GR-55 -Troubleshooting Drums and Piano for GR 55

Started by DreamTheory, May 01, 2014, 09:55:42 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

DreamTheory

I finally figured out how to make the drums and pianos work really well on GR 55.

1) DRUMS: For the longest time I have struggled with getting too many spurious (unwanted/crazy) hits. Here is how I fixed it for my tastes.

Go to System page and GK set to create a special GK set for drums. I named mine "Drum GK." Later you go into the Master page and select "Other" where you can choose this GK set for your individual drum patches.

Within System- GK page, try these settings:
Velocity Dynamics: 1 or 2
Play Feel: 1
Low Velocity Cut Level: 9 This eliminates almost all spurious triggers. If you go to ten it won't pick up fast (1/16) notes.

The low Velocity and Play Feel settings make the system respond only to very definite playing, and flatten out the variations, making the drum part even/consistent in volume. The only drawback is that you cannot play quiet-to-loud (crescendo) drumming. I create the crescendo with the volume pedal or by adding a volume envelope in my DAW.

Be patient, and experiment with finger vs. pick, as technique varies for kick-snare, cymbals, and other percussion. I record them on separate tracks.

Note added later: I have subsequently made TWO drum GK sets. One is using the less sensitive/flat response recipe above for use with thumb/finger for kick snare and toms played very definitely, and the second one is set to be much more sensitive, for use with pick, especially on lighter tones such as bongos etc. Fast picking works great with nothing dropped. The first GK set is chosen on a patch I call Kick Snare. The second patch uses the sensitive drum GK set. Both patches have the CTL set up to toggle between a standard kit and a brush kit.

I like cymbals and wanted lots of different sizes, and felt that the GR 55 kits did not have enough cymbals. So I made a third patch, which also uses the sensitive GK set, with the ride cymbal tone, and under Master - Other, I set a User alternate tuning, with string values at +4, +2, 0, -2, -4, and just for fun -24. Now I have a virtual could of cymbals, high and low.

So these three patches are in a bank together, and cover my drum needs. If I want to use a dance kit or whatever, I can dial it up in place of the standard or brush kit, but the key to my strategy is that I have the patches set up at different sensitivities achieved by having two GK sets. If one is not working for a particular song, I can quickly flip to the other.
2) PIANO: I want to play softly and expressively, but for the longest time just got heavy handed hits or nothing at all. I thought that since pianos are percussive, they should be set up like drums. Quite the opposite!

After going into system and making a new GK set called "Piano GK," I dialed up these settings:

Velocity Dynamics: 3 Allows for quiet play. I have to play expressively (harder) to get louder notes
Play Feel: 4 If you go to 5 you get loud only, and if you go to 3 or lower it drops softer notes
Low Velocity Cut: 0. Because I want to get the lightest, gentlest touches on the "keys" (when I get it right I forget I am playing on a fretboard).

Remember you go into the Master page and select "Other" where you can choose this GK set for your individual piano patches.
electric: Epiphone Dot semihollow body, acoustic: mahogany jumbo, recording: Cubase Artist 11 or Tascam DP008

Elantric

#1
Good work

I added this to GR-55 FAQ Top things to Know
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=4006.msg81010#msg81010

FWIW - here is a GR-55 Video demo of Drum sounds
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=3672.msg24802#msg24802

imerkat

That piano setting is pretty much what I got too!
I think it also depends on the guitar you are using. I have Les Paul with a 27 inch fret board in normal E tuning. and it's much more controllable than the Strat copy I have 25.5. you can here it in the mp3 below, though the conversion kinda squashed the dynamics.

for the drums, dampening the strings has worked better than playing with the setting for me. IMO

Elantric


DreamTheory

Oh yeah, you can definitely dampen the strings with palm mute, or to take drastic measures: set string sensitivity to zero for the strings you are not using on that particular track.
electric: Epiphone Dot semihollow body, acoustic: mahogany jumbo, recording: Cubase Artist 11 or Tascam DP008

spanglish

That sounds great! I have been having a spot of bother with the drum sounds, lots of stray hits and wierd sounds. Thanks for the tip
Paul

neilD321

Brilliant. Thanks for posting. Just saved me hours of wondering WTF? everytime I played keyboard/piano sounds :-)

Baharkoush

So these three patches are in a bank together,? ? ? ? WHAT?

Need to know how to save 3 patches( PCM SOUNDS ) in a bank!