Roland GR-33

Jpwikid

Jpwikid

New member
There are great sounds on the GR33. I dont dispute that. And adding tones make some interesting hybrid patches that are very useable. HOWEVER...this unit will throw out a ghost note or some freakish hell note completely out of the blue. I have had the GR33 for several years and I have YET to create a patch, play a preset without it happening eventually and totally from left field. I have participated in NUMEROUS discussions with ROLAND on this subject and I feel like at this point we should all be able to agree that it will blow a freak note at you at any moment. I sure would like to see some real bottom line discussion on this rather then the same old tripe like "its how you play the strings". Thats utter crap. You can play the strings in a gazillion different styles and ways and you will ALWAYS get a ghost note at some point. The best thing I can figure out to minimize it is to set your string sensitivity lower. I am now down to 2 or 3 on most all strings now...I have reduced its frequency but its not resolved entirely. I believe the issue has more to do with guitar synthesis technology...its just not there yet and is certainly not there with this unit...Anyone out there use this unit and have an opinion?
 
I use mine 3 times a week in a live situation. I CAN make it throw wierdo notes, but at the same time, I can make it behave too.

I switched to a Roland ready strat, and for some reason, it performs MUCH better than the "stick on" pickup.

I find some patches will do that. Others like my pads and sustaining stuff, it doesn't do it ever. My string patches, which I use most of the time, btw, they work perfect.

What I don't like is the latency on the bass patches on the low E string.

I think the patches where it glitches is stuff where you are using constant dynamics...like organ patches. But when I play something like a sax patch, it's fine too.

I like it and it makes my solo performing or small combo setup MUCH better. I always mix it with my guitar tone too...so maybe that helps to hide anything.

At first, it was a little glitchy for me, but for the last year or so, it's been ok.
 
oh yeah...I wish they'd upgraded to a GR-44 or something. Instead, I think they went backwards with the GR-20. I'm ready for better sounds without extra rack gear. But, for some reason, I think that's whats in my future.

I find using it to record MIDI into SonarPE, the latency is pretty high too. I'd take 2-3ms pleeeeeze :)
 
mixmkr said:
I use mine 3 times a week in a live situation. I CAN make it throw wierdo notes, but at the same time, I can make it behave too.

I switched to a Roland ready strat, and for some reason, it performs MUCH better than the "stick on" pickup.

I find some patches will do that. Others like my pads and sustaining stuff, it doesn't do it ever. My string patches, which I use most of the time, btw, they work perfect.

What I don't like is the latency on the bass patches on the low E string.

I think the patches where it glitches is stuff where you are using constant dynamics...like organ patches. But when I play something like a sax patch, it's fine too.

I like it and it makes my solo performing or small combo setup MUCH better. I always mix it with my guitar tone too...so maybe that helps to hide anything.

At first, it was a little glitchy for me, but for the last year or so, it's been ok.
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When I've used it in live situations that's where i ran into most of my problems....I was limited to horns and strings, and when i used a piano or organ patch the random notes were off the charts,,,,Now, I mainly use them for recording and control isn't as much as a problem with punch in capabilities....I agree with the bass patches, they all seem to lag...and also on the GK2 or GK3 pickups...I put one on 2 different guitars and it didn't perform as well as my Switch guitar that's midi ready....Thanks for your input:D
 
There are no pitch bends on keyboards, but you setup allows pitch bend transmission. You should choose to quell the pitch bends if you want clean mono-tonal polyphony.
 
mikemorgan said:
There are no pitch bends on keyboards, but you setup allows pitch bend transmission. You should choose to quell the pitch bends if you want clean mono-tonal polyphony.
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Just holding a barre chord, no bending, the phantom notes appear especially on the keyboard patches.:eek:
 
agreed...it is the constant velocity patches...like organs, etc. it is the worst. On those patches, even though it may not as accurately try to replicate the instrument, get rid of the constant dynamics.

The other work around on the bass patches...which isn't all of them, for some reason, is to drop the patch an octave and play it an octave higher on the guitar. It just seems to really be on the low E string that is the worst, with the higher strings seeming to be OK.

And to MikeMorgan...
on the GR33 you can select how you want the pitch to change.. For instance, you wouldn't want the chromatic change useful on a piano to be on a violin, and visa versa... so they give you several choices.

What the OP was talking about, is you sometimes get these "ghost" notes that aren't related to anything actually played, but usually they can be greatly diminished by adjustments and super clean playing. Even muting strings can trigger a weirdo note if the sensitivity is set to be triggered by something that light of a touch.
 
Gr-33

I have to agree with mixmkr on a lot of his observations.
I found the most phantom notes were on the piano patches.
So I went to a finger style picking and had more success with that.
 
i guess like any other instrument, you have to find what works best for you...Thanx for all the input and ideas..
 
mixmkr said:
And to MikeMorgan...
on the GR33 you can select how you want the pitch to change.. For instance, you wouldn't want the chromatic change useful on a piano to be on a violin, and visa versa... so they give you several choices.

QUOTE]


Yes, and one of those choices is to turn pitch bend off. Like I said, Keyboards don't have pitchbend (Casios aside). Turn off the pitchbend (all of it) that your guitar is sending and you can bang away on your organ all day.
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mikemorgan said:
mixmkr said:
And to MikeMorgan...
on the GR33 you can select how you want the pitch to change.. For instance, you wouldn't want the chromatic change useful on a piano to be on a violin, and visa versa... so they give you several choices.

QUOTE]


Yes, and one of those choices is to turn pitch bend off. Like I said, Keyboards don't have pitchbend (Casios aside). Turn off the pitchbend (all of it) that your guitar is sending and you can bang away on your organ all day.
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right...the "chromatic change" is just that...you can't bend notes as it jumps chromatically to the closest note. Useful as I said on pno patches and lousy on fiddle patches. :)
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