Are the VG-8EX and VG-88V2 the better VGs for guitar modeling ONLY?

Started by lichong, August 14, 2010, 12:57:02 PM

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lichong

Who can tell me the difference of Sound Quality between vg8 and vg88?ThanKs!
sorry,I am from China,so my English is too bad!

Brent Flash

Welcome to the group lichong!  :)

Sorry, can't help you on your question. Hopefully someone with both will give their opinion shortly.

vanceg

The VG-8 sampled at a very low sampling rate and bit depth  32Khz and 18bit.   Therefore, it has some reduced high frequency and sounded slightly "grainy" or even "closed in" compared to the VG-88 which samples at 24bit and 44.1Khz. 

In general, I would say that the VG-88 has a more "open" and "wider" sound than the VG-8. 

That said, the VG-8 is still a very pleasing device.



lichong

Quote from: vanceg on August 14, 2010, 02:09:04 PM
The VG-8 sampled at a very low sampling rate and bit depth  32Khz and 18bit.   Therefore, it has some reduced high frequency and sounded slightly "grainy" or even "closed in" compared to the VG-88 which samples at 24bit and 44.1Khz. 

In general, I would say that the VG-88 has a more "open" and "wider" sound than the VG-8. 


That said, the VG-8 is still a very pleasing device.


Does vg8ex have a higain sound like jcm2000 ?I am vrey like the Marshall Tone!!

Virtual Madness

Hey Everybody,

I read in another thread here, that the VG-8EX and the VG-88V2 were the better VG units to have when it comes to guitar modeling ONLY.

Is this true?

I'd love to hear your thoughts regarding the various VG units when it comes to guitar modeling specifically.

Looking forward to learning from this.

Thanks, Royce
The greatest power in the universe is imagination!

aliensporebomb

Quote from: Virtual Madness on December 30, 2010, 05:09:47 PM
Hey Everybody,

I read in another thread here, that the VG-8EX and the VG-88V2 were the better VG units to have when it comes to guitar modeling ONLY.

Is this true?

I'd love to hear your thoughts regarding the various VG units when it comes to guitar modeling specifically.

Looking forward to learning from this.

Thanks, Royce

Bill Ruppert (VG authority) always said the 99 "just plain sounds real", that the "VG88 would never pass".

Only time I heard the 88 had an edge was HRM sounds.

But you tell me listening to this, all 99 sounds;
http://aliensporebomb.bandcamp.com/ on the "before sleep" track.
My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

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

Elantric

I still own them all

The VG-99 has better dynamic response and headroom without odd distortion artifacts of its predecessors. Although I do miss the VG-88's Gretsch Filtertron COSM guitar model


TheGuitarPlayer

I've only owned the VG-88 and the VG-99, but from my experiences, the '99 definately has superior modelling.

Virtual Madness

Hey aliensporebomb,

Nice track!..the VG-99 IS amazing when it comes to the synth sounding stuff, that's for sure!

I'm a little confused though, as i didn't hear any guitars on that track, and modeled guitars are specifically what i was asking about.

I do remember that quote of Bill's regarding the VG-88 "not passing", but i seem to remember that he was talking about alternate tunings, and not guitar modeling.

As i said though, that's one heck of a nice track!..well done!

Thanks for joining in, Royce
The greatest power in the universe is imagination!

Virtual Madness

Quote from:  Elantric on December 31, 2010, 10:02:09 AM
I still own them all

The VG-99 has better dynamic response and headroom without odd distortion artifacts of its predecessors. Although I do miss the VG-88's Gretsch Filtertron COSM guitar model

Hey Elantric,

This is the kind of info i was looking for!

I still can't believe that Roland left the Gretsch pickup out of the VG-99!?

Have you used the VG-99 to model any of your own vintage guitars?

If so, whats your method of doing that?

Good to see you in this thread, Royce
The greatest power in the universe is imagination!

aliensporebomb

Someone on here recently did a "Stray Cat Strut" patch that sounded rather "Grestschy" to my ears.  I've got to get some regular guitar stuff happening here.

Most recent was a "faux Santana boogie" patch:


More to come as the new year proceeds.
My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

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

Now_And_Then

Quote from: Virtual Madness on December 30, 2010, 05:09:47 PM
I read in another thread here, that the VG-8EX and the VG-88V2 were the better VG units to have when it comes to guitar modeling ONLY.
Is this true?
I'd love to hear your thoughts regarding the various VG units when it comes to guitar modeling specifically.

Hi!

The original poster is certainly referring to my reply at https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=2747.0.

I am going to stand by my statement, and will sum up the reasons here.

1) While some people might think that the pre-VG-99 models are not sufficiently realistic, to my ears, each model sounds very much like what it is intended to represent. If someone wants to say that the VG-99 models are better than the pre-VG-99 models, I will take no exception to that, but that does not mean that the VG-8/88 are bad. A VG-8 Strat is recognizable as a Strat to anyone who has ever heard a Strat, and that, to me, is pretty much all that matters. The same statement may be made about pretty much all the other models.

2) The earlier VG's have a wider selection of models than the VG-99.

3) The earlier VG's Vari-Guitar capabilities so far surpass those of the VG-99 that one wonders why Roland bothered to include any Vari-Guitar capabilities in the VG-99 at all.

Here is what that means to me:
If you need a VG in order to exactly reproduce the sounds of certain guitar tracks on certain records, because you are in a cover band, let's say, then possibly the VG-99's guitar models surpass that of the earlier VG's.
To me, personally, this is a moot point, because I am not in a cover band, and am not interested in slavishly duplicating anyone else's guitar sound.

What is really important, again, to me, personally, is the Vari-Guitar capabilities.

Let me put it this way: if I make a patch with the lips pickups on an acoustic guitar and then run that through a chorus and a delay into the Vox and powering a Marshal stack and position the mic off-axis 4cm from whatever it is positioned 4cm from, does it sound like a real acoustic with lips pickups run through a chorus and a delay into a Vox powering a Marshal stack with the mic positioned off-axis 4cm from whatever it is 4cm from, or not? If I add some plate reverb to the patch, will that increase the realism, or decrease it?


I greatly value the ability to mix and match parts in whatever way I choose, according to whatever whims and fancies strike me. As far as I am concerned, "realism" does not really matter when you are modeling things that do not really exist... for the simple reason that I can find a lot of sounds that sound really good, irrespective of whether or not they can ever exist in "reality". And the ability to do so vastly expands the palette of sound available to me.

And a word about cost: a VG-88 costs far less than a VG-99 (I bought a spare for $240), and a VG-8EX can be gotten at a fraction of the price: I bought a spare VG-8EX for about $175 and that included a memory card. At those prices, they very nearly qualify as impulse purchases!

This is my view of the matter.

Virtual Madness

Hi Guys,
I know this is an old thread, but a recent post by Now_And_Then in another thread got me thinking about this again, and it seemed to make more sense to bump this old thread rather than start another one just like it.

Here's the post:
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=6990.msg48741#msg48741

I have a VG-88V2, but I never had a VG-8EX.

Is the VG-8EX a better guitar modeler than the VG-88V2?

Is the VG-88V2 preferable in any way to the VG-8EX?

I'm looking forward to what anyone has to say about this!

I just know the answer is going to be "YOU NEED THEM ALL!"  :)
The greatest power in the universe is imagination!

Elantric

I think for most users, the VG-88 is a tad better device than a VG-8 or VG-8EX


Compared to a VG-8, The VG-88 has:

*  improved A/D & D/A Convertors, lower noise.

* Allows the input of regular Guitars via a 1/4" Normal Guitar Input, so you can use a VG-88 rather like a Line 6 POD for all your guitars.

* There is a good VG-88 GUI Editor for Windows (see our downloads section)
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?action=downloads;cat=20

And there is a great MIDI implementation for user control of VG-88 paramaters, and allows the VG-88 to act as a MIDI foot controller for other gear too.




However, for non guitar tone sonic exploration, the VG-8-EX did have the VIO guitar,  deeper HRM synthesis and controls which have never been replicated since 1997, but its 18 bit @ 31kHz processing may sound  grainy by today's audio standards.

Download the owners manuals for each for a comparison





Brak(E)man

In my view the vg8 sound more open than vg88 like a fender versus gibson
marshall versus fender twin etc . same goes for 99
and the vio guitar on the VG8 and some of the other stuff mentioned above that's
gone in 88 and 99 is a shame
and i never had any problems with grainyness nor dynamics on the 8
an the headroom is prob true but can be easily fixed by turning down
the gain internally

get them all
swimming with a hole in my body

I play Country music too, I'm just not sure which country it's from...

"The only thing worse than a guitar is a guitarist!"
- Lydia Lunch

Virtual Madness

Thanks Elantric, for taking the time to think through that and post it.

That's EXACTLY the kind of comparison I was looking for.

Thank you Brak(E)man for your thoughts and the "Get Them All' answer. (I knew it!)

:)
The greatest power in the universe is imagination!

Toby Krebs

I still keep a VG8-EX around and for recording and sound creation and alt. tunings it's hard to beat. I don't use it "live" anymore.The "vari" modeling features are very cool!

Piing

Quote from: Now_And_ThenThe earlier VG's Vari-Guitar capabilities so far surpass those of the VG-99 that one wonders why Roland bothered to include any Vari-Guitar capabilities in the VG-99 at all.

Quote from: Elantricfor non guitar tone sonic exploration, the VG-8-EX did have deeper HRM synthesis and controls which have never been replicated since 1997, but its 18 bit @ 31kHz processing may sound very grainy by today's audio standards.

Quote from: Brak(E)manIn my view the vg8 sound more open than vg88 like a fender versus gibson
marshall versus fender twin etc . same goes for 99
and the vio guitar on the VG8 and some of the other stuff mentioned above that's
gone in 88 and 99 is a shame

Amen to all that.

I miss my VG-8   :'(
I returned the VG-88 after one week of use, and I don't regret of that. But I regret of having sold the VG-8 when I got the 99

audiotrax

I LOVE my VG-88, and use it all the time in the studio.  It just keeps getting better with age.  I just found a way to get rid of that slightly "hard" digital feel it has:  when recording put it through a Waves CLA compressor (the model of the old Techtronix opto-tube compressor).  It's amazing how it warms it up, and gives it more "feel" while you're playing it.
Owner of: VG-88, GI-10, Cubase 5, Kontakt, SampleTank, var VSTI's, Roland JV1080.  Strat with GK-2A, two Roland GR500 analog guitar synths

kenact

Godin Session & Montreal FTP, LGXT, LGX SA, Redline, ACS, A12, A11, A10, A4
Danoblaster Baritone w/GK-3
Gretsch Nashville, Viking
Fender Strats
Fret King Supermatic
Larrivee DV03RE
Parker Midi Fly
Seagull, S&P 12
VOX Phantom XII
GR-55, 33, 30, 20, GI-20, RC-50, US-20, VG-99, VP-7
Sentient 6
Cyr 7

Elantric

Old thread - but wanted to inform that for Roland V-Guitar, the 2014 Boss GP-10 has the most dynamic range of all V-Guitar systems, but the VG-99 remains the most flexible - Although the 1997 VG-8EX makes great sounds too (but no Win/OSX GUI editor)

The GR-55 is a "jack of all trades, master of none" mix of numerous Roland Guitar Synth technology   

But as a side note I did buy  a gently used 1998 VG-8EX, specifically for its VIO Guitar and HRM Synth, and discovered the "VG-8EX" version has slightly better audio specs compared to the 1995 VG-8

VG-8EX . vs . VG-8 + VG8S-1 ?
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=11089.0

For those keeping score

QuoteAny idea on how long the VG88 was discontinued before the VG99 was released?

Roland builds in batches based upon projected sales, and inventory, and market demand.

Typically there is a gap of non production of older models  right before the new generation device is released from R&D to Production.


Roland GR-500 production - (1977-1978)

Roland GR-300 production - (1980-1983) 

Roland GR-700 production  - (1984-1987)

Roland GM-70 production - (1985-1988)

Roland GR-50 production (1989-1990)

Roland GR-1 production (1992-1994)

Roland GR-09 production (1994-1995)

Roland VG-8 production  - (1995-1997)

Roland GR-30 production - (1996-1999)

Roland VG-8EX production  - (1997-1999)

Roland VG-88 production  - (2000-2005) 

Roland GR-33 production - (1999-2004)

Roland GR-20 production - (2004-2009)

Roland VG-99 production  - (2007-2013)

Roland GR-55 production  - (2011-Current)

Boss GP-10 production  - (2014-Current)

Boss SY-300 production  - (2015-Current)