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Usb Guitar


stevenhoneywell

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As a guitarist who wants to put keyboard parts in his recordings but I can't play keys for toffee, does anyone know if this "guitar" does a pitch to midi converson or does it "just" converts the signal via usb into a PC/MAC?

http://www.behringer.com/IAXE393/index.cfm?lang=ENG

at less than £90 UK it seems almost too good to be true. ? ? ?

Has anyone got an experience with this product or similar?

If it plays like a pig, I could always use the electronics as a donor for my next build!!!

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I don't know for certain, but I would bet that it just outputs a digital rendering of the guitar's signal. Probably uses a single-channel A/D converter...and for that price, probably a not-very-good A/D.

There are software routines that claim to be able to convert audio to MIDI, but I haven't heard anything good about them. To do what you want, you'd need a proper guitar synth set-up.

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It is audio only. You can get a cable now to do the exact same thing for a fraction of the price. 1/4 on one end USB on the other.

As MIDI guitar goes, the best options are still Roland GK Ready gear and the AXON unit (uses the same 13-bin as Roland).

You'll find with any of these units the tracking isn't nearly as bad as people often say. Usually it's more, configuration issues between two MIDI units, out of tune guitars or simple over tracking (every pitchbend event get's recorded...guitars produce zillions of pitchbend events).

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Keyboard (or even QWERTY-to-MIDI keyboard software) is your best bet. Audio-to-MIDI is an extra layer of abstraction that's pretty unecessary for anything you'd use a guitar for. Main drawbacks to using Audio-to-MIDI instead of just using a keyboard (or QWERTY keyboard, even):

- A2M not polyphonic.

- A2M not fast-- not only one note at a time, but one relatively SLOW note at a time

- A2M pitch bend detection dodgy at best-- one of the advantages to guitar is bending strings-- if this can't be tracked, you're better off with a keyboard pitch wheel!

- A2M tracking generally unreliable. Glitch from one note to the next, drop-outs, etc., make the experience dodgy.

- MIDI information does not contain decay information-- this is sample-dependent. You will want to "sustain" with your guitar the way you normally would, but the end result won't share the guitar's decay characteristics. This leads to unnatural and unexpected results.

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The only "advantage" to A2M is that you don't have to leave the comfort zone of your fretboard. That's about it. It's a really poor advantage to gain when a keyboard (or QWERTY keyboard) is laid out chromatically anyhow. Even someone who doesn't know much theory can piece together the chords and scales needed for whatever song they're working on.

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On-topic: the correct answer to the original question has been given above-- it's just an audio signal on this Behringer guitar. Super-inflexible because it uses ASIO drivers, and you can only use one ASIO-compliant device at a time. No voice + guitar, Bass + guitar, or ANYTHING + guitar. :D

Greg

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You won't regret it, and you'll feel super-cool taking up a new instrument, too. :D

now I can open a whole new can of worms with what type of keyboard to get.....so much choice out there I think my head might explode

I have a handful but my most recent addition is the M-Audio Oxygen8 v2, 25 key controller. No sound module, just a controller that also has many buttons and knobs to be used anyway you see fit. Even has DAW transport buttons, so you can even push a button during playback or Punch In, play, then Punch Out within a couple of inches from the keys. I like the little guy a lot more than I was expecting. :D

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