Advice on Synth to Complement VG-99

Started by ChrisF, October 22, 2016, 08:22:55 AM

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ChrisF

Hi everyone. I play musical theatre gigs with my VG-99, and it works great. The VG-99 is truly the musical theatre dream machine. But now I want to add some synth/sampled sounds to my setup, and I'm wondering if folks here with experience in this area could give me some advice. I'm looking for something that works well live in a small space (i.e. I probably can't bring a laptop or a rack unit). The sounds I want are pretty standard – acoustic piano, sax, strings, and maybe some effects such as a car horn or broken glass. Should I get a GR-55? A GR-20? Do I need the rather expensive US-20? Thanks for any insights!

Brak(E)man

If you're going to play piano you should get a US-20 and maybe the GR20, the midi from VG99 is good through USB not good enough through standard midi to play piano or percussive sounds , and my experience with GR55 is that it triggers pcm badly
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

admin

Agreed , but I prefer GR-33 vs GR-20


GeePeeAxe

Because the VG99 has no internal sample player, you need an external sound module.
Maybe you can go via midi cable into the keyboard of your bandmate, if there is such.
There are many sound modules on the market for this, like Sound Canvas, Integra 7, etc.

Rhcole

What kind of guitar are you using? If it has Room for a Fishman pickup the sky would be the limit.

ChrisF

Thanks, all of this is very helpful! Now I have to decide between a GR-20 and GR-33. People seem to prefer the GR-33, even though the GR-20 is newer. Did Roland improve the sound of the samples in the GR-20, or did they just make a simplified and less configurable version of the GR-33?

My guitar is a Roland-ready Strat, though I plan on getting a Godin LGXT pretty soon to use as my main instrument.

Headless68

there are a few on here (self included) using VG99 going into an iPad for soft synths (via Focusrite iTrack) - the quality is pro sound wise and for real instruments Sampletank app has great selection of pianos etc
You have the option of either using the guitar to midi from the VG99 or to run guitar out into the iPad and do the midi conversion on that (using midi guitar 2 app)

if you want a hardware solution I would actually recommend the cheaper (imho) better GR30 which has good piano built in and its own guitar to midi conversion is very good -
it is possible to put GK + fishman triple play on one guitar (done that before too) but it is not ideal & on a Roland strat there will not be enough room without custom pick guard time

there are GK splitter cables available now so you don't even need switch boxes if you don't want them if you go the GR route

the beauty with the iPad solution is you have a huge expanse of pro music apps available to you for low cost its very flexible

aliensporebomb

If you can hack having a Mac up onstage with you or in the studio I recommend Omnisphere.  It's massive.
My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

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

Rhcole

I think of your options a GR-55 isn't a bad choice. You could do gigs without the VG-99 if you choose. The GR-33 might be second place for me. I have never thought much of the GR-20. The FTP mounted on a Godin works great and you could go anywhere with that rig but it might be a bit too much.

Headless68

This may be just me - but - at home tripleplay was fine - at a busy venue I had connectivity issues (multiple pairing attempts to get a clear channel)

Elantric

#10
It's related to how many Radio Frequency channels are occupied at your venue.

RF traffic goes up once the audience with cell phones arrive and it depends on the country


ChrisF

I thought I would post an update on this topic. Based on advice I saw here and elsewhere, I went with a Roland GR-33 synth with a US-20 A/B switch. This setup does exactly what I want - it gives me a few standard sounds I need for certain applications when I play theatre gigs. I've already used the organ, some of the the string pads, and the grand piano. I was even able to create a French horn patch and read parts from a horn book by setting the pitch up a 4th (horn is written in F). I was really happy to find that the older GR-33 does the job perfectly, because I was able to get a great deal on a clean unit on eBay (around $150). I think I paid more for the US-20 (But that was essential for gigging). Using it with a Godin LGXT and it tracks great. I do have a little bit of a problem with the grand piano patch - two notes seem to fire sometimes, like it's not tracking correctly, even though I'm playing as clean as possible (i.e. classical style).

chrish

#12
Quote ''I do have a little bit of a problem with the grand piano patch - two notes seem to fire sometimes, like it's not tracking correctly, even though I'm playing as clean as possible (i.e. classical style).''


And that is the all to common the problem with pitch to midi.

This site has lots of information  to improve on poor tracking performance (like gk setup and using flatwound strings), but i don't think anyone has achieved perfect tracking.