Hi !

Maybe a silly question ...
I'm considering ordering a stick and i'm thinking of having the gk3 installed on it.
I want to be able to add ambients etc to my sound (a bit like Tom's G's sound) and most likely also some additional voices to the melody (octaves or just nice sounding pad's, etc).
Is Roland the only brand i can connect to the gk-3 ? What would I need to have midi coming out of the gk-3 and then use whatever midi sound module to produce the synth sounds ?

Cheers,
Bas.

You can find on second hand some Yamaha converter and a more recent one from Axon. I don't remember the references of these devices but you can easily find them...

Brett Bottomley wrote:

Ok I bought a gr 55 and returned it 2 days later.

I just wasn't happy with the roland sounds. What I was hoping for, was the tracking of the vg-99 (wonderful) with more warm synth sounds, i was disappointed.

To me the synth sounds were cold and artificial. And the tracking was no better than my old gr-33. I also like the gr 300 sounds on the vg 99 better than the ones on the 55.

So I will stick to my gi-20 and try to find some new synth modules.

It just wasn't right for me, Others may find it wonderful but I was disappointed.

there were a couple of cool sounds a nice strings and a good flute patch, but it wasn't worth the money to me.

Brett

I got a quick in-store demo of the GR-55 the other day, and still intend to try it with my friend's MIDI Stick. So these are very much first impressions:

I'm not convinced that the synth sounds are "better" than on the JV-based GR-33. Certainly not when it comes to "ambient synth pad" type sounds which interest me more than realistic instrument samples. I have no idea how deep the editing is on the synth. I'm pretty sure the GR-33 has an effects loop for running your external effects through it, the GR-55 does not, which is consistent with the "all-in-one" sales pitch. Tracking seemed very good on the in-store Fender - a big plus. I have no idea how well it tracks when running to external MIDI units (an area where the GR-33 is notoriously poor). It struck me that a lot of people who will be buying this aren't really interested in the whole COSM modelling side of things, and presumably already own a lot of effects. For those people, I suspect that a simple interface like the GI-20 is still a much better option. Will be fun trying it with a Stick though!

Cheers,
Andy

I had half an hour with the Stick and GR-55 today. The best thing I can say about it is that it tracked like a dream without any fine-tuning. Some of the sounds are lovely (like the strange flute), but generally not useful to me.

Overall I came away with a strong conviction that I would rather continue to pursue the Stick without entering the MIDI realm, and conversely, that keyboards and/or computers are still my preferred way of dealing with synthesized sounds. I do look forward to some in-depth reviews by people who are buying the GR-55.

Cheers,
Andy

Thanks for telling. One area I may use the SG12/GR-55 in the future is with a West AFrican style band where I for now play electronics by an EWI. Lately I've felt restricted by the EWI when it comes to playing rhythmic comp and I'm finding the SG12 much funkier in that department. So it's nice to hear that the tracking is accurate

I'm planning to program sounds on the GR-55 that suits me well. Just had a look at the PDF manual and it seems the GR-55 allows you to access most parameters.

One thing I haven't wrapped my head around yet is how to optimize the Stick input wiring. I'm thinking that the best idea would actually be to make me a new STick cable that will split the signal to let me both feed the PASV4 pickups into the GK-3 for COSM treatment and directly into the amp for natural Stick sound. Best solution I can think of would be to hack the stereo cable and split both line outputs, melody side and bass side, so I can toggle one of them to go into the COSM factory (besides still being sent "natrual" to the amp). Any better suggestions?

Not sure if this is helpful, but the GR-55 has a direct out that can either be the side of PASV-4 you have jacked into the GK-3, or the modeled guitar tone generated by COSM. Could be that coming out of that jack on the GR-55 directly to an amp for the pure sound of the pickup on the Stick would be a fairly simple. The block diagram on page 93 of the GR-55 owners manual showing the routing options. Again, not sure that's helpful but thought I'd throw it out there.

Karma

Thanks for the input, Karma. I think I still like to experiment with a Stick PU output splitter pre GR3 to keep the option of playing the natural STidk PU sound and the COSM treated signal simultaneously. Would also be cool to set up a splitter that can clone any of melody or bass side, or a mix of both, into the GK.

Hey Greg! Great to hear you'r getting a GK equipped Stick soon!

Hey Per!


Yes that would be possible but... as the PASV4 pickup is passive my immediate tots are that there will be a high potential " impedance loading" effect or tone and volume loss especially heard on the "natural to amp" side of things when u activate the switch to split send to the gk3's gtr input jack. You'd get better results with the active EMG pickup block instead.

i received the GR55 as a demo set 3 weeks ago and it's a keeper for me. I managed to get 2 production jobs done n approved using just the Gr55 and the VG99 and using either to play Spectrasonics Omnisphere n Trilian. The little secret to getting good response with the GR55 is the sensitivity levels of each of the hex pickups where less really is more. The GR55 is an improvement in areas that allow further finer controls in velocity, and nuance which in my understanding requires alot more processing power which now more cheaply available within the GR55 cpu to filter out noise from intended pitch to execute finer dynamics controls. I like it that those very controls within the GR55 also affect the performance of the external soft synths i connect via usb2.0.

I'm in the midst of making final decisions on either the Alto or SG12 btw.


Randolf Arriola

Yes, I was thinking about that too. So it seems the the best solution is to make a final choice on which of the two sides to run permanently through the GK3's guitar input jack. But to do the switching with less tone loss I guess one could use one of those active Lehle switcher/cloner boxes? (not likely I'm gonna fiddle with that...)

What's good with an Alto? I mean those two extra strings are quite useful.

Per, I'm interested to see what's possible with 2 GK pickups on either the Sg12 or Alto. The potential of combining VG and GR with the stick is very inviting for me!

The reason why the Alto is a serious consideration is based on my current comfort and range that i can achieve with my current classic 10. I recall trying Greg's SG12 and my immediate feelings were the string spacings are much closer and the fingerboard a tad wider than i'm familiar with. But who knows, i'll possibly or eventually go 12 afterall.

R