gr-55 BK

Started by mikelara, March 22, 2012, 02:15:57 PM

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Elantric

#25
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/GR55sBK/

Looks like there will be a 2 month wait if you want a Black GR-55.

QuoteThe new Roland GR-55 in black is expected to begin shipping in June, but you can reserve yours today. Simply contact us to place your pre-order, and we'll ship your new guitar synth to you as soon as our first shipment arrives.



As always our Forum's group buy special remains  the lowest price for obtaining a new GR-55 of your own.

https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=2931.0

Sedgewick

I just noticed there is a new GR-55 manual on the Roland site.  I downloaded it, and noticed that it looks like the new GR-55 has more patch memory.  I have scanned the Guitar patch list so you can review it.  They have expanded patch memory from 31-1 to 40-3.  The last area has all of the new patches.

Does this mean Roland has expanded/upgraded the ROM ?

I hope this doesn't mean Gumtown will have to rewrite his Floorboard code....




Elantric

#27
QuoteI just noticed there is a new GR-55 manual on the Roland site.

RolandUS still has the old Manual

The new GR-55 Manual is at the global site.
www.roland.com
http://www.roland.com/products/en/GR-55/

The new GR-55 Owners Manual (E04 = English "version 4" April 5, 2012 )  is here:

http://lib.roland.co.jp/support/en/manuals/res/59105308/GR-55_e04_W.pdf

QuoteDoes this mean Roland has expanded/upgraded the ROM ?

Its not clear that's the case
I was told at Winter NAMM to expect a GR-55 firmware update later this year. Perhaps the Black version already has the new firmware - which judging by the Owners manual seems to only add these additional patches and nothing else - (which is a bit of a let down from my perspective)   
Buts its possible a new GR-55 firmware this summer also adds these "new patches"  for the existing blue GR-55.

Pure speculation.

But if these these updates are exclusive to the Black GR-55, and the existing GR-55 bugs are never addressed, it would sure sour my enthusiasm for future Roland purchases.   

In typical fashion - Roland is not being too clear on what they have in mind.





ecca

This discussion is knocking me black and blue !

A2theT

Quote from: aliensporebomb on April 08, 2012, 12:24:37 PM
Black would match by VG-99 - but I like blue.  Decisions, decisions..
You buy the black and I'll trade you my blue ;-)
HEAVY on the METAL
Axe-Fx II, Roland VG-99 + FC-300, Roland GR-55, Digitech Jamman Stereo, Ibanez/ESP/Jackson Guitars

bcbeak

I'm a new poster and wanted to chime in how much I love this beast of a pedal. I play in a cover country band and play pedal steel guitar, fiddle, guitar and some looping, but my favorite thing to do is to play the various instruments via the GR55. With this instrument I can really fill out the sound of the band with dynamics, fun sounds and really turn heads. I get people (especially musicians) coming up to me after gigs asking me how I played those sounds. It is the most exciting instrument I have every played, and I am constantly tweaking to make it better and amplify it properly.
Here are my current uses:

Banjo patches (using 2 voices) and with the guitar strings retuned to a banjo tuning .. makes this authentic sounding
Piano: (with some light strings on/off via controller)
Organ patches: With leslie effect assigned to the foot controller (this is icing on the cake for authenticity)
Detuned guitars:  Drop D, Double Drop D, 1/2 step down, full step down. Baritone guitar.  Why carry more than one guitar ..duh!
Acoustic Guitars:  layered into electric guitar for a fat tone .. helps our singer with acoustic guitar.
Slide guitar: with various open tunings
Some horns and sax sounds
Some strings controlled with a hold/sustain controller

My only gripes:

Some patch tracking for pianos etc can have slow tracking or erratic glissando.
The GK3 volume control can go from too soft to ear bleed in half a millimeter (takes delicate touch)
Some of the detuned guitars can sound robotic when compared to a real guitar.

I am up for any user advice to improve these.
Country Musician:
Pedal Steel Guitar, Fiddle, Banjo, GR55

Jim Williams

try setting the velocity settings in the PCM instrument and you find that they are very expressive and easily controlled dynamically.
Skype: (upon Request)

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

mbenigni

QuoteOrgan patches: With leslie effect assigned to the foot controller (this is icing on the cake for authenticity)

Try also: assigning the fast/slow or brake switch to the CTL pedal etc.  This can really take rotary authenticity to the next level.

A2theT

@jburns - not sure how I accidently missed your angry rant.   I will offer my opinion without trying to get emotional but the colour choice just seems obviously marketing related. Black, Silver, Grey all safe choices for products in our industry.  Blue, Red, not so much. Personally, I'd prefer VG/GR/RC to all be black.  Even more, why doesnt roland create a routable digital i/o that links all the devices?  now theres marketing.  I think JVC did that once.  Some proprietary link technology..

Regarding Loomis and the other fantastic artists, these patches are just another marketing ploy.  EJ doesnt even talk about using a GR-55.  Loomis doesn't speak of his GR-55 usage. Only Roland does.  The patches are few and far between and I'd give Wills the edge as far as making some decent sounding ones....  So basically I see Roland going, here we'll give you one of these units if you can just make a couple patches and allow us to do a write-up on it......so beat.
HEAVY on the METAL
Axe-Fx II, Roland VG-99 + FC-300, Roland GR-55, Digitech Jamman Stereo, Ibanez/ESP/Jackson Guitars

Jim Williams

QuoteThe GK3 volume control can go from too soft to ear bleed in half a millimeter (takes delicate touch)

You can set the values of the GK volume. You don't have to have from 0-100 you can set it any ware between. You can also set the ACT lo and hi range to help with how far you have to move the knob. It is also a matter of getting the feel of it.
Skype: (upon Request)

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

Jim Williams

Bcbeak, go back to getting the GK pickup setup a little better and you should get some improvement with the problems you mentioned. When I first got mine it was great but as time went on I found the PCM synths unreliable until I figured out how set the proper sensitivity and velocity settings. You can make it more useful but most of those parameters that people leave at default do matter.
Skype: (upon Request)

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

audiotrax

#36
Jburns;  I cannot tell you how much I agree with your views.  It is so hard for me not to be sarcastic and hold back at many of the posts here, and on You Tube.  Really, it takes so much effort to not let loose at the extreme tunnel vision, complacency and utter stupidity I see with this current generation.  And that relates to guitar synthesis as well. The music industry and manufacturers have worked so hard to dumb everyone down into the same narrow demographic - and now we are seeing the fruits of it everywhere.

I know I'm dating myself out of relevance, but when I grew up I was interested in EVERYTHING.  I used to ride my Schwinn bike all the way across town so I could exercise the PRIVELEGE of being able to go to the library and check out lp's by Handle and Scarlatti.  At the same time I discovered records there by Yes and Miles Davis.  It was all good equally, and most of the kids around me had the same open ended curiosity.  Most kids in high school were DIFFERENT back then.  I remember us as being philosophical and open minded.  It was COOL to question things and discover new stuff! 

Back then, the GOOD music was differentiated by how different and original it was.  It was so inspiring to be stretched like that with music that took you to infinite emotional places - other than petty adolescent anger and whining.  I'll look for You Tube vids now that feature live performances by ELP playing "Tarkus" or "Take A Pebble" and I can only wonder what went wrong with the absolute bullshit that passes for musicianship today.

I've also noticed that every single guitarist's video shows just how dumbed down these kids are.  Play three notes and sure enough, some 14 year old will comment "Dude, that's sounds EXACTLY like that bitchin' song by "..."!  Insert latest cookie-cutter death metal band that became trendy this year.  Everything relates to the same little box.  Anything out side of it is "lame" or weird, or worse...shrugged at.  No curiosity at all outside the McDonald's nuggets, and yet these kids all walk around with the tools to expose them to EVERYTHING IN THE HISTORY OF ART AND PHILOSOPHY CONSTANTLY AT THEIR FINGERTIPS, when I had to rely on pumping my dorky bikes pedals across town to the library on Saturdays between 10 and 5 o'clock.  What went wrong??
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

audiotrax

Sorry, I didn't mean to hijack the thread.  Rant explosion!   :-X
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

A2theT

@audiotrax
society and generations evolve.  your grandpappy had the same feelings.   I'm just guessing that I'm not as old as you but, I used to have to rewind my cassette tapes with a pencil because my walkman only had FFWD and no auto-reverse or rewind and sometimes the tape would pull out. I appreciated what I had.  I used to walk a mile in the freezing cold with skates on just so i could play hockey on the river because I was passionate about it and appreciated it.  I build a huge rink in the yard every year but my kids have no interest in skating on it  that much and when they do they don't care to shovel it.  Some people would call that sheer laziness but in actual fact, the joy it brings them is not as fulfilling as playing a game on the computer. They weigh the effort vs. reward.   You can't blame the kids.  Its a cop-out to say, "kids these days have it too easy."  I heard the same thing in the 70's FFS.  audiotrax, If you had an XBOX, iphone, youtube, HD TV etc,  instead of the Schwinn you'd have been hard pressed to go through the trouble of biking to the library and if you disagree then THAT's tunnel vision.  If I go and ask my kids what they would like to do Saturday afternoon, bike to the library is not even on the list.  I remember so many boring summers as a kid where I would do stuff unheard of today.  One time I made a set of weights out of some old bars and cement in some yogurt tubs circa 1976.  When i was 9yrs old I stripped a pair of waterski's and revarnished them .  I biked to an old quary 10 miles away just to swim with the leaches.  Man, if I could have only been consumed by the technological innovations of today.  Its amazing to think about what our ancestors accomplished without the distraction of technology.  So I wouldn't say that anything went wrong. We just evolved and whether the older generation accepts it is up to them.  Of course most kids in high school were different back then.  Times change.  In the 60's kids thought they were philosophical and open minded with many things (sexual revolution, hippy revolution, psychadelic drugs).  My grandparents shunned it all! The GOOD music has always been differentiated by how enjoyable it was and not by how original it was.  Back then, there were lots of people copying other people just as they do today, whether its cookie cutter death metal or country....

My son is 12 and you couldn't lump him into the characteristic your last paragraph defines at all.  He started noodling on guitar a couple of years ago and really loved playing Metallica and Guns and Roses songs and he enjoys that music but then a year ago he started playing with my keyboard and now he has become this fantastic player who loves ragtime and classical as well.  I see no negative self-absorbed or self-centred attitude.   (maybe because hes not a teen yet  ;) )  What I do see is he embraces the history of music and has really used the internet and youtube wisely.  Youtube basically taught him how to play the Maple Leaf Rag and a couple of other Beethoven pieces so well that I've had no though of putting him into formal lessons.  We are really lucky these days to have all this information at our fingertips.

Anyway, my personal experience is the opposite.  I find, its generally the older demographic that has problems with anything outside their box, they're possibly the ones with the tunnel vision.  Case in point, my mother wanted to debate over the music she heard on the radio.  I can't remember if it was Eminem or the Beastie Boys but she kept going on about how it wasn't music and they could take a lesson from "any artist pre-1975".  I'm not a fan of a lot of music.  I particularly dislike country (personal taste) but I promised myself that I won't project my negative outlook on my kids or other people.  Guys like Cobain were easy targets for saying his guitar playing was "absolute bullshit that passes for musicianship today."  The majority of the friends in my son's circle don't appear to be dumbed down in any way.  They have a lot of access to information and its sometimes difficult to focus but they are young and learning and trying to establish an identity etc.. etc...  I remember when I was 16 my grandfather said, "son, you really need to get that hair cut.  we've got too many girls in the family as it is."  This same attitude of:  "if its new and didn't exist when I was a kid then its non-conforming and inappropriate" is still prevalent today. 

You will always love Yes and Miles Davis and the stuff you discovered early on.  This is the stuff that your memories are attached to.  I love to focus on this stuff too.  You will most likely continue to shrug at cookie-cutter death metal bands and kids these days but I urge you to have an open view and try and look at it differently.  Look at what the new generation is subjected to.  Understand that they're just over-stimulated with the technology and plain old access!  If you feel its wrong than you can only blame the previous generations, no?

So to answer "What went wrong?". 
I don't know.
Is something wrong?

What a crazy digress we've had here!  lol
HEAVY on the METAL
Axe-Fx II, Roland VG-99 + FC-300, Roland GR-55, Digitech Jamman Stereo, Ibanez/ESP/Jackson Guitars

thegreatoz

Quote from: A to the T on April 15, 2012, 01:47:36 PM
@audiotrax
society and generations evolve.  your grandpappy had the same feelings.

+++ 1

Well said!
Line6 JTV-69 - GK3
Roland GR-55
Line6 Pod HD500

musicman65

I agree with both perspectives and see examples of both sides. My son is very unique too but to be honest, our society generally has raised a bunch of worthless kids. I know that sound harsh but stats don't lie. We have slipped educationally and ask anyone that has to hire young employable talent...there's a void. Look at the sheer number of companies recruiting foreign engineers, scientist, etc. Its sad.

I'm not going to defend the current generation or blame it on their iPhones and gadgets. Its parenting 101. Its cultural decline which is generational. Parents are less involved. Its a shame....

bd

gumtown

#41
Quote from: musicman65 on April 15, 2012, 10:06:44 PM
Look at the sheer number of companies recruiting foreign engineers, scientist, etc. Its sad.
I see a lot of this here, as for the same reasons everything has been 'out-sourced' to China (financial greed without longterm vision of concequences), no one wants to invest in 2~4 years training of local talent, when you can import someone already trained and qualified. Problem here now is there are too many non-english speaking people making things difficult to understand and things going wrong, and you have to pay more taxes to pay the local unemployed a benefit.

Quote from: musicman65 on April 15, 2012, 10:06:44 PM
I'm not going to defend the current generation or blame it on their iPhones and gadgets. Its parenting 101. Its cultural decline which is generational. Parents are less involved. Its a shame....
Parents are definately to blame, but remember that we were all young and irresponsable at one stage (some more than others), peoples veiws on things like that are from their own experianced eyes, and ones perspective becomes tainted by their own worldly experiances, and expectations that the younger should be worldly and wise just like yourself.
If all the old generation were to drop dead right now, the world won't stop, there is always someone to take your place and your job.
Most will learn quickly from necessity and need rather from being told to.

Would I pay more for a product made in my own country, yes..

And now back the GR-55 BK topic, anyone got one?
Free "GR-55 FloorBoard" editor software from https://sourceforge.net/projects/grfloorboard/

gumbo

Quote from: gumtown on April 15, 2012, 10:41:47 PM

And now back the GR-55 BK topic, anyone got one?


....aw!
...just when I was about to chime in about how Oz is not that different EnZed in these matters..      :P


....and, FWIW, I can see all sides of this debate....    age 63, playing music of one shape or another, on one instrument or another, for 50 years....

..my take on getting through this, is to just be grateful that I still CAN play music    ;)

Read slower!!!   ....I'm typing as fast as I can...

tekrytor

Quote from: gumtown on April 15, 2012, 10:41:47 PM
And now back the GR-55 BK topic, anyone got one?

I'm packing a flash drive on my keychain. If I see one in a shop, it's backup time. Problem is, in the dozen stores I've been into in the SF bay area, I've only seen one GR-55 ever, and it's a very nice blue one.
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

banditt11

Quote from: tekrytor on April 17, 2012, 03:37:47 AM
I'm packing a flash drive on my keychain. If I see one in a shop, it's backup time. Problem is, in the dozen stores I've been into in the SF bay area, I've only seen one GR-55 ever, and it's a very nice blue one.

HA! That's a good idea. I have a flash drive on my keychain. I'll keep an eye out too.
Frank Betts
2012 American Strat
Gibson double cut faded guitar
Peavey Classic 30 tube amp
Peavey Bandit Special
ME-70 foot pedal
GR-55 Roland synth
www.frontcentermusician.blogspot.com

Bluesman

I may have tracked down a GR-55 BK, what is the best way to backup the patches to the USB?

Thanks,
Neil
Robert Cray Fender Stratocaster - GK-3
Fender Stratocaster HH
Maton 225ac
Roland GR-55
Line6 Pod HD 500
Samson Auro D412A's Behringer B1800A's
Reason 6

Elantric

QuoteI may have tracked down a GR-55 BK, what is the best way to backup the patches to the USB?

Bring a preformated FAT32 4GB USB Thumb drive.

Read page 71 of the GR-55 Owners Manual
http://media.rolandus.com/manuals/GR-55_OM.pdf

Here's how to save (back up) all of the GR-55's settings to USB memory.
* One set of backup data can be saved to each USB memory device.
* Pedal calibration settings are not saved.
1. Connect your USB memory to the GR-55. (use the side door USB Host port, remove all other USB cables on the rear!)
For details, refer to "Inserting the USB Memory" (p. 65).
2. Press the [EDIT] button to access the EDIT screen.
3. Use the PAGE [ ] [ ] buttons to select the SYSTEM tab.
4. Use the cursor [ ] [ ] buttons to select the BACKUP/INIT
icon, and press the [ENTER] button.
5. Use the cursor [ ] [ ] buttons to select the BACKUP/
RESTORE icon, and press the [ENTER] button.
6. Use the cursor [ ] [ ] buttons to select "BACKUP," and press
the [ENTER] button.
7. Use the cursor [ ] [ ] buttons to select "OK," and press the
[ENTER] button.

Bluesman

Thanks for the info Elantric, will advise on how I get on.
Robert Cray Fender Stratocaster - GK-3
Fender Stratocaster HH
Maton 225ac
Roland GR-55
Line6 Pod HD 500
Samson Auro D412A's Behringer B1800A's
Reason 6

kenact

A quick compare of the e03 & e04 manuals shows that there are now 360 preset guitar patches (270 for the blue unit) & 108 preset bass patches (90 for the blue unit).  The number of user patches hasn't changed.  Aside from the color, that seems to be the big difference.
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

Player99

I think I read the unit needs to be off when installing or removing a flash drive.