This week I decided to make an addition to my newest guitar. I've been wanting to do some transcriptions for some time now, and it occurred to me that a midi pickup would be a handy tool in that endeavor. So the research began in earnest about a month ago after finally settling on the Fishman Tripleplay largely because of the ease of installation. I also was excited about the software it comes bundled with. (Spoiler alert, a lot of that only works with an Ipad, but I'm not whining. Workarounds abound.)
The installation was pretty much as advertised, which was a piece of cake. The one warning I have is to really check out the thickness of the pickup mount you intend to use before snapping the pickup into it. I'd seen videos that seemed to suggest the pickup would just snap in and out of the adaptor. Yeah, the fit is really tight. On my Strat, the thinnest mount was the perfect fit, just so you know. But a few seconds with a ruler and some quick calculations would have told me that easier than the trial and error way I went about it.
Charging the controller did not take the full 90 minutes, which the manual had suggested, but a lot of the time it took was used to download and install the software. The next task was to adjust the sensitivity of the pickup relative to each string. The included controller software made that a piece of cake. Sadly, I didn't have enough time to bake a cake before downloading enough software to start playing. After some patch browsing and editing, I opened up Reason. Naturally, I had to try and make a new composition. I mean, what is new gear for if not to inspire new music from the blocked artist. (Did I say, artist? How modest of me.) I don't really have a good explanation of why I called it Eastern Fish. Maybe my artistic talents are nonverbal? More likely nonexistent, but that is not my call to make.
It is amazing how much of this track was done with my guitar. Other than one Thor pad, it all was done with my Strat. Two of the tracks were made through normal audio channels coming off my pedalboard. Still, the rest were all triggered presets, which I modified to make a little more finger-friendly given the unruliness and literal interpretations of a midi device...
I uploaded the piece to Soundclick, where, as you well know, it will sit and rot. But if your downloading software and want a little taste of my new gear, by all means.
Alternately, leave me a note about the latest new lengths you've gone to to get past a creative block. Or maybe that only happens to me. Plus, I love gear talk...
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