Originally Posted By: Jim Fogle
Another forum I visit has a discussion where a very accomplished guitar player wanted to use a guitar inspired midi controller to input midi data...


Originally Posted By: bowlesj
In my case fancy techniques on the instrument such as slides, hammer on, pull off, bowing, etc are of no importance. That is for the people coming out to jam to have fun doing...


Jim and John, you are highlighting very interesting points.

Since recording this song 11 years ago as a Band in a Box demo, I have been asked about how to achieve that cleanliness and precision in the accordion notes on the MIDI keyboard controlled by my Godin xtSA. One of the most important aspects when using a synth guitar is the adjustment of the different sensitivity values both in the instrument and in the MIDI interface, but clean and clear notes also rely on the technique and personal playing way.

A good synth guitar system with good tracking and parameters tuning is capable of tracing even the smallest performance subtleties, but as John mentions there are certain common techniques for "normal" guitar that may not be recommended for transcribing MIDI data from a guitar synth, such as tapping and fast legatos, since this implies minimal contact with the string that does not transmit the necessary force so that the hexaphonic microphone can track the notes accurately.

For this reason, when I record with a synth guitar, I emphasize playing the notes as cleanly as possible, especially in quick phrases. This reduces cleanup and subsequent editing of MIDI data to very little.

For my song I used a Godin xtSA connected to a Roland GI-20 (synth guitar MIDI interface) to a Roland RS-5 with the french accordion sound. I've used that rig ever since, with the later addition of Roland GR-55 and Boss GP-10. A few years later I used the GI-20 for the MIDI transcription of my samba / fusion RealTracks for Biab, it was a very satisfying musical experience. As a keyboard player, I use the MIDI guitar very little to transcribe melodies but to achieve other sonic textures with sounds from VSTi and sampler stuff.