Ukulele Problems

[bdaz]

I just picked up my i2M yesterday and so far the performance is unacceptable. The problems seem to be dropped notes, 1/2 second latency on the highest notes and spurious notes an octave down. Latency on the lower stings is acceptable. I have upgraded to the latest firmware but have not yet played with the i2M music port.

The uke is tuned in 5ths and is a note below a mando-fiddle tuning (DGCF). My goal is to use the uke to drive a sampler (Kontakt) and emulate a tenor banjo and other ethnic instruments. The uke is only 20" long so it would definitely have stage appeal playing acoustic bass samples.

Any suggestions for set up, etc to optimise the i2M for this instrument?

Thanks!

Bob

[strashilol]

Start by reading my post here:
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=404&start=10

[bdaz]

Thanks but not helpful since I have the i2M set for chromatic. I have no need for pitch bends in my style of music (Irish Traditional).

Thanks!

Bob

[james]

I assume you are using Guitar mode, and not bass mode? Bass mode might cause problems on the higher notes.

Could the latency be a result of your software settings? 1/2 second seems an awfully long time.

As for missed notes, or notes played on the wrong lower octave, this is usually caused by playing more than one string at a time. Do you get this if you very carefully play only one string with all the other strings damped?

strashilol's comments can still be useful. Even if you don't need pitch-bend, it can still be useful because it can correct any slightly mis-detected notes. For example, if the tuning is slightly off, chromatic mode may detect a note one that is wrong by 1 semitone. If this happens in pitch-bend mode, pitch-bend is used to correct the note very quickly, so you never notice the problem. But for instruments that won't sound good with pitch bend (mainly piano) this obviously isn't a solution. But it works well with bass sounds.

I think playing uke on stage to get bass sounds is a great idea. There would be lots of confused people in the audience

[bdaz]

I am using guitar mode. The 1/2 second latency was only on the highest notes ..a mandolin high B or C. As I moved down the neck the latency rapidly decreased. As for tuning issues, I assume that in chromatic mode, the firmware makes a decision as to what the pitch of a tone is and converts that the the closest midi semitone. So are you saying that if, for example, a tone is detected that is off pitch, then the firmware will drop the tone completely and not trigger a midi instruction?

I am finding both missed notes and double notes are predicable and repeatable. Lower Octaves are rare and random.

I will be spending time this weekend trying to get the setup stage ready for a Sunday night gig.

If I can get this unit to work properly, it will definitely change the way I make music.
Thanks!

Bob

[james]

I am using guitar mode. The 1/2 second latency was only on the highest notes ..a mandolin high B or C. As I moved down the neck the latency rapidly decreased. As for tuning issues, I assume that in chromatic mode, the firmware makes a decision as to what the pitch of a tone is and converts that the the closest midi semitone. So are you saying that if, for example, a tone is detected that is off pitch, then the firmware will drop the tone completely and not trigger a midi instruction?

In chromatic mode, if a note is detected off-pitch, it will always play the note that was detected unless a scale has been selected. If a chromatic scale is selected, it will only play notes in the scale. However, if "gap mode" is enabled then any notes outside the scale will not be played and you will get gaps (dropped notes). Assuming you don't have gap mode enabled, it should always play the notes.

Is the loundness of the higher notes much smaller than the lower notes? I am wondering if there is a large imbalance between the two so that high notes are simply missed sometimes because their level is too low. If you look at the MIDI data, can you see if the higher notes have lower MIDI velocity than the lower notes?

Maybe you need to increase the gain on the i2M to compensate?

I am finding both missed notes and double notes are predicable and repeatable. Lower Octaves are rare and random.

Double-notes are often caused by the initial detection being wrong by 1 notes, and it then retriggers a new note to correct this. This only happens in chromatic mode; as mentioned previously, in pitch-bend mode such a correction is not obvious. It can happen more on some instruments than on others, depending on tuning, intonation, and string condition.

I will be spending time this weekend trying to get the setup stage ready for a Sunday night gig.

If I can get this unit to work properly, it will definitely change the way I make music.

Hopefully we can hep you work out your problems.

[bdaz]

After spending a bunch more hours with the unit and your software I have come to the conclusion that the combination of the nylon strings, piezo pickup and high register isn't going to happen. The best I can do is around 85% accuracy..just accurate enough to sound like an idiot.

I will revisit this is in a year or so.

Thanks for your help..

Bob