Roland GR-50 woes! Changed battery and ... YIKES!!! Please help

Started by MrSpock, March 13, 2015, 08:58:24 AM

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MrSpock

Hi Folks! I've been using a secondhand GR50 for some time now and have never had a problem with it. Over the past few weeks I've noticed the display characters have been getting feinter & harder to read so I decided to change out the battery out - a simple job. On plugging back in I noticed that the display was very clear (the clearest its ever been in the time I've owned the unit!) but that the characters were in (what looked like) Japanese! I discovered how to reset the unit backing to factory settings (by holding the VALUE up; EXT & WRITE keys on start up) but, although I'm back in a language I understand, ALL the factory presets have disappeared! Sadly I don't have the ROM memory card back-ups that were on it (namely PN-GR50-01 & PN-GR50-02) if I did it would just be a simple case of reloading the data. Instead I am left pulling my hair out trying to get my sounds back (I only used the presets as I never got my head around the programming side of things with this unit!) So, my question here is .... can anybody help me out & tell me (ideally step-by-step!) how I can get my sounds back? I'm right in the middle of a recording session & the battery changing thing was just meant to be a 10 mins job in order to make it easier for me to see the display. Had I known it was gonna wipe ALL my presets I wouldn't have attempted it. Any suggestions as to what I can do here folks? I admit, I'm completely out of my depth already (ie: end-user guiatrist who's not remotely technical!) I have downloaded a file (GR50ORIG.mid) that is supposed to contain the data. You play it into the GR50 unit via Windows Media Player apparently. In order to do this I hooked up a Roland UM-ONE USB>MIDI cable (had to install a driver to do this) but the info isn't being relayed. Any ideas as to how I can just get back up'n'running this end? ANy help would be greatly appreciated as it seems I'm really stuck here. One minute I was tracking away, the next I've lost all my preset sounds = AARRGH!! Please help ...     

Elantric


GraemeJ

Am I the only person thinking that the state of the battery wouldn't have any effect on the display?  I rather suspect there is a more serious underlying problem than a flat backup battery. 

FreeTime

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/midiguitar/conversations/topics/31876

I would use a program called 'MIDI-OX' to dump the data to the Gr-50.

You can get it here: http://www.midiox.com/

View > Sysex > CommandWindow > Loadfile

Browse to your file, then

File > SendFile

Couple of things to note:
Check that the toggle switch on the back of the GR-50 is set to Midi
Change MEM Protect to off (don't forget to turn it back on after so you don't accidentally change things mid-gig)
Some devices require putting them into 'Listen for data' mode, I'm not sure about the GR-50



As far as the display goes, over time the glue that holds the ribbon cable to the glass itself can lose its adhesion. When you put in the new battery you probably nudged it just enough to make better contact. This probably wont last. I've had limited success re-attaching the ribbon connector to old gear using a heat gun and a soft plastic tool to work it back into place. The plastic tool lets me gauge when I've applied enough heat and its not so sharp that it'll wreck things. It doesn't take much. Use common sense here. Its a bit like soldering, apply enough heat just once, then back off. Don't get it so hot that things start deforming or that the ribbon comes off, the chances of you getting it back into place are pretty slim. If you're a klutz don't do it. Most guitar players have nimble enough fingers and a deft touch to do this.

MrSpock

Thanks SO much - all this info is very much appreciated and I will try this out later on today and report back. I've just (successfully!) loaded the MIDIOX program to my PC (OS: WIndows XP) so that's a good start. As for connectivity, when I attempted (and failed with!) this procedure before, I had loaded the driver for a Roland UM-ONE USB<>MIDI cable. This was before I'd even heard of MIDIOX and when I tried this before the inline cable MIDI/USB indicator wasn't recognising the GR50. There was just a red light showing USB active status. So, my question is: Is this UM-ONE cable the right lead for the job or do I need something else for hooking the GR50 up to my PC? (Sadly I don't have a MIDI port on the back of my Dell tower).

PS: I've noticed this post has been moved to the GR30 forum section so 'Thanks' (erm ... I think!) Just out of curiosity, why is there seemingly no category here for my lovable old dinosaur the venerable GR50?? There appears to be catagories for everything else (including what could be refered to as 'vintage' models).

MrSpock

PS: Slightly off topic (yet still v. pertinent to my set-up this end). As I mentioned, I was/am in the middle of a recording session when my GR-50 went down. A friend of mine has offered me a GR-20 to try out. If it works for me I'm welcome to make them an offer (they've since upgraded to a GR-55). So I've spent the morning so far putting this GR-20 through its paces. First impressions? Well, there's definitely a heap more presets than in the GR50 and the tracking seems fine ... in-the-box as it were HOWEVER, when hooking it up via MIDI to my KORG i5M sequencer and that's a completely different kettle of fish - sadly it doesn't perform very well at all. Yes, one of the main things I used my GR-50 for was to control a Korg sequencer and, in this capacity, it's REALLY stable with barely a glitch to be heard (exactly what you want/need from a virtual guitar interface) yet, when using exactly the same set up with the GR-20 as the MIDI controller in place of the GR-50 (ie: exact same v-guitar; same leads; same sequencer) the difference is night and day but not in a good way! Where the GR-50 is completely stable, the GR-20 is plain awful I have to say with high pitched bleeps & duffer notes being triggered left, right and centre - practically unuseable in fact! Why is this the case?? I've tried changing the string sensitivity settings on the GR20 so that each string only registers the highest level very occassionally on the Sens meter when plucked hard but to no avail - the incorrect triggering & glitches persist. This is a shame as, when just playing in-the-box (ie: using just the internal sounds, not trying to use the GR-20 as a controller) in this capacity it tracks (and sounds) great. I'm confused! Can anybody shed any light on this scenario? Thanks! ???   

MrSpock

YAY!!! Fixed. Following the advice given, that's my GR50 back up'n'running! Thanks SO much to everyone for all their help! CHEERS  ;)

PS: If anybody has any further insights as to why this GR-20 I've loaned doesn't control my Korg sequencer anyway near as well as the GR-50 does (see my above post for details) I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts ... 

Frankster

Hello MrSpock, I'm going to assume your DAW is Logic? *

Anyway ... you may find that adjusting the GR-20 sensitivity fixes a lot of the false trigger problems.

http://www.roland.co.uk/support/knowledge_base/201957669


* That's a joke by the way.

mixman

I have two GR-50 units and i actually turn the unit on and keep it plugged in while you change the battery.
This way you will not run into the problem of loosing the factory presets.
actually you don't loose the actual factory presets, you loose the names they set them up with the sounds remain in there.
Here is what i did. I went to the Roland site and they have a midi player you can down load. They also have the midi file that loads all the presets and names back in it is easy.
You never want to really load the midi file in the GR-50 with any recording software because you will run into problems.
Step 1 Download the midi file.
Step 2 Download & install the midi player.
Step 3 Connect a midi cable from you midi interface if you have one in your recording interface. most units these days have them.
Step 4 turn on the unit and set it to midi something? in the back there is a switch i forget what it says.
step 5 Play the midi file thru the midi player into the GR-50 and in seconds it will re load the factory presets. :)
I backed the actual file up to an Alesis Data disk unit. So all i have to do is reload it back in with a floppy in the data disk.
Ancient, but works if it ever happens again or some one needs my help. 8)