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Looper's Delight
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At 9:07 PM -0400 9/25/07, James Richmond wrote: > >I would really like to hear about your VG99 experiences as well. >I have been planning on getting one and would love to know your >expert opinion. Okay, it looks like there are at least a few people interested in this data, judging from the responses both on- and off-list. Hopefully this isn't quite so OT that it'll get anyone bent out of shape (BTW, there is a Hold Delay in the effects section which can act as a Looper, so the device itself is actually peripherally on topic ;). Here are three reasonably long messages that I sent over to the VG-99 list detailing my experiences with it so far. I'll break them up so that each has it's own post. One quick point: As I said previously, I'm really quite impressed with the box. I'm concentrating on a lot of the quirks, though, so that people will know what they're going to have in store. Sometimes I might sound a bit frustrated, but there are really more positive points than negative. Also, I'd remind anyone replying to the thread to please remove any extraneous text you're not directly quoting, as a favor to those posters on the Digest mode. That said, let me know if there are any specific questions about the VG-99, and I'll try to address them. Here's the first note: >Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2007 22:58:10 -0500 >To: vg-99@yahoogroups.com >From: Mech <mech@m3ch.net> >Subject: Quick(?!?) First Impressions.... > >Okay, I've finally spent the past day going through and making a >cursory tour of the 200 factory presets. > >My first impression, in short? <beavis&butthead> Huh huh! This is >cool! </beavis&butthead> > >I got home night before last, and called my luthier to see if my Vox >was ready for pickup (I'd dropped it off before leaving town to have >the stock pickups replaced). Unfortunately, he still needs a couple >more days. So, not wanting to wait any longer, I grabbed my Stick >and ran through the presets using the GK on its Melody side. The >worst thing about that is I usually have to tweak my patches to >sound their best when played by the Stick (it can get a bit too >percussive sometimes). That, and I tend to lean toward the clean >patches when using that axe, so it's not as fair to the other patch >types. So, all standard disclaimers apply. > >That said, this thing is freakin' awesome! The clean patches sound >pristine; the distorted patches have got some nice crunch; the synth >patches are good enough to go up against most of the current model >GR patches. At first blush, Roland have really done a good job >addressing the majority of wants and needs for almost anybody >playing strings out there. > >Here are just a few random data points.... > >The overall quality of tone has a very "finished" sound to it. >Right out of the box, you sound like you're copping licks off a CD. >Noise is practically non-existent. I was monitoring through a pair >of AKG K-271 studio-grade cans, so there shouldn't have been any >significant coloration from my listening environment (in other >words, I wasn't running it into a cheap guitar amp). > >Tracking is excellent. I've been playing all the way down to C >below a low guitar E, and have noticed only a bare minimum of >glitching (good news for those baritone players out there, I think). >The algorithms which have exhibited the most trouble (so far) with >this are Crystal and Pipe. Crystal is problematic at the low end, >while Pipe seems to get thrown off by finger noise and scrapes -- >clean playing takes care of almost all difficulties on that >algorithm. When Crystal glitches, it does the thing where it will >play the note fine, then possibly octave jump for a millisecond when >sustained after a while. > >I couldn't get the GR-300 to glitch on the low notes. Good news. >Trust me, I tried; just couldn't get it to go wacky on the lows. > >Speaking of the GR-300... It sounds good, and takes up the slack >behind the physical modelling tones of some of the other algos. >Very synthy, with that classic sound you'd expect. I've never >actually owned a 300, though, so I'll leave it to some of the other >experts here onlist to determine exactly how well it matches up >against the original. Personally, it reminds me quite a bit of the >sounds I've heard on records by Metheny, Summers, or Hackett. In >other places (weirdly enough) it reminds me of some cuts produced by >Boards of Canada. They have a way of capturing that dry, "public >service announcement", synth accent in their tunes, and some of the >synth patches here definitely gave me the same impression. > >One thing worth pointing out about the GR-300 is that it doesn't >have the rumbling, punch in the gut, "oh gods, my bowels are about >to release" low-end that you can find on some classic synths >(vintage moogs, for instance). It sounds more like synths (like old >Roland modulars) sporting lowpass filters with a 12db slope; as >opposed to the classic 24db ladder filters. This is *NOT* a bad >thing, however. The GR-300 has a nice, musical, mid-range tone, and >can even be pleasantly squelchy if you want. Just don't expect to >emulate Taurus Pedals with it. > >Overall, the guitar models sound very good. The Fenders sound like >their respective real-life counterparts. The Gibsons -- >particularly the LP and P-90 -- sound very good. I'm not so certain >about the 335, as I wasn't able to really plunk out any jazz >standards to test. The Sitar and Reso models are really good, >although there are factory patches for those which sound both >fantastic and blase'. Nylon string presets are sort of "eh!" but I >can hear the glimmer of something nice in there. I think I just >need to dig it out with some extra programming and EQ. > >Also, I'm not really liking the P-bass and J-bass models right now. >However, I think the percussive attack on the Stick is bringing out >too much "clank" in those algorithms. I tried strumming a couple of >low notes with my thumb (a rarely-used technique on a tapping >instrument) and it seems as if they would sound much better if >proper playing technique were used. > >Oh, and the Ribbon Controller rocks! I didn't think I was going to >get into it that much, but it actually turns out to be an excellent >realtime control tool. Also, the filter really shines when used >with it; it's very musical. I actually want to see if I can work >out the routing for some parked filter patches. The filter gets >boxy while keeping the tone interesting -- much more like listening >to a transistor radio than a speaker with a blanket thrown over it. >And when used with the Ribbon Controller, it sounds nearly as much >like a cool phase shift as it does a filter effect. > >The D-Beam is a bit touchy, but I expected that. It probably >qualifies as an instrument in and of itself, so you're going to have >to work with it to get the results you want. Freeze is a great tool >too, but the same caveat goes for that. The biggest issue with >Freeze is that you've got to catch the frozen note at the level you >want, then adjust the volume of the sound you're playing over top of >it. It's real easy to get the two out of balance. But when you get >it right, things sound great. > >Pitch shifting is great. It's natural sounding, and can produce >some great results. The only concern I have is that I'm not really >that crazy about using the 12-string shift on the Steel acoustic >model. Something about that one in particular is sounding >artificial and rather harsh to me. I don't get that feeling on any >of the electric models, however, so perhaps I just need to work with >some of the settings. > >The Harmonist is actually much more inspiring than I thought it >would be. There are one or two patches that use it, and it's >actually very easy to compose some interesting lines on the fly. >Also, if you're into Southern Boogie, there are a couple of Shift >patches you're going to love. They've outright nailed some of the >two-guitar harmony leads made (in)famous by bands like the Allman >Brothers. > >As I've alluded in a different post, the control possibilities are >fantastic. I haven't gotten the FC-300 hooked up yet, but that >should provide a huge number of extra permutations. (Aside: Hey >Vance! It looks as if your solution of switching Modes to control >both the VG and other MIDI devices will work.) Just using the >Control buttons can add a great deal of creative options. The Wave >Pedal alone can provide countless ways of manipulating the >parameters in realtime. > >Haven't gotten a chance to hook it up to the laptop with an >instrument connected yet. That's the next item I've got on the >agenda. One concern I do have is the possible latency when using >the VG as audio interface. Using Ableton Live as a host, I've only >been able to get the latency settings down to 8ms input and 3ms >output, for a combined latency of ~11ms. Even at those settings, I >haven't yet been able to determine if such low buffer settings will >cause glitching. We'll see, perhaps tomorrow... > >Um, okay, that's an awful lot off the top of my head, especially for >having only played through the presets. Any thoughts...? > > --m. -- _____ "the wind in my heart; the dust in my head...."