I heard a lot about the MG2 and wonder if I can change the tone / tuning so that I get the right tone for my Turkish Saz and Baglama, which usually consists of 7 strings (3 at the bottom where two thin and a bass, which together are tuned in the D4 tone), (the two middle strings are tuned in the G3 tone) and (the top two strings are tuned in the A3 tone). Heard that MG uses Guitar tuning which is slightly different than Saz/Baglama tuning (D4, G3, A3). How can I tune the MG to pick up the right tone from my Saz when I play?
I use Cubase 12 as DAW on Windows 11, and SSL2+ Soundcard.
Hallo,
do any of you use MG with oriental instruments (eastern instruments with quarter tone)? Or has experience with it?
This is a very special case, I don’t know any user of oriental instruments playing on MG.
Have you tried various tunings in the MG tuner, i.e.: D4, G3, A3, D4, G3, A3?
Maybe you will be able to adapt your instrument for good note detection?
This has nothing to do with it but I get a pretty good result with a 12 string guitar.
However, the use of 1/4 tones requires a virtual instrument adapted to these intermediate tones. There are several of them, but the problem may be to get a detection of 1/4 tones to transcribe them into midi notes which only include 1/2 tones. A good result could only be achieved through bends.
I’m just guessing here, I don’t have enough knowledge to give a solution.
The best you can do, better than synth, is to use oriental sound banks with 1/4 tone samples, there are some to use in Kontakt and certainly in other sample players.
The problem that remains to be solved will be the possibility of playing the 1/4 tones in MIDI on MG as mentioned above, to obtain the same result as using a microtonal keyboard like for example the Yamaha PSR-A350
Thank you very much for your answer :). The problem is that it is not possible to arrange the tones in the MG in the order you wrote 
How is it possible to tune the 7 strings in the MG in that order? Do you have to edit the Tunings patch?
I have several VST instruments in Kontakt where I can adjust the tonal scale as I want, but when I play it with MG some strange sounds come out during playing
I tried many combinations of tuning, but still get strange sounds biside of some good sounds from MG.
you can use plugins for orintal scales theres many but there is this one not the best but you can search yu will find better ones
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I have connected my oriental instrument Baglama (Turkish Saz) to the sound card (SSL2+) and set the correct connection between MG and Kontakt plugins where I had chosen an oriental instrument with an oriental tonal scale (tried both Violin, Arabic Oud and Nay), but the sound that was recorded by Cubase contained some strange and incorrect notes. This was because the sound/tone from my instrument was corrected and converted by MG based on its Patch (Tuning option) before the sound/tone was sent to the instrument in Kontak plugins. I mean if the Tuning and selection of tones in the MG is made more flexible and “free choice of tone on each of the 7 strings” there will be more precision in the tone that is captured by the MG and then converted and sent out. Can you show me how to change / edit the Tunings Patch, to try this?
Hi @Kokar As you have noticed, MG2 doesn’t reckognize or interpret quarter tones. The smallest interval for any fretted instruments you can use with any success, is the semitone. And also that has its issues (you can’t have any semitone intervals as parts of chords, or even ringing in isolation for that matter). But the software does however pick out incoming pitches on a semitone grid basis. The different tunings options are more to optimize the software’s performance with some tunings from that semitone grid. What you are looking for is a software that also hears and recognize quarter tones, and I would advise you to wait for MIDI Guitar 3. As far as I have understood, you wouldn’t need to set or specify any specific tunings. It should pick up on what you present it with anyway.
MIDI Guitar 2 can still be used to some degree to PLAY(drive) oriental instruments, and you can always retune/remap the MIDI output from MIDI Guitar with some additional software. There are a few microtonal solutions out now that work as a plugin between MG2 and and the instrument of choice (in a DAW).
https://entonal.studio
But for great results there it is often up to how well the instrument handles these new intervals, of course.
The other way to go about thing is to use unfretted instruments as input. This means in practice that the MG2 software will interpret whatever you play as one of those twelve semitones, and if you then slide even the slightest on your fretboard the pitchblende/pitchwheel will pich up on this and produce also quarter tones. It takes a bit of playing to get use to, but it is not impossible.
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Thank you very much for the detailed and informed reply. Looking forward to using the MG3. Have a nice day!
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