M Ted -

The point I got from the article is that one should not need a standard MIDI setup to be able to use this guitar to get notes-played onto a score through any of the common notation programs. The article suggests that numerous "voices" were used with it, but many soundcards (and some notation programs) come with a sufficient set to playback from notated scores. This is true of many computers that don't even have a MIDI jack, since they started leaving the MIDI jack off to put 7 or more speaker jacks on them.

You have a full setup to use MIDI. Many people don't. You list a number of devices that, while easily available, are things that lots of people don't have, and that all have to be selected and assembled to create a MIDI system.

I don't believe this guitar is intended for people with your kind of setup, since you obviously don't need it, and probably get better results from what you have.

It appears to be able to plug into most any computer with a USB port, and, with any of several cheap notation programs, producing and playing back from notated scores. The frustrating part of it - even if it does work - is that then people will see how ratty their playing looks when scored in detail.

It's not a replacement for what you use. It's a cheap-ass substitute, for those who don't want to work the problem properly as you've done. At the price quoted, it's not exactly "dollar-cheap," but I think it's intended for those who don't want to make much "professional" or "skill/intellectual" investment.

John