GR-55 - Roland: The Top 25 Guitar Synth GR-55 patches

Started by paults, June 26, 2012, 06:42:02 PM

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paults



You can listen, and download from:

http://www.rolandus.com/go/gr-55_artist_patches/


---

The Top 25 Guitar Synth GR-55 patches are attached.

Be sure to back up your patches!

Link to Roland doc with specific info on how to use the GR-55 Librarian to do this
http://www.rolandus.com/go/gr-55_artist_patches/assets/gr-55_release_note_01.pdf



A2theT

Its funny how Roland just determines what the top 25 are when they have no native community.  They sound great to me but who determines that they're top 25?
Maybe I'm missing something, do I get to vote?
Our vguitarforum is the only real community and I guess they've never heard Jim Williams' patches or my "I Am The Walrus".......
HEAVY on the METAL
Axe-Fx II, Roland VG-99 + FC-300, Roland GR-55, Digitech Jamman Stereo, Ibanez/ESP/Jackson Guitars

Elantric

#2
#1 Top Guitar Synth tune according to Roland is "Stairway to heaven"
Out here where I live if you play Stairway to Heaven live- your band better be named "Led Zepplica" or Led ZepAgain" - else you will be pelted and not be re-hired.


#2 Top Guitar Synth tune according to Roland is Steve Miller "Fly Like an Eagle?"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly_Like_an_Eagle
QuotePersonnel

Steve Miller – vocals, guitar, keyboards, sitar, producer
Lonnie Turner – bass guitar
Gary Mallaber – drums, percussion
John Palladino – executive producer
Mike Fusaro – recording engineer
Jim Gains – mastering

Joachim Young – B3 organ on "Fly Like an Eagle"



Sad to see an arbitrary list attributed to the top "Guitar Synth  Tunes " ( that includes "FreeBird" ????)- with zero mention of Adrian Belew, Robert Fripp, Andy summers, or anyone mentioned here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_synthesizer
QuoteSome well-known users of guitar-synthesizers include: Jimmy Page, John McLaughlin, Chuck Hammer, Pat Metheny, Brian Hughes, Andy Summers, Allan Holdsworth, Matt Bellamy, Roger Troutman, Bootsy Collins, Robert Fripp, Vernon Reid, Mike Oldfield, Bill Frisell, Trey Azagthoth, Amir Derakh, Les Fradkin, Mike Stern, Adrian Belew, Joni Mitchell, Jeff Baxter, Eric Clapton, Yannis Spathas, and Rob Swire.


Are they that clueless? (yes they are)

gumtown

#3
They probably got their song ratings from..

"Top 25 supermarket shopping songs",
or
"25 Solid Gold elevator hit songs",
or
"Music-on-Hold - 25 songs for your telephone on hold system".

Available exclusivily from Wal-mart !!! but wait there's more !!!

I would rate those with listening to midi files of your favorite songs played back through FM sysnthesis (IMO).
Free "GR-55 FloorBoard" editor software from https://sourceforge.net/projects/grfloorboard/

tekrytor

SY-300/BeatBuddy/VoiceLive 3/GR-55(v1.50)/33/1/50/700/VGA-7/V-Bass, Yam-G10, GPK-4, DIY X-Bee HighlyLiquidCPU "Cozy-Lil-Footie", FCB-1010, other MIDI stuff, Godin Freeway SA and various other GK equipped controllers, Sonar X1, Audacity, KXstudio, Misc devices

NoahB

Now come on guys if Roland went Through the trouble to make these extraordinary patches and make this list they must be the greatest songs of all time and to question is blasphemy! if you own a guitar you must know the intro to stairway to heaven and free bird. Its state law!
Jeff beck strat, GandL custom classic semi-hollow bluesboy tele,  mesa roadster, sy300 thru pair of peavey 15d powered pa speakers, big pedal board full of stuff.

DeRigueur

Fender GC-1 -- Boss SY-1000 -- Alto TS112A

Elantric

#7
QuoteNow come on guys if Roland went Through the trouble to make these extraordinary patches

Yawn. . . They sound like a Casio keyboard - or make that "almost as good as a Casio"

Consider what might have been possible if Roland had just hired Bill Ruppert for 2 weeks work to program a new set of 25 patches for the GR-55  - suddenly the 18 month old GR-55 would be back in the spotlight again and featured as a must have item for guitarists to explore new sonic dimensions.
Scrutiny of these patches would educate the masses on the importance of the subtle use of EQ and delay and phase relationships  - but you need EARS and knowledge of the physics of audio processing to use the tools that Roland has already provided deep inside the GR-55.

Thats why I try to post feee tutorials on sound design and studio techniques in the Links area and Tutorials sections.

see this post and download the Analog Synthesis Primer by Martin Russ
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=6418.msg44034#msg44034


https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=18.0

QuoteLearn Music Technology/Audio Recording at Home

Just download and Read all the free Power point presentations here:

http://www.arsdivina.com/AudioRecording.html


More links here:
Learn Physics of sound too

Start here:
http://numbera.com/musictheory/mechanics/physics.aspx

http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Cyclopedia-Howard-M-Tremaine/dp/0672206757

http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Dictionary-Glenn-D-White/dp/0295984988/ref=pd_sim_b_2


http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0393090965/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link



atonal

Sorry to say this just goes to show you how intune Roland corp is with it's gr and vg customer base.I have to agree that no Belew,Fripp or Summers patches is major disrespect to the musicians who put their guitar synthesis products on the map!!I still own my Gr300 and 808 and have been a big fan of Roland for years ,as they created tools for musicians to Create!!!The guy who is playing any of these  tunes Roland posted I feel doesn't represent who the Gr55 user Is!!!But right here on our forum is a group of musicians pushing envelope creating new and interesting music,we are the ambassadors of the Vg and Gr and it's up to us to get our voice heard by creating and uploading our music for others to hear.I have been guilty of not doing it and for that I apologize !!The top 25 songs could be found here with the likes of Elantric,Gumtown,Alienspore bomb amonst the many others !!! Then maybe Roland would be knocking on our door and picking our brains for new product development but we have to create some kind of mass appeal so they have no choice but to listen!!Sorry for the rant but had to get It off my chest!!!

Elantric

#9
Its best to think of these Roland products as gifts left behind by a passing UFO. - the Roland Marketing team remains clueless on how people actually implement them and use them.

In regards to having a meaningful discussion on Sound Design with Roland US, its more likely you will spot Elvis or get abducted by Aliens like Travis Walton. 

In other words - its best to consider our forum an  isolated area that only Roland UK and Roland Germany participate and check in with from time to time.

Its been demonstrated that Roland US is not too interested in what goes on here, and see no need for an official Roland User to User communication channel.

If you think about it - it becomes a huge predicament for them, they figure if they tried to do what we do here - then Those owners of other Roland products ( like the V-Drums and Synth workstations which do not have a forum might feel slighted. And talking with Roland US they indicated there was no budget or manpower for a Roland User Forum.

After 7 years of waiting for them to get off the stick and create a forum - I realized it was never going to happen

Roland has the same culture as Zoom

When I saw that Zoom users had to create and host their own Zoom User forum,
http://zoomforum.us/

I realized the VG-99 needed one badly!

Thus the creation of VGuitarForums in Jan 2008 Which has side benefits that we are not Moderated or spoon fed the corporate party line, and we allow outside thinking and deserved criticism - thus we have the important concept of freedom, which is becoming more rare with each passing day.


I like this quote:
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-blogs/other/4375865/What-s-really-missing-from-the-surface-PC?cid=NL_Audio&Ecosystem=audio-design

QuoteIf the industry has learned anything from the success of companies like Apple or Amazon, the experience is more important than the device and no hardware feature can replace the service or the content.
 




 

atonal

Elantric words can't explain how much I appreciate what you have done here,Thanks again!!!!!

datsunrobbie

Top xx lists are always controversial, especially when listing songs. Everyone has their own opinions. I have not heard this new patch set yet - maybe it is supposed to be a set of "we think these are the 25 best patches we can make that sound like the record" and not "25 best patches that were actually used by synth guitarists on recordings".

Instead of lamenting Roland's attempt, we should put together our own top 25. Maybe open up a thread where members can post their own "top 25 Guitar Synth songs" list up to a cutoff date. On that date take all the lists, throw out the duplicates, and create a ballot. Allow members to select 25 songs on the ballot and keep a running score. Then comes the real fun - create patches for the songs.

I realize that this does sound like a lot of work. I'd be willing to compile the individually posted lists into a spreadsheet, but would not even know where to start for making or maintaining a ballot.

aliensporebomb

#12
Elantric - you are totally correct.  The guitar processor companies who seem to be succeeding in the marketplace are the ones who embrace social media and involve their users/collaborate, create frequent useful software updates.

The problem with Roland is you have a large, monolithic, Japanese corporate bureaucracy compartmented and classified so that only people who have involvement with your division/product are who you communicate with.  Customers have few ways to communicate with those that set direction and policy.

The Roland UK post about the RC-300 this week that they have a one way communication to Japan to report problems shows this.   

This allows Roland Japan to set policy and ignore or shunt aside dissenting voices.  It's not in their nature to communicate on a public forum listening to their user base and function collaboratively.

There aren't many ways you could contact the product managers of a given device if you are outside of their particular area
of the company or a customer.  You would have to navigate the treacherous waters of the bureaucracy.   And a complex
foreign language that has both male and female personal pronouns and forms of "polite speech".

The engineers who design these are worker bees and don't get a lot of say I suspect.  They go by the project plan and what the project manager says although I think the engineers behind these things are brilliant guys who get things done.

I get the idea some of these things are finished, cranked out and then they're put out there and that's it - no updates.  If it
sells well why not an update or fix?  But if you sell 1000 of these things worldwide over 5 years that's not good.

The collaborative/sharing way done here in the west shows that there are other ways to create groundbreaking products with the help and assistance of the user base (look at Fractal, half their feature set in the last few years came from user ideas).  Look at Line 6 - constant updates from them on their HD products. 

Roland seems to get some kind of picture of what their users use - I've heard tell the 99 was designed here and architected there.  Some features were even removed because of a perception on someones part that nobody would use it. 

Some of their products are justifiably hits in the marketplace.  Some are groundbreaking revolutionary products that may have a flaw somewhere (VG99 anyone?).    You don't see many outright failures.

--

And I still wonder about the political popularity of the VG-99/VB-99 at Roland.  It wouldn't be the first time a company "buried" a product or put as little effort into it as possible to "make it go away" (Lexicon Vortex anybody?)
My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.

shawnb

Quote from: tekrytor on June 27, 2012, 10:24:39 PM
...a baby's arm holding an apple.

HA!   Thanx for that!  Now I know what today's commute music will be!
Address the process rather than the outcome.  Then, the outcome becomes more likely.   - Fripp

papabuss

#14
Hi aliensporebomb, Elantric, A to the T and all the others! And especially gumtown!

THX we've got this wonderful unbeatable great worldwide community! There is so much power, knowledge and activity that we could easily beat "everyone".

In this forum  are the TOP 25 (or the TOP 100? ;))!
FENDER STRATOCASTER (1974); BRIAN MAY RED SPECIAL; VG 99; GR 55; Yamaha DX 7

Music was my first love and it will be my last (JOHN MILES)

tekrytor

SY-300/BeatBuddy/VoiceLive 3/GR-55(v1.50)/33/1/50/700/VGA-7/V-Bass, Yam-G10, GPK-4, DIY X-Bee HighlyLiquidCPU "Cozy-Lil-Footie", FCB-1010, other MIDI stuff, Godin Freeway SA and various other GK equipped controllers, Sonar X1, Audacity, KXstudio, Misc devices

papabuss

FENDER STRATOCASTER (1974); BRIAN MAY RED SPECIAL; VG 99; GR 55; Yamaha DX 7

Music was my first love and it will be my last (JOHN MILES)

tekrytor

Quote from: atonal on June 28, 2012, 08:02:17 AM
...Belew,Fripp or Summers...
Agreed atonal. I know many of my Roland purchases were heavily influenced by my respect for "The Holy Trinity". A little homage from The Great Provider to The Grand Masters would be humbly appreciated. Anybody got a GR-55 patch for Fripp's "Baby's On Fire" lead? I got pretty close with my GNX-4 fuzzed up with a little saw action on my GR-33, so I can probably work something up. I imagine there are some good elements and examples of certain features in the 25, like most canned patches dissected for recyclable content. In that vein, perhaps we should nominate our own contra 25, perhaps built around some of our favorite tunes from our heroes. Baby's On Fire is my nominee.
SY-300/BeatBuddy/VoiceLive 3/GR-55(v1.50)/33/1/50/700/VGA-7/V-Bass, Yam-G10, GPK-4, DIY X-Bee HighlyLiquidCPU "Cozy-Lil-Footie", FCB-1010, other MIDI stuff, Godin Freeway SA and various other GK equipped controllers, Sonar X1, Audacity, KXstudio, Misc devices

Toby Krebs

Years ago when I was having a sequencing problem with my GR-1(cost 1100 dollars- a lot of money for my newly married self in those days) a Roland "tech" in L.A. told me the problem may be "all in my head". The third guy I spoke to finally told me the truth. "It actually doesn't send all the information to the external Korg etc...unit thru the 13 pin cable". I told him that his manual said that it does but thanked him for telling me the truth and began making my own backing tracks on my Sony Mini Disc player which I used for about the next 8 years. I learned all I needed to know about the company that day and because of that I only buy Roland when I know it will make me some decent money. As much as I love all my GR and V gear I spread the love around to other companies as well. Especially friendly helpful ones.Loving reading these posts. Laughing my behind off! Good Stuff! Thanks To All!!

Jim Williams

I have been reading over this thread reserving my comments so I don't rant too much. I now feel more sure of my own objectivity and I don't feel angry ay Roland for giving us what they think are the top 25. The point is that we have endless choices of what we want to do with our GR-55 and the patches provided by Roland are good learning tools for patch creation. It does not matter what their opinion is on the top 25 because we all have different opinions on the subject. I agree that user feedback could lead to better updates and future products. I don't feel that we will ever get that from Roland because it is too large of a corporation having corporate branches on almost every continent. I agree they are even too big for all the different levels of product development to have effective communication. I once called tech support and I found that I knew the product better that the guy I spoke with. That kinda says it all, so much goes into this type of gear that Roland may not even know the full potential and in some cases they even my underestimate its potential in the market. They have obviously underestimated the consumer in this case.
Skype: (upon Request)

Everything from modeling to the real deal, my house looks like a music store.

StellaHarmony

I dont understand what anyone is complaining about.  I started with a GR300 in 1984, added a GM70 and TX81Z a few years later.  After a while I sold that gear except the original GR202 guitar due to obsolescence.  I realized that to keep up required buying the latest Roland stuff and I didn't really want to.  Fast forward a couple decades and when I saw the first GR55 demos, I knew I wanted it.  So I received my stuff last week while I had the flu and I stuck it away till I was feeling better.  Last night I decided to try and make it work.  I pulled out old faithful Kramer, 2+ year old strings, that used to have the 24 pin version of the GK pickup.  I looked it over and decided to try 3M double stick tape that I use for automotive trim, etc.  I stuck on the pickup and used a feeler gauge and eyeballed it and decide to try it.  I didn't set anything concerning fret scale, pickup-to-bridge, string sensitivity, nuthin.  I was up till 0130 playing Kashmir, 90125, floyd, etc along with youtube.  My wife came home today and was blown away at what it can do.  This thing plays great.  I am currently compiling my list of initial patches that I will get into the user area.  I need a couple more open tunings for Zeppelin, moody blues stuff.  I am going to create some piano and similar patches where I use both synths to add in the lower strings again, an octave lower to create "2 handed" sounding patches.  I have a lot to do.  Who cares what some marketing guys think about patches?  This thing will do everything I could dream of and more.  The response is fantastic. Keep in mind I haven't touched a Roland setup in 15 years.  I am thrilled with what they have done and since I cant really do Eric Johnson or Ingvay or Steve Stevens, heck I dont even know who the other guys are and I live and work in the biz in Nashville.  I cannot wait to get this thing lined out and leave even guitarists wondering "where in the hell is he getting all that sound?"  These forums and all the patches are fantastic.  Maybe one day I will post my own.  In the meantime just rock on and be grateful.  BTW it really beats the old Stella Harmony.

Toby Krebs

And the GR55 beats the hell out of the Sears Silvertone plywood acoustic my mom ordered from the catalog. She told me we could not afford a saxaphone and gave me the guitar and a Mel Bay book instead.