As a conventional electric guitar, this Parker is, quite simply, fabulous. The combination of the finish on the neck and the low action makes it very easy to play. With a single-amp (or recording preamp) setup, the choice of pickup combinations can produce a wide range of tones. The single-coil pickups give a really round, full sound but with enough 'ping' to keep any Fender fan happy. The humbucker can go from full-on metal through

But what about the MIDI performance? I started my testing with Mode 1, which on many MIDI guitar controllers produces the most stable tracking. When picking single-note runs, the tracking was pretty much spot-on. The MIDI converter coped very well with slides and bends, jumping smoothly to each new semitone as the pitch rose. It also fared well with single hammer-on/off notes, on the whole. Full chords were tracked well if a single chord was played but, as with most MIDI guitar systems I've used, rapid rhythmic strumming is a non-starter. I've always found finger-picking a better option for chordal work on MIDI guitars and that held true here. (It can also stop you from playing six-note chords with a piano sound -- not the most realistic voicing!)

The MIDI velocity response was good, accommodating both hard and soft picking and producing good dynamics in the MIDI output. What was equally impressive, however, was the tracking speed. This was particularly true with the lower notes where, on many MIDI guitar systems, tracking delays can make

in Mode 2, single-note playing and sensible chordal work all track well. The pitch-bend response means that your playing style has to be adjusted slightly compared with Mode 1. For example, sliding into a note must be done with care to avoid giving the MIDI converter too much of a hard time. The tracking of a small amount of finger vibrato is excellent, and this can really add life to many types of sounds. It should, for instance, be possible to create some pretty convincing string sections with the MIDIFly. More extreme note-bending produces slightly less consistent results, particularly if rapid bends are employed, but even then the sequences generated contain far less 'MIDI noise' than any other MIDI guitar system I've used.

Mode 3 also worked well, allowing the vibrato (why do we still call this a tremolo?) bar to be put into action. As long as you don't do anything too extreme (keeping in mind the pitch-bend range that has been set with the MidiAxe software), the results are excellent.

The more I experimented with the different MIDI modes and, in particular with the vibrato bar in Mode 3, the more impressed I became with the tracking of the MIDIFly. As with any MIDI guitar controller, I found myself gradually adjusting my playing technique to improve the results. If you have not tried one of the more recent generation of MIDI guitar controllers, you may have a nice surprise playing the MIDIFly. The compromises needed in playing technique to ensure clean, reliable tracking, while still there, are not as great as with earlier MIDI-conversion systems. It is, of course, perfectly possible to make the MIDI converter generate some spurious notes, but it is also possible to produce some excellent MIDI output, including pitch-bend data. Again, the ability to add a little vibrato to chords (from a pad sound, for instance) really does add an essential something to a performance and is preferable to having to add such nuances via a pitch-bend wheel during a second recording pass, as is often the case when recording with a MIDI keyboard.