Members Jazzer2020 Posted February 2, 2019 Members Share Posted February 2, 2019 I have a Godin guitar and would like to connect it to my old Roland Sound Canvas SC-55 mkii synth.The Godin has a 13-pin midi connector. Does anyone know how to do this?The SC-55 has Midi IN, OUT and THRU. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mr.Grumpy Posted February 11, 2019 Members Share Posted February 11, 2019 The 13 pin isn't MIDI, that magic occurs inside the Roland synth box. So you'll either need to purchase a Roland stand-alone guitar synth, and use it's MIDI output, or spring for one of these: https://www.roland.com/us/products/gi-20/ OH, it's out of production. Well, good luck. Polyphonic guitar synthesis isn't cheap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kbeaumont Posted February 11, 2019 Members Share Posted February 11, 2019 Yes, that's about all you can do. Get the Roland gi-20 off ebay if you can find it. That would be the most economical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jazzer2020 Posted February 14, 2019 Author Members Share Posted February 14, 2019 The 13 pin isn't MIDI, that magic occurs inside the Roland synth box. So you'll either need to purchase a Roland stand-alone guitar synth, and use it's MIDI output, or spring for one of these: https://www.roland.com/us/products/gi-20/ OH, it's out of production. Well, good luck. Polyphonic guitar synthesis isn't cheap. Thanks for your help guys! Yeah I forgot to mention I also have a Roland GR-1 guitar synth. I read somewhere that it can be set up as a synth controller. So I cracked open the manual and found the page to set it up for this. It even described what to set up on the synth you want to control. However... I wasn't successful. I got all the GR-1 settings right. The Sound Canvas settings might not be correct yet. They don't tell you everything to do in the manual. For example they don't tell you what to set your guitar for? Which pedal on the GR-1 to press. I think I should use GR-1 midi out to SC midi IN, but I'm not sure about that. So any tips you might have would be appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mr.Grumpy Posted February 14, 2019 Members Share Posted February 14, 2019 Yes, this stuff is the 'hard part' of dealing with MIDI. Pour yourself a big cup of patience and get ready to do some reading of your gears' manuals. Yes, you need to connect the GR-1s MIDI OUT to the SoundCanvas' MIDI IN with a single MIDI cable. And of course your Godin has to be connected to the GR-1 via it's special cable. Then, you'll need to go through settings for both devices (GR-1 and Sound Canvas) and make sure their settings match up - mainly MIDI channels. First, you need to make sure the GR-1 is sending out the MIDI data from it's port. There is probably a setting for synth guitar goes to 1) internal synth, 2) external MIDI port 3) both You need to select the GR-1s mode for sending out MIDI data - monophonic vs. polyphonic. Monophonic sends the data out on a single MIDI channel, polyphonic sends data out on SIX midi channel simultaneously - one channel for each string! Do you know about and understand MIDI channels? Then you'll need to set the Sound Canvas to RECEIVE said data. Since the SC is a standalone synth module, I assume it's MIDI IN port is always active, but you'll need to set the MIDI channel or channels that the port "listens" to. To start with, I think it will be simpler for you to select patches (sounds) on the SC directly. Once you've got the two boxes playing nicely with each other, you'll be able to do cool stuff like program presets on your GR-1 that select patches on the Sound Canvas. You can do stuff like have a different sound patch for each string. MIDI has a lot of capabilities, but it can also be maddeningly complex. There's entire books on it. Read the manuals. Read the manuals. Read the manuals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jazzer2020 Posted February 15, 2019 Author Members Share Posted February 15, 2019 Yes, this stuff is the 'hard part' of dealing with MIDI. Pour yourself a big cup of patience and get ready to do some reading of your gears' manuals. Yes, you need to connect the GR-1s MIDI OUT to the SoundCanvas' MIDI IN with a single MIDI cable. And of course your Godin has to be connected to the GR-1 via it's special cable.... Once you've got the two boxes playing nicely with each other, you'll be able to do cool stuff like program presets on your GR-1 that select patches on the Sound Canvas. You can do stuff like have a different sound patch for each string. MIDI has a lot of capabilities, but it can also be maddeningly complex. There's entire books on it. Read the manuals. Read the manuals. Read the manuals. Thanks Mr. Grumpy! You sound like you have much experience with this. I have only dabbled with it briefly over the years, so naturally I have forgotten almost everything. I am starting to make some progress with it. I am able to have my GR-1 talk to the Sound Canvas! I have set up my GR-1 in Mono mode and my Sound Canvas to the same Instrument (Harmonica) for each string. Starting transmit channel is 11. So 11,12,13,14,15,16. I have two problems presently. 1. When I play low strings 6,5,4 they don't play the correct pitch. They are off by at least a tone or more. 2. Despite having chosen Mono mode and set the string bend to Max (12) on the GR-1, sliding or bending the notes has no effect. It's playing the notes like a piano (on or off). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members onelife Posted February 15, 2019 Members Share Posted February 15, 2019 set the pitch bend range on the GR synth to be the same as that on the sound canvas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jazzer2020 Posted February 17, 2019 Author Members Share Posted February 17, 2019 Thanks onelife! Well I quickly decided this wasn't going to work very well for me. Besides the above issues, the GR-1 just wasn't tracking well with the SC-55. As soon as I unplugged the SC-55 and played just through the GR-1 the tracking was perfect! No glitches or delays, just perfect. I'll tell you why I dusted off these synths and maybe you could steer me in right direction from here. A possible solo gig came up and I wanted to record accompanying tracks to play over. I thought midi/synth tracks would work fine. I have the Sound Canvas synth module and its accompanying Sound Brush recording/playback module. So the idea was to record the tracks and play them back with the SBrush. But if you guys know of a more modern/efficient way to lay down tracks so they are ready for accompaniment I'm all ears! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jazzer2020 Posted February 18, 2019 Author Members Share Posted February 18, 2019 I had an idea last night.I thought of BIAB.I asked the question on their forum and it seems like that would be a better way to go. I think I'll just record some backup tracks to .wav or mp3 files and buy some player to play them back intoa PA system. Any player you would recommend for this with a decent screen? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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