MG2 with HARMONICA: TRIGGERING HIGH RANGE NOTES

iOS
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I’m a professional harmonica player, and have been trying various pitch-to-midi options with cupped hand-held mic for some time. I tested the original MidiGuitar several years ago on iPad but couldn’t get it working well. Recently I tried MG2 and was really impressed: as long as my mic signal is decent and I play cleanly, suddenly I can get good accurate, fast Midi tracking. WOW - that’s wonderful! Thanks to Ole and Paul for your brilliant work.

Of course I understand that MG2 is designed for guitarists, but I believe it has huge potential for microphone users such as vocalists, and players of acoustic wind instruments. Assuming the developers are interested in hearing about these other applications, I have a request - which may also apply to mandolins, ukuleles, violins etc.

One area MG2 doesn’t work well for me is triggering sounds on the high notes. A standard C harmonica range is C4-C7, and the highest note on an F# harmonica is F#7. I find that MG2 struggles to trigger the Midi sound after I get above about C6.

Please let me know:

  1. Is this is because I’m using a mic, and electric pickups work well in the higher range in MG2 - or do they have the same issue?
  2. If the latter, will it be possible to extend the usable Midi trigger range in MG2 in a future version?

Thanks for this great app! I’m currently doing a series of videos for harmonica players on using getting Midi sounds from their harps in the iPad using MG2. Here’s the introductory video if you’re interested:

1 Like
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MIDI Guitar can convert polyphonically from low D2 (73.42hz) to D6 (1174.66).
So it is no wonder that you can not get above C6…
We’re preparing the MIDI Violin beta, and that will bring more range on top, which will spread to the other converter versions as well.

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Thanks for the speedy reply Paul! It’s good to know this is a generic issue with Midi Guitar, and not down to the unorthodox way I’m triggering the notes with a harmonica and microphone.

MIDI Violin sounds as if it will be perfect for my application. I’d love to try the beta when it’s ready.

I’m currently filming a comprehensive rundown video on MG2 for other harmonica players to learn from, will post it shortly.

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Here’s my in-depth demo of Midi Guitar 2 for harmonica players (and other microphone users):

Next video will be showing the Midi Output mode for triggering other synths.