thanks for the update Paul. I for one am totally satisfied with MG 2, but would like to one day try the studio midi guitar.
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I am new to Midi Guitar 2. After downloading the demo and playing with it for one day I quickly took the plunge and purchased it. I have played with toy midi guitar controllers before. I also have a Roland GR-55, GR-20, and a Boss GP 10. The problem I have with this kind of hardware is that Roland products make a terrible midi guitar controller for third party software synths. The latency is terrible! So you are stuck with the sounds that are in those hardware units. You canāt expand beyond that.
The toy snap together midi guitar controllers donāt play nearly as well as a real guitar. It is really hard to be satisfied or inspired by playing anything like that. The new Jamstik guitar looks promising but in the end, you still have the hexaphonic pickup system that is similar to the Roland Guitar synths and the line 6 modeling guitars, Yes I have those too. This is the same tech design that has been around for decades.
What was impressive about Midi Guitar 2 was the tracking. Honestly, I did not expect the tracking to be so precise or even that good. The software tracks much faster and better than any Hardware I currently own and it can be used with third-party instruments. The only problem I seem to have is when I play over four notes at once sometimes I have some ghost notes. I seldom play more than four notes when I am playing midi guitar, but the Roland seems to handle this better.
Midi Guitar 2 is still an awesome program and I am so glad I discovered it. I plan on doing a few YouTubes about it soon. Maybe I can throw some business their way.
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With regard to Roland, I would think the current state-of-the-art in their guitar synth stuff is the SY-1000. Iām tempted to get it just for the USB access to individual GK-3 pickup string signals. For traditional guitar pickups, I think MG2 is the best way to go, and they way itās so usable with many other signals (voice, violin, piano, etc.) is fantastic!
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well, 1000 bucks for individual string acces is a bit steep: the Boss GP-10 also features this. I actually use it with 6 MGās attached, that is kind of the polyphonic reference I have here for development.
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Paul - Iām looking forward to your progress. Iām a registered user of MG2 as well as someone who started out with the Phitec Photon MIDI Guitar system as well as the Roland and Fishman hardware. Iām in the process of creating my own breakout for the GK2 to do the exact experiment you are talking about, but I do suspect that ultimately, the software could be tweaked and optimized for this type of utilization, particularly for lower CPU usage if installed as 6 instances of a VST. I see it more of a standalone app that can take multple auido inputs. Another area that Iām trying to get optimized is the use of a breath controller with MG2 - and other solutions. Iāve recently upgraded to a Hornberg HB-1 and now need to find the best settings and perhaps filter certain messages with a MIDI Solutions box and add a sustain footswitch (again, MIDI Solutions or a connected keyboard controller) in order to get proper sustain and legato using breath. Iāll post my results this coming week.
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" Iām in the process of creating my own breakout for the GK2" ā I had exactly that same thought, which is what brought me here: we already appreciate what MG2 can do with a āfilthyā signal from a standard guitar pickup, so could there be a market for a āProā version which could take the individual string inputs from a GK or Ghost pickup and do what previous hardware has done, but better?
I donāt think there would have to be 6 instantiations of the existing VST, it could be just 6 pitch detectors within the same VST/standalone, with assignable inputs. That would give the advantage of being able to filter out āimpossibleā ghost notes, enable polyphonic pitchbending, and lots of other stuff.
(Iām coming from the Axon AX 100 MkII btw, and looking forward to trying out MG2)
Great work, cheers!
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The only problem I encountered with running 6 MGās is, that you need to tweak settings in 6 MGās.
Most of the CPU used in MG is the interface. if your close all the 6 GUIās, the CPU usage is really ok. Weād just put it in 1 VST, if we were goin to make a plug for it ofcourse.
Note that a hex signal is not truely clean either: each channel contains bleeding from other strings, be it magnetic pickup flux catching other strings, mechanical bleed through the frets, mechanical bleed through the bridge, or a mixture of all. These bleed factors are not trivial!
Making an hex convertor on basis of a no-bleed assumption will seriously hold back the performance.
Interesting! I also have a guitar with a Ghost piezo, but I havenāt broken out the individual signals, however Iād expect these to be somewhat ācleanerā (of course, thatās pure speculation on my part!). The AX 100 IMHO does respond somewhat better when properly set up for the piezos.
Yesā¦ me too. Iāve got to try it. Iāll have time this next week. I also want to try MG2 using the output of an old Boss WP-20G gk processor that I have which outputs a very clean square wave. I bought two of them cheap off Ebay years ago for future experimentation.
a clean square wave contains less info about the actual played note than a normal clean guitarsignal. The pulswidth at each note start will be varying and absolutely not so clean, and most likely disturb our converter.
Old hex converters do use kind of square wave tactics to determine the frequency, this surely goes up to GR33 (one can read the schematics from them) . You have to imagine a filter before the square wave to diminish the dirty startup. The filter tries to focus on the bottom frequency of the note. I programmed this style of converter a few years ago for study.
Got it. The WP-20G has a saw and a square wave output and seems to also compress the signal. Iāll experiment since itās easy to do and report back. I also have a Graphtech piezo hex on an electric that I want to try. An interesting thing with it: If I put a strip of rubber like from a rubber band under the strings where they contact the piezo, I get better tracking with a Roland GI-20. It also produces an interesting variation with the magnetic pickups (phat cats). It really doesnāt kill the sustain as much as you would think but provides more of an archtop ājazzā soundā¦ definitely mutes the high transients a bit and again, this may not play well with MG2. 
Iāll report back.
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For those of you considering breaking out a Roland GK hex pickup, may I suggest another alternative; Ubertar Hexaphonic Guitar Pickups. Ubertar is a one man show. He makes custom pickups and breakout boxes. In addition to hex pickups he makes one, two, four, seven and eight string pickups.You can find out more here: +++ Ubertar Hexaphonic Pickups +++
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Hi, I was just told about this forum and page by a potential customer, who said he heard about me here, so I thought Iād say hello and offer to answer any questions. My pickups were originally made for analog hex signalsā¦ theyāre designed to sound good as raw signals. Theyāre passive electromagnetic. People found they worked well for MIDI/Roland/etc. as well. I never had much personal interest in MIDI until recently, and now have a GI-20 that tracks well with my pickups. One of my customers has created hex wav to MIDI software called 2syn. I donāt have a link handy but it should be searchable. I havenāt tried the Jam Origin software yet but I expect it would work very well with a hex pickup, so long as you can run six instances of it so each string can run through it separately. I would guess you can set the sensitivity, so you donāt end up with extra notes from a little bleed?
Anyway, if anyone has any questions about Ubertar hex pickups, feel free to ask anything. Cheers, Paul
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Paul,
Welcome to the forum and greetings!
Iāve been aware of your work and +++ hexaphonic pickup website +++ for a few years. I hope other forum members will visit your website to learn more about the products you offer.
Glad to see youāve discovered JamStickās MIDI Guitar and Bass software. I hope to see you in the forum again soon.