A cheaper MIDI guitar solution?

[agent314]

So I saw the announcement of Rock Band 3 featuring a new 'Pro' mode where you can play more or less 'real' instruments the same way you do with the 5-button guitar and simple drum kit and the like.

One of the new instruments is, for all intents and purposes, a MIDI guitar. Not a normal guitar - it's basically 102 individual buttons (one for each string, 17 frets' worth) with 6 'string' triggers

http://kotaku.com/5560679/rock-band-3-p ... controller

The neat thing to me is the MIDI out on the bottom of the guitar there. What I a hoping for here, is that this is a servicable MIDI guitar controller that costs several times less than even a basic MIDI guitar setup.

The pricetag looks to be about $150, which is about $500 cheaper than a Roland GK-3+Axon AX50 setup, and there's no word on velocity sensitivity (my guess is there is none).

Granted, it's not perfect, and it's more of a facsimile of playing guitar than actually playing guitar, but for someone whose primary instrument is guitar and who can't afford a 700 dollar MIDI setup, this seems promising.

Thoughts?

[!STiTCH!]

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/G2M

That may be an option for you.

[Tarekith]

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/G2M

That may be an option for you.

+1. Best option on a budget by far.

[jerry123]

Careful of anything that uses sound tracking. It can get sloppy.
I use a Yamaha EZ-AG which are about $250 if you can find them.
The EZ-EG looks a lot nicer but harder to find.

[capta1nA]

I saw the new Rock Band controller and thought the same thing.

I play an old Peavey Cyber Bass. They stopped making them around 1996 so they can be hard to find, however. Once it has some simple repairs done this thing will probably rival the Roland setup. It has an audio sensor in the bridge pickup, four isolated single bridges with pressure sensors, and a sensor under each fret. Each fret is actually split into four mini-frets (which you can't feel while playing) which track pitch.

Not sure what they go for used, since I acquired mine as it was being thrown out (!). Someone is making new variants of this bass but they start at about $2500.

[Pasha]

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/G2M

That may be an option for you.

+1. Best option on a budget by far.

Any experiences?

[littlepig]

I've owned a G2M for about a year. It works well no fuss to set up. You need to make sure that you play cleanly so it doesn't get confused. It seems to track bends, hammers and pull offs pretty well.

The G2M has 2 semitone pitch bend set so you have to alter the patch you are playing to 2 semitone max bend for the guitar and synth to remain together as you bend.

Well worth the money.

[agent314]

WTF. How in my hours of googling around for MIDI guitar options did that thing never cross my path?

I'm getting one as soon as I get my next paycheck.

[doghouse]

Roland, Axon and the old Peavey bass systems do indeed have velocity control that maps to the string volume. What doesn't have velocity is these goofy push button controllers.

I have the Peavey MIDIbass (predecessor to the CyberBass) and it's absolutely killer but they are quite rare and of course they are basses, not guitars. I'm a bassist so that's fine with me

You'll notice that Roland gave up on bass systems and that's because pitch-to-MIDI needs 1/2 a wave cycle to lock onto pitch. The low E on a bass is about 40hz, so latency is about 12ms (ugh). On a guitar, it's only 6ms and the Axon technology uses tricks to "guess" the pitch which reduces latency to even less than that. For bass, the wired fret setup of the Peavey works with almost zero latency and has a cute side effect..the strings don't have to be in tune for it to work!

[!STiTCH!]

WTF. How in my hours of googling around for MIDI guitar options did that thing never cross my path?

I'm getting one as soon as I get my next paycheck.

Truth is I read about this in either Sound on Sound or one of the Computer/Future Music mags. Google is great, but Sound on Sound (or even Computer/Future Music) is a phenomenal resource for new gear, new software, and new tricks.

[agent314]

Roland, Axon and the old Peavey bass systems do indeed have velocity control that maps to the string volume. What doesn't have velocity is these goofy push button controllers.

Uh, that's exactly what I was saying. That the toy controller may not have velocity sensitivity or volume control, but for a fifth of the price it might be a decent analogue for people who can't afford 7 bills for a proper MIDI solution.

Thanks for the snideness though!

[Riley333]

google "You Rock Guitar", you will be most pleased.

[:Metaphor:]

http://www.yourockguitar.com/


^ as said above, this guitar actually seems pretty good. At first glance, it looks like a bad Guitar Hero controller, but on further inspection, it's a fully functional MIDI guitar with NO LATENCY, and only costs $179. Total deal, IMO.

[Riley333]

They went up to 200 and cost me 18 for shipping, 218 all together. From what I see, totally worth it.
Not here yet though, still on order.
Riley

[:Metaphor:]

Please keep us posted! I'm strongly considering buying one.