Are there any decent midi guitar controllers? 30 year search

henryrobinett

henryrobinett

Fractal Fanatic
Completely and TOTALLY off topic. What is/are the absolute BEST guitar midi controllers? I'm interested in playing midi notes into a DAW. I want to play keyboard, string parts, synth parts IN THE STUDIO. So I'm not interested so much in strumming or having it mimic guitar bends. Studio writing and production only. It's remarkable to me that the technology of midi tracking hasn't progressed in 30 years.

I've had a few, starting with the Casio guitar. Then I got the GK2 pickup and the Roland GI-10. I stil have them. I don't want a box that triggers it's own patches and synth sounds. Those definitely track better, but that's not the point. They track better because they defeat midi. Now if ir recorded midi and I could later search for sounds for Spitfire strings, or pianoteq, Kontakt, that could be acceptable. Not ideal.

Any clues? I've heard good tihngs about Jamstick or the Ztar. It almost doesn't matter to me if the midi sensor thing is in the fretboard rather than picking up string vibration, since I just need it to accurately translate midi note values.
 
Henry - check out MIDI Guitar 2 from Jam Origin.

It's a pitch to MIDI software. It works as well or better than a GK-2A... Except it can't operate on individual strings.
 
unix-guy said:
Henry - check out MIDI Guitar 2 from Jam Origin.

It's a pitch to MIDI software. It works as well or better than a GK-2A... Except it can't operate on individual strings.
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Thanks! I've heard about this. I might but I need individual notes as well, not just chords.
 
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henryrobinett said:
Thanks! I've heard about this. I might but I need individual notes as well, not just chords.
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I tracks whatever you're playing.

My point was that when using a hexaphonic pickup like the GK-2A, each string is individually tracked by the synth. So, for example, you could have the bottom 2 or 3 strings pitched down, or playing a different sound than the other strings.

I never tried to capture midi from from my Roland GR-30 so I don't know if each string is or could be a unique midi "entity" or not.
 
Happy holidays Henry! I’m sure you’ve thought of this but the problem is a lot of keyboard parts you might want can’t really be played on guitar, so much editing required regardless.

That said, for a more unconventional idea, try something like a Launchpad Pro. The rows can be set to be a fourth apart so it’s laid out kind of like a giant square bass.

Ultimately I think a hex pickup and a SY-1000 is probably the best you can get right now If you want an actual guitar in your hand.
 
What Unix-guy said! FWIW MIDI Guitar 2 has a FREE trial - try it. No, I'm not associated with Jam Origins in any way other than I have and USE MIDI Guitar 2 as well "regular" MIDI guitar GK2/3 setups into GI-20 and old GR-50 and Fishman Triple Play.
 
Some years back I tried Jam Origins (IOS) and thought the idea was great, but found it lacking compared with my AXON. After visiting their site today I'm kind of excited to see if their Windows version lives up to their videos. I'm giving it a shot and will report back.

I've been enjoying, but mostly surviving, pitch-to-glitch for 30yrs myself. The best converter I've owned is the AXON AX 100 MKII, it's old and out of production but it represents the peak of 13pin converters. Their software lets you map the fingerboard anyway you want and also tracks "pick direction" to allow patch assignment accordingly.

An old trick from the past is to use "B" strings (.013", tuned to B) for all six guitars strings. Tracking is greatly improved but it's weird and renders a guitar useless otherwise. It's worth mentioning just in case you've not heard of this before and it does work.

For 13pin-to-MIDI the AXON is as fast as they get. Devices where sounds are triggered internally (not using MIDI) are faster and totally feel better. Of those I think the Roland GR-55 and the discontinued VG-99 are the best in current/modern offerings.

In the past I've had:
Roland GR-20, GI-20, GR-707, GR-300 (still use the GR-20 sometimes even though I kind of hate it)
IVL Pitchrider (Kramer marketed this too)
Photon (non-visible light string sensors)
Casio MG-510 guitar. Tones are cheesy, but by far the most fun synth guitar I've played!

BTW- I have Godin MultiAc Classical guitar (13pin out). I just love it! It sounds amazing (acoustically and into a board) and is really enjoyable with MIDI backing it up.
 
Let me just make sure - Axon is the GI-10/20? That's what I have. I'll bring it out of mothballs. I've been calling it the Roland GI-10. I think I'm goin to get the Jamstick. I have the GK-@ attached to a Valley Arts Strat. I might just put that on another guitar. Then maybe try out a Triple PLay! LOL. And just DEAL WITH IT. I mean it's because there's not a demand because they suck so bad, but with all the technology advances in chip design and speed, you'd think SOMEBODY could fix this.
 
Valley Arts... very nice! I used to know Mike McGuire (through business) back in the 90's. Those guys really had some good ideas and made great stuff. No, the Axon was made by TerraTec which is still in business but doing other things. I guess there was never enough interest or sales for MIDI guitar to truly take-off, though Roland did stick with it. Your Roland GI-10 should do well... these days the Axon AX 100 MK2 is wildly unpopular since nobody knows what it is... when on Ebay they're like a $100. I'm still leaning toward the MIDI Guitar 2 from Jam Origin, though dealing with a laptop in a live setting is a drag. If it truly works well it might be worth the $150 and dealing with a laptop. I plan on trying it out in the next couple of weeks or so.

Axon.gif
Last time I ran the software was in Win7. Haven't tried it on Win10. It's not required for the unit to work.
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I swear that's what I have. I have to dig it out of storage! As I recall the software doesn't work with it any more, but it does fine in stand alone mode. I'm on Mac, but I do have a PC Virtual - Paralells. Thanks!
 
You're welcome... I just remembered a performance detail for the Axon (probably works on others too) is individual midi channels for each string. It's a hassle to setup on tone/synth modules but is often worth it. String and Choir pads/fills usually don't need the attention. The opposite of that is Omni Mode (is on by default) which puts all of the midi traffic on a single midi channel causing more latency. Also, turning pitch bend off helps in the same way too, which is also helpful for chording anyway. Different setups/profiles for different needs... nothing new I guess. ;)
 
Yes. Always turned pitch bend off. Never tried the midi channel per string thing. Seemed too much of a hassle. BTW another option I've used is to just record guitar and have Melodyne translate it to midi.
 
Here's my "out of the box" experience with MIDI Guitar 2.5 on my IPad. I recorded this a few minutes after installing it. This was using the default Rhodes patch routed to Garage Band. I just plugged my guitar into the IPad via one of those Line 6 IOS interfaces.

 
Sounds good. Thank you. This is an update ot Midi Guitar 2.5? But can you trigger other external midi synths with it well? That's what I need. It's much easier to trigger ones own (the companies) box and defeat midi. I dont want to use the boxes sounds. I need it to record midi data into the DAW.

I think I have both a Roland GI-100 and an Axon somewhere. I found the Roland. I haven't pulled the trigger on the JamStick yet.
 
henryrobinett said:
Sounds good. Thank you. This is an update ot Midi Guitar 2.5? But can you trigger other external midi synths with it well? That's what I need. It's much easier to trigger ones own (the companies) box and defeat midi. I dont want to use the boxes sounds. I need it to record midi data into the DAW.

I think I have both a Roland GI-100 and an Axon somewhere. I found the Roland. I haven't pulled the trigger on the JamStick yet.
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You can trigger external synths but you have to pay extra for that. I think it's $39.99, but it's been a few years and I'm not sure.
 
Yes, you can trigger external synths - simply select your Interface in the "MIDI interface Output" menu (i.e., your installed MIDI output controller - e.g., for me, it's a 4x4 generic USB MIDI controller which in turn connects to a pair of JL Cooper MSB Rev 2 8 in/8 out MIDI patch bays and also a few MIDI workstations or your "AXE FX III MIDI out,"). Actually, you can control both internal VSTi's and external modules at the same time. AGAIN its' free to try so .... give it a try
 
unix-guy said:
You can trigger external synths but you have to pay extra for that. I think it's $39.99, but it's been a few years and I'm not sure.
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My MIDI Guitar version is Windows 2.2.1 it is an older $99 licensed version (goes back before they made 2.2.1 a free download to try) goes way back (2017 was my last update) and I don't remember paying anything extra back then? But I'm old, fat, bald, and going senile so maybe the current $149 version is 2.5? But this may be Windows versus MAC or iOS thing?
 
Larry Kehl said:
My MIDI Guitar version is Windows 2.2.1 it is an older $99 licensed version (goes back before they made 2.2.1 a free download to try) goes way back (2017 was my last update) and I don't remember paying anything extra back then? But I'm old, fat, bald, and going senile so maybe the current $149 version is 2.5? But this may be Windows versus MAC or iOS thing?
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Yeah, I meant the iOS version... Sorry, I should have clarified.

You can get "limited" the app for free. It times out every few minutes.

$10 unlocks it but there's another purchase for external control.

I was running it and several soft synth apps on my iPad with really good results.
 
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