Posted
I use the fretlight guitar system to compose and have been looking for a chord progression piece of software for all my need for ages until I came across Harmony Navigator. Which is superb!
Now Im wishing on a request to support the chords show up on my Fretlight guitar in the future?
This could also direct a lot of people to Harmony Nav too from the guitar community!
:)
Thu, 2008-09-18 - 15:28 Permalink
Hi
Your not the first to suggest this! But Optek seem unresponsive at the moment to requests for a developers kit so their guitar can be used with other software.
I've written to then several times asking for them to check out Harmony Navigator... no answer at all. Maybe you can try too!
There's an interesting Yamaha Guitar called the EZ-AG. It is a MIDI Guitar with buttons for frets and little string like bars to pick or strum. It's surprisingly good and surprisingly cheap. Its designed to send straight MIDI data between units to light up frets etc for teaching. I bet there would be more chance of getting an sdk from them, and I'd love HN to work with that!
I've been meaning to see if it responds to ordinary MIDI ... it might be easy to implement.
There's also a range of Yamaha EZ keyboards that light up keys... and a trumpet too (but I don't know how well that would translate!!!).
But it's a great idea to have HN get out of the box and talk to other instruments with scales, chords etc...
Best
Lee
Thu, 2008-09-18 - 19:32 Permalink
Hi Lee and thanks for your reply
I have had two EZ-AG guitars then moved on to the fretlight guitars. (Own four of them now) The EZ was great for the price and got me playing songs in minutes but with playing and learning guitar chords you dont really get the proper hand/feel on them so when trying to play on a real guitar it is a bit different. Also the guitar sounds are no where near real.
Oh yes I also own the EZ keyboard to which is amazing only because it lights up whatever MIDI you throw at it. The only problem is the sounds are terrible for anything but learning songs and chords.
Ill try and bug them at OPTEK/Fretlight too as theyre only loosing out and none of there software is similar to yours.
Theres a market out there for sure for composer/producers (who arnt musicians) like myself that need this kind of help for recording purposes.
I think this package is amazing and have progressed with song ideas like i have never done before! the EZ keyboards are covered but when recording guitars you realy need a real guitar with real strings.
I live for the day that Harmony and Fretlight talk to each other!
thanks!
:)
Thu, 2008-09-18 - 22:24 Permalink
I very much agree with you. We'd really love to add Fretlight support to HN, but got no response from Optek so far. Either their spam filters are radical, or their fax machine is broken (or both).
IMO this would attract a whole new target group to consider their hardware: Those who never dared to play the guitar. Now that they have a tool for songwriting that works /without/ a guitar, they might be tempted to try!
Christian
Wed, 2008-09-24 - 04:38 Permalink
I very much agree with you. We'd really love to add Fretlight support to HN,Christian
Have you considered the Yamaha EZ-EG/AG guitars and keyboards with illuminated frets and keys?
Unfortunately the Fret/key lights don't seem to light up in response to simple MIDI note inputs, but the specs state that a short Sys Ex message can activate a light, followed by another which deactivates it.
Certainly chords and scales could be shown while HN plays...
I tried it on my EZ-EG, but my sys ex skills leave something to be desired and I'm not sure my software was sending correctly...
I'll send you the details if you're interested!
Lee
Sat, 2008-10-18 - 21:54 Permalink
Just had a look at the MIDI specs of the guitar. Should be easy to implement. Cool idea.Andre
Oh wow! I'm all excited. The EZ Guitars were the best $200 (each) I ever spent. Get one before they vanish, I say (the 'electric' model is the best IMO. It has separate MIDI Ch output for each string, pitch bend whammy bar.... ).
If HN suddenly makes them light up , I'll be in for an EZ Keyboard for sure!
Thanks in advance Andre
Lee
Tue, 2008-12-16 - 14:57 Permalink
HI Andre and Team!
Although I'm not expecting anything rapidly, have you given any more thought to the ideas discussed above? That is getting the Yamaha EZ Guitars/Keyboards to respond to HN output?
I mean is it likely to happen .... or is it just a 'nice thought'?
Thanks
Lee
Thu, 2008-12-18 - 11:37 Permalink
Hi Lee,
this is on the feature wish list already and might make it into HN2. We just wonder how long the EZ guitars will be still available. It looks they're being sold out and are no longer manufactured. Do you have any helpful information regarding that?
Andre
Sat, 2008-12-20 - 20:37 Permalink
Hi Andre
Well al the EZ instruments are still on Yamaha's website. However I think only the EZ AG ('Acoustic' version) is available readily from Amazon or other music outlets here in the US.
However, the EZ Keyboard range are all over the place and they too have MIDI I/O and light up keys. They are very inexpensive and I assume they probably use the same SysEx as the guitars to activate the LEDs. I'm a bad guitarist and even worse keyboard player, so having visual assistance for chords and scales on a MIDI piano style keyboard would be very attractive! I don't think these are vanishing yet.
I also noticed that Casio also make illuminated note keyboards with MIDI I/O... I assume they could be made to integrate with HN as well.
The Fretlight Guitar would of course be great too. I'm going to attempt to contact them again about an SDK.
So your concerns about instrument availability are well founded, though right now any HN customer who wanted to get an EZ instrument would have no problem. Though I think the EX MIDI Trumpet was only ever available in Japan, but I got mine shipped from there! (and it arrived *beautifully* packed quicker than I can get something from New York which is an hour away!). However I can't see it being a 'natural' for use with HN!! ;-))
Of course how could any HN user resist getting one if support comes? The second hand market would explode! Get the economy moving again!! :-) Maybe we could even seed a new class of product from Roland, M Audio, or Novation?
Cognitone Instruments anyone? ;-)
Anyway, I hope the idea sees it though ... Realtime Performance Enhancement at last!
Best
Lee