Yamaha G50 Guitar MIDI Converter

July 12, 1996 -- Guitarists will now be able to take full advantage of digital music equipment with the introduction of the Yamaha G50 Guitar MIDI Converter at the 1996 NAMM Summer Session. From the weekend warrior to the techno-savvy, players will improve on and expand playing options with this innovative product.

The Yamaha G50 allows guitarists to play MIDI tone generators and to interface with computers, resulting in a wide variety of synthesized orchestration at their fingertips. With unprecedented accuracy and speed, the G50 takes information from the pickup and consistently converts every nuance and expression into MIDI data, by detecting pitch, picking position and envelope.

"Guitarists will now have a versatile tool available, bringing them into a new generation of playing," said Avery Burdette, product manager, Digital Musical Instruments, Yamaha Corporation of America. "The Yamaha G50 allows guitarists to explore and experiment, using their own guitar and existing hex pick-up technology, expanding the player's creative potential with a speed and accuracy unavailable to date."

The Yamaha G50 Guitar MIDI Converter features four tone generator modes with automatic set-ups in ROM for the Yamaha MU50, MU80, VL70-m and VL1-m tone generators, providing a degree of musical convenience never before realized. Another mode is included for use with any tone generator, allowing a complete set of programmable parameters for each guitar string. These external tone generators can also be manipulated by the Split function, which switches voice assignments by a mere change of pick position, fret or string.

An additional option is offered to the player with the Mono Synth mode, which does not require a special pickup. With the Mono Synth input the G50 becomes a pitch to MIDI converter, enabling virtually any audio signal to become MIDI information. The Yamaha G50 Guitar MIDI Converter with a suggested retail price of $749.95 and the G1D Hex Guitar Pick-up at $199.95 will begin shipping in October 1996, while a bass pick-up is in development.

For more information on the Yamaha G50 Guitar MIDI Converter, write Yamaha Corporation of America, Audio, Guitar and Synthesizer Division, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622; call (714) 522-9011. Visit their web site at www.yamaha.com.