Getting a midi stick soon.

Have no idea what to do with it.

Does anyone have suggestions on interfaces?

Thanks for any suggestions.
StiCksTUcK.[emoji2937][emoji14]

Food for thought - the stick doesn't actually come with MIDI

the Gk series pickups are hex divided pickups (one little humbucking pickup per string) - they just send out each string down a separate conductor (that's why the special cable)

sound pedantic? yes! but I'm mentioning it for a reason

there are a number of hexaphonic processors out there that do NOT convert to MIDIand trigger a synthesizer - but rather apply effects to each string independently of the others

The VG ("virtual guitar") series was built on that concept

and the "twin pedals" run off that idea as does the 6appeal by spicetone (an analog hex fuzz unit)

the idea isn't new, the same time the venerable GR-300 was made (which was barely a synth TBH..not a koock. I'm just talking about the technolog it employed) there was the GR-100 which just used hex fuzz and filtering to give "synthlike" tones
the GR-300 was barely a synth TBH..not a koock. I'm just talking about the technolog it employed. it used a "synching oscillator" that was kind of similar to how an octave divider box works and the other "voice" was hex-fuzz -- odddly, and I never got why, genrated within the guitar itself


so it's another approach apart from just straight MIDI triggering. Also, a caveat - not all processing units will do pitch to MIDI converstion

The GR 55 sounds awesome, I have one and it's great. I use it with my two Boss GT100's and the only thing I dislike is how much real estate they take up. Although... to be honest I haven't even turned the GR55 on in a few months...

I bought a VG a while back, and to be honest I don't really dig it too much, although I suppose it was great when it first came out, it's severely out of date (Amp modelling is to me, ummm tragic although the unit sounds ok through a FRFR setup) and a bit noisy. Some folks still use it and swear by it, but - wasn't for me. Just my opinion.

Something that I am currently jonesing for is this guy... The SY1000 Although I'd probably just use it for guitar. Then again, Alex Hutchings makes everything sound awesome!

Of the 2 'sections' of the VG system
VGM = Virtual guitar modelling (amps, etc included)
HRM = Harmonic restructure modelling

the HRM definitely holds up better.
HRM was the "synthy" stuff to give you non-guitar type sounds.

In some ways, I think the bar is lower for that b/c you aren't trying to simulate something you are already familiar with and have a ton of expectations about.

I've never been in love with Roland's modelling
I always just tend to think of them for effects and synth (even some have what I always think of as a Roland sizzle from time to time)
not amp/guitar, etc in a box

Wow,

Thanks guys, way over my head.

I will have to look into this VG system, Roland, boss seems good. my theremin has midi out, so i am hoping to switch between the two, if possible. I have the sy300, and I still haven't figured out how to use that.
Thanks for the input.

sorry if it got too much - one caveat on the VG systems.
te earlier VG systems, are processors only so they don't MIDI out (no pitch to MIDI) -- I mean they'll send program change, etc messages over MIDI but NOT synth triggering
...but then again the last time I picked up a VG-8 it was like $100 so you could still play with processing for not a big investment)

the VG-99 DOES do pitch-to-MIDI (that's what you nee for triggering synths)

of course, the 13-pin *GR series does* do pitch to MIDI (the old 24-pin ones, not really the GR-700 did some rudimentary stuff, but honestly It was kind of a dog...yes, there are people that can use them effectively but you don't want to go there)

Yep. I really thought when Roland introduced the GR-700 they absolutely killed a good thing (the GR-300). There were players like Adrian Belew who made the thing sing but my experience was that it was clunky and tracked poorly. I always thought the GR-300 was the best unit they made even up to today.

Way back when I was a bit of a poster boy for Stick and MIDI. I performed creating a lot of synth pad loops and such. I put together the "Twin Rack Pack" and wrote up the information Emmett used on his website when he started selling it (note: the "Twin Rack Pack" was the combination of the half rack size GI-20 GR to MIDI converter and the XV-2020 sound module).

I just never really fell in love with MIDI Stick or guitar though and have since abandoned it entirely. Now if I want any synth pads, I use my little Roland keyboard for it. My new Stick does not have a MIDI pickup.

I still have the GI-20 and this whole thread reminds me that I should consider selling it. I just don't see every going back.

Selling my Gr-300...I regret it to this day.

I really wish Roland would settle down and do an update of that (they are obviously playing on the enclosure aesthetics)

and STOP SHOEHORNING THE KITCHEN SINK IN

like go back to the design theory of the GR-300 , trad subtractive where the "oscillators" are limited and are kind of more processing than pitch extraction

OSCILLATORS
- a couple different flavors of fuzz (maybe a wave folding fuzz too a'la source audio..basically a hopped up version of an octavia)

- an octave divider (an old flip-flop style one, maybe with the "boss" option)

-GR-300 hard synch oscillator

FILTER
-a couple of resonant low and pass options would be fine (maybe even simplify that...just a single GOOD filter type)
-for update, choose between polyphonic and paraphonic (the early roland stuff was "paraphonic", single filter)
-clean up envelope controls, maybe like a choice between A/D and envelope control with A/D response control

AMP
-look at the EHX attack decay and do that...with a choice between para and poly


make 2 lines of THAT OSC->filter->amp

and you've got a whole world right there

if it seems complex it's actually pretty trad from a synthesis perspective - it's really just a clean up and expanding a few things into polyphonic that was probably a cost/size issue to implement back in the day

and those processing elements I think all pretty much exist in their code base already

It just seems like they constantly aim feature-high (lets throw in everything) or feature-low (the twin pedals - if they at least threw in a 13 pin out a'la 6appeal you could patch them together )

and miss a sweet spot that the GR-300 hit


oh and Roland,for the love of all that's holy - put a good old poly slow-gear back in and stop trying to replace with with a pad-shimmer effect.
just a slow-gear, let me handle he rest of the sound

RANT OVER

I took my MIDI p.u. off and sold it and the modules a couple of years ago. Too much toiletries

Thought you might like this. This was hanging on the wall in my local music store ... oh ... I want to say around 1982ish. I had a buddy working as a sales guy and after some doing, I finally talked him into pulling it off the wall and letting me have it. 38 years later and still on my wall.