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Permalink Reply by Jon Leslie/Runaway Veal Music on October 14, 2016 at 4:55pm

I think most software these days should work with USB? This is cool and I think would help alot of people easily connect to the modern computer lol. Really just kidding...but I do think a USB piezo is the future and I'm sure someone's done it already. Thanks Wayfinder I'll look at rocksmith....this has got to be easier than I'm making it sound.

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Permalink Reply by turtlehead on October 14, 2016 at 6:32pm

I was playing around with this a while back and got it to work, but you have to have a way to convert the piezo signal to digital before you go into the computer.  Simply wiring it to a USB cable won't do the trick.  There are MIDI devices out there that will do this, but I used an Arduino to go from analog to digital, then software to convert from serial to MIDI, then into a DAW to make use of the instrument patches. 

I can't quite remember all the specifics, but this was the article I found that got me started down the rabbit hole:

https://ask.audio/articles/turning-a-vintage-toy-piano-into-a-midi-...

At one point, I had two outputs coming out of a guitar, one for the guitar piezo and another for a piezo that triggered a drum patch when I knocked the guitar.  It worked better than I expected, but I couldn't quite figure out how to play them at the same time and moved on. 

Another way to go might be to get a cheap USB MIDI keyboard which has the converter built in and hack it into a guitar.  When I find one for a few bucks at a thrift shop or garage sale, I'd like to give it a try. 

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Permalink Reply by Jon Leslie/Runaway Veal Music on October 14, 2016 at 7:33pm

Wow. Thank you for this info...I am very inspired by these answers ...great ideas

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Permalink Reply by Jon Leslie/Runaway Veal Music on October 15, 2016 at 9:10am

Ahhh this midi keyboard hacked part is a cool idea. I think midi instruments or virtual instruments triggered by a piezo is what I was thinking about originally ...but the USB idea is also quite interesting ...

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Permalink Reply by turtlehead on October 15, 2016 at 1:06pm

Yeah Jon, I think there are lots of possibilities with midi and piezo triggers in home made instruments.  The cool thing with the Arduino setup is you can use just about anything - piezos, switches, pots, light sensors, pressure sensors, etc. as triggers for all kinds of craziness.  Glad you brought this up, it got me thinking again...

Check out Futureman's Drumitar.  He's been doing this kind of a thing for a long time now and his instrument wouldn't be out of place here at CBN:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BPpy1lLvys

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Permalink Reply by Timothy Hunter on October 15, 2016 at 12:36am

was going to say that USB is a serial communications bus. has ground +5V and a d+ and D- so you cant just hook up a piezeo to it. now those rocksmith type cables have a built in A/D converter. so if you can get the right software to read the output then that would work....

i actually have Rocksmith and a cable , it will be interesting to plug in when i finish my build...lol

also called a Real Tone cable... works with FL studio guitar rig 5 and many others.

ASIO4ALL is a free driver for the cable... windows might have linux/mac not sure..

and a DAW..... reading a reddit thread they suggest Reaper the free demo has no time limit....

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Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on October 15, 2016 at 12:57pm

hahaaaah,a link to ASIO4ALL from an Australian contributor, glad the paranoia meter's got flat batteries

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Permalink Reply by Timothy Hunter on October 17, 2016 at 12:27am

lol... missed it myself...

@Wayfinder  ASIO is an acronym for Australian Security Intelligence Organization

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Permalink Reply by JL on October 17, 2016 at 2:50am

USB is a packet based protocol, the magic guitar cables have a 2 stage converter in them , Analog to digital, then USB-Package-and-ship, usually contained in the over-sized  sleeve of the usb connector, or a tumor in the middle of the cable somewhere.

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