Guitar Audio Tracking

Contrapunk’s guitar path listens to audio, detects note state and pitch, then produces musical note events for the harmony engine.

Supported input

Start with a clean, monophonic, standard-tuned six-string guitar. Play one note at a time; chords and polyphonic transcription are outside the supported input contract. The detector works best when each attack and release is unambiguous.

Signal preparation

• Use a direct guitar or DI signal.
• Disable delay, reverb, chorus, and pitch effects before detection.
• Set gain high enough for a stable signal but below clipping.
• Use headphones when speaker bleed reaches the input.
• Mute unused strings.

Playing technique

Begin with fretted single notes in the middle register. Use clear attacks and complete releases. Add legato, slides, bends, and vibrato one behavior at a time after ordinary notes track reliably. Wide bends or heavy vibrato may be quantized or retriggered, so do not use them for the initial routing test.

Route the result to an instrument

The Guitar Audio Unit publishes generated MIDI through Contrapunk Guitar MIDI Out. In Logic, route that CoreMIDI source to a separate software-instrument track such as Analog Lab V. Keep Contrapunk Guitar on the monitored audio track, and never feed its virtual MIDI output back into itself.

See Logic Pro Workflow for the complete MIDI Environment setup.

Calibration

If calibration is available:

1. Keep the same guitar, interface, input channel, and gain used for performance.
2. Follow the requested notes and dynamics.
3. Save the profile.
4. Recalibrate after a substantial gain, pickup, guitar, or interface change.

Calibration improves interpretation of a consistent physical signal; it cannot repair clipping or a noisy routing loop.

Telemetry

Supported editors can show detector frequency, RMS, clarity, note state, and MIDI note. A moving pitch trace with no MIDI gate usually means the detector sees signal but has not accepted a stable note attack.

Latency

A smaller analysis window responds faster but has less low-frequency information. Use the default first. Reduce end-to-end latency in the interface and DAW before making detection thresholds extreme.

Stuck or repeated notes

Check for ringing strings, high delay feedback, an input routed twice, or an external instrument with a long release. Then use panic and retry with one muted, dry note.