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Posted by: Goliath Sep 18 2007, 10:46 AM

Just screwing around with my Pod XT Live that showed up today and noticed all of the tones that could be achieved if I had a Variax. I thought it'd be fun to screw around with. Is it a worthwhile purchase? How is the neck profile? Is it a worthwhile purchase or more of a gimmick than anything?

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Sep 18 2007, 11:34 PM

They are versatile guitars for sure - the 300 is a liitle cheaply made, the 600 and 700 are both really cool (I have a 700)]

Posted by: Goliath Sep 19 2007, 03:01 AM

I guess I'm more interested in the digital pick up than the guitar modeling, would getting a digital pickup be a better idea then I suppose? Basically, alternate tunings without changing string tension is what I'm most interested in.

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Sep 19 2007, 06:09 PM

That aspect works really well, as long as you are playing the guitar loud enough that you can;t hear the open strings - its a really impressive feature I have to say, and with Variax workbench you can build your own guitars too. For the price they are well wort it.

Posted by: Goliath Sep 19 2007, 08:34 PM

How does the neck compare to a strat? Fatter or thinner?

Posted by: Hungus Sep 19 2007, 08:58 PM

I just read about these guitars the other day and i was just wondering if there was a program like guitar pro which could write your music as you play it?

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Sep 19 2007, 11:55 PM

The 700 is pretty similar to a strat ... maybe a little thinner I would say, it feels better to play to me than a strat though.



Not really - they are basically normal electric guitars - you play and electric comes out the other end and you plug it into an amp. There is a bunch of DSP in there so you get all the different sounds, and this is what does the tunign changes, but it isn;t midi or anything like that. You can hook it digitally up to a Pod XT Live or Vetta amp, but that just saves you moving into the analogue world and back to digital when recording.

Posted by: muris Sep 21 2007, 09:37 PM

I tried 300 maybe a year or two ago.
All I can remember is that it was going out of tune AL THE TIME!!
I do play hard here and there but it was just too much.
Perhaps changing mechanics and/or bridge will solve the problem.
Rest of it was ok as far as I remeber.
Still 600 and 700 are whole lot better,finish,hardware etc.
Andrew made a great deal tho!

Posted by: Hungus Sep 21 2007, 09:47 PM

Ohh okk..... but could you do something like what I said before with like a guitar with a midi interference device or something on it?

or is there even anyway to have some kind of guitar and program which writes the music you play?

Posted by: muris Sep 21 2007, 09:53 PM

If your guitar has Midi output,it's possible of course.
Casio did guitars like that years ago.
Now there are Roland pickups and modules/processors
but I think those pickups work only with Roland sound devices,don't have regular Midi jack on cable.
Maybe I'm wrong...
Honestly,haven't tried it yet.

Posted by: Hungus Sep 21 2007, 10:03 PM

Ohh ok cause I just remember my brother telling me awhile ago about devices for your guitar which produced midi output and then I think I read something about a program which could write your score not long ago. Basically I was just trying to find out cause I wanted my brother to help teach me but he just plays by ear and most of the time he doesnt really know what he is playing without stoping and analysing it.. also he plays good music but has no idea how to write it out so that would help him also.

That and I just think it would be awesome.

Posted by: muris Sep 21 2007, 10:06 PM

Any sequencer like Cubase,Logic etc is able to record Midi IF you send Midi signal to it.
So the trick isn't in program but in how to send Midi.
Tho I haven't heard of program that is able to give you score of notation if you send audio to it.

Posted by: tonymiro Sep 21 2007, 10:52 PM

Muris is right here - I have a Roland GK 2A hexaphonic pickup on my Gibson. That has a special lead (plus a normal jack connection) that is used to interface it to a suitable midi interface - for instance a Roland VG, or in my case a Roland GI20 midi interface. The GI2- can then convert the guitar signal to, and send, midi data. The actual lead has no midi cable attached and the interface is a pretty unique 13 pin one.

Hexaphonic pickups (Axiom and Yamaha also make systems) have been around for at least 20 years and are often seen more as a guitar synth control - which is what I use mine for.

On the subject of the Variax - anyone with a lot of money could also look at the new Fender (with Roland working with them) VG Strat - a strat that can also do some modeling.

Hungus - I'll try to dig out some info I have though on audio to score/transcription software as some people are working on it but its pretty much early days stuff.

Generally if you want scoring software then Sibelius is extremely good. If you want software that can slow down so that you can transcribe an mp3 then Audacity is good for slowing down although you can also do it Windows Media Player. Direct audio to scoring is a bit more complicated though.

Cheers,
Tony

Posted by: tonymiro Sep 21 2007, 11:28 PM

Here you go Hungus, some links to software that claim to be able to transcribe and score audio input in real time as you play/sing:

http://www.wildcat.com/Web/Wildcat/Html/Site/Homepage.htm

and http://www.kichiki.com/WAON/waon.html

As to how far people have got with the whole real time recording to score have a look at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070421/bob8.asp.

There are a couple of University research projects on this at Tampere University (Finland) and University of Ljubljana (Slovenia). Don't know details of these but probably some form of fast fourier transform analysis.


I would say that I've not used any of these so don't know how well they might work or what they might cost. Personally real-time to me is very much in its infancy so if you want to check the software get a free demo to try out first.

I'm assuming btw that the emphasis is on software that is claimed to do the conversion in real time btw - there's plenty of other software that can score from a previously recorded source/file (mp3, wav etc) and similarly plenty that can convert midi to score data etc.

Cheers,
Tony

Posted by: Hungus Sep 21 2007, 11:37 PM

Thats great, thanks heaps for that tony

its almost 3 in the morning so I will have to wait till tomorrow to give it a proper read. Cheers for the huge post though, im just abit brain dead right now

Posted by: tonymiro Sep 21 2007, 11:52 PM

Just on hexaphonic pickups/guitar to midi. To date no guitar midi is perfect - even the new Roland GK3a pickup mis-tracks. Anyone interested in this sort of stuff my comment would be that you need a really clean picking left and right hand as without you will get mis-tracking and lots of wolf notes. One reason why my Gibson action isn't shredding low is partly this.

Hexaphonic tend to work by effectively sending not a single combined signal from guitar to amp but six individual ones - one for each string. These six monophonic signals can then be converted to midi. Apart from synthesis it also means that you can process each string individually if you want.

As an aside - my very first experience of guitar synths was back in the v late 80s early 90s. Person I played with was also a demonstrator for Synthaxe and Synclavier and I got to try out a synthax that was eventually sent on to Holdsworth. Amazing instrument but it occasionally mis-tracked - was great fun playing a two guitar player orchestrated version of Weather Report's Byrdland though.

Cheers,
Tony

Posted by: muris Sep 22 2007, 12:40 AM

We have a massive book here,it's called Tony!!

Posted by: tonymiro Sep 22 2007, 12:46 AM

Posted by: The-Levy Sep 22 2007, 10:21 AM

I just bough a Variax 300 to replace an ovation with a burned pre amp, I dont play much acustic but I needed a guitar that could pull out some acustic sounds and be versatile enough to switch to electric fast. Not always I like to switch guitars when I play and when I have to, it is in a really small place. So I bough it for 299, and what I can tell you about it is this. The neck feels cheap, but it can be upgraded. The tunners are cheap, but they can be upgraded. It is a very light guitar but since it is a modeling guitar it wont affect sustain or tone. I own 3 guitars, a custom strat (my own custom) a Jackson Dinky and a Grestch historic series. It will never replace any. But it is fun to have around and you can model your own guitars with it's software trough your POD XT, you can choose a LP body with fender single pick ups for example. I heard it is really good for recording since it has a very clean signal.