What interface do you use ? Do you have experience with others ? Do you perform live with your MIDI setup ? What would you fix / change about your current setup ? What equipment do you crave ? How do you amplify everything (MIDI Synth, controller) ? How often do you perform ? If you started today, knowing what you know about the available equipment, what would you buy (controller, interface, amp, speakers, stands, lights, comfortable shoes) ?

Although I have been playing other instruments for long I actually "started out today" on the Stick. I decided not to equipe my Stick with MIDI, mainly for the reason I couldn't afford it. But I must say I'm not regarding it a great loss because I have been playing MIDI guitar in the past and I'm doing a lot of MIDI today with the EWI (Electric Wind Instrument, live video clips at
http://www.youtube.com/user/perboysen). I hardly believe a Stick can compete with the EWI as for pure electronic expression. Being originally a guitarist I love the physical interaction with strings and all the tricks you can do with traditional interactive live audio electronics, like reverse playback of live sampling etc, and I hardly think any MIDI controller, including the EWI, can compete with THAT The raw Stick sound offers so much of sound capabilities that hasn't yet been much explored in electronic live sound design. Consequently I use the PASV4 Stick pickups and my choice for amplification is a laptop with a really good AD/DA interface that lets me experiment with my own dual patch banks to combine different processing of the bass- and melody side. Technology is still lagging a bit behind in the foot control department (stickist's both hands always busy) by I'm looking forward to the SoftStep pedalboard, by http://www.keithmcmillen.com/, that seems to be the most light weight and feature heavy piece of gear for a laptop musician.

Speaking of software, I use Apple's Mainstage with all those lovely Logic instrument- and effect plugins plus Amplitube 3, NI Kontakt 4 and SoundToy's Native Bundle (Eventide sounding stuff). I use separate audio inputs for stick, guitar, flute and sax while EWI is played only by MIDI. I also keep the live looping AU plugin Mobius instantly available http://www.circularlabs.com/.

Well that's about the coolest thing I've seen in a long time... I've used a pressure-sensitive controller based on Emmett's patch of shades, but this goes way beyond the two continuous controller outs Vance built into these prototypes.

Pressure control of effects is by far the best way to go. All of the filter manipulation in this video was done using foot pressure control:

http://www.stick.com/onlinevideos/bigbang.html

Thanks for the heads-up on this one, Per! I hope it lives up to it's concept. Commence GASsing...

That was an outstanding set! The Stick must be one of the best instruments for this kind of improvisation; where you come up with a bunch of alternating themes that you orchestrate as you go and kind of bring the audience on a journey. Wouldn't that musical focus make a super interesting festival? I guess there should be lots of piano players, quite some stick players, some solo loopists and a lot of duos and trios. (sorry for the OT, couldn't resist commenting on that video)

Hi Per,

Thanks for the kind comments. That video is available as a full-res DVD bonus on my improv CD Ether Ore.



The reason I don't think it's too much of a digression here is that there are many things you can do with processing and the native sound of The Stick to get textures and timbres that are synth-like, but that retain the immediate finger-to-vibation connection. I also played synths for many years and was really into programming them. I still play an old anaolg EWI from time to time. But the expression and complexity of vibrating strings is wonderful to me, and one of the big reasons I chose The Stick as my main instrument.

All that said, I think I will be adding a MIDI capability to one of my instruments. There are some nice ways to use pitch as a modulation source for effects (like keytracking on a synth), it would be a real time-saver for transcribing things, and having a wider pallet of sounds couldn't really be bad, could it?

Does the VG-99's USB out work for driving computer sound sources?

Roland's web site doesn't answer that in detail. It says:

now Roland delivers the most-requested new features in the VG-99, including an onboard guitar-to-MIDI converter for direct connection to keyboards, sound modules, soft synths, etc. Audio output via USB or S/PDIF digital out, and optional RAD-99 rack mount adaptor further enhance your music production environment.

But would it really matter for your application if the MIDI does turn up through the USB as a virtual MIDI In port on a computer or if it flows through a normal MIDI cable plugged into a MIDI interface port on said computer? Seems both would work... but USB spares you one MIDI cable and the extra MIDI interface to carry around

The VG-99 seems great fun. I will get a bunch of them when I get rich. Two for each Stick Especially the micro tonal capabilities must be great fun!

I think the USB-connection is only for use with the editor, not for MIDI data. The MIDI-out connector does send pitch-to-MIDI converted data though.
Incidentally, I bought a VG-99 today! It will replace my VG-8+Zoom Bass pedal setup: it was just to plain heavy to carry... looking forward to exploring sounds tomorrow

Interesting! Looking forwards to reading more when you have some first encounter impressions to share.

Hey there, coincidentally, I got my VG-99 1 day later, and it is just now that I can sit down and write something about it. I got mine from ebay, and the concept was to change my VG-88, the GI-10 and my GP-100 (guitar multieffects) for the VG-99, at 1/4 the weight.

After a couple of days, I have to say that this guy has quite phenomenal capabilities, but for more that I tried, I couldn't make it correctly track an external synth from the "Guitar to Midi" feature. I have piezos in one instrument, and a GK-3 in the other (Both Warr Guitars), and I had similar results with both.. I have better results with my GI-10, a unit from the 80's (nothinglike the 80's ). The dual path and the combinations between natural and COSM generated sounds is infinite, a totally recommended unit. As it was expected, perfect tracking. The sofware that comes with it is just great.

For those with VG-99's, I will be posting some sounds to share, it may be interesting particular for those with several tunings around, to switch tunings just by changing a patch, that would be great just to try the combinations.

On a separate note, thanks Per for your very helpful postings. In my quest to get my setup a little bit lighter I will probably move forward with the iMac project next.

Regards,