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To try our polyphonic plugins (PolyPlugs) you need a polyphonic guitar
(also called divided, or hexaphonic in case of 6 strings) and some interface to connect
each string to the computer. If you'd like to try out our Polyphonic Plugins then
email
us and we'll give you a link to download them, but please send details of your
setup, including pickup type and wiring and specs of your pc or mac .
Polyphonic guitars (sometimes called MIDI ready...) have been offered
for many years by Roland, Paradis, Godin, Frame, Parker, Fender, Gibson...
Almost any guitar can be retrofit with a polyphonic pickup.
There are two kinds of pickups:
- piezo in the bridge, made by Paradis, RMC, Graphtech,,,
- magnetic near the bridge, made by Roland (GK2), Gibson,,,
we recommend piezos, which sound better, have less noise, separate strings better,
but are more dificult to build into the guitar.
To connect the guitar to the computer, the Paradis made by by
Rolf Spuler is by far the simplest, it has a FireWire output and is
fed from the Computer. You may want to use it with another FireWire interface for
the outputs.
The Gibson MaGiC has a digital output, but the only way to connect it to the
computer is through their "BoB" (break out box) from where you have
to connect each string by analog cable to some Audio Interface.
Similar if you use one of the most spread "Roland 13pin guitars",
i.e. a polyphonic guitar with a Roland GK2 pickup mounted: find a BoB and connect
it with 6 patch cables to your 8 channel Audio Interface!
The breakout box can be an
RMC, PolySubbass or selfmade (just passive wiring+supply)
As to a computer, we recommend a Powerbook Pro or a powerful PC. Macs have
6pin FireWire connectors that supply the guitar with power, whereas PC laptops
usually just have a 4 pin FireWire connector, so you need an external power supply.
A PCMCI FireWire card is an option, or a specific power adapter.
The host software needs to be able to handle plugins with 6 inputs and
6 outputs, e.g.
Cubase,
Plogue Bidule,
Max,
AudioMulch,
for live application we recommend
Bidule because it
works just like a virtual pedal board for guitar
players with very flexible routing in an easy to understand graphical layout.
Different scenario for a studio environment:
- Cubase is suitable for polyphonic plugins. You can also use Bidule as a
plugin in Cubase.
- For OSX, you can connect Bidule to any studio software through a software
router like Jack.
- If the guitar is the base instrument, you can record it in Bidule and then
transfer the sound files to any other recording software.
Apart from our plugins, we recommend some reverb and limiter plugin.
Our PolyControl can program all other plugins, so you can create global
presets for all those plugins!
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