[LAU] Suzuki QC1 Qchord Digital Songcard Guitar

[Niels Mayer]

On Sat, May 8, 2010 at 6:36 AM, Stephen Stubbs <theother1510 at sbcglobal.net>
 wrote:

> Anyone using this as a MIDI controller?  Experiences with it?
>

The Q-Chord is quite interesting, and yes, I have one:
http://www.qchord.net/
http://www.qchord.net/docs/qchord-manual.pdf  ... alas half my strum plate
is no longer working after taking it on a trip... (otherwise they're quite
solid and I've had mine for years, including having kids "play" it).

It's got some very weird midi mappings... basically you have to send it's
midi to a GM Synth and it uses all GM channels simultaneously. Perhaps to
prevent "midi overload" while strumming, it appears to send out its strum
plate midi over three different channels.. so unless you have all those
channels on the same voice, you get a very odd effect (which i guess someone
might use to good effect... each string ends up playing a different sounding
instrument).

The worst part is you really can't turn off the "rhythm accompaniment" ...
and even in "EZ-Play" mode (where the rhythm/backing crud is turned off and
you can just play), it appears to output spurious midi anyways. Nothing that
a little midi-filtering can't solve. I tried hooking this up to a Roland
JP8000 to allow for some knob-twiddling while strumming, but it is truly a
midi-mapping nightmare.

It's one of the many reasons I bought a Yamaha DB60XG (
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=200469896509&Category=3701&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26its%3DI%26otn%3D1#ht_1151wt_1029
)...
so I can try it out in conjunction with Rui's http://qxgedit.sourceforge.net.
(FYI, the Q-chord has a Yamaha chip as it's sound generator, but qxgedit
can't control it).

IMHO, what Linux/Jack really needs is a Jack-based q-chord emulator that
doesn't have such weird midi-mappings, spurious rhythm/accompaniment output,
etc. Instead of the strum plate, you just use a midi input. Then either
drive the input directly off a keyboard or use an arpeggiator to do the
"strumming" based on keys held down on the keyboard. Such a q-chord emulator
would end up being a new kind of arpeggiator for linux that could drive any
external or internal softsynth.
Basically instead of specifying the number of octaves the fingered
arpeggiation pattern is repeated over, you specify the desired chord,
arpeggiation range, and perhaps arpeggiation/strumming pattern.

Of course it would be pretty easy to implement the strumming motion directly
with a mouse that you move back and forth over the "strings" depicted on the
screen.

Niels
http://nielsmayer.com
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