Usb Midi (You Rock) guitar + Guitar Pro

[samclarke669]

Hey all,

has anyone had any experience with using a midi to USB guitar for tabbing on a program like Guitar Pro or similar? It seems like it could be the perfect product for me, but wondering if anyone has any real world experience with these?

Plus, do you have to buy a "You Rock" guitar, or is there a device that converts standard guitar signal to midi, like the Roland Gr series does?

Any help would be great!

Cheers

 

[TMM]

There are a number of different options. I've owned the following:

1) Sonuus G2M - probably the least expensive route to try out the guitar - MIDI thing. It actually worked pretty well once I had tweaked it a little. It's big downfall is that it's only monophonic, so you can't do chords or anything, but it tracked decently.

2) You Rock Guitar (Gen 2) - Pretty cool, and what I'd consider a great entry level MIDI guitar. Depending on your playing style, this could really be all you need. My big gripe with it was that it didn't track accurately enough when playing really fast, particularly fast hammer-ons / pull-offs. It does very well playing fast when you're changing strings every 1-2 notes (ex: sweep picking), and excels and more slow-moderate paced, strummed playing.

3) Starr Labs Mini-Z (Ztar) - I still own this (in my sig below). As far as I can tell, the pinnacle of guitar-format MIDI instruments. It tracks very, very well, even at high speeds and in all articulations (hammer on / off, slides, etc). The one thing you have to get used to is that the frets / keys themselves are individually touch-sensitive (when on Tap mode), so you have to pay more attention to how hard / soft your fret hand fingers are touching down.


I also tried out a Roland GR w/ a synth-equipped Strat a while ago. It was pretty cool... not a ton better tracking than the Sonuus, but it was multi-phonic, which makes a big difference. I've heard good things about the Misa Digital Kitara, but I haven't had the chance to try one. From what I can tell, the Yamaha EZ series are pretty decent, too, and probably track a little more accurately than the YRG since they're button-based.

 

[samclarke669]

Hey TMM, thanks for your reply!

It seems like the YRG is the one for me, i think. I did look at the G2m but the monophonic thing put me off.

Do you know what the YRG is like tracking metal, so chugging palm mutes and such and different rhythms? or is it a case of tracking it all as a particular length of note then editing afterwords?

 

[SVH]

Hey TMM, thanks for your reply!

It seems like the YRG is the one for me, i think. I did look at the G2m but the monophonic thing put me off.

Do you know what the YRG is like tracking metal, so chugging palm mutes and such and different rhythms? or is it a case of tracking it all as a particular length of note then editing afterwords?

I'm a metal guy and have found that with the YRG you can experience zero latency and fast tracking but you have to tweak your technique a bit to utilize the features of the unit. Enabling the TAP or SLIDE functions for instance can help too but again you have to approach it a bit differently. One of the clinicians for the YRG, Dan Mumm, is a major shredder and pulls off some really cool fast stuff. Might give ya an idea of what I'm saying about the approach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QaRg5um-Y2s

 

[samclarke669]

Cheers SVH, how does it fare when it comes to tracking in Guitar pro? The main reason for wanting this is so i can get my ideas down in tab form as i'm just mucking about really