Hi there. I am about to order an audio interface, so this is obviously not something I can actually try yet…
I previously used a Roland VG-99 processor which I used to create a range of patches using altered virtual tunings which fall way beyond the normal range of a guitar (more like a harp guitar in fact, which was my intention), which I then used in several compositions.
I wondered whether there was any way of recreating these tunings using Midi Guitar, or within Garage Band or Cubasis?
Ideally I would like not to have to set up my VG-99 rig again just for those altered tuning patches, since it would make my setup with the iPad Pro unnecessarily complicated and cumbersome, and would also require an audio interface with stereo inputs.
So if there were a way to achieve this I could re-record those ideas using the more advanced processing tools now available, and at a higher sampling rate. Thank you.
So, you can use the VG-99 as a class compliant audio interface with iOS via a CCK (*use ‘Standard’ driver mode). If you were to do that you wouldn’t need an additional audio interface or MIDI Guitar 2 – internal pitch to MIDI conversion can be used if you add a DIN MIDI<->USB interface. No offence to MG2…I love it and use it for different things but the VG-99 has some advantages.
Some will say that 44.1kHz/16-bit is a limitation but if you do all your amp simulation inside the VG-99 it shouldn’t be a thing to worry about.
If you hope to try different sample rates you’ll obviously have to introduce an additional interface - as you mentioned.
There is no practical way to achieve those tunings at the source other than to use a VG/GP/GR device, one of the Roland guitar models with on board guitar model sims/pitch shifting or maybe a Line 6 Variax guitar.
Sorry, I’m not correctly receiving notifications of replies to my posts so I only just happened upon your reply. Thank you, that is very helpful information.
To be honest I am debating whether to try out an Artiphon Instrument 1 as a lightweight midi controller, since aside from the distinct advantage of MPE, it is one of the few midi controllers which seems capable of reproducing the altered tunings I discovered with the VG-99. It would also allow me to develop different playing and compositional approaches. Not only that, but the facility of being able to use the new GeoSWAM instruments and SWAM standalone instruments when they are released and Thumbjam etc., is an exciting prospect.
It also has a similar facility to the VG-99’s programmable infrared sensor - except that the I1 goes about it differently, using the gyroscopic feature instead, to allow movement along a physical x/y axis to be mapped to cc control messages. It’s a shame it doesn’t incorporate a ribbon controller, that would have been really useful.