GR-55 - The Cool List (fav features and how to use them)

Started by tracy, March 05, 2011, 02:11:38 PM

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tracy

The GR-55 is a deep instrument. Very deep. Sure, it may lack this feature or that mode, but to just exploit 10% of what's there can take weeks or months of study and experiment. 50% - even longer. 99% is probably unachievable. But this thread is designed to get you further faster.

Consider this thread the antithesis of the "wish list" thread. While it is fun to dream, bitch and moan about missing features, use this thread to celebrate what we do have in the GR-55.

Here is the format to use: Feature then Use. Tell us about your favorite feature, patch, mode, bell or whistle. Then tell us how you use it. Be concise. Think of it as a three sentence tutorial to help others discover and use the cool thing you found.

Thus begins the Cool List. :D
@tracyevans    •     http://www.exhibitry.com

tracy

Hold and Glide Tape Effect

My GR-55 has not arrived yet, but here is a trick I like to do with my GR-20. Once my 55 arrives, I will re-edit with instructions for it.

  • Play a chord on the bottom strings and press HOLD pedal (hold type H3) to hold the notes.
  • Play some licks over the chord on the top strings.
  • Press GLIDE pedal (glide type u5). As the pitch bends up, play progressively faster and it will simulate an open reel tape or record speeding up.
  • Release GLIDE and slow your playing appropriately.
For more fun pump the GLIDE pedal and follow the speed changes with your playing.

When you press HOLD, use the right side of your foot. This will allow you to reach over with the same foot to press GLIDE with your toe.
@tracyevans    •     http://www.exhibitry.com

Witelite

Ah tracy. This is what I was looking for with the GR-55 but not yet found a good way (It's a fantastic piece though)

I play in a three piece band and we do side 2 of abbey road (Here's a link to it)

)

The strings and piano are through the GR-20.

At the end (about 9:24) I hold the a chord, play the guitar part and then use the glide to drop the strings down to G while still holding so I can play the guitar part over this. Not having two ctrls pedals makes this more difficult to do on the GR55 (hence my pitch bend email from awhile back)

Improvising but suggestions welcome. Still rather have the GR-55 though!

MM

tracy

Quote from: Witelite on March 06, 2011, 11:29:08 AM
Ah tracy. This is what I was looking for with the GR-55 but not yet found a good way (It's a fantastic piece though)

Yikes, did I start with something that can't be done? Guess I should have waited for the 55 to arrive.

Nice work on AB road!
@tracyevans    •     http://www.exhibitry.com

gumtown

No GLIDE feature on the GR-55, but it can be worked around with assigns, or just use the EXP pedal.
Free "GR-55 FloorBoard" editor software from https://sourceforge.net/projects/grfloorboard/

FrankG

Hey Tracy cool idea for a thread...

Drum Voice assignments ...

I was hung-up trying to re-create the GR-20 Standard Drum Kit, ie; 6th = Kick, 5th = Snare, 4th = Rim-Shot, 3rd = Hi-Hat etc... But the closest I could come was with the GR-55's VOIce # 901 (Jazz Kit) which has a non-snare open 5th string...

But fretting the 5th offered a passable voice at the 9th fret (f#) so by setting an "Open Tuning" as type "User" I was able to re-assign the appropriate voice from the 9th fret back to the open 5th string... and like wise assigned a nice castenet on the open 2nd  string to accompany the congo type (?) drum voices that run from te open 1st string thru the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th frets.

So Edit -> Master -> Other -> Alt Tuning -> ON, Type -> User and then select the individual voices for the open strings that best suites your needs...

Finally something that makes me feel that the GR-55 will out shine the GR-20 (if this type of config was possible on the GR-20 please don't  tell me... :)

the power to do nothing is tremendous, but it must not be abused...

tracy

Quote from: FrankG on March 06, 2011, 07:16:03 PM
Drum Voice assignments ...

Thanks Frank. Excellent post and tip. I gill give this setup a try.
@tracyevans    •     http://www.exhibitry.com

SLICK

Quote from: tracy on March 06, 2011, 01:02:27 PM
Yikes, did I start with something that can't be done? Guess I should have waited for the 55 to arrive.

Nice work on AB road!

Don't worry I'll add your 'glide pedal missing' bitch to the wish list thread  ;D ;D
Parker fly deluxe,
Roland GR-55,
Laney LC30II

mat-chow

Quote from: tracy on March 06, 2011, 07:52:52 PM
Thanks Frank. Excellent post and tip. I gill give this setup a try.
I will as well! Sweet!

FrankG

To WiteLite,

Real nice work on the MP3 you posted, the GR-20 work was seamless... I'd throw that in my MP3 shuffle...

Thx!
the power to do nothing is tremendous, but it must not be abused...

gumtown

#10
I started playing around with the GR-55 programmable midi program table,
and found if you set the program table to "program"
(don't forget to put it back to "fixed" after playing though),
select bank "16" and change PC 1 to a favourite custom User patch,
then plug a midi cable from midi out to midi in on the GR-55
(make sure system setting RX PC and TX PC are enabled)
and try pressing the SOUND STYLE LEAD button.

This will take you right to your user patch.
Same can be done with the RHYTHM and OTHER buttons,
i just got to find those program change addresses.

The annoying thing with the GR-55 programmable midi program table is that with this unit every is "off" by default, so if you want to program minor changes, you got to do the whole lot.

This is where you will want to set the midi program table back to "fixed" after so the GR-55 will respond to external patch change commands (especially if you use external software).
Free "GR-55 FloorBoard" editor software from https://sourceforge.net/projects/grfloorboard/

FrankG

Hey GumTown,

Don't take my question the wrong way... :)

What does this process accomplish? I can gleen that it's some sort of "Loop-Back" with the Midi Feeding itself out and back in...

I'm keen to learn as much about this stuff as your willing to explain, but I can appreciate your time constraints with the demands of the Floor Board app...

(as an aside... would this process be a stepping stone towards using the GR-55's superior Tracking to trigger the GR-20's more unique or characteristic voices)

...fg
the power to do nothing is tremendous, but it must not be abused...

gumtown

It's a way of making use of the LEAD, RHYTHM and OTHER buttons, because as they are, they seem useless.

With the patch dial speeding though may patches, i easily get lost looking for my set of user patches, and this allows me to make use of the LEAD button to take me to the start of my patch set at the press of one button.
Probably something i won't always use but i thought it would be good to share the concept.

When the Catagory buttons are pressed, they transmit an external program change midi message to the 'midi out port', and by looping the midi out back into the midi in, the GR-55 can receive it's own program change message, via editing the 'midi program table' in the system settings, can make those buttons "quick access" any predefined User patch.

Thought i would share that finding, it seemed an interesting idea for using that wasted bit of GR-55 front panel real-estate. ;-) 
Free "GR-55 FloorBoard" editor software from https://sourceforge.net/projects/grfloorboard/

ddlooping

Quote from: gumtown on March 09, 2011, 11:07:06 AM
Thought i would share that finding, it seemed an interesting idea for using that wasted bit of GR-55 front panel real-estate. ;-)

It is indeed an interesting idea, thanks for sharing it. :)
Diaz Guitars (work in progress)

FrankG

GT,

Cool, I get it...

So if I have a Jazz set a Latin set and say an Ethnic Set.... I always organize my voices from Drum thru bass, piano, Sax, Violin etc in that order... I can have upto 4 Distinct groupings of voice "Collections" starting with Lead, Rhythm, Other AND User...

The key being that at the start of a set I select that grouping rather than scroll dialling or tap dancing the board...
the power to do nothing is tremendous, but it must not be abused...

shawnb

#15
While playing with the GR-55 a bit, I realized that it actually tracks harmonics & pinch harmonics rather well.    My old GR30 didn't do this, not nearly as well...   

And on certain voices, it can add a bit of a squeal, e.g.:   
On violin voices (see my patch, under Jazz, JLP Violin 1), a pinch harmonic sounds like a scrape of the string, a violinist technique.
On sax voices, a pinch harmonic sounds like an octave squeal, something sax players do for effect.   

One of my favorite voices for experimenting with this is "Sine Air Bend".   
Kick in Sine Air Bend, activate the phrase loop, lay down a quick phrase.   Then enter dub mode with your looper, & fool around with harmonics & pinch harmonics until the cows come home.  Very strange & spacey. 

Easily confused with a 'ghost note', you can create these by accident by slightly grazing a playing string with a knuckle. 
And with the right voices, it sounds very cool!
Address the process rather than the outcome.  Then, the outcome becomes more likely.   - Fripp

EricP1954

@Witelite, I really enjoyed listening to your band's B side of the Abbey Road record!

FrankG

Patch Economizer...

Since running thru the presets (yet again) and gabbing what were "Maybe's"out of the "PreSets"  and tossing them into "User"... I found that my "Top - 27" got a little crowded :)... Patch banks 1 through 9 X 3 slots per bank (just to be clear wher I got Top - 27 from).

I had laid out a Violin in say Bank 5, Slot 1 was the straight Voicing, Slot 2 had a deep chorus applied, and slot 3 is essentially Slot 2 with a heavy "Pan" delay set at 1000ms and light feed back given the delay duration.

By setting the Chorus to be brought on-line incrementally via the Exp pedal I now have more control over the effect, and the Delay is assigned to the Ctrl pedal... So all three voices are now in 1 (one) slot.

The pedal and Ctrl assignment is under "Master Tab" - "Pedal/GK CTK" option, and then a pile of tabs to navigate with the "Page" buttons...

I can appreciate that this may be a bit of a "Newbie" hack, but still thought it might be worth posting given that there are bound to be folks at the same level as me...

...fg
the power to do nothing is tremendous, but it must not be abused...

ddlooping

Quote from: FrankG on March 11, 2011, 09:19:44 AM
The pedal and Ctrl assignment is under "Master Tab" - "Pedal/GK CTK" option, and then a pile of tabs to navigate with the "Page" buttons...

There are also 8 more assignments available under "Assign". :)
Diaz Guitars (work in progress)

FrankG

Hey DDlooping,

Yeah, I was just poking at the assigns, though think I want to encorporate the EXP Sw as it could essentially add a series of unrelated ACC-Guitar voices via the Analog Pickup if both PCM Voices and the COSM Model are being fired via the Exp Pedal and the CTL key.

Though I did find that the Ctl function is lost when using the on-board "Loop" func... Not that critical as I'm running a Jamman Stereo for my main Looping, and was hoping that the GR-55 could allow "Replication" type Phrases for Drums, of which I only have one kit and a set of marimba's in that Bank.

I'll have to add the assigns to my growing list of things to figure out... very cool and exciting stuff.

the power to do nothing is tremendous, but it must not be abused...

ddlooping

Don't worry, Frank, assigns are fairly straight-forward. :)
Always keep the manual at hand. ;)
Diaz Guitars (work in progress)

Witelite

Thanks Frank and Eric for the comments. The more I use the GR55, the more impressed I am with it. I wish the glide was there (next to the hold pedal) but I won't be going back to the GR20!

robocop

Is it too far off topic to note that listening to witelite's Abbyroad mp3 while watching gumtown's animal gif is a lot of fun? nicely done especially for a three piece.

On topic - I'm setting up some alternate tunings and different instrument types on the GR-55 and I'm stumped as to a way to emulate a nice baritone 12 string like a Viellette. the 12 string modeling option is turned off in alternate tuning mode and simply applying an octave up pitch shift effect to a baritone guitar model doesn't get the tuning right because the first two strings should be unison. I'm still scraping the surface of this machine so if anyone has any good suggestions on setting up a bari 12 model then I'd love to hear them. Thanks!

iancandler

Alternate tunings - Don't get stuck in the rut of thinking they only really apply to guitar sounds, try a pipe organ in open G,now try it with a slide  ;D,  a choir in DADGAD for an ethnic feel .. the skys the limit and nothing is out of bounds.

markcasq

#24
One cool thing that I did to take advantage of the electric guitar modelling is to setup a patch for a particular guitar.  So for example, my strat patch would function as such:
* GK volume used as a 5-way pickup switch
* CTL used as distortion pedal, with pedal used as gain control

I setup similar patches for Tele, Les Paul, and ES.  The modelling sound is not that exact, but it is a very good approximate, unnoticeable on live performances.  Anyway, normal people won't notice if it is a strat or les paul sound   >:(

For Nylon string guitar, I use a PCM tone instead, because the Nylon guitar modelling does not cut it (it is actually far from the real Nylon guitar sound).