Independent You Rock Guitar Review

Started by Elantric-fgn, June 23, 2010, 09:17:18 AM

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Elantric-fgn

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/yourockguitar/message/991
JB wrote>

The YouRockGuitar device is a $200 guitar-shaped MIDI controller manufactured in China and designed by Inspired Instruments Inc. that does triple duty as a MIDI controller, a practice guitar, and also a game controller for Rock Band and Guitar Hero games. I have played with it a few days now, and have come to some preliminary conclusions.

MIDI

The YRG device connects to MIDI devices via its standard 5-pin plug, or with a USB cable to a computer running a software synth/sampler (cable included) such as Apple's GarageBand, or Cubase, etc.

As a MIDI controller, the YRG is amazingly accurate, with a major caveat: while it "tracks" your fingering very well, especially in "Tap" mode, the amount of picking effort is greater than one would consider acceptable in comparison to a real guitar. To be blunt, you have to beat the crap out of the strings to get it to register the note.

This is a serious problem; one that is so serious for me that I would consider returning/selling the YRG if it not for the fact that Inspired is working on a control panel application to adjust the settings for more/less sensitivity (currently in Alpha). Picking on the strings is a little disconcerting at first, especially with the percussive, dead sound they make when picked. But you get used to it quickly.

Firing up the control panel application shows how early it is in the game, but it also shows the potential for control that this unit will have. Unfortunately the string sensitivity adjustment is not working for me at this time, so I cannot comment on the level of improvement this may provide for regular flat-picking and finger-picking.

The "Tap" mode enables the users to simply tap the fretboard and it will sound the notes at a fixed velocity into either the MIDI capable hardware or the computer application. This works very, very well.

It's quickly apparent that the YRG can allow the player to transcend what one can do on a traditional guitar, since it doesn't rely upon string and pickup dynamics to sound the notes. This mode is a lot of fun! Unfortunately for many things, the picking is still a necessity.

As a Practice/Teaching Guitar

The YRG has a lot of different guitar and synth sounds built into the device that can then be connected to either a guitar amp, headphones, or mixer. Acoustic guitars of various types, electric guitars, and synths are represented here.

The YRG is thus marketed as a teaching/travel/practice guitar because of this, because it "can't go out of tune" and doesn't hurt one's fingers.

I will say that due to the versatility that the MIDI functionality provides as well as the halfway decent acoustic guitar tones the YRG is an adequate travel/practice "guitar". However I put "guitar" in quotes for a reason: it is most definitely NOT a real guitar, at least not by most people's definition.

It is for this reason I wouldn't think of using it to teach. I have been a student of various teachers and styles for years, and have now been teaching for a few years, and what I've found is that it is important for a student to learn how to tune their guitar, to learn string control, vibrato, bending, string to fret pressure, intonation, and picking hand control.

These are all aspects that are crucial to learning how to play guitar, and none of these factors are possible with the YRG. I feel as though it's a disservice to the student to hand them this unit to start off with, and say "this is a guitar, learn on this", because when they go to grab a real guitar, be it acoustic or electric, they'll be in for a huge shock, and quite possibly be turned off of guitar for good.

This isn't to say the YRG has no use in the teaching realm. I plan to put it to good use for notational purposes with Notion's Progression software, which does both traditional music notation as well as guitar tablature. It's incredibly useful for this, and will be one of the main purposes for me.

Also, I would encourage a student to buy a YRG for the reasons I've outlined above for MIDI. While it's not a good teaching guitar, the student can take what they've learned about playing a real guitar, and use it to compose using different virtual instruments, to see how different instruments can sound. It really opens up a new world for students, and that's a good thing.

As for the internal sounds, I must say that it's a bit of a mixed bag. While the acoustic guitar and synth sounds are fairly serviceable, the electric tones are bad. Laughably 80's Casio keyboard bad. Also, none of the tones seem to react to velocity changes in a way that a multi-sampled virtual synth would, i.e. tonalities don't seem to change.

So while the intentions of putting these tones in here were good, I think I'll either stick to primarily the acoustic tones for practice, or most likely just using it with a computer triggering SampleTank, who's multi-sampled acoustic and electric guitar tones are far superior.

As a Game Controller

I can't really comment too much on this, because I actually detest Guitar Hero for the most part, and when playing Rock Band I prefer to play drums, since I am not a drummer in "real life" and find it more entertaining when playing a game with a group of people.

However I will say that these types of games are mostly frustrating due to how unnatural the paddle feels in lieu of picking, and the YRG would definitely solve this issue. That being said, I won't be running out to buy the latest Guitar Hero anytime soon. It's just not my thing.

Construction

The construction of the YRG is decent enough for a $200 device. It won't have me shelving my PRS or Ibanez guitars anytime soon though. The neck flexes a bit more than I'd like when chording, and it has an overall plastic-ey feel to it. Not surprising, since it IS plastic of course. The strings feel solidly attached and not flimsy. The membrane fingerboard is nicely made, and should hold up for quite some time. It's about as well made as something made entirely of plastic can be, I would think.

I do think it'd be neat if Inspired came out with a "YRG Pro" which forgoes any game/toy aspect of the unit and concentrates on its MIDI capabilities, while also being made of wood for the neck and body. This would be far more inviting to guitarists because it would feel more substantial as well as feeling and looking more familiar.

In Conclusion

The string sensitivity thing is a major downside of the You Rock Guitar, and I'm trying very hard to be patient with Inspired as they work on the promised application to allow users to have the flexibility to increase this string sensitivity. If they can fix that one issue, this thing is going to be incredibly handy for recording different instrumentation that I otherwise couldn't do, such as piano, strings, synths, etc. For $200, it's definitely a great value.

The internal tones and game aspect of it I could completely live without, but since it doesn't really hurt the functionality of MIDI I couldn't care less if they included it or not. I'm sure someone will enjoy those features. Inspired probably did the right thing by trying to be more things to more people without hurting any one of the functions individually.

I definitely give it a "thumbs up" and do recommend it, but an asterisk: they need to fix the string sensitivity ASAP.
. . . the future ain't what it used to be . . .

Teach Yourself Singing

Hi All,
    The YRG is a new kind of guitar and it allows one to do many guitar things that are impossible to do with a normal acoustic and electric guitar. And it by its design, makes learning guitar faster, easier, and more fun for both kids and adults. And it also makes teaching guitar, easier, faster, and more fun for guitar teachers and other music educators.
    All guitar stills you learn with a YRG will transfer to a normal guitar if YRG owners ever wish to do so. Any flat pick or fingerpicking skills, any chord knowledge, and songs you learn to play, any lead guitar skills, and rhythm guitar skills, any music reading skills, and so on. These guitar skills are not going to vanish from your hands, fingers, and brain, if one chooses to own both a You Rock Guitar and a normal guitar.
    Those teaching guitar in one on one lessons, small groups, or large classes, most will see the many advantages of using a You Rock Guitar for teaching guitar. It combines the most important features of a normal guitar with many additional music making, creating and learning about music features.
    One does not just learn to play a guitar with the You Rock Guitar. One can explore creating ones own music by composing right out of the box on the first day one owns or plays a You Rock Guitar. The combination of the Jam Tracks and the You Rock Guitar solo modes, total guitar newbies can be playing both Lead Guitar and Rhythm Guitar right away along with the Jam Tracks. And they are not limited to just a single guitar while doing so. They can select any of the YRGs 25 Digital Guitars and 50 Synth Sounds, even layer any Digital Guitar and any Synth Sounds.
   Music Educators love anything that allows one to not just learn music, but create their own music also. The YRG is the first guitar even designed that allows both learning and creating instantly.
   The You Rock Guitar has many additional features designed for learning, creating, recording and performing music. You have Drum Loops, full midi guitar output to music software and software synths and hardware synths. You have a built in recorder, you have audio in and outs to iPods and other music storage and playback devices.
   The YRGs detachable neck pops off to make carrying the YRG from home to school, or over to a friends house, or to a music lesson, or music class, guick and easy. The YRG is a go anywhere, do anything, music learning and music creating guitar.
   Most guitar teachers and music educators will love its many music learning and creating features. The You Rock Guitar is the first guitar designed for immediate guitar learning and music creating right away.
   And for those who have hand and eye and rhythm coordination skills learned in Rock Band and Guitar Hero, you can apply those skills directly to the YRG. Music educators and Guitar Teachers can also incorporate using Rock Band and Guitar Hero, both the games and the songs in those games into their music lessons and music classes.
   The You Rock Guitar is a win, win, for everyone.
Happy Learning and Music Making
Teach Yourself Singing
   

polaris20-fgn

Quote from: Teach Yourself Singing on June 23, 2010, 12:59:37 PM
Hi All,
    The YRG is a new kind of guitar and it allows one to do many guitar things that are impossible to do with a normal acoustic and electric guitar. And it by its design, makes learning guitar faster, easier, and more fun for both kids and adults. And it also makes teaching guitar, easier, faster, and more fun for guitar teachers and other music educators.
    All guitar stills you learn with a YRG will transfer to a normal guitar if YRG owners ever wish to do so. Any flat pick or fingerpicking skills, any chord knowledge, and songs you learn to play, any lead guitar skills, and rhythm guitar skills, any music reading skills, and so on. These guitar skills are not going to vanish from your hands, fingers, and brain, if one chooses to own both a You Rock Guitar and a normal guitar.
    Those teaching guitar in one on one lessons, small groups, or large classes, most will see the many advantages of using a You Rock Guitar for teaching guitar. It combines the most important features of a normal guitar with many additional music making, creating and learning about music features.
    One does not just learn to play a guitar with the You Rock Guitar. One can explore creating ones own music by composing right out of the box on the first day one owns or plays a You Rock Guitar. The combination of the Jam Tracks and the You Rock Guitar solo modes, total guitar newbies can be playing both Lead Guitar and Rhythm Guitar right away along with the Jam Tracks. And they are not limited to just a single guitar while doing so. They can select any of the YRGs 25 Digital Guitars and 50 Synth Sounds, even layer any Digital Guitar and any Synth Sounds.
   Music Educators love anything that allows one to not just learn music, but create their own music also. The YRG is the first guitar even designed that allows both learning and creating instantly.
   The You Rock Guitar has many additional features designed for learning, creating, recording and performing music. You have Drum Loops, full midi guitar output to music software and software synths and hardware synths. You have a built in recorder, you have audio in and outs to iPods and other music storage and playback devices.
   The YRGs detachable neck pops off to make carrying the YRG from home to school, or over to a friends house, or to a music lesson, or music class, guick and easy. The YRG is a go anywhere, do anything, music learning and music creating guitar.
   Most guitar teachers and music educators will love its many music learning and creating features. The You Rock Guitar is the first guitar designed for immediate guitar learning and music creating right away.
   And for those who have hand and eye and rhythm coordination skills learned in Rock Band and Guitar Hero, you can apply those skills directly to the YRG. Music educators and Guitar Teachers can also incorporate using Rock Band and Guitar Hero, both the games and the songs in those games into their music lessons and music classes.
   The You Rock Guitar is a win, win, for everyone.
Happy Learning and Music Making
Teach Yourself Singing


Hi Tim Kelly.

Graeme-fgn

Oh no!!

I joined this forum to get away from all this hyperbole.

polaris20-fgn

I am the writer of that review, and I would like to add that after a few weeks with it, it's up on eBay. There's nothing wrong with it physically, it just doesn't play like I thought it would, even after the firmware upgrade and app adjustments. The neck is positively painful to play for any great length of time, and overall I'm disappointed with the feel of it.

The MIDI aspect of it is quite lacking, and I'm quite tired of waiting for the continual promises from Inspired that there will be improvements down the road via firmware/software. I paid $200 for a beta product.

I will be continuing to use my Graphtech Ghost/Roland system, because while it doesn't track as fast, it's a far nicer playing instrument in every way imaginable. I will also be saving for the ZTar Z5S, or perhaps picking up their Rock Controller. I have more faith in Starr Labs to put out something that works well than I do Inspired.

Elantric-fgn

#5
Thanks for allowing me to repost your initial review , and posting your update.

In my life, the tools I use are defined by their size and "grab and go" nature. As an all in one solution for mobile MIDI guitar like experience under $200, nothing else matches a YRG.

at this hour ;)

But wait a few month for the competition to heat up !

But i doubt the competition  will ever match the YRG's features for less than the YRG's original $179 price

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100709/ap_on_bi_ge/as_china_cheap_no_more;_ylt=AjsV7PDriYtMfph2YNBhCnaGWo14;_ylu=X3oDMTNiZDJwdnNzBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwNzA5L2FzX2NoaW5hX2NoZWFwX25vX21vcmUEY2NvZGUDbW9zdHBvcHVsYXIEY3BvcwM1BHBvcwM1BHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcmllcwRzbGsDY2hlYXBtYWRlaW5j


. . . the future ain't what it used to be . . .

polaris20-fgn

Quote from:  Elantric on July 09, 2010, 08:04:26 AM
Thanks for allowing me to repost your initial review , and posting your update.

In my life, the tools I use are defined by their size and "grab and go" nature. As an all in one solution for mobile MIDI guitar like experience under $200, nothing else matches a YRG.

at this hour ;)

But wait a few month for the competition to heat up !

But i doubt the competition  will ever match the YRG's features for less than the YRG's original $179 price

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100709/ap_on_bi_ge/as_china_cheap_no_more;_ylt=AjsV7PDriYtMfph2YNBhCnaGWo14;_ylu=X3oDMTNiZDJwdnNzBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwNzA5L2FzX2NoaW5hX2NoZWFwX25vX21vcmUEY2NvZGUDbW9zdHBvcHVsYXIEY3BvcwM1BHBvcwM1BHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcmllcwRzbGsDY2hlYXBtYWRlaW5j

I certainly see your point, however I think that many people (such as myself) weren't looking for a $200 guitar shaped midi controller, we just weren't looking for a $1500+ guitar shaped midi controller. There's a lot of ground left to be covered there, and I am thinking (and hoping) Harvey Starr does it with the Rock Controller. Even if it's twice the price of the YRG, but performs as a dumbed down, import ZTar, I'm on board. I can live without all the fancy zone tuning stuff, as long as I can pick and tap.