Support
Looper's Delight
|
Support |
|
|
oh Mark,after this review i think i regret that i sold my GR 33;-) but i love your review,and i believe it,i think people arent critical enough in reviews sometimes and try to be forgiving i despise synths trying to imitate acoustic guitars,they should terminate that once in for all!!! why not try to develop a sampler instead of a synth for guitar now,that would open up amazing pssibilities! i became interested mainly in the detuning feature to create open tunings,how is that? is ther at least one descent single clean amp? so i wonder how it compares to the GR-33 is the tracking better than any other unit as they claim? cheers Luis On Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 11:06 PM, mark francombe <mark@markfrancombe.com> wrote: > Hi All. > > Recent sales of neglected gear have resulted in two purchases. The Korg > Electribe ESX (As suggested by Philip I believe) and the much lauded > Roland > GR55 Guitar synth. > Lets take that one now, and the drum-machine later. > I have had the GR55 for about a month now, and due to work and family > commitments, I cant really say that I've delved very deep with it, but > here > goes. > > PCM TONES: > Per has covered most of the layout of the unit, so I apologize if some of > this is repetition, but basically you have 4 main sound sources per > patch. > 1, the original guitar sound 2. a modeled guitar sound, 3 & 4, Two synth > tones. These 2 are PCM samples and vary alot in quality. Some of the > sounds > seem to be there to tick the "modern synth sound" box. The VCO sync > screams > and X-mod sounds, some, but not enough, floaty pads, very few grainy > sounds...and one or two pling plong sinewave things... all nice.... These > immediately got saved into the user area for later tweaking. > Theres the "samples", pianos, flutes., strings etc... Hmmm... OK the > cello > is nice, and thankfully ONE strings patch is usable... not ONE good > piano.. > NONE!! and wait for it.. gazzilions of organs.. > AND THEN... theres the same old set of totally unusable shit that they > always stuff into these things.. you know the Do-Whop Skat singing the > general midi banjos, the fucking pan-pipes and wait for it wait for it.. > those bastard Phili stabs... who uses them? you tell me? > > PCM TONES PLAYABILITY > OK, Main problem with the "New sounds" like the Acid Basses and Syncs are > that... YOU CANT PLAY THOSE SOUNDS FROM A GUITAR... They only sound good > if > they are sequenced, tightly and fast.. not by some sloppy old hacks > stubby > fingers.. which brings me to my main disappointment of the unit, one > that I > knew about from before my purchase: > No Arpegiator. > Many of you have heard me sing the praises of the GR30s Arp, and my love > of > Arps in general. The only way (IMHO) one can really handle the idea of > Live > Looping via midi instruments, at least with hardware. > So...Why a company REMOVES functionality from units instead of improving > it, > is a total mystery to me. With the addition of that one single > (admittedly > fiddly and complex) function, suddenly many many more sounds become > usable, > as you can now sound like that sound should be. Its NOT enough just to > HAVE > that sound, but played on guitar... many sounds, sound like they do > BECAUSE > of the WAY it is played, not the timbre itself. I for example seriously > USE > the xylophone sounds on the GR 30, because they can sound tight and > metronomic, from an arppegiator, but played from the guitar, they > miss-fire > and double twang and are a bit delayed from the note. > > So, although everyone has slagged off the GR30, in terms of sounds (yes I > had to tweak all them too) The GR30 wins for me.. I dont have as > realistic > cello, thats true, and that ONE strings patch on the 55 IS TRULY LOVELY, > but.. there not enough usable synth tones, not by a long shot. > > MODELLED TONES: > Which brings me to the Modeled sounds.. Oh dear Oh dear... Is THIS what > all > you VG peeps have been raving about... I hope not. > Honestly, I think I have to check my settings and pickup placement here, > so > I wont be too harsh just yet, but on my Baritone (Yes Im using a > baritone.. > I expect THAT is the issue here) Im hearing all sorts of double notes, > almost like ring modulation, weird clanging, if I play too light, quite > interesting in certain situations, but... making my guitar sound like a > telecaster... Hmmm I think not... One setting works for me H&H ST (I > believe > is a Strat with Humbuckers.. really? OK then) > > EFFECTS: > OK... positive Mark... keep it Positive!!! > The effects are GREAT.. lots of nice stuff, wont go into detail here, > but as > an effect unit it works very well for me, LOTS OF LOVELY OPTIONS: > Works like this: > There are 6 layers of effects. Mod, MFX, Delay, Reverb, Chorus, EQ.. And > all > can sound at once, with a quite nifty and usable way of routing your 4 > sources through each. Basically within the Mod and MFX sections are also > many alternative effects, for example Mod has Wah within its section, MFX > has a slicer effect. There doesnt seem to be any particular grouping for > what effects are in each of these section, maybe MFX are more for the > synth > tones and Mod for guitar tones.. maybe.. > > AMP MODELS: > But then theres one bit I have missed... Ahem... The Amp models...? Tell > me, > please.. does anyone use these? ON the VG systems.. do they work for you > guys? Cos for me they are JUST HORRIBLE. Just awful over blown harsh > tones. > I have to say that the years that I actually owned a guitar amp, are long > gone.. so... so gone, so i dont know if I would like these sounds more if > they were through an amp.. For Instance.. I once owned a Vox AC 30. The 3 > versions of this in the GR55, dont sound anything like it... but wait.. > the > Vox only played nicely when loud.. so I wait till the wife was out > then... > > "Its been a HArd Days night... Thunderbolts and Lightning very very > frightning Nah nah na na nah... I feel stupid and contagious Here we are > now, entertain us..." I try a medley of all those BIG BIG AC30 songs... > OUCH > my ears.. my poor bleeding ears!!! > > It was just too harsh and nasty for me.. ME!! None of the tones from any > of > the amps are usable. > ( I am of course not counting the HUGE SHREDDING amp sounds that are > here.. > no doubt they are OK.. if not RADICAL, or TIGHT.. or FUCKED-UP.. or > whatever > the kids are saying these days) > OK OK, some of the soft Jazz amps are very nice.. but the lack of good > sounding amps, brings a bit of a problem for me.. How do you make your > distortion? In the Mod section, there is one effect called OD/DS with > many > models of distortion boxes... most are good.. Ill stick with the Boss > Distortion.. OK.. fine.. usable.. same as my Heavy Metal HM2 pedal.. or > the > Rat.. Problem though is that if you use THAT for distortion, you cant > get at > the Wah, or any other sound hidden in the Mod section. Without using an > amp > model there is no way to make a good clean, (ha ha) NON TONED OUT > distortion.. > > Thats the sounds... But now onto the good stuff... > > INTERFACE: > The interface... total joy. Wonderful big window, simple to find your way > around, many many many options. And you need that with all the > possibilitys, > you are going to pick this pedal off the floor for MOST of the time at > home > (or sit cross-legged.. not me any more Im afraid. So going thru horrible > menus and shift buttons is not good. Here everything is laid out > logically > and even any illogicallity is shown simply and easily so you can find it > and > fix it with the minimum of hassle. > > PICKUP/SWITCHES: > There is something a bit wrong with the implementation of the pick-up > switches. They havent really decided what the volume control or > guitar/synth > switch are supposed to do, so it changes on every patch. Meaning that > there > are some patches that have no volume controI not from the foot-pedal OR > the > GK Vol. To me its simple, the footpedal should control effects, like wah > or > pitch shift or where Volume is an effect, and the GK pickup should handle > the volume of the modelled guitar tone, OR volume of whole pedal. But.. > no... even I cant quite figure out what to do there. On the GR30 it was > simple, synth or guitar, and mix... now with 4 (ok 3 if you lump the > synth > tones) they are really missing a volume control, so... Um.. whay not an > extra pedal jack in the back?,, Um there isnt one.. OK.. > > MISSING IN ACTION: > Oh and one more niggling thing missing from the 30 to 55. Silly but > important (maybe it IS there in setting , havent found it) That when > zooming > through patches, the GK switch had a clever way of speeding up the > cycling. > You could press and hold, patches start counting up, then press the OTHER > button as well and it would speed up the counting (jumping 5 or 10 at a > time) till you were in the neigbourhood of the patch, then you release > the > extra button and it goes back to counting normally. VERY handy, if, like > me, > you never reorganise your patches, just learn the numbers. Now with GR55 > you > cant do that, no, you literally have to press that ittle button 120 > times if > you want to scroll up 120 patches... So You better start reorganizing, > right > from the get go. > > I am a VERY critical gear head. I have used technology in my music from > the > very start of my career, and if there one ting I hate its TOO MUCH being > stuffed in that is not good enough quality. I do wonder if the programmer > guys actually know how to play guitar, or whether they just get emailed a > bunch of amp convolutions with a note "Implement these". > In my view there is nothing to be ashamed of for a manufacturer > producing a > simple but wonderful box, with little functionality but brilliant design > and > no fluff, The Roland GR55 is not that... Its stuffed full with the good, > the > bad and the ugly. > > Would I suggest anyone else buy one? HELL YES.. its a gonna be loads a > fun! > Especially if you like Buckethead or Vie.. (im pretending I even know who > these people are now...) > > But keep yer Amp (if you like those things) and.. well... actually.. keep > your guitar synth, you know.. the old one... its still usable! > I now have to pluck up the courage to call my guitar tech and see how he > feels about installing another hex pickup inside. I now have a GK2 inside > and a GK 3 stuck on... need that one put inside... > > But Im a little afraid... > > He may kill himself... > > OH wait.. I nearly forgot...! There's a built in looper... but.. er.. > blushes... I havent tried it yet! > > Mark > > > > -- > Mark Francombe > www.markfrancombe.com > www.ordoabkhao.com > http://vimeo.com/user825094 > http://www.looop.no > twitter @markfrancombe > http://www.flickr.com/photos/24478662@N00/ > > -- www.luis-angulo.com