Long time coming, but you sure accomplished something great. I’ll be purchasing tonight. Thanks for the phenomenal product. I tried using usb in thru to usb out on the GM-800 instead of using loopmidi, but I didn’t get any pressure information sent through.
as far as i can tell, mg3hex can transmit poly-pressure, but is unable to detect it.
i would love to be wrong. what are you doing to trigger poly pressure messages?
if they do please hang up immediately. if they were bonafide behind midi guitarists they’d have shipped a working sy-1000 ‘flagship guitar synthesizer’. instead it was barely operational (as a guitar synth) for a year and a half until they released firmware v1.07.
Thank you for all the testing.
MG3 vanilla and HEX surely detect poly-pressure, poly-brightness, poly-pitch, poly-strike. Look at the pressure meters, or the seaboard. Each meter will only display one note (the strongest) but all notes are individually analysed and transmitted, in four dimensions (pitch, strike, pressure, brightness), across all modules. Each midi machine will preserve the information (and transform whatever aspect its meant to) Try to open the MODULATIONS to see the envelopes.
When the poly pressure reach a VST synth, there is a selector to set whether the synth should interpret the poly-pressure as poly-channel-pressure (MPE spec) or poly-after-touch (old school MIDI) in that synth.
Hope that helps
@Jamo I had a blast yesterday trying out and playing with the HEX add-on!
Prior to purchasing a license I was just wondering if this license also includes the upcoming HEX options tailored for Bass/Cello?
It would be nice if the license covers guitars/basses/cellos/violins equipped with 13-pin out.
Or will the HEX feature for Bass/Cello be separate licenses?
I never got around to even trying my bass or 13-pin electric violin yesterday, got stuck with the guitars and lost track of time! Looking forward to using non-standard tunings.
I did a comparison of MG3Hex vs. GM-800 pitch to midi for the six open strings. On average, MG3Hex was 6 ms faster. Taking into account loopmidi latency of 5 ms., that would make it 11 ms. faster. There is a lot of variability in the latency measurements of MG3Hex, but without a doubt, it is the clear winner over the best pitch to midi product so far by Roland. A head to head with the Tripleplay had the Tripleplay coming out as faster.
Maybe when we can go below 128 samples with the buffer MG3HEX will be faster than Tripleplay?
I am already using a buffer of 64 on the GM-800. It really is apples to oranges anyway, different tools for different jobs. I tested an A at the fifth fret of the low E and got a difference of 17 ms. Taking into account loopmidi latency, that would make it 12 ms faster on A fifth fret low E. Not as fast as Tripleplay, but faster than GM-800. Well, enough with the latency measurements. It is clearly faster than Roland and has features that no other pitch to midi device has. It operates as a true MPE device–no other device does that–not Roland, not Tripleplay, and not Jamstik.
I thought we were currently stuck on 128 with MG3, I’ll try to go lower than 128 with the GP-10 and SY-1000 later today
Ive played ftp, GM800, MG3jack and now MG3hex
The tripleplay is unusable imo. No dynamics. In fast mode it just drops half the notes
The GM800 is much better. very good allrounder indeed
MG3jack is slightly laggy with chords but more expressive and funnier with MPE synths than GM800
MG3hex [using GM800 as interface] is lightning fast, crisper, strummable, great dynamics
Here’s a screen shot of Midi Monitor in Ableton. Pitch bend is off. It clearly demonstrates the independent nature of Pressure and Slide.
i see activity on the pressure dial but i do not see how i can influence it, it just gradually diminishes after the note is struck.
example: i play/hold a chord and 1/2 second later i want to increase the pressure, how would i achieve this?
that doesn’t deliver ‘poly’ pressure though. yes, each string’s pressure will change, but all are tied to a single expression pedal. on an mpe keyboard i can add pressure to just one note in a held chord, i don’t think this level of control would be possible without 6 exp pedals. and i only have the two feet.
not that i’m complaining, i just wanted to be certain that i hadn’t missed a way to control pressure using the guitar only.
the reason i believe this is important is that many of the mpe synth presets we will use are programmed with a focus on pressure and slide modulation. as neither can be detected using string/note information, these will require additional external inputs.
Buffer at 64 is awesome!
I do find there are some accuracy issues with Midi Guitar Hex using the GM-800. To get around the ghost note issues, I turned down the sensitivity of the GK-5 pickup. But once I did this, I lost a lot of velocity, so that I had to crank the gain. But then I lost all dynamic range. The accuracy is greater with the GM-800 and with the Fishman Tripleplay. After going back and forth between GM-800 and Midi Guitar Hex, I was able to appreciate the GM-800 more.
Thank you for feedback.
Are they higher pitch ghost notes or lower?
Please dont turn down the sensitivity of GM800. It performs better, the more signal it has to work with. Instead turn down the input gain in the MG3HEX interface. Try to set the input gain where the meter is almost silent when not playing. After that set the GATE to filter out ghost notes.
If I turn down the input gain, I lose velocity. When I do get adequate velocity, I have to crank the gate all the way up and then I get miss triggering from adjacent strings. So, I can get rid of the false triggers, but then I lose velocity, but then I can crank the midi gain, but then I lose dynamics. There is no way to keep dynamic range without false triggers.
Its possible we need to fine tune this more for the GK5, but low velocity (in MG terms strike and pressure) you can always turn up losslessly, either by strike/pressure knobs on the synth module, or insert a GAIN module, before the synth.
Excited for the VST version
Do you all have recommendations for hex pickups/processors? I see you are talking a lot about the GM-800 and GK-5 combo here. Do you recommend that over the GK-3 / GP-10 combo?
I am looking for one that I can use along side my universal audio apollo and just plug into my computer via usb or w/e so I can just get the midi in without having to have 6 inputs on my interface taken up etc…
I guess I also would consider getting a pickup like this SubSix – Submarine Pickups and using the ADAT input on my apolllo 8
Sorry if this post seems uninformed–just learning the tech here!