I have a Roland GI20 and am not impressed by the performances. I have a Ghost pickup system , ( the piezo sound is wounderful by the way) driving my laptop. I read a couple of reviews of people saying that the Axon system is much better. I recorded the audio out of my GI20 and a MIDI track to see the latency. With the buffer size to 128 ( Mac ) there is a delay of 6210 samples at 44.1Khz. (Open low B) Went to a store to try the AX 50. Recorded the audio out of the unit and also a MIDI track , same low B , gave 5966 samples (44.1Khz ) That a difference of 244 samples faster (0,55 % over one second ) That's not what I call "a lot faster" for 200 bucks more....... We're still not there yet for "live" applications for the bss guitar , OK for pads but if you need a tight bass synth sound , learn the keyboard!
Axon works best with a pick. It doesn't need a full cycle to derive the pitch, but it needs a good attack. Have you tried putting on strings tuned up an octave. Seriously, they track great for guitar. It's easy to shift the midi out down an octave. I'd like to try a Roland vg-99 with bass to see how well it models and it also has midi out. I kind of agree on the keyboard though. It doesn't hurt to know it, and synth bass lines tend to be from keyboard players anyhow.
As the seamonkey says, the AXON "neural network" thing works on the pick attack transient. Play with fingers and it's basically just like the Roland things. At least, that's what Terratech support people told me when I asked. I haven't been able to try one out for myself. It's just how it is: a low frequency takes longer time to figure out. So a bass guitar is, by natore, quite bad as a MIDI controller. And I don't think there will ever be a way around that, at least not on the pitch-to-MIDI path.
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