Hi. I'm a black sheep...

[RobD]

hi. erm....i'm actually a guitarist. i use guitar synth and take great inspiration from JR. I was also wondering if you guys know whether i could use any of the patches on the exchange for my guitar synth boards. heckle me all you like for not playing keys, but I play more like a keys player than other guitarists.... damn...wish there was a shifty eye emote....

[Angelic Layer]

www.vg-8.com

[Omega Monkey]

I love my guitar synths. I only have OLD SKOOL ones right now. A Roland GR-300 (ie Discipline, I Advance Masked, Offramp, Zenyatta Mondatta, etc... THAT sound), and a Roland GR-700 (ie Somewhere In Time and probably other stuff, but these are harder to spot on records) with a Roland GR 707 guitar controller. I REALLY want to get a GR 303 or GR 808 so I can use the hexaphonic fuzz on the GR 300 (which is only accessible from a switch on the guitar which isnt on the GR 707).

But yeah, that stuff is so fun to play! Mostly I use the synth sound in combination with the guitar sound (often with the guitar through distortion) usually with some phaser and delay. I also have the PG-200 programmer for the GR-700 (actually it came with my JX-3P, but they are the exact same synth engine) so I can get all kinds of crazy sounds with that. THe 700 has MIDI out but I hardly ever use it, because it sounds kind of weird like if you bend strings or whatever.

One day I will get a more modern one too (like a GR-33) and also a VG-88.

[Tigerfolly]

hi. erm....i'm actually a guitarist. i use guitar synth and take great inspiration from JR. I was also wondering if you guys know whether i could use any of the patches on the exchange for my guitar synth boards. heckle me all you like for not playing keys, but I play more like a keys player than other guitarists.... damn...wish there was a shifty eye emote....

I have and use the GR-33, and although I don't have any patches up on ProgSounds or the Patch Exchange, if any GR-33 users out there are looking for some patches just post, send me a PM, or send me an email and I'll see if I've got anything. I used to use the GR-33 a lot in my previous band, but since then I've picked up keyboards and generally play them instead of the guitar synth.

[Rexx]

Great to see there are other guitar synth users here!

I just have an old GR-1 w/GK-2A I put on my 7 string Ibanez.

When I can afford it [$] I'd like to get a GR-33, an Axon rack (faster tracking better for midi guitar inputting) and an Ibanez RG1520GK which has a floyd rose piezo trem that drives the 13pin out. (plus you get the acoustic emulation)

Dream on... heck I'm still using an old G3 450mhz and OS9, one day I'll get a guitar synth setup that triggers my K2500xs faster.

Q- Does anyone know if the synth engine in the GR-33 is based on a XV-2080?

[Junnart83]

Count me in.


PS: Sincerly, if there was a musician who inspires me in my Lead solos (I mean Saw/Square Wave, etc...), it would be John Petrucci, rather than Jordan Rudess!

[Dylan Burnett]

We're not gonna heckle you, Well, I won't, I have too much respect for guitarists (If they play prog) I mean...


\m/ PETRUCCI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! \M/


So you see my point. In terms of patches, can't help you there, I'm new to synth, Hell I don't even have a keyboard for another week until I buy my new one, then I guess I'll just figure out patches and MIDI myself.

[Tigerfolly]

Great to see there are other guitar synth users here!

I just have an old GR-1 w/GK-2A I put on my 7 string Ibanez.

When I can afford it [$] I'd like to get a GR-33, an Axon rack (faster tracking better for midi guitar inputting) and an Ibanez RG1520GK which has a floyd rose piezo trem that drives the 13pin out. (plus you get the acoustic emulation)

Dream on... heck I'm still using an old G3 450mhz and OS9, one day I'll get a guitar synth setup that triggers my K2500xs faster.

Q- Does anyone know if the synth engine in the GR-33 is based on a XV-2080?

I haven't triggered anything with my GR-33 yet, because since I started playing keyboards, I try and force myself to play things on keys instead of "cheating" and using the guitar. If it's a specific tone or a lead line that requires a lot of expression, I'll use the guitar synth for it but otherwise I'll use keyboards or triggered soft synths.

Although I don't know which synth engine it's based off of, it's very similar to the JV modules. The sounds aren't great by any means, but there are a few gems. The panning Rhodes is really nice, and the e-pedal B3 sounds really good even though it's not very authentic. Once you adjust some of the settings for your playing style, it can be quite expressive. I especially liked the breathy sax tone for lead lines.

Here's a recording of my previous band with the GR-33 all over it. It's recorded live, and the audio is taken from a camcorder mic, so it's not great sound quality, but you can hear the guitar and guitar synth pretty cleanly. The only two GR-33 patches I use on this song are the breathy tenor sax and the e-pedal B3 at the end. The guitar is a Steinberger with DiMarzios and and internal GK-2A.

http://www.holeintheplot.com/share/Sloppy%20Fisted%20Coffee%20Guzzle%20(Live%20Oasis% 20160%20082504).mp3

The GR-33 performs really well live, although tracking on some instruments (piano, clav, marimba) is pretty finicky. It really forces you to clean up your technique though. This was the first band that I played guitar in as the only guitarist, so I didn't have anything to cover up my mistakes! I had to really simplify a lot of things because if I couldn't pull it off flawlessly without mistakes, I couldn't be sure the synth would track everything without glitching. I wish there was a way to use piezo saddles with a Steinberger bridge, but so far nobody's brought it to market. I'd like it for the improved tracking, as well as the clean sound it'll get.. I like those really bright, modern clean sounds and those get it better than anything else. Oh well, someday ;)

Another long and useless post by Tigerfolly

[Rexx]

The only reason I tried triggering my other synths was due to the poor sounds in the GR-1. It didn't workout because the midi delay is bad.
I find that I use my GR-1 most for bass or adding some trailing pad synth sound or other texture to blend with my guitar tone. I rarely use it's internal sounds as stand alone tones.

As for cheating, I didn't imply that I don't play my keyboards.
No sweat :)

[Rexx]

The GR-33 is probably based around the JV-2080.

I think it's past due that Roland release a new guitar synth with the XV engine.

[Tigerfolly]

The only reason I tried triggering my other synths was due to the poor sounds in the GR-1. It didn't workout because the midi delay is bad.
I find that I use my GR-1 most for bass or adding some trailing pad synth sound or other texture to blend with my guitar tone. I rarely use it's internal sounds as stand alone tones.

As for cheating, I didn't imply that I don't play my keyboards.
No sweat :)

Didn't mean to imply that you were cheating, rather that I would be if I played it on guitar synth. :)

When I started playing keys, from the beginning I tried to force myself to play everything on them instead of the guitar synth. So the GR-33 has collecting dust while I force myself to play keys :)

[Rexx]

Oh, I see. Well then I guess I'm still the 'real' black sheep... :D

[Spacehog]

Rexx

Just noticed this thread, and that you said you trigger stuff on your 7 string. Does this work OK for all 7 strings? I'd put off getting hold of one for (amongst other reasons) the fact that my only working electric is a 7, and I thought it only responded to 6 strings... obviously if I ever manage to put my Jackson back together (I need to dowel and re-drill for new bridge posts as I lost one of the originals during my last re-finish job) then it would cease to be an issue.

Just interested

Martin

[Rexx]

I can only trigger with 6 strings. Low E to High E, the Low B is just guitar.