Guitar synth... what took me so long

crosstudio

crosstudio

New member
I just got a Roland GR-33 with a GK3 midi interface. I mounted it to my Fender (American) Strat.

It took me a few minutes to get the string adjustment right because my low E string was sitting a tad low and had to be raised and adjusted on the bridge, but otherwise i got it mounted fast enough.

why didn't i do this much, much sooner. i've been playing with this thing for the past 3 days and i'm able to do alot of keyboardish things that go beyond the reason that i bought it.

i figured i could use it to play single or maybe even double (1rst & 5th) horn parts and flute melodies while the keyboardist plays the 'bubble' in some of our reggae songs, and maybe add a little synth pad to some of my strumming on slower grooves.

i was thinking small... very, very, small.

it probably helps that i've never been a loose guitarist. maybe not the best thing to be live, but very effective in the studio, so i haven't been getting crazy midi burps.

i'm hearing other parts i can play throughout our set list to thicken up our sound. we had been contemplating getting a 2nd keyboard player so i thought i'd give this a try. if it can take the beating of being on stage, this will work out well.

I'll keep you posted.
 
I have an old (really old) Casio MIDI guitar. The MG-510, to be precise. The MIDI pickup is built-in, right between the bridge humbucker and the bridge. It's fun to play around with, but the tracking is so slow that you can't do anything more than studio work with it. Which defeats the purpose of it because you can just use a keyboard instead. I'm sure they've gotten better at making the tracking more bearable, since this is the mid 80s that the guitar was made.
 
i'd heard about the tracking issues, and user reviews on harmony central led me to believe that the GR-33 didn't have the same issues.

however,

i did notice a slight time difference between my string hitting the amp and the roland gr33 sound hitting the amp.

no one in the band noticed.
 
There will be latency no matter how well you have everything setup. The new GK-3 pick-up is much better than the aging GK-2A though. The GR-33 ROCKS!!! We have a session guitarist who we occassionally use that plays one via a fully MIDI spec'd Brian Moore iGuitar 2.13 (Which is a pleasure to play with or without MIDI).
 
the iGuitar2.13 looks incredible, and i've heard great things about it, but at $2000 its too rich for my kid friendly budget.

i got a call from our lead singer this morning telling me that he and the bass player don't think we need the keyboard player anymore. but they just want to split his share up.

i'm trying to make this music sound as lush and full as it does on the CD, and these two are trying to score more dough per show.
 
I have a GR33 also and love it. The low E string on SOME patches has too much latency for me... but the workaround has been to lower the patch an octave and play it an octave higher on the guitar. I have a GK2A pickup that I am looking to replace with either a Roland ready Strat or whatever else. The guitars I currently have that I REALLY like to play, there is no way I am screwing that pickup onto them.. Therefore I have kinda a "beater" guitar that houses the pickup....really a compromise.

Running the GR33 into another sound module is nice also.
Making your OWN patches is a MUST imo, with the GR33. Once you start doing that, sounds improve drastically.

Replacing a keyboard player.... aaaah... I don't think so... unless your keyboard player is just playing "block" chords and nothing really interesting. My current keyboard player is pretty much a monster and I couldn't touch what he plays on guitar.... especially fuller chords with lots of tensions and stuff. Playing a minor7th b5 b9 can be a challenge on guitar unless you leave out roots, 5ths...and even stacking the tensions in order. Not that that is a difficult chord, but a keyboard player can many times have a MUCH better voicing than I could grab on guitar.

Now...soloing...that's another story... and nice pads behind guitar chords.


BTW...cross studio... how are you amplifying your setup?
 
The ultimate guitar MIDI controller has eluded my best friend for decades. He tried the Casio and currently owns the Roland, but nothing has been able to track him.

He plays extremely fast.

Hopefully technology will get its act together and I'll be able to hear him shred without latency or missed notes on a MIDI axe.

He is certainly one hell of a guitarist. Frankly, I've never heard anyone better. That's not just because he's so damn fast either (although he's faster than anyone I've ever heard as well). He's very tasteful too.

Carl
 
mixmkr:

i ran the mono signal out of the GR-33 into a regular guitar amp. with the guitar-out/in running into a Steve Vai optical wah pedal.

next practice i'm going to run separate signals.

one into the house (like a keyboard), and the guitar out into the wah pedal and the wah out into the guitar amp.
 
Krakit said:
The ultimate guitar MIDI controller has eluded my best friend for decades. He tried the Casio and currently owns the Roland, but nothing has been able to track him.

He plays extremely fast.

Hopefully technology will get its act together and I'll be able to hear him shred without latency or missed notes on a MIDI axe.

He is certainly one hell of a guitarist. Frankly, I've never heard anyone better. That's not just because he's so damn fast either (although he's faster than anyone I've ever heard as well). He's very tasteful too.

Carl
Click to expand...

Hi Carl,

Has he ever tried an Axon, maybe with a guitar that has a piezo pickup. This combo has been used by some top people including John McLaughlin.

http://www.musicindustries.com/axon/

I, OTOH, am such a crappy player, that I will settle for the limitations of my GR-30/GK-2A for the forseeable future.

Peace
 
I'll send him the link, thanks. The fact that JM uses it will go a long way toward selling him on it.

Thanks again.

Carl
 
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