as it's cheaper and less obtrusive in the long run.

Attila

Interesting as always Thanks chaps.

Charlie4

10k for a Roland guitar synth? Ouch!

Chad Adam Browne wrote: There's actually a VST called Midi Guitar, it's capable of simply converting your guitar's incoming signal to midi without the use of a pickup at all, so no costly modifications.

It seems this would better fit my needs. Ha! I guess nothing in life is free hey. The Roland GR-55 Synth, I imagine is very cool, but for me that is some serious coin for something which is not an absolute necessity. Still this has been informative and if any one has anything more to share, I'm all ears. ?

AlanRatcliffe

Actually, I'm going to get Jamorigins MIDI Guitar to try. Although, from what I've seen in videos it still doesn't outperform an Axon or the FTP (which use the same technology as each other). I'm intrigued by the polyphony - I suspect they must be doing something similar to Melodyne for the pitch conversion algorithm (although if they are doing it without significant latency or processing overhead it will be quite something).

The ultimate test for any guitar synth is drums, but there are no videos of that around. Piano is a damn good indicator of performance too (although the Roland stuff can actually play pianos pretty well because of some tricks they use with the internal sound source - but unfortunately that doesn't translate to the MIDI output).

One big thing I have to mention, because it's pretty crucial to the performance of any guitar synth - the biggest variable is the player. Be prepared to find out just how inaccurate your playing is. ?

shawnv

Probably too late to post bow, but I have beeb using the Midiguitar vst and its great. You can record midi into your daw and take the file/data to sibelius also or simply open the midiguitar vst standalone program and output into sibelius without a daw.

BMU

No idea if this suits the OP's needs, but I had fun with this MIDI guitar on the cheap (as in free) experiment with Reaper ages ago:

http://www.guitarforum.co.za/recordings/guitar-synthesis-cheap-'n-easy-with-reaper/

funkadelic

Hi. I also tried recording midi using a guitar (normal electric guitar not a midi guitar). You get an awful amount of notes over and above the actual note. Not good.

I've decided to invest time in learning to play keyboard and creating midi tracks that way. May also maybe make a mean keyboard player out of me yet? ?

V8

funkadelic wrote: Hi. I also tried recording midi using a guitar (normal electric guitar not a midi guitar). You get an awful amount of notes over and above the actual note. Not good.

I tried the Jam Origin software Chad mentioned - it's quite impressive! Tracks monophonic lines better that the hardware setup I had - low latency and very few glitches/false notes.

Though, I'm a complete noob when it comes to midi guitar, so when Alan gets around to a full-on review - we'll know the truth ?

I did get the trial version outputting reasonably clean lines into a midi track in Ableton - thought that the stock instruments that come with the trial were uninspiring - Imho, Ableton had better sounding ones.

Chords/Polyphony were okay as well, but that's were I started to find the hardware solution I had to be superior. Especially when doing guitar-y things (sliding around chords) that worked well in monophonic mode.

The V1.0 software was released a while ago (2012-ish I think) and I'll definitely be keeping my eye on the V2.0 release.

Charlie4

It seems for what I want to do, as well as not spend a fortune, a midi keyboard is still the way to go. It does not have the sensitivity a guitar would and having to do midi cleanup the whole time, in order to have it properly scored is going to take way too much time. Monophonic lines with midi guitar can work if you keep it simple enough, it seems chordal work is not going to work though. :'(