Quote Originally Posted by
And I had no idea Steve was doing synth mandolins now. How does that work for you?
Hi Kid, at the moment, I'm using the Ryder EM-54 with a Roland VG-8EX. Stunning modelled electric, and some passable acoustic modelled sounds, but also fantastic synth sounds - horns, synth pads, organs, and breathy flutish sounds, all without pitch to midi - it does need a divided pickup though. You may not be able to make it out in the photo, but there is a 13 pin output to the left of the normal jack output. This enables you to plug into the Roland VG series processors, or any of their Guitar Synths. Steve tells me the Axon Guitar Synth works well too. I will be getting a pitch to midi unit soon (Roland GI-20), which I'll use with the EM-54, to drive vst synths on the PC. Of course it also has potential for use with score writing software, but think I'll be sticking with TableEdit for now.

I'm truly amazed by the possibilities of this instrument. It has a 14.5" scale length; I asked Steve to set it up for DAEB tuning (tone above mandola), though I've left it at CGDA ('dola tuning) for now which works very well.

Steve has been offering the synth ready option for a couple of years now, and is planning a synth ready octave emando someday soon.

I think mandroid has more experience than I do, in the use of guitar synths & polyphonic pitch to midi - I hope to catch up soon, though