I’m really enjoying MG3’s inbuilt modulation capabilities. MG3’s overall performance is excellent and inspiring. Thank you Jam Origin for the additional semitone in the upper range tracking that MG doesn’t have! I was always frustrated by the absence of that ultra-high E when playing a 24-fret guitar. Here is what I have for you so far:
Suggested additions/modifications:
-Ableton Link and/or MIDI clock capabilities for standalone;
-Drag and drop to reorder chain positions;
-Plugin search function…hard to navigate if you have a lot of plugins as scrolling takes forever (OK, we have folders option now….but still a search function would be useful);
-Customizable chain labelling for clearer layouts;
-Back shortcut via ESC key;
-Auto rows determined by number of chains for clearer layout;
-Audio device settings screen is clunky — prefer the more traditional “More Options” view as default — like most common Audio/MIDI settings interfaces; Furthermore, a selectable MIDI devices section under this same settings area would be useful to limit the devices shown in the lower left corner menu of the main GUI;
-Drop-down menus rather than scrolling menus for PBR (and others);
-Plugin top box (large rectangle) sometimes shows useless info and is quite large;
-Quick save/overwrite preset capability;
-Activate/Deactivate plugins in database option;
-Define default preset function;
-“Show Editor” or “Show Plugin Editor” or “Plugin GUI”?
-Regular PC MIDI message to change presets and possibly a preset matrix like in Amplitube or some Native Intsruments synth products.
Really user specific and I’d guess difficult requests (for what they’re worth):
-An additional two semitones of high range tracking would be nice…I play a 26-fret guitar and sometimes I actually use those extra frets on the high E string. That said…I’m sufficiently happy that we’re at 24 frets now and a line has to be drawn somewhere
-Audio trails for preset changes — possible?;
-Hex pickup input integration — curious where this could go but seems pretty far down the road;
-Of course, multiple sample rates would be great (but I understand your development conundrum);
Bugs:
-Changing number of rows from 3 to 1 (in some cases) causes blank GUI to show — clicking over blank space where rows button is takes you on to 2 rows and GUI returns;
-If in Audio selection area, when you click on the green box and drag for your desired device, if there happens to be a clickable modular item in the background you will see a cable appear;
-Clicking on a box to add an assignment forces plugin window open;
-Can’t delete assignments from Plugin 4-box interface;
-In Blue Cat Axiom, MG3 plugin requests input monitoring to be activated but there is no such option in this host;
-In Blue Cat Axiom, when using MG3 as an audio unit, the MG3 MIDI port doesn’t expose itself;
-If you open a saved set containing MG3 in Logic Pro or Live 12 the MIDI OUTPUT channel always changes, which means you have to reassign the ports of MIDI instruments (already reported as a “Core MIDI error in Logic” which was addressed) but I’d like to think this port behavior could be improved so the port I save in a project will still be there when I open it again and not require fiddling with MIDI ports in the DAW settings.
EDIT re: Blue Cat Audio’s Axiom:
-In Blue Cat Axiom, MG3 plugin requests input monitoring to be activated but there is no such option in this host; (AU only)
-In Blue Cat Axiom, when using MG3 as an audio unit, the MG3 MIDI port doesn’t expose itself; (AU only…VST3 sends MIDI when I tested it on an older Intel device)
-In Blue Cat Axiom, MG3 plugin appears to have no audio in or out channels; (AU only)
These might be bugs with Axiom 2 but I thought they were worth mentioning anyway. Thanks
Thank you for this extensive list. All good stuff! I’m adding all of it for my TODOs.
Just a few comments on the difficult/interesting part:
Audio trails when chancing patches would be great indeed. The main problem with this is that this require the old module and the new one loading to stay in memory and process at the same time of the overlap and thus you get a short burst of RAM and CPU usage that double up. And that’s on top of the stress of actually loading the new patch and audiounit plugins at the same time. Not really an issue on newer Macs, but I’d like to keep it as lightweight as possible and postponed this for now.
I’ll have more info on a potential HEX tracker later.
Higher notes tracking isn’t really a problem (in the way that lower notes are) but I’ll wait a bit to get back to tracking developments, until the application and plugins are bug free and feature complete.
i’m also very interested in how mg might handle hex input.
but most of what a hex player might want is already easy to achieve. regardless of how mg might work with hex, you’ll need an audio interface with 6+ inputs and some method of splitting the signal on the non-guitar side of the hex cable.**
and if you have those, there’s no need to wait, you can run 6 instances of mg2 in your daw of choice today.
this is a good solution for those who tune down, you can run mb instead of mg on the lowest string.
i can let piano chords sustain on open strings until they fade out with this option. on any of the boss/roland gear i’ve used this would lead to cacophony as each string’s level decays.
i can use slide willy-nilly and get only a handful of artifacts or false notes.
again, like you i cannot wait to hear what the big brain is percolating re: mghex. but you can have (some of) it today.
** best inexpensive option: bill bax’s hardware solutions
silliest option: buy an sy-1000 and use it as an audio interface.
I don’t really enjoy the clunk of setting up 6 separate instances but it works. I’ve done all that before but now I can imagine MG3 making it either easier to integrate or taking it somewhere else altogether.
For the maximum silliness award: I’m presently using my SY-1000 to send a D.I. regular guitar signal into MG3 standalone simply because I can run it at 44.1kHz (unlike the other devices in my rig) and it affords flexible routing – SoundSource 2 steals the audio output and sends it to another interface for monitoring. It’s a nuclear workaround for the no-48kHz issue
Yes, I do that occasionally but then I have the tracking of the Y-1000 or GP-10 or GR-55 and I find the tracking of MG3 better. With a simple break out cable (13 pin to 6 x XLR or 6.3mm jack) I could easy go into a stage box that is connected via AES50 to my mixer without sacrificing 6 input channels there and having the main mixer as audio interface. It is always a bit of cumbersome to change the input device in a project. I’m very keen to know with what JamO is coming up!
After a few days of use, I must say that MG3 offers ergonomics and possibilities that I had not suspected at the beginning!
Suggestions:
A point that would be interesting would be to have a MIDI input to MG3 to be able to use a keyboard to set up an audio chain with a VSTi instrument.
Improve the mixer with pan adjustments per channel.
A fourth channel would be desirable, like on the GM-800.
Some vu-meters to avoid inserting this type of plugin and losing one of the 5 insertion slots.
Bugs:
After saving patches, MG3 crashes when reopening these files.
If I insert the “Revalver 5” plugin, the audio goes into the plugin but only the input sound comes out, not the output sound of Revalver. This plugin also works in other software such as Gig performer or other DAWs. And strangely; “Revalver 4” works correctly.
For the maximum silliness award: I’m presently using my SY-1000 to send a D.I. regular guitar signal into MG3 standalone
i see your silliness and raise you: my gr-55 is used only to provide power for the separate strings device.
but then I have the tracking of the Y-1000 or GP-10 or GR-55 and I find the tracking of MG3 better
the method i’m suggesting would not use the tracking in the boss units. it would simply provide access to the 6 individual string inputs for processing in mg2/3.
this would be a great feature, i would use it all of the time. as a workaround though, you can record a snippet of your guitar and loop it into mg2/3.
