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Looper's Delight
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On Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 11:06 PM, mark francombe <mark@markfrancombe.com> wrote: > Its stuffed full with the good, the bad and the ugly. I totally agree with Marc on that! I researched its options all through and for me only a little fragment of the box is "good". But that tiny slice of goodness justifies it anyway. I avoid any guitar sound, don't even run my magnetic pickups through the GK cable because doing so just sterilizes the sound. I dislike the amp sim even more than I usually dislike any amp sim. Distortion is not even evident, so there *is* nothing for me to dislike there ;-) Effects sound lame. In short, nothing pops out from the GR-55, all sounds just stays there inside the box and you can hopefully make up what they should really sound like and then mix them appropriately low in the background to give a bit of a vibe. Except for MIDI. (here is the lowest point were we turn to the good stuff in the GR55) So I actually use it as a MIDI converter and a MIDI pedal controller (to drive stuff like Sculpture, ES2 or Alchemy on the lappy). I find use for a dozen custom synth sounds, typically cling-clang stuff or pad-like buzz or swoop organisms to stay low in the background behind a up-front guitar pickup sound that has NOT passed the Roland. The fidelity is just too bad for everything except background carpets. The whole box also hisses a hell of a lot of noise - but all this is not bad for "wet blanket dull background carpets", a certain emotion tends to come with it. I also find good use for the GK-3 knobs and the GR-55 pedal and buttons to control other things; i.e. synths on the lappy plus the IK Multimedia Amplitube 3 plugin on the lappy. Note that my guitar/Stick PU output goes directly into the RME interface (NOT passing the Roland thingy). As for distortion I'm very fond of the sound you get by running a wha pedal into an Octavia and then into a tube amp set to "8" (crunchy dist). This is a warm and fat sound that sparkles with dryness as if going to burst into flames at any moment (quite mid range rich but not sharp and not bassy). Nothing even from that universe to be found in the GR-55, but since the Amplitube 3 plugin has it I therefore redirect the knobs of the GR-55 to control Amplitube 3 instead. This works well and I'm happy with it. I find this GR-55 strategy very good and I am happy with it. I even picked up a second GK-3 to put on my other STick (to make them back-up compatible in shows). But I know my input would not sell many units in a store ;-) Here's an impro recorded right off the outputs that shows the good use I think I have for those dull-wet-blanket sounds behind a normal guitar sound (although STick here, and Alchemy synth layered with GR-55 to give some sparkle) http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4963264/forest.mp3 And here's a recording using a lead sound ONLY made up of synth tones; not a good sound but it works. The guitars here are played through the GK's amp sim including the wha effect. It is not a good sound IMHO, but lame guitar sound worked anyway for this tune. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4963264/distorted_beauty.mp3 On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 12:20 AM, Kris Hartung <krispen.hartung@gmail.com> wrote: > If they would just include an authentic and convincing emulation of the > GR300, I'd buy it for that alone. If you like those type of sounds you may find the GR-55 quite playable. I mean, synths follow well what you play. On my two Sticks the exact string length differs by 3 millimeters to the closest guitar/bass setting in the trimming preferences setup and they trigger the synths brilliantly anyway. Not saying that it emulates GR300 well, I personally never liked the GR300 although I was exposed to it a lot since a duo partner used it. Greetings from Sweden Per Boysen www.perboysen.com http://www.youtube.com/perboysen