[Harp-L] MIDI Sounds from a Standard Harmonica

[Slim Heilpern]

Very cool Brendan! 

I do have a question for you: 

In the video, I see you're wearing earbuds so I'm assuming you're monitoring the sound that way. Here's the thing: Several years ago I was experimenting with a pitch-to-midi device and found major tracking problems when the harmonica was amplified through speakers at reasonable volume, due to the microphone picking up the sounds coming from the synth in addition to the harmonica sound itself. This confused the pitch-to-midi algorithm, and this was with no other instruments playing (such as drums, bass, guitars, etc...). That's when I gave up on the idea, since I was not able to mask the external sounds from being picked up by the microphone. Of course, this problem didn't exist when playing with headphones.

Have you tried this yet with speakers at gig-like volume?

Thanks,

- Slim

> On Mar 27, 2020, at 1:25 AM, bren at xxxxx wrote:
> 
> This is an interesting area which can apply to any type of solo harmonica,
> chromatic or diatonic, in any tuning.
> 
> 
> 
> Over the past couple of months I've been spending a lot of time exploring
> various pitch-to-Midi solutions. This is basically about playing a standard
> analogue harmonica into some kind of interface to get Midi sounds from it. I
> had tried this in the past, but always gave up in frustration because of too
> many sound glitches, and latency. Those factors still exist, but with a lot
> of research and fine tweaking of settings they can be minimized to the point
> where I now feel this approach is really workable.
> 
> 
> 
> I'm using the iPad as my Midi sound source, as well as for audio. It's an
> incredible playing resource for any musician, as millions of keyboard
> players and guitarists have already discovered! But up till now few harp
> players seem to have taken the iPad seriously, even for using guitar-type
> effects in an app like Bias FX. If you check the Facebook discussion groups
> on harmonica effects, the overwhelming view is that the standard old-school
> pedalboard with a bunch of your favourite foot-stomp pedals is the only way
> to go. Even floor multi-effects units like the Line-6 are frowned on by the
> purists!
> 
> 
> 
> Sure, there are some great foot pedals especially designed for harmonica out
> there, mostly made by the Lone Wolf company. Fair play to them, and I'm not
> dissing their great work over recent years in creating dedicated pedals for
> harmonica players. But to me, using floor pedals is a very poor approach for
> us harmonica players. Having them on the floor means adjusting settings
> means crouching down, and it's easy to hit knobs and mess up the sound with
> clumsy foot operation. Unlike guitarists and keyboard players, we have a
> free hand to quickly change sounds and do fine tweaking of settings, so it
> makes sense to have our effects units at waist height - preferably mounted
> on a mic-stand.
> 
> 
> 
> This goes perfectly with using the iPad, because it's so small and light and
> is designed for finger operation. Combine that with its awesome processing
> power and the HUGE number of amazing music apps inside, and you have an
> incredibly powerful music workstation at your fingertips. That's the case
> even for the many excellent packages of digital emulations of guitar-type
> effects, such as Tonestack, Bias FX, Tonebridge, Amplitude etc. They are all
> fantastic in themselves, and have some stunning iPad versions of pedals that
> go wonderfully with harmonica. For example, Bias FX and Tonestack have their
> own version of the POG 2 Poly-Octaver. It sounds just as good as the real
> thing, costs a fraction of the price, and can be patched along with hundreds
> of other great pedals on your iPad screen - or even along with a traditional
> pedalboard.
> 
> 
> 
> But then if you throw in the plethora of Midi synths in the iPad, you have a
> huge NEW area of amazing sounds that have never been accessed by harp
> players before. This is what I've been exploring recently. It's taken a lot
> of time, trial and error (and expense!) on various dead-ends or
> unsatisfactory solutions, but I've now got to a point where I have something
> stable and reliable happening, which is really usable in recording and
> performance.
> 
> 
> 
> I'm making a series of videos on the Harmonica and iPad combination. Here is
> the first one, a general overview of the possibilities:
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfQDsZcYvcg
> 
> 
> 
> Brendan Power
> 
> www.x-reed.com <http://www.x-reed.com> 
> 
> www.brendan-power.com <http://www.brendan-power.com/> 
> 
> www.youtube.com/brendanpowermusic <http://www.youtube.com/brendanpowermusic>
> 
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