Frequently Asked Questions

Picked notes are sent in as little as 2 milli seconds. This setting is adjustable in the onboard menu and the default setting sends MIDI notes in 5 milli seconds. That's the time it takes sound to travel from an amplifier to your ear only 5 feet away. 

How so fast? Before you even pick a note, our groundbreaking fretboard scanner knows what notes you are fretting through the electrical contact between the string and the fret giving an immersive virtually realtime experience. 

All of our MIDI instruments are Plug & Play with virtually any laptop or synthesizer. This includes every DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and VST (Virtual Studio Technology). It connects with a USB output using a USB cable the same as that of a printer. It also connects to virtually any hardware synthesizer with a standard 5 Pin DIN MIDI output. 

A few DAW's include:

• Ableton Live | Ableton
• Logic Pro X | Apple
• MainStage | Apple
• GarageBand | Apple
• Reason | PropellerHead
• Pro Tools | Avid
• Sonar | Cakewalk
• Cubase pro | Steinberg
• Studio One | PreSonus

Expressiv is a plug and play controller with virtaully any DAW including:

• Ableton Live | Ableton
• Logic Pro X | Apple
• MainStage | Apple
• GarageBand | Apple
• Reason | PropellerHead
• Pro Tools | Avid
• Sonar | Cakewalk
• Cubase pro | Steinberg
• Studio One | PreSonus

Expressiv is a plug and play controller with virtually any hardware synthesizer that has a 5 pin MIDI input. There are hundreds of hardware synthesizers available. Here is a small list of just a few that we like. 

• JV1010 | Roland
• MicroKorg | Korg
• JV1080 | Roland
• Miniture | Moog
• Minilogue | Korg
• Crave | Behringer
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Yes. You need a separate wireless MIDI or USB system which will plug directly into your guitar. For professional use, we recommend MIDIjet Pro (www.MIDIjet.com) which transmits to a range of 500 ft. For home use, the WIDI Master sends over bluetooth.

Yes, left handed instruments are available to order. Once you place your order, you will receive a customisations document by email where you can choose exactly what you want. 

The Finger Pads are a new optional hardware feature. They are 6(Guitar) 4(Bass) pressure-sensitive pads below the strings and are a new additional and alternative way to trigger MIDI notes. They also support MIDI after-touch which allows you to vary the parameters of the sound after the synthesiser note has been triggered. They can be used for Touch Control to send control changes, aftertouch changes or channel pressure messages, these, in turn, can be used to effect synthesiser sounds, trigger samples, switch on-off/vary effects. They do not improve the guitar's MIDI performance, but they are a fantastic extra way to trigger and adjust notes while playing.

For the analog guitar sounds tuning works the same as any standard guitar. The MIDI tuning is completely separate from the analog set-up and any tuning can be saved to any preset. Tunings for MIDI are set in the menu. In MIDI, there is no limit to how low or high each string can be transposed. This gives you the freedom to explore the entire musical range with endless possibilities.

Expressiv can be powered from 2 options:

• When plugged in with a single standard USB cable, it powers the system from any USB power source including a computer or standard USB power adapter.
• A built in battery recharges when while it is plugged in from a USB cable. The standard battery pack gives approximately 4 hours of use but may be upgraded to an 8 hour pack.

Yes. The MIDI Pro system is fully polyphonic meaning it reads six notes from your fretboard at the same time. You can fret any chord and it accurately reads it. Multi Notes allows you to set up a preset to send multiple notes from a single string at the same time.

You can play both MIDI and Normal pickups at the same time. In fact you can play all of the four outputs at the same time (including the standard electric guitar output, the piezo acoustic output, the 5pinDin MIDI and the USB MIDI output). There is an individual volume for each output and it allows you to blend and transition between each.

Expressiv is a MIDI guitar system which brings un-compromised control over synthesizers from guitar. It instantly tracks which musical notes you press on your fretboard, similar to pressing a key in a keyboard while following most other parameters of how you play. The 16MHz controller sends all this information to the synthesizer with incredible speed giving you, the musician, a fully, immersive synthesizer experience.

Expressiv is a MIDI controller, meaning it does not have onboard sounds. You can play anything that can be controlled with a MIDI keyboard i.e. hardware synthesizers, software synthesizers, DAW's (digital Audio Workstations) and everything with a MIDI-over-USB or regular MIDI input. Think of a MIDI keyboard functions in the form of a guitar. It also has an analog output jack from the pickups, just like a normal electric guitar.

Expressiv is guaranteed to work as the worlds best MIDI guitar controller. 

Our guitars do not have MIDI pickups. There is NO pitch detection to send the MIDI signals. Our instruments use an electronic system that senses the frets you press on the fretboard and sends the corresponding notes.

Our system has many advantages, a few including:

• You can play tapping since there is no need to pluck (but there is a pluck mode that tracks velocity also)
• There is no latency and it's fully polyphonic
• Lower strings are tracked as well as high strings
• You have a regular MIDI output directly from the guitar, there is no need for a dedicated pedalboard
• With the XY pad, you can control MIDI CC (control changes) while you play with your left hand
• You can play vibrato and bendings

Yes. All of our Expressiv MIDI guitars have a five-pin DIN MIDI output. This has been the industry standard MIDI connection for over 30 years which means that you can plug Expressiv directly into almost any synthesizer on the market from companies like Korg, Alesis, Roland, Moog, Yamaha amongst many others.

As standard, it requires a separate MIDI or USB cable along with a standard guitar cable to play at one time. But there is an optional power source which allows you to power the system through the 5pin DIN MIDI connector and also play guitar at the same time from a single cable. This is not standard as it requires an external interface box).

There is a menu which appears on the LCD screen when the joystick is held pressed. The octave and toggle buttons allow you to easily navigate through the options. From there you can change many parameters such as control changes and MIDI channels etc. All of the parameters can be stored to memory and there are 30 presets to save to.

All of our instruments are plug & play with any Hardware synthesizer, DAW or computer/laptop. They have both a USB and 5pin MIDI output along with a standard guitar jack. This means that you can plug directly into any computer or synthesizer without extra drivers, interfaces or other equipment. All you need is a standard cable.

We always build with Ernie Ball Strings regular slinky strings (10-46 gauge) and recommend them for optimum performance with our Expressiv MIDI system.