Been using MIDI guitar 2 and bass for a month or so, loving it. This is the best sh*t I’ve bought in years.
One question regarding tuning, I really want to use my 8 string but it’s problematic as the lowest two strings don’t get picked up. I’m wondering why it really cares what the pitch of the strings are at all, I know it can go that low because it does for bass…
I tried the range MIDI machine but I must be missing something because it still won’t recognise anything lower than E36. Can someone point me in the right direction?
I’m not an expert but my understanding is that the accuracy of the pitch detection relies partly on the number of vibration cycles of the strings. The software needs a minimum number of vibration cycles to accurately detect the notes and the lower the notes the longer this process takes, which introduces latency which affects the musician’s performance. There is a trade-off between detection latency for feel and detection accuracy for precision.
There must be ways to optimize this phenomenon depending on the range of the instrument, which is why there is a Bass and Guitar version to begin with. Each is optimized for the intended range of instrument. Limiting the range of the software improves the quality of the result within that range.
But i can run both plugins at once, effectively giving me 10+ strings and it works fine…. If you were right, I say nuts to sacrificing more the ability for more strings/tunings for the sake of being able to play a chord using all 6 strings, surely no one is doing this with MIDI Guitar 2, it’s good but not that good, I find I have to keep chords to 3 or maybe 4 strings max for it to cope and result in anything sensible
Yeah, I have a seven string guitar and have mild frustration that my lowest notes aren’t picked up. Of course latency issues creep in as frequency diminishes. But all the same, I can’t believe that there is anything magical about low E such that any note below is hopelessly unusable. I just wish that the note registration algorithm could degrade gracefully on a best efforts basis, or at least a switch or setting to allow the user the choice for it to do so.
I play 7 string and my low notes work fine using a software midi instrument vst that uses the same range.
Some Cello vst works fine too,
I like playing a software Tenor Sax midi vst, a real Tenor Sax has a range of A♭2 to E5. So, you can play the whole range of the Tenor Sax at the 9th fret position across the neck, Ab2 to E5 on a seven string guitar in one position.
How? i don’t understand how you’re able to achieve this. Doesn’t matter what VST you’re going into, MIDI Gtr is not programmed to pitch anything below D. only way i can do that is to use the bass version.
I am, i’ve got heaps of VST’s some go down to D0, all synths go down to c-2, i get what you’re saying but the plugin your using, MIDI guitar 2 or 3, which comes first the chain, does not cater for notes that low:
it doesn’t produce any midi notes below D2 full stop. so i don’t know how you’'re achieving it. I think we must be talking about different things. Im talking about your physical guitar being tuned lower than D2 and MIDI guitar recognising it.
I saw an interesting post on the Gig Performer community forum about a user who applies some smart MIDI routing/filtering to extend the lower range of MG2 in combination with MB to catch notes below a low D and merge the MIDI into a single stream. Might be worth Googling it to learn how it was done.
never mind that, please show me the settings you;re using to get that to work. Midi guitar doesn’t analyse notes below D2, confirmed by creator of the software.
I think this might be where the disconnect might be in our conversation so far - i know that i can lower the pitch of notes that go into midi guitar or after it comes back in or i could even do a midi side chain of sorts. What im saying is, I want to play my 7 or 8 string as I would, down low, i don’t want to have to play it up an octave and im not someone who can have the note we’re hearing acoustically something different to what it;s programmed in the software afterwards… Im still not explaining it very well i don;t think
I don’t think you and I have a disconnect. I understand that you want pitch-to-MIDI conversion below D2 on your extended range instrument(s). I’m suggesting a way that you can achieve this since as an MG2 user you have access to MIDI Bass also, which has the pitch-detection range you seek. Used in combination with some note filtering you can make it happen, but you might need to use a capable plugin host.
@apiary, I’ve got an interest too in pitching down, in my case “just to C2”, and like you I’d love to have full polyphonic mode just so I don’t have to alter/compensate my thinking anywhere on my instrument. (“Set and forget”, right?) MG2 seems to be able to go down to C2 in monophonic mode but for poly it’s D2, which you and others have confirmed here already. I’ve made an acceptable peace with that for the time I’ve been using it (since 2020 for me), and I understand the physical limitations of having to wait for those low notes to trigger them reliably, but C2 is so tantalizingly close to D2 that I’m just hoping…
Even if that proves nonpractical, I do look forward to trying the twin setup of MIDI Bass for the lowest pitches, and polyphonic MG for the bulk of it. I haven’t tried that setup yet, but if the new MG3 gives improved performance even in the existing range and MB3 gives good performance with two low notes, I’m guessing I can find a landing spot in that space.
And at the same time, as I get more into the headspace of this forthcoming release, I think my thinking is changing. The more I learn, the more I seem to be letting go of the philosophy of trying to “fit” MG into the boxes I’ve already created, and starting to acknowledge instead that I’ll probably have better success adapting myself to what really is (for me at least) a new kind of instrument that has its own -fu that is worth adapting to.
In that regard specifically, I’m finding that @LoFiLeiF’s YouTube channel is just…stunningly informative, and he is refreshingly upfront about his having to change his own thinking to adapt himself to get the results he’s looking for. (And man, just look at what he’s doing!)
Anyway, I’ve been thinking about this a lot this last week, and I look forward to “starting over” with some of the things I’d like to do.
i have a four string bass with separate pickups. i am running two instances of midibass, and two of midiguitar. so far this works smoothly. i will give it a full run through over the next few weeks.
What im saying is, I want to play my 7 or 8 string as I would, down low,
even with mg3, i believe the most effective way of making this happen will be to install a separate pickup for the lowest string or lowest two strings.
this would provide a significantly higher level of control and the ability to use the best tools for each part of the job.
hopefully i’m wrong, and mg3 will provide an acceptable result. but this is a special type of guitar, and it is likely that both hardware and software will need upgrading.
Your 7th string is B1 and you appear to be physically playing the lowest note C2 on the instrument.
The lowest pitch I’m hearing in the audio is an Ab/G#1 (4 semitones lower).
MG2 pitch conversion bottoms out at D2 in the settings and I believe this to be true as I have a 6-string guitar that is tuned down to C2 (just a semitone higher than yours) and MG2 doesn’t produce MIDI data when I play anything below the 2nd fret on the 6th string.
So let’s imagine that MG2 actually does track down to C2 (even though it doesn’t). I’d assume that you’re using some transposition function to trigger a pitch 4 semitones below the played pitch.
What am I missing? Is your MG2 different to the standard issue software?
Ah, it’s a mono vs poly thing. I usually have MG2 in poly mode. I just tried it out in mono mode and it extends down to C1. You learn something new every day Thanks, Guy.
Thanks, Guy.