hi guys,
I would like to purchase this plugin to use it with my trumpet.
I currently play my trumpet live by connecting it to a guitar pedalboard, but I am not satisfied.
I downloaded the guitar midi demo and the result is poor. With long notes it’s ok, but in fast passages it doesn’t understand the notes.
Is there any mod or setting to make midi guitar compatible with my trumpet or wind and brass instruments?
Hi @galluzz
Welcome here to begin with.
I would guess that it is to a large degree a question of sound contamination, of reflexes and echoes and stuff like that on top of the fact that MIDI Guitar 2 perhaps isn’t tuned in to the fundamentals/overtones make up of the trumpet sound necessarily. The best results you could get would be in a anechoic chamber environment of course, but life seldom presents those when we need them. I have recorded with both Bass clarinet and alto sax recordings as sound sources using MG2 to produce a MIDI version for me, with great results. I am sure I could get decent results out of a trumpet as well. But take into account I mostly use solo recordings with as little reverb or audio tails on as possible.
Converting a sound to a midi note is unfortunately not limited to detecting the pitch. Spectral analysis is also necessary to determine the components of a signal whose frequency, amplitude and duration fluctuate over time. This is called the timbre of the instrument.
The ideal would be to do for the trumpet the same work of detection and thus of recognition for the midi conversion that Midi Guitar allows for… the guitar - and approximately for other instruments but in a very random and hazardous way.
Moreover, Midi Guitar has been studied not only in a very selective way to optimize the conversion of the guitar but especially specifically to allow the detection of polyphony.
So in the case of the trumpet, the use of a microphone connected to a hardware midi converter would be more suitable: for this purpose, there are nowadays midi converters that work properly for monophonic instruments.
I personally own a midi microphone (Midimic from Digigram) bought in 1989 and which already worked perfectly at that time and with zero latency with a saxophone, a flute and therefore any other monophonic instrument. Its advantage is that it is both a traditional microphone and a midi converter: it has an additional line input, an audio output and a midi out socket.
Thanks LoFiLeiF
what do you think are the best settings to set on midi guitar 2?
Hi herold, thanks for reply.
I currently use an internal microphone connected to the trumpet.
I have tried various hardware audio>midi converters (sonuus for example) but the result was always very bad.
Can you list me some good hardware converters?
Well, it very much depends on what the problems are, but as a starting point I usually suggest:
latency = 128 or 256 (the lower value will give you a lille less latency, but going even lower usually don’t help as much as it strains your computer)
I don’t use noise gate at all, because it (allegedly) adds latency. But sometimes I have it a a quarter to, and I can’t say I have ever noticed any difference.
Gain, tone and curve all on twelve o’clock to start with, and your input should be clearly visible (the lines moving) but you shouldn’t hit the roof of the MIDI Velocity window. See to that you don’t distort the input, trying to maximize input in your audio interface. Stay at something like -5db to begin with if you can.
There really isn’t too much that can be done with settings, and yet we go back and tinker with them all the time. It takes a little bit of time to figure out what works for you. Play, adjust, repeat…
Sonuus converters are initially dedicated to electric instruments (guitar, bass,…) but can also be used with a microphone on an acoustic instrument in the same way as with Midi Guitar and the result will be as disappointing.
I thought that there were midi converters for wind instruments but I admit that I don’t know of any although I have already seen a cornet player use virtual instruments in a very efficient way, knowing that the playing technique certainly needs to be adapted like the guitarist’s on Midi Guitar to avoid ghost notes, doubled notes, etc.
The most suitable converter would be a voice converter which would certainly work well with a trumpet.
There are software versions too but I don’t know if they are efficient: maybe you could try Digital Ear among others.
The ideal is of course a midi wind controller, but it is a different instrument from the traditional acoustic instrument and the price is quite high.
