Quote from: jaysteeleglobal on Today at 01:53:50 PMWell I did the factory reset but same result. i moved over to the dell win 10 computer cant even get the computer to recognize the driver in the software update driver section. ? Why does it always say installed successfully but never gets installed? I really don't know what to do at this point it feels like ill never be able to add new sounds ( I really can't program this thing) The copy/paste feature in librarian is so useful. Very frustrating that no matter what I do Driver installs but any computer cant see it.
To bad you cant add g5l files from usb....
Thanks guys just one of those things. I guess I'll live without.

If you are on Windows, perform a Manual USB driver install, detailed instructions  in the README.htm here


https://www.roland.com/ca/support/by_product/gr-55/updates_drivers/97fa0fb9-714f-4b46-a6f6-1b6e1494d009/

Well I did the factory reset but same result. i moved over to the dell win 10 computer cant even get the computer to recognize the driver in the software update driver section. ? Why does it always say installed successfully but never gets installed? I really don't know what to do at this point it feels like ill never be able to add new sounds ( I really can't program this thing) The copy/paste feature in librarian is so useful. Very frustrating that no matter what I do Driver installs but any computer cant see it.
To bad you cant add g5l files from usb....
Thanks guys just one of those things. I guess I'll live without.

Quote from: jonbda1492 on Today at 10:30:52 AMHi
I am interested to know if this pickup would work with a Steel string Yamaha silent guitar (SLG 200S)
Thanks
Jonathan

After restring with electric guitar strings - yes

Hi
I am interested to know if this pickup would work with a Steel string Yamaha silent guitar (SLG 200S)
Thanks
Jonathan

https://www.light4sound.com/


Opik Optical Pickup

Welcome to the group EDGibbs2024! 

K-Muse Phi-Tech Photon MIDI Converter System With Yamaha TX-7
https://www.vintagesynth.com/yamaha/tx7

Pics
https://www.matrixsynth.com/2023/02/k-muse-photon-guitar-midi-converter-sn.html








Optical divided pickup


Henry Juszkiewicz owned Phi-Tech Electronics in Oklahoma since 1981- he purchased the K-Muse brand, renamed it
Phi -Tech Photon MIDI Guitar System. Created a line of Gibson Photon Hyperspeed instruments.  Then dropped it after 18 months



ARCHIVE of Yahoo MIDI GUITAR GROUPS

PHI-TECH  discussion in replies
https://midiguitar.yahoogroups.narkive.com/37NBhFEQ/the-passac-sentient-six-guitar-midi-controller-hex-pickup

Rich Williams wrote>
I'm unaware if Phi-Tech made a "guitar synth" as such. The Phi-tech
units are pretty much identical to the earlier K-Muse units and they
didn't change much even after Gibson bought it up. The pickups have
small clear acrylic bars that project upwards from a black bar that
mounts under the strings, close to the bridge. There is a pair of
bars for each string, one bar housing the LED, and the other the
optosensor. (I dont know what frequency the light is, but its not
visible to the naked eye).( Edit - its IR LEDs ) Ideally, (and this is critical) the string
should dip into the light beam from the top, penetrating about 50%
through for optimum tracking.. There are trims for the string gains
in the little black box, that connects the pickup to the converter.
The pickup outputs to what most folks think is a proprietary cable,
but which in reality is a plain old db15 joystick  connector.

The converters are 2 rackspace units with a keypad, a big 4 digit
LED, six string indicators,, A pickup gain control, and a cartridge
slot. The firmware/software is entirely within the cartridge, so that
the same converter was used for all the different models they sold,
which were called "Standard Guitar", "Hyperspeed Guitar" (All strings
tuned to one pitch ala Yamaha G10), and "HyperOctave Bass". (Piccolo
tuning).

I have a Standard Guitar unit(K-Muse branded) with an early software
revision (1.3) and its usable but fairly primitive, It needs to get a
setup and put in the hands of a real guitar player before I make a
judgement on it (In the meantime I can do a mean Fred Frith
impression with it);-)

I also have a HyperOctave bass that I love, its got a much later
software revision (4.0) and includes a large hardware foot
controller. It has a arpeggiator/phrase sequencer that syncs to MIDI
, and more layering, string splits and harmony options than the
current roland technology.
Whover did the programming of the later software revisions was way
ahead of the curve. I was lucky enough to find a mint Photon-ready
Gibson bass on ebay, restrung it with piccolos and It tracks well
enough for what I do, though I imagine the 64th note crowd would be
disappointed..

I like the converters, they're built big and heavy, like old Oberheim
gear, though every one I've seen has needed a new battery, and the
cartridges are extremely rare, and absolutely neccesary for operation.

You're right about there being virtually no online info about these
things, I was lucky enough to get one unit that included a manual and
a warranty/upgrade history with correspondences that was extremely
helpful, without the key to the 2 letter names of the parameters
you'd be lost.


Rich

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Williams

https://catholiccourier.com/articles/bk-grad-instrumental-in-helping-musicians/
Henry Juszkiewicz co-owned Phi-Tech in Oklahoma ( which manufactured law enforcement  audio recording machines) prior to co-purchasing Gibson in 1986.

He purchased K-Muse in 1988, and rebranded it Phi-Tech

QuoteJuszkiewicz got his corporate start by studying automotive electronics in an engineering cooperative program run by the General Motors Institute. He worked at Delco's Rochester plant while moonlighting on guitar in bands that played parties and weddings. He also took night classes at the University of Rochester for his master's degree in business administration and finished it at Harvard in 1979 on a General Motors Fellowship.

After earning his graduate degree, Juszkiewicz worked for a New York City investment bank, overseeing mergers and acquisitions. He left that post in 1981 when he and two Harvard classmates acquired Phi Technologies of Oklahoma City. They turned a profit within a month, and, five years later, they bought the nearly bankrupt Gibson from the Norlin Corp.

Phi-Tech exists today, in El Paso Texas as an A/V /Network cable  integrator
https://www.phi-tech.net/

Hey ASB
Yeah, I remember trying to look up this alien-looking pickup when I took it off of the strat from Gruhn Guitars back then. The guitar was probably a special left-handed build for a Nashville session player. It has a Tom Anderson neck and a quality un-branded body that was routed out to mount the Photon pickup along with a cream-colored custom-routed strat pickguard to clear the Photon pickup and also had a Carvin M-22 cream humbucker in the neck position. Back then, I found one vague reference on a forum to a Gibson synth unit and that was it. So, I put the alien pickup into my parts box and almost completely forgot about it until last month.

My research so far has a few people saying that the Gibson Hyperspeed guitar was a buy-and-play unit with no other pickups/controls on it and it was strung with six "heavy B strings" which made it super easy for it to track your playing. A person could also purchase the Photon system like I now have and have the pickup mounted on their own guitar by sending it to an authorized installation shop.

My rack unit has the "STANDARD GUITAR" plug-in cartridge and I ordered another full K-Muse system this past weekend from Reverb that has the "HYPERSPEED" cartridge in it. This unit that's coming is only the rack unit, Photon pickup, 15-pin D-Sub cable, and some paperwork that doesn't look like the user manual. It doesn't have the foot controller. This second system would be what someone would buy if they planned on getting the Hyperspeed guitar by Gibson.

So far, everything I see says that these systems did actually ship to customers albeit, I dunno how many were ever sold. I still have no idea how much this system cost when new - I can guess that it wasn't cheap but it seems like it had to be in the neighborhood of Roland's contemporary systems. After all, this was just a MIDI controller and a user had to come up with the MIDI samples from something external to this unit

It's time to drop the word "slave" from our audio discussions.


Article by Peter Kirn*


https://cdm.link/2020/06/lets-dump-master-slave-terms/

"It's not waiting for someone to be "offended." It's about why anyone would be defensive about clinging to terrible terms based on horrific inhumane things. Let's just fix this, finally.

And yeah, right now seems like as good a time as any to stop using slavery references when you just need clear, boring technical terms. It's not that fixing something small like language will make a larger difference. It's that it might be good practice to begin thinking about change even with something small."


*Also see this article which which describes Berhringer's attack on this writer 

https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxe7qx/a-major-synth-company-created-this-fake-product-to-attack-a-journalist