Has anyone tried MG2 with vocals?

Where were you MG2, years ago? Blows my mind what this can do. Curious - has anyone tried it with a vocal audio track? Results?

Hello Ron, welcome here :slightly_smiling_face:

Haven’t tried it yet? Try it and you’ll see that it’s possible.
Of course, Midi Guitar can be used with different sources, but it’s designed for guitar string detection, which means optimized tracking and a satisfactory result.
However, there are harmonica players, for example, who use it effectively.

Harmonica with Midi Guitar

The main thing, whatever the source, is that the notes are in the range of a guitar.

this may or may not be helpful:

it is a snippet of ‘you don’t listen’ by general elektriks. the first untreated vocal is a reference, the second bit is the separated vocal thru mg2 controlling a synth.

i believe it will be tricky to sing into a synth not because of detection issues, but because one cannot hear the synth separate from the voice.

but, it is certainly possible, and i’m sure there will be fewer artifacts if the singer is focused on reducing otherwise desirable vocal nuances. but i think it will take a special performer to use it in a live setting.

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Thank you for taking the time to do that! Very much appreciated. Just a guess, I’m thinking the human voice has so many overtones and underestimated idiosyncrasies, MG2 might not be able to do that (yet)…I lost the ability to play with my left hand many years ago, and had to learn to compensate with a keyboard controller, but that itself has limitations. I worked with many great guitarists, and the odd session made me wish there was a midi approach that I could edit - like I can when a player offers a midi track (Drums, Piano). MG2 would surely be the answer to remote producer’s ability to edit notes here and there. 'Should be in every guitarist’s toolbox - not so for vocalists (yet). Thanks again!

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It’s certain that the voice, guitar or any other source sent to MG2 must be adapted to the constraints of the conversion and not the other way round… at least for the time being.
MG3 will certainly bring significant improvements in tracking and perhaps one day it will be possible to convert all the nuances specific to the source used… MG4 + MIDI 3.0 ? :wink:

Singing with only the sound of the synth in headphones ?

It may surprise you to learn that this has been possible since 1988.
I still have an audio microphone which is also a MIDI converter (but monophonic, at the time it was already extraordinary). I’ve never used it for singing because I sing very badly and you can imagine the result :worried:.
But I have used it with a guitar because it also has a line input, it was my first MIDI converter for guitar.

I’ve also used it with vocals, but as part of an exhibition: in 1988 I’d created an interactive piece comprising an expanded polystyrene sculpture into which was integrated a Yamaha CXM5 computer (a music computer with 8 DX7-type synth channels with 4 operators and MIDI I/O), the MIDI microphone, a screen, an amp and loudspeakers.

The MIDI microphone was placed in line with the audience, picking up noises and voices, converting them into MIDI and triggering the sounds in several MIDI channels with different presets, all of which was broadcast through the speakers.

At the same time, the MIDI sounds obtained triggered image movements (very basic at the time, TRON-style) on the screen and visitors who realised that their voice was interacting with the sound and image had fun experimenting with this, to the astonishment of those who hadn’t made the connection…

Unfortunately I’ve lost the archives (articles and photos) but I kept the MIDI files that I had reworked afterwards by modifying the quantification and pitch of the notes to transform it into the music you can listen to below.

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that’s an amazing project, and the people experiencing it in 1988 must have been astonished that the future had arrived so swiftly and without any advance notice.

and giving it a second life as a polished recording is like a second birthing.

the recording is very sound track like. belongs on a remixed tati ‘playtime’ music video kind of thing.

thank you very much for sharing this bit of your history.