Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!aurs01!whitcomb From: whitcomb@aurs01.UUCP (Jonathan Whitcomb) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.audio Subject: Re: Amiga + MIDI guitar Message-ID: <59936@aurs01.UUCP> Date: 21 Jun 91 14:03:57 GMT References: <03344.AA03344@promind.UUCP> <1991Jun20.114614.3891@cdc835.cdc.polimi.it> Sender: news@aurs01.UUCP Reply-To: whitcomb@aurw35.UUCP (Jonathan Whitcomb) Organization: Alcatel Network Systems, Raleigh NC Lines: 80 In article <1991Jun20.114614.3891@cdc835.cdc.polimi.it> ele9110@cdc835.cdc.polimi.it (Massimo Oluzzi) writes: > >Does anybody have informations about CASIO midi guitars (MG-510 and PG-380)? >(I mean informations both from a technical point of wiew - conversion >delays - and from an acoustic point of wiew - when using it just as an >electrig guitar). I have a Casio MG-510, and it's a love-hate relationship. As a basic guitar, it's very good. It's a Stratocaster copy, with a humbucker pickup in the bridge position, and a switch that shuts off one coil. The pickup selector is a 5-way switch. It plays quite well, and sounds very good... the humbucker is very ballsy, and the other pickups are clean and sweet. There is one volume control and one tone control for the audio out. Hardware is average... sealed, Schaller type heads and a standard (spelled C-H-E-A-P) tremolo bridge. Actually, the bridge is my only complaint with the guitar... like any standard strat, it is a bear to keep in tune after you use the tremolo bar. It seems rather short sighted to put such a bridge on a guitar designed for MIDI pitch tracking. The neck has a good shape, an ebony fingerboard and large frets that play nicely. Give the guitar section a B+. The MIDI section consists of a MIDI pitch tracking pickup, internal audio to MIDI circuitry, and various switches, knobs and microswitches. There is a MIDI volume control pot. The 3 MIDI switches on the front each have three positions. The output selector switch selects guitar out, MIDI out, or both. The octave selector can choose low, middle and high octave out. The final switch uses two positions to select pitch bend styles (smooth or glissendo), and the third position changes the MIDI output to Program Change. This means you can select the program change number by playing different notes on the guitar... a nicely imlemented feature. Another nice feature is a built in guitar tuner. Two LED's indicate if you are sharp, flat, or on pitch, and it automatically adjusts for each string... no swithes. In back there are two banks of micro switches that allow you to select the basic MIDI channel for mono mode, or allow you to set each string to have a its own sequential MIDI channel. There is also access to the 9 volt battery. There are two outputs: guitar and MIDI. There is also a jack for the optional external power supply. The MIDI section has an on/off switch. I give the MIDI electronics section a B. My main gripe is that it is difficult to switch between guitar and MIDI out in a live setting... the switch is small, and right next to the other two, so it's hard to quickly reach down and flick it to the right position without hitting something else in the process. As far as the number of features in a small space, the logic is great. And the big question is how well does the MIDI track the guitarist. Give this section a C. The delay is most noticable on the lower strings, and when you try to play chords. Higher pitches track more quickly (which should be obvious to anyone with a DSP background). I find that I can't use the MG-510 as a synth controller for live situations... the tracking is just too unpredictable. However, I can mix the synth and guitar sounds live to get some very rich texture, because the ear picks up the attack from the guitar signal, and doesn't perceive the slight delay for the synth to kick in. Don't try to use it live for synth signal only. You can use the MG-510 with a sequencer, but I find I use the quantize feature pretty often after I've recorded a new track (I use Dr.T's KCS Omega on an Atari Mega ST4). If you're handy correcting slight timing errors with your editor, you should not have a problem. I got my MG-510 for $400 as a close-out special from Sam Ash. For that price it was more than worth it. If you can find one cheap, and don't need to use it live for synth sounds exclusively (unless you mix it with guitar), I recommend you pick one up. ********************************************************************** Jonathan Whitcomb UUCP: Alcatel Network Systems, Raleigh, NC Delphi: JBWHIT