Re: Roland gr55

[mark francombe <mark@markfrancombe.com>]

Yeah you are missing a few things Anders.

Firstly, there are very few 12 string pickups like the GK2 and 3 to choose from, there Rolan and Axon (an one more I believe) Both need a machine to plug into, No, its not midi coming out of that pickup... yet. The guitar synth is the bit that will do that for you, and in a large way is the bit that can affect the tracking and response of the midi information. From that box you CAN connect to a synth, but in my experience there has been a greater lag and even less response.

The OTHER hex route is the VG style boxes.

The reasone why we are all getting hot under the collar about the GR55 is that its the first box to combine both systems. 
So convenience... I think that is what this synth seems to offer.

Personally if I can use it for rudimentory guitar sounds (distortions and reverbs) as well as the synth stuff, it frees up some space in the rack for more weirdness...

 <anders_e_bergdahl@hotmail.com> wrote:

I can see anuy knobs on the gr55 that allows for fun realtime manipulations of LFO's, filters and other fun stuff.. 

er.. it has a pedal?

:-))

M

On Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 12:38 AM, Anders Bergdahl <anders_e_bergdahl@hotmail.com> wrote:

Why would one want a guitar synth and not an MIDI interface to any of the many great synths out there... I can see anuy knobs on the gr55 that allows for fun realtime manipulations of LFO's, filters and other fun stuff.. 

Or am I missing something..

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From: billwalker@baymoon.com
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Subject: Re: Roland gr55
Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2011 15:31:37 -0700

Also Sprach Mark

Quite interesting read Hans, actually most are a little disappointed with the sounds. Im not too bothered by that tho, cos Ive never had a synth that did have good presets. My trusty GR30 took years to get to what I have now 10 usable patches. And back to arps... What is with that? On the Gr 30 there was this amazing Arpegiator, that is a staple for me, I use it everyday, and Ive still yet to try the Walker repeater trick (due to needing 2 midi merge boxes to do it).

 I couldn't agree more though I haven't used mine in sometime, the gr30's arpeggiator and what it could do to drive my repeater was totally responsible for some of the things I was doing 7 years ago. All the impossible to play arpeggio stuff was using the gr as an arp trigger for the repeater, to make single note samples behave polyphonically with a wild natural portamento between notes, however limited  the sound engine was the arpeggiator did and still does kick ass, simple to program easy to use. Re GR55,  I will investigate further but I believe you are right, any arpeggiation is patch specific and non programmable. Haven't had much time on one personally, they have trickled in and sold quickly.

 Bill

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