1/4" output to midi

  • Apparently, with the latest update, the BOSS GT-100 allows users to output midi signals from a normal guitar 1/4" output.


    http://www.bossus.com/gear/productdetails.php?ProductId=1187


    Not sure how effectively it is implemented, but sure sounds like a cool feature. Is something like this possible with the Kemper, Mr CK? Don't really see much of a use for it myself, but just wondering about the science behind it. Seems like something people have been trying to do for a while now.

  • I love the possibility to drive any MIDI app/device with my guitar, because it's the instrument I play better.


    They're also developing polyphonic audio to MIDI, there're interesting apps on the iStore for example.
    Who knows, maybe we'll see some implementation in the Profiler as well, within 2-3 years :)

  • Haha. Thanks! If we could just get one sound like a bass kick out, it would definitely be an advantage on stage. Think of synchronising a sustained keyboard note, or a bass kick a la Reignwolf. This thing also has applications in the drumming world, like more realistic cymbal sounds, if you think about just harnessing frequencies or volume levels to trigger different samples, not sure how it works. If it works on a single string basis, it could be used to activate drum loops in a solo performance setting as well.

  • Haha. Thanks! If we could just get one sound like a bass kick out, it would definitely be an advantage on stage. Think of synchronising a sustained keyboard note, or a bass kick a la Reignwolf. This thing also has applications in the drumming world, like more realistic cymbal sounds, if you think about just harnessing frequencies or volume levels to trigger different samples, not sure how it works. If it works on a single string basis, it could be used to activate drum loops in a solo performance setting as well.

    No doubt that driving MIDI event from the Profiler would be practical, but using a dry signal out driving for example JamOrigin's app can already open a number of powerful options, with the proper hardware after the Profiler :D

  • Most DAWs can do it already. In Reaper, for instance, the bundled ReaTune plugin can be set to send a MIDI note every time you play a new note, which can then feed a software instrument. I've found that it has a tendency to "roll" up from one note to the next - playing A, C, E might get picked up as A, B, C, D, E for example - but it works well enough to lay down ideas that I can't play on my keyboard.

  • Think of it from the perspective automation for songs. You could sync up multiple devices. It's very similar to the idea of pressing a note on a keyboard and triggering multi-samples simultaneously.


    While there's no denying there are already products with similar capability -- heck, why not use another midi board with midi out, or maybe modify the Kemper to have another midi output/through -- I was thinking of it from a performance perspective. As a guitarist, I want to negate as much superfluous activity or even thinking when I'm playing, so something like this would simplify my workflow. Pull up tone, pull up drum loop, pull up keyboard accompaniment, etc. Less tap-dancing, everything done from a single floorboard. You can't do something like this from most of the floorboard devices I've seen, I mean, you'd want to dedicate the existing midi input and output on the Kemper to sending and receiving information, and I don't know if many of those boards have a second midi output.


    It would be crazy to have a system like that in a bar and might even be a throwback to the days of oversized refrigerators being toted around. Except you'd be carting around keyboard and drum modules. It just gets my mind thinking how we could get one more control option with the Kemper, given that there are so many unused 1/4"s on the back of mine.

  • Yeah. But IMO the point is simply that the Profiler can't become anyone's one-fits-all unit. If you sum up all the requests you get the picture of a sort of Swiss knife with coffee machine embedded...


    :)

  • Pitch to MIDI algorithms have been around a long time and aren't perfect even now. I doubt Kemper will waste time reinventing the wheel. A hex pickup equipped guitar through a Roland guitar to MIDI device will always give better results. Mono pitch to MIDI is full of glitches and is pretty unusable without serious software filtering. Surely Kemper won't bother with that.


    I run a Roland VG99 in front of my KPA. Not only do I get guitar to midi, but also guitar modeling, alt tuning and much much more. IMO its still the most advanced digital guitar device ever created. The KPA has a long way to go...

  • So true, Lord knows how well it'll work. I'm thinking results must be similar to sending a programme change or CC# when you change patches, nothing more. Thinking of it solely from the perspective of adding another control option to the Kemper without having to modify design. Probably doesn't merit incorporation from the perspective of having to do too much work including it. Maybe the foot controller will give us a few more control options, I'd love a second midi output. ^^