This is a configuration which permits some useful 'cheating', in particular the technique of generating an essentially unpitched burst of noise at the start of each note to give the impression of a near‑instantaneous response. Over the past few years, however, some of the newer conventional guitar‑based systems have been able to achieve significantly improved results by utilising a proprietary high‑speed protocol (not MIDI) to talk directly to a set of synth voices within a dedicated control unit. After all, those great synth voices that keyboard players enjoy would sound even better played from a more expressive instrument, wouldn't they? The reality is, however, that there is practically nothing that sounds quite as unmusical as a guitarist playing synth or sampler voices randomly in and out of time, due to inconsistent system delays, with as many wrong notes as right ones, because of mistracking and spurious triggering! The history of the MIDI guitar is a catalogue of disappointing failure and apparently promising developments that ultimately turn into dead ends. The convenience and flexibility of MIDI recording quite naturally exerts a strong pull on the more open‑minded and adventurous guitar player. It seems as if guitar‑to‑MIDI converters have been around for almost as long as MIDI itself. Dave Lockwood investigates the latest contender to see if it really is able to bring something genuinely new to the field. MIDI guitar has a long and chequered history, littered with great expectations and expensive failures.
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