Evolution Engine - how to achieve ringing open notes while playing the same note fretted on another string?

[stpete111]

I'm using Evolution Steel Strings right now but this question would apply to any guitar on the Evolution engine.

Let's say we're in standard tuning, 4/4 time signature and on a real guitar I'm playing the following 4-note arpeggiated line repetitively, ballad-esque, say 80 bpm:

G-string 9th fret -> B-string 7th fret -> high E string open -> B-string 7th fret (repeat all). All notes are meant to ring until they are played again.

The first and third notes are both E, and that's why what I'm going for has thus far proven impossible to accomplish I began by forcing each note to the string I want it to play on using the -2 MIDI notes string selections, in order to make sure each E note is being played on the string as it was written.

But the problem I'm running into is the ringing out of the open E note. When I play that open E string, I want it to ring out continuously until I play it again. This is what I'm having trouble with. The issue is that when I get back to the MIDI note which represents the E note on the 9th fret of the G string, I have no other choice but to start a new E MIDI note at that measure, which kills the note of the open E string thereby not allowing it to ring out.

I've tried different combinations of overlapping the notes, as well as trying to combine that with the -2 notes to try and get the desired ring out, but all Evolution seems to be able to interpret it as is either a note off for the previous E note, or, a legato, in cases where I experimented with overlapping notes.

How can I achieve this ring out effect when playing two of the same note on two different strings?

[EvilDragon]

Using MIDI guitar mode where a single MIDI channel is one string is the way to go.

[stpete111]

Using MIDI guitar mode where a single MIDI channel is one string is the way to go.

Hey EvilDragon - good to see you here, your posts over at Gearslutz are always extremely helpful.

So using MIDI guitar mode as you've mentioned will get around the issue of one E note cutting off the ringing of the last? Is the reason that this works because the subsequent E note is coming in on a different MIDI channel and will not interfere with the ringing one which is on another? Very interesting - I'm just trying to understand how it all works.

Because I am using different MIDI channels for different strings, should I expect to need to use more than one piano roll (one for each MIDI channel) or does all of this still occur on one piano roll of MIDI notes?

Thanks again!

[stpete111]

I also re-read my original post and can see that it might be confusing or too much information so I came up with a much simpler example to use for what I'm trying to accomplish:

Say you're picking the 5th fret of the B string as 3 quarter notes and then for the 4th note of the measure you pick the open high E string. Then repeat the measure several times. I want that open E string to ring open the entire time I'm picking the 5th fret of the B string.

Thanks.

[EvilDragon]

You would just need to choose a different MIDI channel for each note you enter. 1st string on guitar is channel 1, 2nd string is channel 2, and so on. It can all be done within one piano roll, most DAWs support multichannel MIDI editing.

[househoppin09]

I need to do this too, and can't always use multichannel MIDI (depending on the particular DAW/controllers I'm using at the time, etc.). Is there any way, or would an Evolution engine update be necessary to make it possible?

[EvilDragon]

The main problem is that the above situation creates overlapping note on events in MIDI (two note ons on the same note without the first one being released first, so when the first note off is received, it doesn't know which of the two note on events to kill, so usually you either get hung notes or both note ons are killed), and this is not advisable to do at all (it's kind of a MIDI no-no, you're not supposed to do it, here be dragons), which is why multichannel MIDI is the only proper way to handle it.

[househoppin09]

I understand that, but in theory there should be a way around those problems. Maybe a keyswitch? E.g., hit a note, then hit the keyswitch while the note is held down to tell the Evolution engine to trigger it again from a different string, and let the engine cut both notes off when the note is released. Is there any reason something like that couldn't work? Then it wouldn't be necessary to actually have multiple MIDI note-on events.

[EvilDragon]

I don't see that method working at all, or it'd just be opening another, different can of worms.