Experiment: Makin a low-budget Polyphonic (midi)guitar setup

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Broomy
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Experiment: Makin a low-budget Polyphonic (midi)guitar setup

Post by Broomy »

I'm building a electric guitar which will contain a polyphonic pick-up, either made of piezo-pickup or using the strings as single coil pickups (see: http://music-electronics-forum.com/t14952/ for futher information).
It's a 7 string guitar (tuned in fifths).
This would result in 7 different signals.
What I want is to connect these 7 signals to a desktop computer and use the computer as a realtime effectmodule and (if possible) a guitar synth. The desktop will be contected to a power amp.

I have several goals in mind:
1. I want to choose which strings are processed with the same effects (p.a. the 4 high strings with chorus and delay and the other 3 with only eq or all 7 with only reverb).
I think that would not be a great problem because now I have an setup using rackarrack and two guitar inputs and that works wel).
2. use the desktop as a realtime audio to midi converter, so I'll be able to play midi sounds or / and guitar sounds
3. Keep it low-budget

I have some questions:
a. Will using a Behringer ADA8000 with a suitable soundcard (RME 9636?) result in 7 digital signals, usable for rakarrack?
b. Does rakarrack allready features a working pitch to midi plugin?
c. Will it work to process 7 signals at once?
d. Are there alternatives (I have found Aubio http://www.linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic ... bio#p26947 but is that allready usable?)?
e. Am I missing something obvious?

Thanks in advance.
The Quintar Project:
- Popularizing an all fifths tuning for guitarlike instruments
- Youtube: Playing and Building
- Files: Sourceforge
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autostatic
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Re: Experiment: Makin a low-budget Polyphonic (midi)guitar s

Post by autostatic »

Broomy wrote:I have some questions:
a. Will using a Behringer ADA8000 with a suitable soundcard (RME 9636?) result in 7 digital signals, usable for rakarrack?
Yes, but bear in mind that rakarrack only has a stereo input and an aux input.
Broomy wrote:b. Does rakarrack allready features a working pitch to midi plugin?
Yes but it's not the best option I think.
Broomy wrote:c. Will it work to process 7 signals at once?
No.
Broomy wrote:d. Are there alternatives (I have found Aubio http://www.linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic ... bio#p26947 but is that allready usable?)?
The GxTuner LV2 plug-in from guitarix does quite a good job at converting audio to MIDI.
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Re: Experiment: Makin a low-budget Polyphonic (midi)guitar s

Post by Broomy »

Thanks for your reply Autostatic.

Is there an other way to process 7 signals at once with different effects?

And if so, is it possible to change the presets with a midicontroller?
The Quintar Project:
- Popularizing an all fifths tuning for guitarlike instruments
- Youtube: Playing and Building
- Files: Sourceforge
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autostatic
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Re: Experiment: Makin a low-budget Polyphonic (midi)guitar s

Post by autostatic »

Broomy wrote:Is there an other way to process 7 signals at once with different effects?
Yes, rakarrack can't handle 7 inputs at once but you can start multiple instances of rakarrack and route the 7 signals to the different instances. In this case it might be more practical though to use something like JACK Rack or even a DAW like Qtractor as a plug-in host.
Broomy wrote:And if so, is it possible to change the presets with a midicontroller?
Yes, rakarrack, JACK Rack and Qtractor all support this.
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Re: Experiment: Makin a low-budget Polyphonic (midi)guitar s

Post by Broomy »

I've made a studio in Gladish containing several instances of Rakarrack, each loading a specific bank. Each instance is connected with a different signal (in this test setup 1 for the bassstrings and 1 for the treble strings) and this works well.

The last thing I want to solve is to control everything with midi. When I open a second instance of Rakarrack it doesn't seem to accept a midi input.
What I want is to create a virtual midi (foot)controller which can control all the instances of Rakarrack.
I figured that it would be possible to use Virtual Midi Piano Keyboard as a "footboard" where every note / key represents a preset (I will only need 20 at the most).
Does this makes sense? Or are there other / better ways to go for?
The Quintar Project:
- Popularizing an all fifths tuning for guitarlike instruments
- Youtube: Playing and Building
- Files: Sourceforge
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Re: Experiment: Makin a low-budget Polyphonic (midi)guitar s

Post by autostatic »

Broomy wrote:The last thing I want to solve is to control everything with midi. When I open a second instance of Rakarrack it doesn't seem to accept a midi input.
Have to check but this should work.
Broomy wrote:What I want is to create a virtual midi (foot)controller which can control all the instances of Rakarrack.
I figured that it would be possible to use Virtual Midi Piano Keyboard as a "footboard" where every note / key represents a preset (I will only need 20 at the most).
Does this makes sense? Or are there other / better ways to go for?
That's possible. You need to tell rakarrack which note triggers which setting or you could use something like mididings or midish to translate the MIDI notes into the default rakarrack MIDI events.
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Re: Experiment: Makin a low-budget Polyphonic (midi)guitar s

Post by Broomy »

Thanks,

You're fast!
I will check out mididings and midish.
The Quintar Project:
- Popularizing an all fifths tuning for guitarlike instruments
- Youtube: Playing and Building
- Files: Sourceforge
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Re: Experiment: Makin a low-budget Polyphonic (midi)guitar s

Post by Broomy »

Time to do a little update:
1. There's someone else doing the same project only with windows based software: http://music-electronics-forum.com/t33999/
2. I'm still strugling to "midify" the multible instances of Rakarrack, I can easily open multible instances with a custom bank of presets but I can't hook up the instances together with midi (there is no midi in and out). I've dropped this question also at the rakarrack forum on sourceforge, but so far no input. Does anybody has an idea? At this point it's the missing (midi) link to a working setup... :wink:
The Quintar Project:
- Popularizing an all fifths tuning for guitarlike instruments
- Youtube: Playing and Building
- Files: Sourceforge
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Re: Experiment: Makin a low-budget Polyphonic (midi)guitar s

Post by Broomy »

Is there an Linux alternative for Reaktor?
In the above mentioned link an other guitarist is using Reaktor to process six signals parallel but using only one instance of Reaktor: http://music-electronics-forum.com/atta ... eaktor.jpg
The Quintar Project:
- Popularizing an all fifths tuning for guitarlike instruments
- Youtube: Playing and Building
- Files: Sourceforge
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Re: Experiment: Makin a low-budget Polyphonic (midi)guitar s

Post by Broomy »

Can I use NON http://non.tuxfamily.org/ to process my seven channels and switch between presets?
Does anyone has experience with this?
The Quintar Project:
- Popularizing an all fifths tuning for guitarlike instruments
- Youtube: Playing and Building
- Files: Sourceforge
male
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Re: Experiment: Makin a low-budget Polyphonic (midi)guitar s

Post by male »

Broomy wrote:Can I use NON http://non.tuxfamily.org/ to process my seven channels and switch between presets?
Does anyone has experience with this?
You could. Depends on what you have in mind by 'switch between presets'. NSM can be controlled via OSC, so you *could* switch between NSM sessions in order to 'switch presets'--that would work, but there would definitely be a drop out during switching. I'd have to know more about what exactly your expectations are in order to recommend anything more specific.
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Re: Experiment: Makin a low-budget Polyphonic (midi)guitar s

Post by tatch »

Broomy probably means plugin presets. If Non doesn't directly support plugin presets you could use non+carla, which is a plugin host that supports presets, I think it accepts program changes/preset changing via midi too.
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Re: Experiment: Makin a low-budget Polyphonic (midi)guitar s

Post by Broomy »

Thanks male and tatch for your replies.

I'm building a 7 string guitar which will have 7 outputs, one per string.
I want to connect them to a 8 channel usb audio interface (or 2x 4 channel).
From there I want to process the 7 signals either seperate or bundled together.
A preset could be as follows:
Preset 1
(bass)string 1, 2, 3: eq (to enhance the bass freqs)
strings 4 to 7: chorus, echo

Preset 2
all strings processed seperately:
per string fuzz + delay + echo
but the amount of fuzz is different per string

Ideally I would like to switch between presets by using a (midi) footcontroller or have some shortkeys on my computer keyboard.

Does this makes sense?
The Quintar Project:
- Popularizing an all fifths tuning for guitarlike instruments
- Youtube: Playing and Building
- Files: Sourceforge
male
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Re: Experiment: Makin a low-budget Polyphonic (midi)guitar s

Post by male »

Broomy wrote:Thanks male and tatch for your replies.

I'm building a 7 string guitar which will have 7 outputs, one per string.
I want to connect them to a 8 channel usb audio interface (or 2x 4 channel).
From there I want to process the 7 signals either seperate or bundled together.
A preset could be as follows:
Preset 1
(bass)string 1, 2, 3: eq (to enhance the bass freqs)
strings 4 to 7: chorus, echo

Preset 2
all strings processed seperately:
per string fuzz + delay + echo
but the amount of fuzz is different per string

Ideally I would like to switch between presets by using a (midi) footcontroller or have some shortkeys on my computer keyboard.

Does this makes sense?
Yes, it does. You can do this with Non Mixer + NSM for sure, including the MIDI footcontroller (you'll need mididings to convert the MIDI input to OSC messages to control NSM though). Except for one thing, which is really just a further refinement. And that is, what sound do you want to hear when switching 'presets' (sessions). Can it be undefined? Do you want e.g. a reverb or echo to continue while you're switching? If you want something like that, then you need two instances of Non Mixer, one inside the session and one outside of it. The 'external' instance would run a reverb, echo or other global effect in order to smooth the transition, and the instance of Non Mixer within the session would connect to the external one instead of directly to the system outputs.

This would be a pretty cool rig. I'll be glad to help you get it setup and working. If you can document the process with screenshots and some words, I'd love to put it on the Non wiki or link to it.
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Re: Experiment: Makin a low-budget Polyphonic (midi)guitar s

Post by Broomy »

Male,

Great!

My plan is to make a test set up with two signals (which my current guitar has, one for the 3 bass strings and one for the 4 treble strings), I will document the steps I will take and gladly take in some advice from you or others.
I will have to take some time to get to know my way around with NON and mididings.


Thanks in advance.
The Quintar Project:
- Popularizing an all fifths tuning for guitarlike instruments
- Youtube: Playing and Building
- Files: Sourceforge
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