Midi Guitar Support?, Is there a Roland alternative? Options

[iShawn]

I was interested in using some MIDI sounds for recordings with plugins and such, but was wondering on how to use guitar for it instead of a keyboard. I know Roland makes something that would work, but I wouldn't need it for a live situation with effects; I want to harness the virtual MIDI instruments in the recording software.
I have a Digitech Whammy that I know has MIDI on it but I am not sure if it will send the sort of signal that I want. Are there any other more affordable just-to-record with solutions you know of? I mean, if I don't like doing it than it's only a few dollars for a cord compared to Roland's $1000 or so investment.
As always,
Thanks!
(And no, I really don't feel like buying a dedicated guitar to do this - which is why I was first intrigued about Roland's mountable pickup - large price though )

[CanadaRAM]

Well, it's not going to be just a few dollars, that's for sure.

Question: Do you play more than one string at a time?
No, that's not a dumb question, it's key to your answer.

Any audio-to-MIDI solution that uses an audio input is going to be monophonic only. No chords, no notes that overlap each other, no pick noise or string noise. If . you . play . single . lines . with . spaces . between . your . notes this might be sufficient. For recording rather then live, you may be able to record a single-line guitar track and use software like Pitch To MIDI 1.0 http://www.macmusic.org/softs/share.php/lang/EN/id/8/ to regognize MIDI note values later.
There have been a variety of pitch-to-MIDI hardware boxes over time, such as the IVL Pitchrider. They all have lag and accuracy issues to one degree or another.

So, you want to play chords?

Then you have to have a split pickup, which outputs a separate signal for each string. And this leads you right back to.... Roland.
There are a couple of alternatives:
Terratec bought Axon guitar technology from BlueChip this year and announced the Terratec AXON AX 100 http://productsen.terratec.net/modules.php...ticle&artid=348
Yamaha has the G-50 http://www.yamaha-europe.com/yamaha_europe.../G50/index.html
Shadow Pickups has a piezo-pickup based unit http://www.shadow-pickups.com/midi.html

Because these all use a split-pickup plus a digital decoder unit to recognize pitch and output MIDI, they are all significant cost.

Thanks
Trevor
CanadaRAM.com