Sonuus G2M guitar to midi converter

[andy butler <akbutler@tiscali.co.uk>]

Sonuus G2M guitar to midi converter.

I have one of these to play with for a couple of days,
I'm sure it's of interest to quite a few list members.

1) Essentially, it tracks very well indeed. If anything it feels better 
than the Axon/G50.
2) You do have to play clean, they suggest palm muting at the bridge, 
which does work well. Don't
   expect miracles in terms of shredding.
3) Pitch Bend is fixed at 2 semitones. If you try a 2 semitone bend it 
often  retriggers. Bends of one semitone are perfect. So no glissando 
for Rick.
   A trill on a semitone doesn't retrigger the synth, but on a tone it 
does.
4) No controls whatsover, just a 2 position gain switch(which worked ok 
for me), and a suggestion to
  use your guitar volume pot.
5)There's a thru output for the guitar signal, didn't test quality but 
will if anyone asks.

6) No warbling! At least, no warbling on sustained tones. I know exactly 
which note
  on my guitar gives the problems to all other devices, and the G2M 
plays that note with
  a long sustain till it shuts off.    Of course, if you have more than 
one note ringing at once,
 by design or haphazardness, then it warbles away.
7) I couldn't trick it into playing ultra low notes by playing just the 
right chord :-(  
8) Range is exactly that of the guitar. Lowest note it will track is low 
drop D. Highest note is the 24th fret top E.
   Outside that range....nothing.

9) The power LED doubles as a guitar tuner. Pretty hopeless, the 
flashing speed decreases as you get nearer the note.
    It's ok for checking tuning, but as there's no info as to whether 
you're sharp or flat it's very difficult to use.
    For the cost of one extra LED it would have been workable.

10) Neat "battery dying" LED.  Tells you in advance the battery will 
die, so you can replace it before gig or recording, (didn't test).
11) Not programmable in any way, fixed midi channel, velocity response, 
pitch bend rage, no transpose.


Overall, I thought this was a pretty neat little device, I didn't check 
for sure against the Axon/G50 devices, but I reckon the
latency is as low as with a hex p/u.
If you wanna play rhythmically accurate, use the high notes and 
transpose if needed.

Being mono is something of a disadvantage, as not only chords are ruled 
out, but also arpeggio type playing.

Any questions....I have to pass it on to the owner soon.

andy butler
ps
I also have an RC50 here, so expect some comments on that.
It's certainly *not* plug and play :-)