I have recently tried out the Jamstik Studio MIDI guitar and was very disappointed with it. Considering the cost the actual guitar was equal to any guitar in the £200 range I have tried. As for the MIDI, very hit and miss despite spending hours getting it set up. In the end I returned it as totally unsuitable.

So, my question is are there any MIDI guitars out there that are good quality with MIDI electronics that actually work well?

Hi
I am not to sure myself of the purpose of a midi guitar, apart from the fact that you can send midi note data from each string to a separate midi channel, normally ch11-16 or 1-6.
At this point of course you can make it play whatever midi guitar patches you have, the quality of which will depend on your midi module or maybe keyboard or synth midi patches, that you play through.

You can also make the data play any other midi patch but that’s got to be hard way of playing a piano, or trumpet needs to be at least a plucked string imo.

Also 6 out of your normal 16midi tracks /channels is a lot of tracks just for say the rhythm Guitar time you use another 6 for the lead and 4 for the bass you are out of channels.
Unless you open up another port of 16.

Have you played with Kontakt inside a DAW and any kontakt guitars like Indiginus Acoustic Guitar Collection
Just my thoughts
Mike

I've tried several and never found one with even remotely the expression of a real guitar. I used a Boss GP10, which uses Roland's midi guitar tech, and low and behold I can play midi tracks on a real guitar, and everything I do for real, gets picked up as expression in the midi track. Added bonus, it also does real guitar and guitar effects and some variaxe type stuff like instant drop D tuning, virtual capo, and such.

I have an old Casio Strat MIDI controller that works well:

https://www.ebay.com/c/1103439199

But there are things that you should be aware of when working with any guitar MIDI controller.

1-You can't play it like you play a regular guitar. You must be very articulate in your fingering and picking. You can be a little sloppy in your guitar playing but MIDI will pick up everything, thus you will be doing a lot of editing. Strumming is a good example in that playing a guitar it is fine but not so when using MIDI.

2-It takes a few string vibrations for a MIDI guitar controller to decide what note you are playing. Thus the thicker the strings the longer the time. I use 8s on my Casio.

3-Keeping #2 in mind if you want to play say a cello lead on a MIDI guitar playing in it on bass strings will induce latency, again do to the string vibration. But on the Casio and I'm sure on other MIDI guitar controllers there is an octave setting. So I can play the cello part on the thin strings and have it sound an octave lower. The same with a bass guitar sound. With higher octave instruments I set the guitar to sound an octave higher.

4-Any guitar MIDI controller has to be set up for your playing techniques. This can be a daunting time consuming taste but will worth the effort.

If you think you can pick up a guitar MIDI controller and just start playing then you are kidding yourself. If you can read music and have the time getting a new MIDI keyboard controller is an option. Also if you are going to use the guitar controller to on wind instruments then you would be better off with an AKAI EWI-USB wind controller. I have a guitar, keyboard, and wind MIDI controller and they all have areas where they excel over the others.

I hope this helps and good luck.

Not really Mike. A guitar MIDI controller can be just as useful as any MIDI controller. It can also record pitch bend and slurs very easily.



I have set up my Casio MG-510's output to one channel, thus eliminating the six channel hogging setting. I'm sure other guitar controllers can do that also.



I don't think the OP is asking for guitar presets. I think he wants to use a guitar controller to emulate other instruments.

I've used a Godin XTSA with a Roland GR-55, probably the best combo I've ever tried.

TRYUK,

+++ Midi Guitar 2 +++ is a software program that translates guitar audio to midi. The +++ Fishman Triple Play +++ is a hardware device that attaches to a guitar and outputs midi when the guitar is played.

Mike,

Some people are more knowledgeable and comfortable playing a guitar than another type of instrument such as a wind or keyboard. For those people a guitar midi controller makes a lot of sense.

There is also some truth to the train of thought that says if you want a realistic sounding midi guitar part you need to understand how a guitar player plays. Similarly knowing how to use a wind midi controller can help to create a realistic sounding instrument track.

Hi All and thanks for the response. I am a better guitarist than keyboard player and had in mind using a midi guitar to play some of the synth sounds I have in Logic. I am not likely to ever want to play traditional instruments with a midi guitar.

Deryk’s post had me searching the web and Youtube for the Boss GP10, something I had not heard of. I believe that this would be a far better avenue for me to follow as the modelling would appear to give everything I require sound wise, without the hassles of midi. Easily fitted to one of my existing guitars at a lot less money. I was particularly amazed at the 12 string emulations and the ability to change tunings.

I tried the Yamaha EZ AG and didn't like it and then switched to Midi Guitar 2 by Jam Origin which I found was much better. It is also a good way of pinpointing all your bad guitar playing habits because you have to play clean and precise to get the best results. You can probably download a trial version.

Hi Chris: I've got the JamOrig Guitar Trial version and it works well with my Inputs (Guitar thru ASIO USB Audio Interface Box). Great sound coming from my speakers. But no idea how to send it as MIDI into RealBand. Before I buy the full JamOrig version, I'd like to get my head around how to get its MIDI output to record directly to a Track in Realband. I'm not set up in Win 10 with any MIDI drivers yet, so I need to add something I realize. But what... . Any suggestions about which one might work well in transferring Jam Origin MIDI output to a Realband MIDI track?

I'm a MIDI newbie re: recording, but I'm comfortable doing MIDI post-effects processing using TRB's built-in effects and VST plug-ins, like the Steinberg line of piano, symphony and guitar VSTs. Just trying to figure out how to get a JamOrig guitar MIDI output to a RB track when I hit the record button there.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I have a full post on this very topic somewhere way back in history (I can’t find it now) however:

1) Do you mean you want to simply record the MIDI notes (not the sounds) that you generate via MIDI Guitar 2 using your guitar, or do you mean

2) I want to record the sound generated by MIDI Guitar 2 and my chosen VSTi ‘s I’ve set up in MG2?


In the first case, since RB will NOT see MG2 as a “MIDI device” you need an additional item a software MIDI router (you could even route out of PC from MG2 to an external MIDI router and back into PC and into RB via this external router –but that’s way overkill).

You can use something like the FREE Loopmidi, or the (commercial) Loopbe 30, or other similar multi-in/multi-out software MIDI interface devices. You play guitar into MG2, then have MG2 send its MIDI out to this midi router MIDI “device,” then use that device to route that MG2 MIDI output to RB. Or more simply: set RB’s midi-in to that MIDI device (e.g., Loopmidi) and MG2’s midi out to that same device (again e.g., Loopmidi)

https://www.tobias-erichsen.de/software/loopmidi.html (not pushing loopmidi – just first thing that comes to mind)

In the second case, that’s actually more complex AUDIO (not MIDI) issue- and requires you knowing what audio devices (ASIO and non-ASIO) you and your computer can use at same time. Besides if you record the MIDI performance, as MIDI, you can at a later date, in RB, change the MIDI VSTi instruments (maybe a Wurlitzer was better than a Rhodes after all - LOL)

There is a VST version of Midi Guitar 2 that comes with the purchased version, which you can use from within your DAW program. Jam Origin recommends that as the best way to record Midi Guitar 2 output into your DAW. If you use the stand alone program, you will face a lot of latency issues. I have no idea how well it works with Real Band, as I'm on a Mac platform.

Bruce

Do you have reaper? I haven't tried to integrate MidiGuitar into Realband but in reaper you just need two tracks
First track with the audio input, no master send, with Midi Guitar 2 as FX and routed to track 2 which includes the Synth. I have two templates if you are interested. I don't think that you can route tracks in Realband I may be wrong on that. But you can record midi and audio in Reaper and transfer it to Realband.

I forgot about that, the VST plugin, I don't use MG2 that way so I forgot (my Fishman Triple Play is a VSTi and I don't use it that way either)

But bottom line good catch, to TRYUK and others just remember the MG2 .dll is NOT a VSTi, it is a VST.

Good luck
Larry

With Reaper you also have the option of doing this all on one track by selecting MIDI Guitar 2 as your pre-fx and the synth of your choice as the regular fx.

Paj
8^)

I don't know if any video is going to fulfill the promise of the title of this one but some info from a long-time user:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu0rubxS0fU

Paj
8^)

IMO, the Yamaha Keyboards have the BEST midi guitar sounds that are midi. I used to own a Tyros keyboard and the strumming, electric guitar patterns sounded amazing when recorded to a digital device.

However, BIAB has surpassed those sounds with their styles of recent years. You can't beat the real thing when it comes to professional studio musicians.

Trax

Hi all:

I posted some questions about MIDI Guitar 2 earlier in this chain. The responses launched a lot of personal learning in a hurry. Liking this forum. Here's an update.

Larry, I meant both situations (Q1 and Q2 in your response above). Good advice thanks. Update: MIDI Guitar to Realband is working well for me now. I just had to get my head around a couple of things. First, virtual MIDI cables (now using both loopMidi and loopbe1). Second, and more importantly (slap forehead moment) finally cottoning onto the difference between a 64-bit output app (MIDI Guitar 2) and a 32-bit destination Realband, especially where it concerns recreating the actual MIDI Guitar sounds that I'm recording (cellos, pianos, overdrive guitar leads), rather than just the notes I'm playing on the guitar.

For example, after several months I finally understand Sforzando's 32-bit workings (included in Realband 2020). I downloaded the sforzando 64-bit version into my MIDI Guitar 2 app and now I get what I want to hear when I process a MIDI track afterwards with sforzando 32-bit at the Realband end.

Music Trax, I agree that the quality of professional studio musicians already contained in the RB library is hard to beat. They are my audio staple. There are still instances where I like complementary instrumentals to come from my own mind, for certain licks and 'sound-icing' on the cake. For me, this recent leap is being able to weave some of my own MIDI orchestral/multi-instrument imagination into the composition mix, instead of just recording raw guitar audio into some places along the song timeline.