By Craig Anderton
MIDI guitars are a niche product, because the learning curve can be daunting for some guitar players. However, I'm surprised how many professionals have adopted MIDI guitar not as a guitar replacement, but as a creative, expressive voice that neither guitars nor keyboards can duplicate.
Thanks to ongoing controller improvements, and a better understanding of what MIDI guitar does best, I'm using it more than ever. But a big part of my renewed interest in MIDI guitar is Studio One's MPE support, and the ability to let a single MIDI guitar serve as multiple simultaneous External Devices. Let's dig deeper.
Most MIDI guitars offer two playing modes:
Poly mode, where all data from all strings appears over 1 channel.
Mono mode, where each string generates data over its own MIDI channel.
With multitimbral instruments, a MIDI guitar in mono mode can use each string to drive its own instrument. For example, the bottom three strings could drive a bass, while the upper three strings drive a polysynth sound. In theory, that's cool-but there's a drawback. In some applications, you might prefer to have the polysynth sound respond to all six strings. Yet, mono mode reserves three of those strings for bass.
Fortunately, Studio One has a simple solution: Create two MIDI guitar External Devices. Set up one for Mono mode, and the other for Poly mode (or if available, MPE mode-or even External Devices for all three modes). Then, drive the bass strings with the Mono mode external device, and the polysynth sound with the Poly or MPE mode device. Here's how to do it.
Setting Up the External Devices
Creating the external devices for Mono and Poly modes is simple (fig. 1). The only difference is that the Mono mode device selects Split Channels, while the Poly device does not.
Figure 1: External Device setup for (left) Mono and (right) Poly mode MIDI guitar, using the Zivix Jamstik.
Fig. 2 shows the Studio One setup. SampleTank's Polysynth responds to data over Channel 1. It also has three bass presets that respond to data over channels 4, 5, and 6.
Figure 2: Track setup for driving a multitimbral synth with MIDI guitar.
Tracks 2, 3, and 4 use the Mono mode external device. These tracks accept data from channels 4, 5, and 6 respectively, which correspond to the guitar's three bottom strings. The tracks output their data to the like-numbered SampleTank channels. That takes care of driving the bass presets.
Meanwhile, Track 1 uses the Poly mode external device. So, SampleTank's Polysynth preset responds to all MIDI data coming in from all the guitar strings. Now we've layered chords played by the Polysynth with bass notes from the bass presets.
Enter MPE
My main guitar controller, the Jamstik Classic MIDI Guitar, offers an MPE mode in addition to Mono and Poly. Studio One's MPE implementation doesn't support using channelized multitimbral instruments with MIDI guitar. However, this is not an issue with Studio One's bundled instruments, which aren't multitimbral but support MPE. So, my third External Device for Jamstik is set up for MPE. External Device setup is like any other MPE controller. Tick the Enable MPE check box, choose the MIDI controller in Receive From, and select the appropriate Pitch Range (typically 48 semitones).
In the example given above, SampleTank doesn't support MPE so it was necessary to use Poly mode to control its Polysynth sound. Poly mode has limitations, like not handling string bending for individual strings, and more tracking issues than Mono mode. But if we use the Jamstik's MPE mode to drive the MPE-friendly Mai Tai, we can layer the Mai Tai's polysynth presets with SampleTank's bass sound. Compared to Poly mode, using MPE with the Mai Tai gives better tracking and per-string note bends that don't influence other notes that are sounding. Fig. 3 shows the setup.
Figure 3: SampleTank and Mai Tai are layering bass sounds and a polysynth preset, respectively.
And here's one more trick: Note that I'm still using the Poly External Device to drive SampleTank. Turning off pitch bend in SampleTank's Polysynth eliminates most of the challenges involved with responding to Poly Mode, so the final sound becomes 3 individually articulated bass notes, 1 Mai Tai MPE synth for leads and rhythm with pitch bend articulations, and 1 layered SampleTank preset-thanks to optimized External Devices from a single MIDI guitar for each of them.
There's no problem with using three External Devices from the same instrument. When you add another device with the same Receive From entry, Studio One will warn you that Connecting multiple devices to the same port may lead to copied transmission of MIDI events. You can safely ignore that, because we want copied transmission of MIDI events.
So, does it sound big? Listen to this short snippet recorded in real time with no editing, and decide for yourself.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
07/01/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), in collaboration with a distributor, is commissioning new micro-budget fiction feature films and invites eligible...
07/01/2026
NASA's Space Launch System rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft launches on the Artemis I flight test, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022, from Launch Complex 39B at ...
07/01/2026
For the first time ever, new C' variants allow international users to interoperate with U.S. personnel via NSA-certified cryptography....
07/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
07/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
07/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
07/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
07/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
07/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
07/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
07/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
07/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
07/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
07/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
07/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
07/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
07/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
07/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
07/01/2026
Back to All News
The Trailer of Paparazzi King: The 5-Episode Docuseries Coming...
07/01/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Supports Warner Bros. Discovery Board's Commitment...
07/01/2026
Back to All News
What Next? Netflix Reveals Series, Films and Games Coming in 2026
Entertainment
07 January 2026
Global
Link copied to clipboard
Download ...
07/01/2026
AI has transformed retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG) operations, enhancin...
06/01/2026
Peacock Bringing Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos to Live Sports ContentPeacock is the first streamer to embrace Dolbys full suite of advanced picture/sound innovat...
06/01/2026
SVG Europe Audio: Listening to the sounds of powder and ice at Milano Cortina wi...
06/01/2026
Quintar Meta Spatial SDK Integration Promises Next-Level XR ExperiencesBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, January 6, 2026 - 9:41 am
Print This...
06/01/2026
Milano Cortina 2026: BBC Sport Previews Broadcast Ops, Studio Setup, Social Medi...
06/01/2026
Dolby's Jason Power on Elevating Live Sports Through Immersive Audio and HDR...
06/01/2026
DAZN's Global CRO Walker Jacobs on the Streamer's Breakout Year in the U...
06/01/2026
California Dreamin': LA28's SVP of Media Jim Bell Previews the Olympic a...
06/01/2026
One Month Out From Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony, NBC Sports in Final Prep fo...
06/01/2026
Advanced HDR by Technicolor and Zinwell Integrated onto ATSC 3.0 Conversion Boxe...
06/01/2026
Fox Sports President and COO Mark Silverman Shifts to Consulting RoleBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, January 6, 2026 - 2:37 pm
Print This S...
06/01/2026
Spotify is launching a week-long celebration spotlighting creators at the center...
06/01/2026
Lorde. A$AP Rocky. JENNIE. Baby Keem. KATSEYE. That's just a taste of who...
06/01/2026
In a live broadcast, L3Harris CFO and Missile Solutions President Ken Bedingfield joined Morgan Brennan on CNBCs Closing Bell: Overtime. Bedingfield discussed...
06/01/2026
First-of-its-kind SSP capability delivers program-level insight and brand suitab...
06/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
06/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
06/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
06/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
06/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
06/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
06/01/2026
Boston Conservatory at Berklee Kicks Off Spring Center Stage Season in February Boston Conservatory at Berklee's Center Stage season continues this spring...
06/01/2026
Operative, the preferred advertising management solution provider for the world's leading media brands, today announced a new AOS Services Platform, advanci...
By Craig Anderton
