Midi Guitar Controller Yamaha EZ-Ag

[jomby]

I’m new to this and I want to get in to audio recording and midi sequencing. I play some guitar and I’m pretty comfortable with that so I was interested in getting a midi guitar controller and I saw this and wondered if anyone else knew or used it. O'Reilly -- Three Surprisingly Cool MIDI Controllers Under $300 It’s pretty much a glorified toy, but it seems like it could be used as a decent controller for people who understand guitar and it’s relatively cheap. Does anyone have an opinion on this, good or bad? Thanks

[Rax Jaggr]

I have just now kinda figured that this device might be a cheap way to get a guitar controller myself and this thread came up in a search. have you heard from anyone else about it?

[Hunter33]

I'm also on the hunt for a way of controlling midi via guitar, not sure about this Yamaha thing though as I'm more interested in utilising a real guitar so i can switch from real sounds to midi/samples without changing instrument.

Keep us informed of your finds.

I also started a thread in the Guitar section for suggestions.

[Stewy]

Hi guys
I'm new here and fairly new to home recording been doingbit about a year or so. I use mixcraft 5 and have used the yamaha ezag midi guitar during that time. I still have a few issues with the yamaha reliably triggering my virtual instrument depending on how I play it, but overall I really like it for the price. I eventually want to move up to a Roland equiped unit for my regular guitar one day. I stll have questions of my own re the best way to setup and use this midi guitar but I'm happy to answer any questions I can re my experience with it.

[I AM BOG]

Hey there. I'm using Ez-Ag and Mixcraft (4.2) too. I only got the Ez-Ag a few days a go and have struggled with it a bit. I am also dealing with some high latency which I need to deal with too.

I have managed to get Ez-ag working in Mixcraft, but there are a few things bothereing me; 1. When I play, it doesn't seem to translate all the notes, I hear about 6 out of 10 I guess; 2. How do you stop the notes playing when you just put your finger on a fret (without picking or strumming)?

I think this will be great once I've figured it out, but it is taking time. The manual is useless. They really are missing a large precentage of their buyers.

Thanks in advance.

[I AM BOG]

Stewy, i am also stunned to see you have a tascam us144 audio interface, which is what i was planning to buy.

Any tips on this set up?

[Stewy]

Hello I am Bog

I like the yamaha as a midi controller, but i cant really add velocity (fingerpicking on the the strings), and get good tracking (ie notes are dropped out). Best way to use it with the US 144 that I have found is to play it like a keyboard with your left hand only and forget about strumming or fingerpicking while doin midi. The fingerpicking and velocity work just fine if your just playing one of the onboard sounds and want to record that using the headphone out to your US 144 1/4 input. Im not sure which component is causing the midi note dropping problem but i suspect the yamaha's velocity input (keyboards seem to work fine on my setup). I like the US 144 as a low cost way to hook up your instruments to your pc for recording and I love Mixcraft for its ease of use. I dont know what sort of onboard soundcard your using now, but that is prolly the cause of your latency issues. Get the Tascam, and use ASIO in your audio input settings as opposed to Wave. I dont get any detectable latency running thru the Tascam. You can email me directly at jade@cox.net if you want to hear what im getting from mixcraft and Tascam and the yamaha together.

Stewy

[Stewy]

oh touch the metal strip on the back of the neck and the metal strip at the bridge at the same time to stop note playing

[I AM BOG]

Thanks for replying. I'm at work at the moment, so the info below is what I wrote on another forum yesterday.

It seems the midi guitar does not need to be in Local off position, in actual fact, the Note off only works in Local on. However the note off doesn't seem to work for all VSTis. Stuff like Pizzicato (short abrupt sounds) are fine, but sometimes on extended notes (strings) it occasionally gets 'stuck'. When I play something like a cello there are a couple of issues;

1. I only hear about 60% of the notes I play. Let's say I pick various strings/notes 10 times. Probably 4 or the notes don't register and don't make any sound. It's like it can't keep up with me.

2. For the most part when I hit a string the note off works and the notes fades out, but on some notes it doesn't work (I'm talking about in the same VSTi). Again this is related to VSTi with extended length like orchestral stuff and strong instruments. If I play 10 notes on a cello I don't hear four of the notes (see No.1) and one of the remaining notes that I do hear does not trigger note off, so just keeps going and going.

3. I had an issue with notes being played when I fret a particular note, but I seem to have solved this by changing the particular VSTi velocity to 17 or above.

4. Every now and then 'SnG' is display on the guitar and it makes a repetitive piano noise. Very strange and I have no idea what it means.

Any help with figuring out items 1, 2 and 4 is greatly appreciated. This thing will be great when it's up and running properly. Either that or my patience will run out and I'll be reselling on eBay :-)

Mark

[Stewy]

Mark. Ihave the same midi experience you describe. I replied before that I thought it was the yamaha velocity inputs (the strings) that are are somehow causing the notes to drop. If I play the yamaha with my left hand only, tracking is fine, it's only only when you start finger picking that the noted drop out. I do have this problem when using a keyboard, so I assumed that it was the yamaha. Last night I played the yamaha for the first time thru a free demo of Kontact made Native Instruments and even though I had to play instruments that were not ideal for listening (strings,organ, bass) to fingerpick tracking, I could swear that everynote was being tracked. So now um thinking maybe it's Mixcraft for some odd reason is too blame, although mixcraft support didn't seem to think so. Anyways I'd be interested in working with you to resolve the issue, so please email me at home so we can exchange contact info. This would be much easier over the phone or skype
Stew. Btw there is a midi reset button in mixcraft I think it's under track ? That should kill any hanging notes