Inspired Instruments YRG-1000 You Rock Guitar

 

 

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I couldn't help thinking that this thing was too good to be true, but it looked amazing on you tube, so I ordered one. Took ages to arrive (I see that they're still as rare as a wii on release week.) and when I first fired it up I thought that I'd make a hideous mistake! It played nothing like a guitar, and just seemed to make uncontrollable bleeps. However once I looked up the forums, downloaded the free set-up software to change the sensitivity of the strings and loosened them off a bit. (Easy to do, just see the website) then I really clicked into how the thing works.

Let me just say that I've played guitar for over thirty years, I'm not great, but moderate and a home recording nut who drooled at the thought of a properly playable guitar midi interface. I can't review it as a game controller as I haven't used it as one. So I'll give it two mini reviews in the capacities that I wanted it for; As a portable practice guitar, and as a guitar midi interface.

As a portable practice guitar, it sure can't be beaten on portability and flexibility. It'll fit in a rucksack with lots of room for other stuff and as you can see from the specs, it comes with every tuning under the sun, (and a very easy method to put in any others you can make up), has loads of modeled sounds and plenty of synth and instrumental patches, all of which work great off the batteries straight into your headphones. (Of course if you use it play your own patches and libraries they sound as good as they can be.) Some of the sounds are pretty good. I've got a variax acoustic modeling guitar and some of the acoustics can match up to that. The metal models sound great too especially with lashings of whammy bar. It has to be said that further up the neck, the lack of resampling shows and they can sound a little syn-thy, but nothing that will stop you having a great jam perched by the pool or wherever you whip this thing out. Playing wise, there's good news and niggly news. Good news, it's fully polyphonic and the frets, being scaled down and crossed by virtual strings mean that it's a dream to spank up and down the plank, turning even a clumsy tripover merchant like me into a frenzied semi-demi-hemi-quaver scattering fiend.

The niggly news;- What you have to remember however is that these are not strings, they are switches which give on/off messages, so when you take a finger off the note stops immediately, no ringing after. This sounds worse than it is, and you soon get used to it. (in fact it's making me a much neater player altogether). It just means that you get used to keeping one finger on until the last moment when strumming and switching chords. The other thing is that of course you cannot hammer off onto an open string or bend a note unless it's with the whammy bar. That said, it's still a very convincing and enjoyable playing experience once you quickly get adjusted and the makers have indicated on the site that they are thinking of adding a mode to a software upgrade that will work out this small inconsistency between this and playing real open strings. Other improvements to the control software in beta at the moment include adjusting the sensitivity of individual strings.

Now the really good bit. If you have spent a long time futzing with your limited keyboard skills and dreamt of the day when you could vamp that rhodes with that devil may care fluidity or play that violin solo with the heartwrenching nuances that really make the instrument worth laying down, well that day has come. It's even given me convincing pedal steel guitar! This thing has worked seamlessly and instantly with every DAW I've thrown it at and hooked up to a good set of samples it sounds gorgeous all the way up to the last fret. This baby has a fabulous thing called a tap button, which takes out the need for a right hand and basically turns it into a keyboard that you play like a guitar! It's completely changing the way I look at guitar playing and giving my tracks a looseness and feel that I could only dream of. Now I don't have to sequence absolutely everything but the guitar parts, I can perform it. And all for 200 notes. This also leaves the other hand to wrench all the expression and modulation you could possibly want out of the joystick and the whammy bar. Believe me, this thing may (does actually) look like a toy, but it's freedom!

Oh yeah, and you can play Guitar Hero with it, but I can't see me coming out of the DAW long enough to try it.

This is a fun product that will take some getting used to to get the best out of it. I bought it as another instrument (and midi controller) rather than a games controller but I normally play acoustic guitar (finger pick style) and there are some things this won't let me do - like pulling off onto an open string. I can pull off to a fretted string but not open. Hammer-on and slide work fine. The lack of a headstock takes some getting used to and I've looked around the web to try and find one but strange enough haven't found one yet. Some chord shapes have my hand sliding round the top of the fretboard and whilst not a show-stopper is a bit uncomfortable.
The trigger levels are adjustable but even on most sensitive, I find that some notes don't sound when finger-picking. I'm not sure if this is a real issue or my style of playing but will need correcting if this is going to be used for laying down tracks. Triggering was pretty hopeless on batteries but improves when powered by the USB cable.
The built-in sounds allow a fair bit of experimentation to combine guitar and synth sounds and get some interesting sounds and this is what makes it more than just a guitar. Hooking it up to a PC running synth software extends this even further. The built-in backing tracks are not my style but will give the budding rock guitarist a good base to practice with.
I have some small gripes with the tuning options - the numbers don't seem to match the lists in the handbook and I was disappointed with the banjo tuning (I also play 5-string banjo) which didn't have the high G for the short 5th string. The PC software provides an easier interface when starting off and experimenting and seems to offer the options for custom tuning but so far I haven't been able to make this work.
So, I'm still learning and finding out how to get the best from this but it's giving me a lot of fun finding out and some of the issues raised above may well disappear as I adapt my style to suit. Great for novices and might just sing in the right hands.

This guitar looks like a toy, feels like a toy and plays like a toy. The built in sounds sound a bit low fi and the mute didn't work without modification- (using aluminium foil).
The headstock is missing and affects playing technique to some extent. You can order a headstock but they seem to be out of "stock" ;-)
HOWEVER
I plugged it into my korg synth and had a lot of fun playing guitar arrangements using instruments other than guitar.
Slacken the strings off and adjust your technique slightly and you can make music on this thing.

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4.0 out of 5 stars A Useful Tool for DAW Users
I bought a Yamaha EZ-AG a while back to use as a midi-guitar. It wasn't great. It missed more notes than it played. I saw the You Rock and wondered if it was any better. Read more

Published 13 days ago by M. Holmes

1.0 out of 5 stars Nightmare
What a relief; my YouRock guitar has just been picked up to be redelivered back to Amazon, so pleased to see the back of it. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Div

5.0 out of 5 stars rockyou guitar
this instrument plays really well all the tricks of a guitarist are available
take care when using your DAW on midi to pick a preset with instantanious attack

if... Read more

Published 2 months ago by demt

4.0 out of 5 stars YRG FAB
I do not play keyboards and my synth was the only means available to me to use MIDI and access all the sounds that were available to me in my music software set up. Read more

Published 3 months ago by librarabbit63

5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant distraction!
I travel a lot, so was wanting a packable musical distraction! This is quite an amazing concept, and cannot fail to absorb your attention. Read more

Published 4 months ago by edgart56

3.0 out of 5 stars Does not currently work with Guitar Hero 3 on PS3
This does not currently work with Guitar Hero 3 on PS3 even after updating the game firmware, it probably does on Nintendo Wii although I didn't try it on Wii myself. Read more

Published 5 months ago by Libra280

4.0 out of 5 stars GOOD FUN
Good fun for guitarists who don't play keyboards ( aka me ) - Soft synths AOK - bit of a prob hitting the Bass drum on drum progs , maybe the lowest note on the guitar won't... Read more

Published 5 months ago by PENPAL12

5.0 out of 5 stars You rock guitar
Really good product
Didnt play guitar hero/rockband so i cant comment on that
Nor did i connect it to my computer to play with garage band. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Mr.Metal

5.0 out of 5 stars It Rocks
The guitar has lies in that it tells me "I rock!", but so far I don't. My fat fingers are having difficulty with the left hand chord movements and I feel a total klutz. Read more

Published 7 months ago by I. D. Stoffberg

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