MIDI MADNESS-INTRODUCTION

Well, you should really ask yourself, “What is a synthesiser and why should you want one?” Midi guitar allows you to access the same sounds and textures as a keyboard player, but not have to take time out of your guitar development to learn a new instrument. It allows you to use your already refined guitar skills to augment the sound of your band, augment a solo performance by adding a wee bit of sonic atmosphere or just create realistic demos and get ideas down fast with the help of a computer or multi track recorder.

It also of course means that you are now limited by your imagination and not by your technique, sonic vision or orchestration abilities. Now think about that for a second!!!!!!

Personally I use my midi set-up for recording, orchestrating, studying, and playing live. I have used it with various solo shows, fusion and jazz bands (Curfew, Nocturnal emission, Mains Jam), a multitude of cover bands and a U2 tribute band, (FU2K). I also use it in a variety of sessions and studio situations as it halves the time of recording keyboards and guitar (depending on the session) and it can make scoring out arrangements a dodle using something like Sibelius or Finale. It is also very cost effective and lucrative as good keyboard players are hard to come by and if you are cleaver and learn how to use a midi guitar effectively then you can be the keyboard player in your band also (cutting costs and meaning a bigger share for you and your band mates). It can and has for me relived all of the boredom and repetition of playing the same cheese night after night. I will explore this in a later article, but you can create some very intricate and challenging guitar parts to play in recreating a Robbie Williams mix or a U2 song. In certain songs I would play up to 11 instruments at the same time! It will make you really listen as well.

MY 1ST TIME

The 1st time I used Midi guitar was at a rehearsal in 1995 with a soul/Rn’B band in Scotland. It was a 6 hour rehearsal and it was constantly interrupted by manic laughter from my other band mates who were experiencing uncontrollable amounts of mirth at the audio insanity of a guitarist playing piano, organ, brass, choirs, drums and a flushing toilet! (A wee sample of course).

SO WHERE CAN YOU GET ONE?

Any good music store will have a midi set-up ready to be explored. Remember, if possible, to do a bit of research on any piece of gear you are going to try as the music shop person may not be an expert in that particular piece of equipment and the store midi guitar expert could be (or should be) out to lunch.

NOTE
When you play a guitar synth for the 1st time try to remember that when you are playing a piano sound to play as a pianist would, when you play a brass sound play as a brass section would. Don’t play Smoke on the water using a Didgeridoo sound and expect it to sound authentic. If you are stuck then think of a tune that uses that instrument or a movie soundtrack. E.g. when using a trumpet sound try to play Coronation Street and even if you can’t really play it you will still be thinking in the correct musical style and phrasing.

If you try a string, piano, brass or organ patch then a good tip to get a more authentic sound is to play a normal barre chord like A major at the 5th fret, but only play the E, D,G,B strings. That will give you a more correct representation of the correct harmony and voicing of the relevant instrument.

SOUNDS ALL TO GOOD TO BE TRUE?

It could be! As with everything there is a downside, but the pros far out way the cons. Trust me!
The most common complaint with midi guitar used to be the tracking. The tracking is how fast a midi unit can process the vibrating guitar string into midi info and make the relevant noise. On the old synth guitars you would play a note and the sound would trigger a few milliseconds later. Like calling yourself on a mobile phone from a landline and listening to yourself speak on both phones. This of course made the response time unacceptable for playing anything faster than a minum at 20 bpm! This has now been readdressed to the point where the modern units can keep up with the fastest John Mcglaughlin style run or in strict grown up musician terms a supergooglichyperhemidemisemiquaver triplet!

There is another issue that can be a bit of a bother. Sometimes you might trigger wolf or false notes by changing chord. The extra notes are triggered by the noise that your fingers make whilst moving from chord to chord (the little squeaks and burps that are especially apparent when listening to someone play a steel string acoustic). Those little noises are converted into notes within the unit and can appear at very in appropriate musical moments. You have to be very precise when “triggering” a chord as you may accidentally hit another string or not fret a note completely and you will hear a rouge note within your chord.

This all brings us to gripe number 2. That you have to change your playing style. You won’t have to do much more than play a little cleaner and accurately. This is what Classical guitarist do anyway so don’t fret!

You will however have to be adept at either using your pick and fingers or have a decent finger style technique as not many instruments are strummed. Piano is a good example. You play a chord on the piano by hitting all the keys at the same time so you need to use the old fingers to target every note at the same time. You will also need to be sensitive to the feel of each instrument, as the timbre will change depending how hard you hit the strings.

Not everyone will want to deface their favourite guitar by sticking a midi pickup onto the body so that can become an issue. You can get guitars with midi pickups installed, but they can be overly expensive or not quite what you are comfortable playing. On the plus side it doesn’t really matter the quality or expense of the guitar that you fit the retrofit pickup to as the pickup only picks up the vibration of the string and won’t be offended at the colour. This of course opens up the question of the cost of the unit and whilst I will look at the different options in the next column you can pick up a basic midi unit for around £250 or less 2nd hand. Although that could be a lot of cash for some folks it really depends how imaginative you are with it, which means it could be the best money you’ll ever spend.
It can be a bit of a pest to get into the technology, but think of it like another high tech effects pedal.

Basically think of an instrument or soundscape now imagine being able to play it on your guitar. Think of the time and money you can save playing your entire sonic vision to your band. If you are a solo artist then you can be truly solo like myself and use any instruments you see fit on your recordings and not have to hire drummers, studios, string quartets, orchestras, pianists etc. You could just spend hours and hours with friends wetting yourselves in a blissful haze of sheer mirth at your rendition of stairway to heaven on the Iranian nose flute!!

MIDI MADNESS

Click on the link to watch a wee demonstration of my Midi guitar stuff, which is basically an improvisation that I had to edit down from 8 days to 4 mins(ish).

I am using stock sounds from my Roland GR-33 and my JV1080. The guitar is a levenson Blade custom with a retrofit GK2A midi pickup and I am using my very weathered Boss GT-5 for the guitar side of things. All the loops go through my boss RC20 and straight into the desk.

I think that it is important to see midi guitar being played as it creates a greater understanding of “the power of the synth side.”