Hi Pat,

Can you describe what type of issues do you have with your GI-20 and xtSA?

About my preferences and setup for Roland GI-20, this is my personal approach, it can vary according your playing style.
My setup with Godin xtSA (0.10-0.46 gauge strings):
Bend Range: C2 (chromatic) and '12' for pitch bend if absolutly necessary.
With PlayFeel: NR , String Sensitivity: 1.4 - 2.4 - 3.3 - 4.4 - 5.4 - .6.4 good for Pads or jazz/rock lead lines with pick (I use Big Stubby Jim Dunlop 3mm)
With PlayFeel: Fi (fingered) String Sensitivity: 1.3 - 2.2 - 3.2 - 4.3 - 5.3 - .6.2 great for chords and finger playing without pick.



I will put here hint from some web sites discussing MIDI guitar, many of that has been my north to follow.

Improves Playing Technique
For optimal MIDI conversion, your guitar playing needs to be clean and accurate. Accidental notes, resonating open strings and other sounds can often be converted into undesired MIDI notes. Often you don’t hear these when playing guitar yourself, but can detect them easily when listening live to the generated MIDI.

Striving to improve MIDI note accuracy, encourages clean picking and accurate fingering, with good control over non-sounding strings by damping them.

Not only will your MIDI output be more accurate, your normal guitar playing will sound clearer and more professional. It’s like having a tutor sitting beside you giving you advice. It’s also great fun!
from: http://www.sonuus.com/products_g2m.html


I find the pitch tracking pretty bad when I play chords in "normal" configuration-- that is, with pitch bend enabled. I keep my guitars set for "chromatic" response almost all the time. On the rare occasions when I double a guitar lead line with, say, a fretless bass-type sound, bend tracking is quite good. I've read that a lot of Roland users have the same approach-- "Disable pitch bend unless absolutely necessary!"
http://jpsongs.com/troubadortech/usmgtr.htm


Guitar synths aren't perfect by any means, but with a little imagination a proficient guitarist can create music that would be difficult to realise with a keyboard synthesizer. One of the most powerful performance techniques at the guitar player's disposal is the ability to apply finger vibrato to individual strings with variable depth and rate, which makes things like cello emulation very realistic. Another strength, which I haven't touched on yet, is the way in which guitar sounds (either clean or heavily processed) can be layered with synth voices to create a unique hybrid sound which still retains some of the 'organic' characteristics of a 'real' instrument.

Of course there will always be things that guitar synths are supremely poor at -- such as inputting percussive parts. I think I'd rather rewrite this article using the patch naming facilities on a typical effects unit LCD rather than try to programme a complex drum part from a guitar! Half the battle is knowing when to stop and use something else, which is why I also use conventional keyboards and drum pads in my MIDI studio. But what I don't want you to do is to write off guitar synths as being so imperfect that they're unusable -- even the cheap-and-cheerful Shadow SH075 is a supremely useful little box for interfacing your guitar-playing skills with the sonic world of MIDI. http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1994_articles/feb94/midiguitar.html

Other good net references:
http://home.epix.net/~joelc/midi_git.html
http://www.jazzguitar.be/forum/recording...-recording.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_synthesizer

Hope this help.


Carlos

Gabriel Arellano,
Nucleox Music