Introducing MIDI GUITAR 3 HEX (third HEX update 3.0.53)

I’m glad that works for you. I originally tried running the analog outs (Main Out L/R) of the SY-1000 to the analog inputs of my audio interface and it caused a very bad hum. Totally unusable. That’s one of the reasons why I’ve been looking for other routing methods.

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I fear Roland / Boss will very soon leaving us GP10rs out in the cold… especially on Macs GP10 now is supported until Sonoma but if at NAMM they will release the successor and friend of GM-800… GP10 drivers for next MacOS might not be there… When MacOS moved to Intel 64bit VG99 software & driver was not updated… GP10 is over 10 years old… so thanks Roland … maybe a GM-800 or what they will present could be the solution. Good to know you’re having a good time with it.
10 years support is great but we have to face the timeline.

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it’s been a long time, but i kind of remember a similar issue when using balanced cables with the sy-1000 outs, corrected by switching to unbalanced.

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I retested and it seems fine now – no noise at all. I did have a GK splitter box (Roland US-20) in the mix before (now vanquished to a cardboard box) so maybe it had something to do with that. It’s good to know that such a simple, analog option is available :slight_smile:

i was experimenting along these lines and i no longer see a way to handle this.

i was trying to get an open-d tuning, but the strings are not tied to channels, they float as they do with mpe (when using the midi 1.0 multichannel selection).

what i had planned to do is put transpose each string individually, either inside mg3hex or afterwards. but this would require dedicated midi channels.

i also don’t see a way to achieve open tunings or to mute open strings using the string filter.

hopefully i have missed an obvious solution.

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I simply ignore the CPU meter in Ableton. It is not reliable. I am on a 2022 M1 Mac Studio Basic and a Basic Mac Mini M1 8GB RAM. I have no problems. The Ableton test (browse the forum) can do 80+ Tracks on a Mac Mini with no problem. My projects are small (20 tracks) and MG2 and MG3 work very well (MG2 is wrapped by Apple’s wrapper for plugins so performance might not be optimal).
When you have 8 Performance Cores and 2 standard cores the hardware ‘switches off’ some cores so Ableton says 90% CPU but it should say 90% of the active cores in a given moment. Measuring is relative, while OS CPU Measure is real. Ableton does not spread the load to all performance cores available, at least on a Mac.

The only way I see is a bit “weird” but it works. Configure the DAW to receive the single string signals from e.g. GM-800. Insert MG3 into each audio input channel (6 instances). In each instance, insert the MIDI machine “Transposer” followed by a VST. Adjust the transposers to get the desired open tuning.

Some VST’s allow to do pitch adjustments within the UI, then the transposer isn’t necessary.

Edit (mute open strings):
With a pitch filter you could set the first note per string above the open string note > open strings wouldn’t sound. Of course that would only apply for “normal” chords and no barre chords and preferably not in combination with any open tuning.

Edit 2 (@ElectroFuzz )
With the described setup it’s also possible to send MIDI from each MG3 instance to a separate track.

Wait. You are right. Right now it doesn’t keep a fixed midi channel for each string in the VST plugin. So if you want to split into keyzones or re-tune individual strings you should do it i MG3, not in the plug-in.
It’s an easy fix to maintain the fixed channels also in the VST. I will address this.

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That will make things much easier with a lot of additional options and possibilities!

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Hi! I want to buy Midi Guitar 3, but now I got only 28 days B-version. Should I buy a Midi Guitar 2 to use it in the proper way and then I can get an update to 3?

I have hacked a way of doing the 1 string per channel.

The String filter is useful (assign a midi channel to midi output after the filter) BUT the current limitation of three chains is limiting — it would be useful to have 6 chains to enable the filtering per string. JAMO: COULD THIS FEATURE BE ADDES PLEASE?

Anyway the solution is to run two instances of MG3 HEX. Possibly this could be done within a DAW but as a Cubase user I cannot see how the rig up 6 channel input inside Cubase — IS THIS POSSIBLE?

Anyway my solution is the run two MG3 applications. I am a mac user but if you duplicate the app you can run two instances fine.

The issue is however that both running apps try to output to one “MIDI GUITAR OUTPUT”! I figured out a cumbersome workaround that involves editing the binary code of the app. I have a freely available (“Hexfiend”) editor that conveniently displaces the binary as text side by side so I find the “MIDI GUITAR OUTPUT” string and edit the binary so that the name changes — the tricky part is find a new character set that does NOT break the binary executable code! Trial and error but I have it working now! JAMO: Another work around would some way to change the config of the app so that the MIDI output could be renamed? (Clearly every new MG3 update needs editing which is a slight pain also)

Now you have two Streams that can be merged in a DAW or a standalone VST Host or running app (e.g. Kontakt).

Once set up this all works a breeze. Having a set one string per midi channel is very useful for my purposes:

  1. For transcription/notation purposes
  2. You can set up an play altered tuning a la Roland/Boss units
  3. I can now play all my Ample Guitar libraries

JAMO: I think all three purposes make the new MG3 HEX exceptionally useful — a game changer for me and far superior to anything out there — so I think worth pursuing.

Playing the Ample libraries is now a revelation — they respond very well to the MG output (very little tweaking and just ensure MIDI Guitar mode is enabled) and they sound absolutely wonderful — to my ears the best and playable sounding guitar libraries out there.

I have also set up AMPLE Guitars to respond to alernate tuned guitars, current limitation is no noter lower than E2 is detected (this fix is planned in full version of MG3 I believe) but any tuning higher (or with a Capo in play ) work great too.

Happy to try and assist anyone who needs more info or help in getting going.

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Yes, loads of possibilities — amazing!

No I do not work for JamO.

I am not selling the software on, just trying this out for my own purposes.

JamO implied that midi channel per string is a “simple fix” just after my post so it looks like all will be good.

I simply was experimenting to see what was possible for my purposes — it was a revelation now it’s working.

Hoping JamO can come out with some updates soon – appreciate how hard they must already be working.

Thinking beyond, I think the ability to modulate each string with the new MG3 modulations, tuning and control mapping functions opens up a whole new dimension.

This is game changing technology for me.

I couldn’t find a way to route multi-channel audio to MG3 Hex in Bitwig 5.2.4 or Logic Pro 11.0.1 (macOS). I suspect you may be able to do something with the surround sound abilities of Logic but it’s beyond me.

Coming from a TriplePlay setup, the ability to retune any of the strings and to mute open strings was the most used feature, it’s like the 101 of midi guitar playing.

Examples:
If I play piano or any other keyboard down tunning the low E and A string by an octave is a must to emulate the spread between the left and right hand of a piano player.

If I play saxophone muting open strings is a big help to not trigger false notes while you do those fast monophonic runs.

What if the string selector would have a tune up and tune down arrow for each string and instead of enable/disable only add a third option of mute open string this way you can use all of these options in a single chain.

MG try to be a more general, modular approach. Tuning and separating strings are not necessarily related. There are modules for everything and all modules can be combined freely.

You can use a string filter to separate strings and a transposer or a returner to tune them. You can even mute or modulate the tuning of individual notes the using returner module and cabling it from the modulators module. Or maybe add a sustainer module to sustain bass notes. Things like that.

How would I mute 6 open strings?
I would need 6 chains.

Yes I havent heard this idea before, so i was just thinking about it. It’s trivial to add a midi machine to mute open strings or a given set of notes, just like the scale filter mutes all notes not in a chosen scale. But isn’t some sort of hack just to avoid tracking issues with the ftp?

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It’s just something I like to use to avoid triggering open strings by accident. No biggie if we can keep each string on it’s own dedicated midi channel then I can filter the open string with a third party app like MidiLab.

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Ok it’s an interesting idea. I’ll will just add it as a separate module and we can try it out.

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