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I’ll weigh in on this FWIW. I have a wide range of
interests in using MIDI – I started wanting easy transcription of
whatever I played, for use in a sequencer or notation program. The degree of
accuracy desired is high and very dependent on your technique as well as equipment,
and it hasn’t a chance of picking up anything beyond pitch and duration. Over time my interest has gravitated more towards what it seems Kevin
is after, where accuracy is less important than ease of widening the sound
world radically. All that said, a few thoughts in no particular order: 1.
The RMC pickups are great. I have them in a Cumpiano custom
classical and 2 Godins. 2.
Godins with RMC setup are fantastic right out of the box, but not
cheap. 3.
The Ghost system by Graphtech is pretty much equivalent in terms
of performance. However, I have found Richard McLish (RMC) to be more reliable
and supportive of the luthier doing the install. Richard is a true gentleman
who backs up his product. All that said, the Ghost system I had put in a
guitar last fall is splendid. 4.
I have a Roland GI-10 13-pin-to MIDI box, works well, less
costly than GI-20 or the Axons. I think a GI-10 would track acceptably for you,
Kevin. I personally long for an AX-100. 5.
No system I know will pick up “non-guitar” sounds
and convert them in any useful way to MIDI. Bang on the box all you want, but
rely on the pickup signal and mics to convey that sound to the audience or a
processing setup. 6.
RMC and Ghost are piezo pickups with the characteristic piezo quack.
Some folks find they can EQ that to a sound they like; I’m not among
them. If that matters, be sure your selected setup allows your mag pickups to
be routed separately or mixed in or both, as the Godins do. I imagine the other
guitars that come MIDI-ready have similar options. 7.
Casio made an early MIDI guitar that does the pitch-to-MIDI right
at the guitar. I left mine in a closet for years after I started playing
Godins, BUT when I went through a defretting jag last year and defretted the Casio
MG500, which I always liked just as a guitar, I started using the MIDI features
again and found it is truly useful for (as discussed above) somewhat wild and
woolly but still musical synth driving. You may find these cheap on Ebay, but I
gather from a recent quick perusal of postings that many old Casios have
developed some problems. Mine is still working as well as it ever did. 8.
Lastly, note that the way synths and samplers respond varies a
lot. Hal Dean From: Tony K
[mailto:bigtonyk@gmail.com]
On Mon, May 19, 2008 at 2:55 PM, David Hayes <stringfling@gmail.com> wrote: Axon AX 100 or AX-50 with an RMC piezo pickup
system. These pickups are the best, most playable way to do Guitar
Midi. It's not some mass produced thing though... some guy named Rich makes
them and it may take a while to obtain even the correct information about which
is right for you. You'll need to email him what you have and ask what you
need. Then it may be easier to have the guy who runs a local guitar store
near his work shop actually ride his bike over and get it and ship it to you
rather then Rich himself. The
guitar shop near his workshop is Subway Guitars, 1800 Cedar St. Berkeley
CA 94703, (510) 841-4106. Then
you'll need to have your local guitar shop install, which means replacing the
bridge with his and installing the 13 pin plug. The actual conversion
electronics may not fit in your guitar... I have a separate box like
this http://www.rmcpickup.com/polydriveii.html
I plug into. My bridge looks like this one: http://www.rmcpickup.com/powrbridgest.html
. I have a PRS-513, but he's got pickups for all kinds of guitars...
electric, acoustic, and nylon string. I think the whole thing ended up costing me around $6-700
installed. A lot, I know, but to me it was the difference between using it or
not using it. I tried Rolland's magnetic pickup and got way too many blips,
bleeps, inconsistencies, etc. etc. for it to be truly usable. Nothing's
perfect, but the RMC yields quite good results. Good luck! On May 19, 2008, at 11:16 AM, Kevin Cheli-Colando wrote:
I sometimes feel like I ask far and away the most off topic
questions here and yet, I find this community to be one of the best resources
of information about a wide variety of things so I can't think of a better
place to start most times. That said, I wanted to ask any of the guitar
synth players their advice on the best options at the moment. |