G2M/B2M with Sax live

[progmr]

Hello:

I am intrigued by your product as there is virtually no audio to midi hardware/software on the market. In addition to my analog saxes I use a wx-5 wind controller to trigger my Roland XV-5050. What I am hoping to do is convert my sax notes into Midi so that I can play my tenor and also my synth at the same time.

The obvious issues are external stage noise and possible issues with tracking.

Do you feel your product is applicable for this purpose? My use would primarily be with a single brass section patch on the Roland and I'd use a Sign-off to turn the mic on/off when needed.

[james]

We have only done a small amount of testing with a sax, but our products do work ok. In particular, we've added a new "wind" mode to our latest product (i2M musicport) which has a few optimisations for solo wind instruments (such as sax). The i2M musicport needs a computer (it's a USB device), so depending on your live setup this may or may not be useful.

In a few weeks, we have someone lined up to do some tests/reviews of the i2M with a saxophone. Then we should all have a better idea on this.

[progmr]

Thank you James:

If you need a tester I'd be happy to volunteer. My rig uses both softsynths and the Roland XV-5050.

Looking forward to hearing how it goes.

Luther

[james]

Thanks Luther, I'll keep a note of that and see how things go... we may get back to you on this.

[progmr]

Thanks James:

I am a software engineer by trade and a midi geek so I'm sure I could be of assistance.

Luther

[james]

Testing of the i2M musicport with sax has been done now, and here is a review/demo of the i2M musicport with alto sax. It shows mixing audio from the sax with real-time MIDI to control several software instruments:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMXx_fyV9-U

[progmr]

Thanks James:

Was hoping to see how it performs in a live (e.g. rock) setting. Any audio to midi converters I have used in the past have picked up extraneous noise (other guitars, drum hits, etc) and triggered wrong notes making them useless. Reasonable accuracy was obtained using a strong gate but often anything that did bleed through caused bad triggers. My hope was that a hardware based all in one would solve that problems.

Thanks!
Luther

[james]

Live use with other noise sources can be a problem. John Baker (who did the video above) suggests these things for live use:

For live use, the user will have to deal with ambient noise, especially when there is a band playing. Unless you take steps, you will end up with false triggering and unwanted MIDI output, especially loud transients such as drum hits. The best way to deal with this is to start with use a cardoid or hypercardoid mic that rejects sounds coming from the sides or behind. This is not always enough, especially if you need to stand away from the microphone to get the best audio sound. Things improve with proper eq, especially using a high-pass filter, and eliminating frequencies you don't need for the instrument. Then, applying a noise gate helps if it cuts out non-instrument noise.

For extreme cases, the player may need to consider having a separate pickup or microphone used only for the Sonuus, with this mic placed closer to the horn, and with extreme eq and noise gate control. Then the player can use their regular stage mic for their instrument audio, and the "filtered" mic for i2M MIDI triggering only. Its impossible to predict what each user will experience when used for live performance, due to the variation in ambient noise, proximity to other instruments/amps, pickup or microphone being used, playing volume, etc.

[Vintageconn]

I use a G2M with a tenor sax live. I use a noise gate, but I mainly rely on an expression pedal that control the mix of the G2M midi + plain sax audio signal. When the pedal is backed off there is no output from the synthesizer being mixed into my horn sound. I'm always playing loud enough that I dominate the signal at my mic when I pedal the G2M midi into the mix.

The pedal can also be programmed to drop the audio signal going to the G2M (causing a note off at the synth), but I often send audio to the G2M so it continues to stay on even when I don't require midi.

[denmarker]

We have only done a small amount of testing with a sax, but our products do work ok. In particular, we've added a new "wind" mode to our latest product (i2M musicport) which has a few optimisations for solo wind instruments (such as sax). The i2M musicport needs a computer (it's a USB device), so depending on your live setup this may or may not be useful.

In a few weeks, we have someone lined up to do some tests/reviews of the i2M with a saxophone. Then we should all have a better idea on this.

oooo did a search and found this thread. is the product available? where can i buy it?