You Rock Guitar YRG-1000 MIDI Controller Electric Guitar Black

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Today's Bonus:

• Advanced digital guitar with 25 real guitar & 50 synth sounds. Jam to 25 song & 50 drum loops.
• Fastest tracking MIDI guitar via low latency USB & 5-pin DIN outputs. Record on Mac or PC software.
• Stereo audio input jack: play along with your mp3 player. 1/8" headphone & 1/4" guitar outputs.
• Play Guitar HeroTM and Rock BandTM with optional GameFlexTM cartridge or Midi Pro Adapters.
• Go mobile! Removable neck lets you take your YRG-1000 anywhere. USB & battery powered.

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First, my background with midi guitars: I've owned a Godin midi guitar along with the Axon midi guitar unit. I also use midi synths/interfaces such as Reason.

Pros/Cons

Pros: Lowest action possible on a guitar (there are no neck strings, the neck is virtually a keyboard with very sensitive 'string inlays' on the neck). The pitch bend and modulation switches work very well. The outputs are impressive: one 5pin midi out, a 1/4" out, headphones out, and usb. It interfaces flawlessly with Reason, the main sequencer I use, using either usb or midi connection. The onboard samples are actually much better than I thought they would be, especially some of the synths. I will address the latency as a separate topic from pros and cons. The software control panel is also very nice, similar to the Axon control panel for their unit. Virtually every variable is adjustable on this device and the developers seem to plan to keep opening up new bios features in future updates. Customer support is the best I've ever talked with. Setting up your guitar with the control panel is highly recommended as you will be optimizing it to respond to your style of playing by adjusting velocity tables, individual string sensitivities, etc. They sent me three different guitars to try (the first one I got had a dead panel). They paid for all the shipping and even called me once or twice. The customer support system online is also very nice, it keeps a running dialog between you and service reps via a forum post type of system. You can't say this company isn't dedicated to their patrons; they stand behind their work.

Cons: As some have noted, the instrument is plastic and light. I'm a bit circumspect on its robustness so I treat it cautiously. I doubt it would survive if dropped on a hard floor more than once but that is pure speculation. I do believe it will withstand lots of use though. I do not use this device as a videogame controller but as an interfacing tool for midi sequencers for composing. It can do alot of things other midi guitars will struggle with (rigorous chord strumming, tapping, etc) but like any midi guitar, it is NOT for replacing a real guitar. To that end, it is hard to nail down specific negatives about this kind of design because so many will have different expectations and needs. If anything goes wrong with the device, I will update this review in the future.

Comments:

Now, for the latency questions. If you use the guitar by itself with no external sequencers, there will be no latency. Interfacing with externals is good but it needs to be clarified, as this is where users will probably experience variability between their setup and someone else's: first, any latency occurring when interfacing externals will be due to the external device processing the signal from the guitar (Wittsworld). What follows is my personal experience with my setup. By using the 5 pin midi out I had almost no latency. Specifically, it depends on what mode I used. Using the picking strings, I had in the range of 3-6ms, probably eliminated if you have a zero latency monitoring card. If you use TAP mode (just using the neck alone as an interface) then the latency is virtually eliminated. By using the usb connection, the latency was also very good. However, with usb, the string picking mode latency was noticeably higher compared to the 5 pin connection but the TAP mode was still extremely low latency (I use usb and tap mode by default with no problems). The neck really is a nice piece of engineering and tap mode is really great. With string picking you can strum chords without glitching, unlike other midi guitars that rely on the original guitar design with strings running the full length of the guitar which typically results in much more unpredictability when playing. Unrelated to the guitar, when using external sequencer samples, a few may have a delayed attack for effect (creates a perceived latency on the particular sample) that you normally can adjust/eliminate in whatever sequencer program you're using.

Last/random thoughts: As noted in the beginning, I've used quite expensive/elaborate midi guitar setups (~1500-2k usd). If what you want is a device to interface with midi sequencers without having to learn keyboard/piano then this is the ultimate device in my opinion. The latency is minimal and virtually non-existent at best and there is very little glitching to worry about due to the isolation of the neck and picking strings. For 10x less then an ideal midi guitar setup, it's hard to go wrong. It is a really amazing piece of hardware. Hopefully, they will stop with the videogame aspect altogether and just make this a pure midi guitar project. This review may seem full of adulations but there is no such thing as a perfect device and this one is far from perfect. However, in the context of the midi guitar market, it is my most preferred option and, in my opinion, the best performing, best featured, and luckily most affordable, option on the market.

If I have missed anything, leave a comment.

Buy You Rock Guitar YRG-1000 MIDI Controller Electric Guitar Black Now

I got this guitar as a musician; not for gaming, so I can't speak to how it is for that. But, for MIDI tracking, this easily outperformed the Roland synth pickup that I attached to my Les Paul. However, it was nowhere near as good as the MIDI tracking on my Godin Jazz guitar. But, for the money, I think it's the best guitar synth out there.

You should be aware of its limitations.

1) Pull-offs are impossible

2) The tremelo bar action feels very cheap, though it is functional

3) You will have to adjust the tension on the strings

4) The presets are pretty weak, so you will be relying on external synth sounds.

5) The entire guitar is extremely light (all plastic) which makes for an odd playing experience.

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So, I write this as musician. I bought it thinking I may use it with RockBand but ended up using that thing for other stuff:

1. Travel guitar. Can't bit, light like hell, can be taken in two pieces, no tuning, just perfect for me.

2. Open tunings, no need to break strings, just tap a bios setting, you get any guitar tuning you want on it.

3. MIDI controller, for that it's a blast. I put things into BandinABox with it, use it for earmaster input and

it's unbeatable. The MIDI works very, very well.

4. Doings lots of work with little hand impact. No strings, no pressure on left hand, you can do pentatonic scales forever

and the sound is actually quite bearable. On top, you can put it into a mode and it will barf at you when

you are playing off-key. Now, that's cool.

5. Children first guitar: Avoiding the frustration of strings getting into little fingers. This was the only guitar

my daughter liked & learned to play few chords.

Now: is that a full guitar replacement, no way, the response on the strings is no match to real guitar, no matter how

well you tune the tension, response and such stuff.

No pull offs to open strings. If you play a fret, hammer-on another fret and pull-off the hammer, it works but when the

string is open, the pull-off does not work obviously, it cannot determine normal taking off the finger vs. pull-off. But

that's no biggie.

As to build quality: for that price it's excellent, about as sturdy as plastic can go. The fretboard is working extremely well.

So, generally a great device.

Want You Rock Guitar YRG-1000 MIDI Controller Electric Guitar Black Discount?

The You Rock Guitar has an identity problem: It is (1) an alternative input device for playing Guitar Hero and similar games, (2) an easy-to-play beginner's guitar for learning basic chords and strums, with built-in correction for bad notes, and (3) a fairly sophisticated MIDI controller that allows guitarists to easily control hardware and software synthesizers. This creates problems right off the bat because of the radically different markets for these various products. I was interested only in the MIDI controller, and that is the aspect I will review here. But I have to say that, for an accomplished guitarist, buying a little plastic guitar in a box covered with pictures of happy children pretending to be rock stars was not easy. Even the name was hard to get past.

But get past I did, because this is a remarkably sophisticated device, especially given how inexpensive it is. As a MIDI controller, it is very close to being adequate for serious guitar work. The simulated strings on the neck -which are really `buttons' in disguise -work extremely well, and playing the YR feels very much like playing a real guitar with a very low action, making it quite easy to play. Similarly, the strings for the right hand feel just like the real thing and respond quite well to strumming.

Unfortunately, they are less successful in handling fast picking and finger-style playing, with occasional missed notes and loudness that varies unpredictably from note to note. There are numerous settings to fine-tune the guitar's sensitivity both overall and to each individual string, but I was never able to find a combination of settings that produced a consistent performance. I also found that the YR was unable to keep up with fast picking, so I had to slow everything down and pick more deliberately to get all the notes to sound. These are problems that routinely plague MIDI guitars, and the YR was no worse than others I have played that cost several times as much. But I was still a little surprised that the YR had the same problems because it completely avoids the usual frequency-to-MIDI translation by using direct button presses to identify notes. Perhaps I was simply overloading its CPU.

In addition to the conventional playing style, with the left hand fretting the strings and the right hand plucking them, the YR supports the tap method, in which simply pressing the frets with the fingers of one hand sounds the notes. I was particularly interested in trying out this technique on the YR because it seemed ideal for it given its direct, button-based note generation. That mode does, in fact, work quite well on the YR, and I have seen YouTube videos of people getting spectacular results from the YR using this technique. My only disappointment here is that the velocity-sensitivity of the YR applies only to the right hand. When you use the tap method, every note has the same volume. For me, that just stripped away too much expressiveness.

In short, this was not the MIDI-guitar solution I had hoped it might be from the reviews I read and the videos I watched. However, I should point out that I've been playing guitar for over 50 years (yes, it's been that long), and I have developed a playing style that places exceptional demands on any MIDI guitar. I didn't really expect MIDI-Nirvana, but I did hope that the YR could provide me with a fun little knock-around guitar I could take on the road with me. If the tracking were a little faster and more consistent, it would have.

But I can add another perspective that might be more useful to someone with less experience with the instrument. I have taught many students how to play guitar, and I think that most beginning guitarists would find this to be an excellent way to learn to play. It's very easy to fret, it automatically catches out-of-scale notes to help the player learn which notes work given the chords, and it provides backing tracks that could make learning a lot more fun. I also think that many intermediate guitarists would enjoy playing the YR, especially if they were more interested in strumming or playing lead than in finger-picking.

All in all, the YR is a remarkably flexible and powerful guitar-style controller given its price point, and I am giving it a four-star rating despite the fact that it didn't fit my particular needs. In fact, I would have given it five stars had the supporting materials matched the quality of the guitar itself. It shipped with a helpful wall chart and a short manual that was reasonably well written, but the documentation was out of date and gave very little idea of the true potential of this instrument. Only if you go to the web site do you discover that (1) there is new firmware that radically enhances the guitar's capabilities, (2) there is a "supplement" to the manual that describes these features in detail, and (3) there is an interactive editor that allows you to make advanced settings on your computer rather than navigating the menus on the tiny screen on the guitar itself. None of this is mentioned in the documentation, despite the fact that the new features were released quite some time ago. Given all the work that must have gone into creating this product, I would think they could at least update the manual to reflect the current feature set and let the buyer know about the editor. I can only wonder how many people get this thing and never even suspect its many hidden talents.

In summary: If you want to upgrade your controller for Guitar Hero, or learn how to play a guitar as it is actually played, or simply have a small guitar you can snap apart and take with you wherever you go, you should be very happy with the You Rock Guitar. And if you already know how to play the guitar and want a flexible, easy-to-use controller for a MIDI synthesizer, then the YR may work well for you provided you understand its limits. But if you're in the latter group, be sure to update the firmware, read the supplementary documentation, and download the editor or you'll be missing half the power of this remarkable instrument.

I am a retired person picking up the guitar after many years of neglect. I am very competent at chords, Travis picking, playing specific songs I worked to learn and reading TAB. I've often wanted to practice improv and play along with recordings, but never could find a comfortable way to start. I bought a You Rock Guitar and I think I've found my answer.

For me, the best part of the You Rock is the detailed scales they illustrate on tabs in the enclosed poster(s) and the guides to the prerecorded background rhythms that list the scales and chords that go with each rhythm. These background pieces cover a pretty broad range of tempos and styles and give you a basis to practice improv leads and background riffs for a bunch of different (and familiar sounding) chord patterns.

I have a great acoustic guitar and have always longed for a nylon string classical, an electric and a twelve-string to practice against old songs that I love. Here they all are in one package, plus a midi interface that I can work with on Garage Band with some fluency.

I'm not a great musician, but I want to learn without having to imagine "what would this sound like if I actually had an electric guitar with distortion" or "how much better would this be with a fuller twelve-string sound". Sure this is not perfect....I'll be the 100th person to point out that you cannot bend the strings, play harmonics or play muted or with the varying sounds you get on an acoustic by playing near the bridge or thumping the body. But, you know what? I cannot get flute sounds out of my $3000 six string acoustic, nor can I make it wail, nor can I play it at midnight when the rest of the house is trying to sleep.

This is a very good deal for less than $200, if you are willing to take it for what it is and not wish you had a Strat or a Gibson hollow body custom instead you'll be very, very happy.