The Roland GM 70 guitar to midi converter or something like it. :)

[johnny196775]

I was wondering if anybody had experience with a guitar to midi converter? And maybe what types might exist. I am not finding much on this right now or prices. Thank you and have a nice day.

 

[happyrat1]

I'm not a guitar guy, but this showed up in my inbox a couple of years ago and looks pretty nifty. The Roland GR-55 guitar synthesizer. Turns any guitar into a monster synth.

Gary

 

[Fred Coulter]

The GR-55 cannot be used with just any guitar. The guitar must have a special pickup installed, since the note to MIDI converter works on each string separately. Solid body guitars work better than acoustic ones.

The biggest limitation is that I don't think you'll be able to use a guitar with more than six strings. When the GR-55 is used with a Chapman stick, either they only use one side of the stick -- usually the treble -- or they use two pickups and two GR-55s.

Or another box. The hexaphonic pickup can be used with some other effects boxes that affect each string's sound separately. It's an interesting effect.


One example of a band using guitar synths extensively is King Crimson starting with the album Discipline. Even if you're not interested in those nasty stringed instruments, I'd still recommend listening to the band. I know that I was very depressed after I heard them in the early '80s; I saw the death knell of keyboards in rock bands. (Turned out that keyboards are harder to kill than I imagined.)

 

[happyrat1]

Apparently the Boss SY-300 doesn't need any special pickup and can turn any guitar or bass into a synth.

Gary

 

[johnny196775]

Those are very nice but right now i am just wanting a cable or something to convert one signal to another. And thank you all for the responses.

 

[happyrat1]

Guitar pickups produce audio signals.

MIDI devices produce and read digital note data.

The two are NOT easily compatible. There's no such thing as a simple convertor cable between the two.

Either you install a Roland GK3 MIDI Guitar Pickup on your current guitar to work with MIDI Modules like the GR-55 above, or you use an SY-300 which basically works by voodoo transforming audio notes and chords into MIDI note data which can then be routed to MIDI devices or use it's own internal synthesizer.

Other than those two retrofit options your only other option is to purchase a proper MIDI guitar.

There's very few on the market.

If you google "midi guitar" you'll be able to see what sort of bleeding edge hardware is out there these days.

Sweetwater pretty much carries all the commercially available guitar MIDI options out there, including the ones I've listed.

http://www.sweetwater.com/c593--MIDI_Guitars_Pickups/pn1

Another gadget worth mentioning is the Misa Digital Kitara but I think it's already been discontinued.

http://misa-digital.myshopify.com/products/kitara

But forget about simply buying a $50 cable and sending MIDI out of your Fender Strat. It just ain't gonna happen

Gary

 

[Fred Coulter]

I'm not convinced from the product description (http://www.bossus.com/products/sy-300/) that the MIDI output includes live note out from the guitar. I think it's more audio magic similar to the piano, organ, and melotron boxes from Evantide.

 

[happyrat1]

Apparently you're correct.

It seems the MIDI IN and OUT/THRU ports are for feeding thru other MIDI devices like sequencers and drum machines.

At least that's what I get from this review.

http://www.guitarplayer.com/effects/1018/review-boss-sy-300-guitar-synthesizer/56967

Resistance to guitar synthesizers can be traced, in part, to the reluctance of players to add hex pickups or deal with the highly accurate picking and string damping required to make those systems function properly. Enter a product that could entice far more guitarists to join the electronic music party. The Boss SY-300 ($699 street) requires no hex pickup—only a standard 1/4” cable—and since there’s no audio-to-MIDI conversion involved, it’s latency free. Of course, this also means you can’t use the SY-300 to control other hardware or software synths.

In the SY-300, your guitar signal drives three separate oscillator sections that can be layered together. Within each section you can select wave shapes, alter them with filters, amp, and pitch controls, and modulate them with LFOs. You can apply onboard effects to individual sections, the whole mix, and your straight-guitar sound as well. Its step sequencer creates melodies and arpeggios from a single played note. Four footswitches let you bypass the synth sound, scroll through patches, and control three chosen parameters per patch. External footswitches or an expression pedal can be connected for further control. A Thru output sends dry guitar directly to your pedals or amp, and can also be used with the Return jack to create a loop in which to insert your own effects.

More or less it uses the same technology as Autotune to identify individual notes and then automatically uses that signal to drive the synth oscillators.

That still doesn't make it any less magical and amazing for its ability to take a raw audio signal and turn it into a chorused synth or woodwind or percussion or piano.

Still, if the OP wants REAL MIDI from a guitar he'll either have to shell out for a genuine MIDI enabled guitar or else add on the $200 GK-3 MIDI pickup to an existing guitar. That's probably his cheapest option and the only thing that comes closest to his "guitar to MIDI" adapter.

Gary

 

[johnny196775]

Guitar pickups produce audio signals.

MIDI devices produce and read digital note data.

The two are NOT easily compatible. There's no such thing as a simple convertor cable between the two.

Either you install a Roland GK3 MIDI Guitar Pickup on your current guitar to work with MIDI Modules like the GR-55 above, or you use an SY-300 which basically works by voodoo transforming audio notes and chords into MIDI note data which can then be routed to MIDI devices or use it's own internal synthesizer.

Other than those two retrofit options your only other option is to purchase a proper MIDI guitar.

There's very few on the market.

If you google "midi guitar" you'll be able to see what sort of bleeding edge hardware is out there these days.

Sweetwater pretty much carries all the commercially available guitar MIDI options out there, including the ones I've listed.

http://www.sweetwater.com/c593--MIDI_Guitars_Pickups/pn1

Another gadget worth mentioning is the Misa Digital Kitara but I think it's already been discontinued.

http://misa-digital.myshopify.com/products/kitara

But forget about simply buying a $50 cable and sending MIDI out of your Fender Strat. It just ain't gonna happen

Gary

Thank you very much for the explaination. I think what i want or wanted doesnt exist. and Thanks everyone and have a great day.