GR-55 - Wish List

Started by SLICK, February 23, 2011, 02:01:46 AM

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Vgunn

1.  Fix the glitchyness of the pitch bending in the pedal, this just sucks right now.  For that matter it noticeable in the wah as well.

2.  More flexible effects routing options. 

3.  Lots and lots of details like for example control of the volume of the pitch shifted tones in the 12 string patches.

TheGuitarPlayer

Don't forget the value proposition in all of this. The GR-55 (at least where I am) costs roughly half what a VG-99 does, and about the same (if you take into account inflation) as the GR-33//GR-30 cost when they launched. In terms of the GR line, I think it's a pretty good upgrade. That being said, at that price point you can't expect it to do everything under the sun.

aliensporebomb

Quote from:  TheGuitarPlayer on July 06, 2011, 12:38:53 AM
Don't forget the value proposition in all of this. The GR-55 (at least where I am) costs roughly half what a VG-99 does, and about the same (if you take into account inflation) as the GR-33//GR-30 cost when they launched. In terms of the GR line, I think it's a pretty good upgrade. That being said, at that price point you can't expect it to do everything under the sun.

Exactly - the 99 is kind of a specialized piece of gear.  It can do a lot of ridiculous stuff the 55 wasn't really designed to do.  If I were doing it all over again I might have just had the 55 but maybe I wouldn't have found as many cool things?  I don't know - I tend to dig into stuff until I find things the manufacturer didn't know about.

In order to get "synthy" sounds out of the 99 along the lines of some of the stuff the 55 can do right out of the box you have to go a heck of a lot farther to do it and absolutely none of the factory patches even come close to that sort of thing. 

I keep talking about Bill Ruppert but he kind of showed what was possible with it and so I dug into the box and figured out some things - and here's a little excerpt from the end of a track I did two days ago and removed the kit drums and reduced the bass low in the mix for the most part just so you can hear a big pad polysynth sound I created with 12-string algorithm and the harmonizer and some modulation - it just sounds like the fattest, lushest polysynth but it's just guitar and then I looped that part:



And then there's a VG-99 bass (low in the mix) and a VG-99 lead guitar lick that got sucked into the loop because I played that using a different sound after I did the synth line - as well as a clean toned arpeggio part - it might come to nothing but that's as "synthy" as the 99 goes (so far).

I keep going to local stores to see if there are any 55's for demonstration out, so far no luck.

My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

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

kenact

Quote from:  Elantric on May 10, 2011, 09:31:50 AM
But, I'm embarrassed  to say  have over 30 guitars, and 15 amps, 2 PAs, 6 computers, and associated I/O gear and rack FX.

I'm embarrassed to say I DON'T have 30 guitars (only 16) and 15 amps (only 4), but I do have 2 PAs and more than 6 computers.  :)
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

Vgunn

#54
Just got back from my first band rehearsal with the GR-55.
I used a VG-99 with the same band a few times.

It was kind of a mixed bag of better and worse with the GR-55.

I have decided to go ampless for the next gig so that is the way I rehearsed.

The thing is of course that the sounds of PAs and monitors are all different so some of the driven sounds that I had worked out at home on my super nice dynaudio BM6As were just not sounding very nice at all through what I was monitoring through at the studio.

With the VG-99 I would have been able to go in and make the necessary adjustments in seconds but with the GR-55, well....   Fortunately I now know the set list and have a couple of days to refine the sounds I am going to use for the show.  I also got a bit more of a clue which tones were working with the band through the PA and which weren't.

Interesting reactions from the other band members when I was flipping though some of the presets and these massive lush tones were coming out of the PA when the keyboard play was just standing there picking his nose.

He is a great player and there is a bit of an issue about whether I should stay a little more thin and guitar like so we are not stepping on each other.

I look forward anyway to the next couple of days of editing though I wish to hell I could get gumtown's floorboard to work.  I need it BAD!!

mbenigni

QuoteI am sort of having the feeling that a lot of the GR55's lamenesses are intentional to prevent it from competing with the VG-99.
This is a mouthful right here.  For all the talk about how we shouldn't expect a product in the GR55's price range to compete with products twice as costly, the truth is that some of its biggest shortcomings could have been alleviated with design changes that would have cost Roland nothing, or close to it.  They seem to be making a conscious effort to maintain demand across a variety of product lines.

gafaell

Quote from: SLICK on February 23, 2011, 02:01:46 AM
Ok having lived with the unit for a good couple of weeks now and finding a lot of things to love but equally a lot of thing that have just 'missed the mark' or are simply missing altogether!
In trying to summarise my thoughts I have come up with a top 10 'wishes' in no particular order:

1: I really really miss the 'autoriff' effect found on the GT units. I know it's pretty much ignored by most but the flexibility and fun I had using it was one of the highlights for me of the GT's

2: Graphic EQ. Just makes it SOO much easier to set up EQs if you can 'see' what the curve looks like.

3: Another effects block. Placed in front of the 'AMP' block containing O/D, Wah, Phaser, Comp, Limiter, Pitch shifter. In combination with the current dynamic MOD block this would allow you to use an OD/DST effect for dirt rather than relying on the temperamental AMP sims.

4:Wet / dry control for all effects (just like the GT-10) sounds redundant but it allows you to

5: Harmoniser Effect. Same as everyone else here. The unit is just crying out for one.

6: A looper. I just can't bring myself to call the 'special delay' already included in the GR-55 a looper! Minimum requirements would be to be able to stop and restart at the beginning of a loop

7: A directory tree for the Audio player, right now all of your tracks have to go in the root level and I can't seem to see how to reorder them.

8: In the Audio Player make a long press on the >>,  << pedals do FF,  RW save me having to listen all through a track to get to the part I want to learn EVERY time.

9: Stomp box mode where all of the 4 pedals on the unit can be used as assignable controllers

10: Effects loop. This one is my only real HW request but man would it be handy.

I can work around the awful interface (the excellent homebaked editor from Gumtown will help here too) with its split personality page buttons and courser keys and the routing is not as bad as it looks to begin with but I think the list above would go a long way.

Yes, please, bring a new v 1.03 firmware update !!

Please, include the HARMONIZER and other suggestions from this forum ! :D

Kenmac

I already mentioned this in another thread but seeing as how this is the wish list here's what I'd like to see added in the next update:

Personally I'd like to see the "Chet"/Gretsch guitar model added back again. Also there was a mention of a "strum" feature in the GR-20. I never owned a GR-20 but that sounds like it would be a good addition as well. The GR-33 also had a step recorder which allowed you to create your own drum patterns or arpeggiated sequences and it would be nice to see this implemented again. Lastly, and I don't know if this is possible depending on the memory capacity of the GR-55 or not, but possibly increasing the built in looper time to anywhere from say, 40 seconds to even 1 minute in length along with possibly an "undo" function would be nice as well.

Now I don't know whether Roland will implement any one of these features or not or whether they'll be just focused on the bugs, but if there were one thing I'd like to see added to the GR-55 it would definitely be the "Chet"/Gretsch guitar model. Here's hoping.  :)
"Let them brush your rock and roll hair."

kenact

Quote from: Kenmac on February 23, 2012, 09:55:00 AM
The GR-33 also had a step recorder which allowed you to create your own drum patterns or arpeggiated sequences and it would be nice to see this implemented again.

I believe you're thinking of the GR-30.  I have a GR-33 and I don't believe there's a step recorder for creating your own arpeggios.

Quote from: Kenmac on February 23, 2012, 09:55:00 AM
if there were one thing I'd like to see added to the GR-55 it would definitely be the "Chet"/Gretsch guitar model. Here's hoping.  :)

From one Ken to another, that's one patch I don't need, I have the real thing, a 1966 Grestch Chet Atkins Nashville.   ;D
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

aliensporebomb

I picture in my head someone from Roland saying something about that some of what is being requested is not feasible in GR-55 hardware.

Prediction:  we'll see a GR-55 bugfix release before we see any VG-99 release at all.
My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

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

Elantric

#60
Quote
Prediction:  we'll see a GR-55 bugfix release before we see any VG-99 release at all.

Yes I can confirm that. The GR-55 is newer and has more actual units sold and therefore has more attention

VG-99 firmware updates are not going to happen. So we must live with the VG-99 COSM Nylon Guitar bug.

Player99

Why won't Roland fix things? Look what Strymon just did with the Timeline. If Roland keeps going with their current business model they risk loosing ground to more proactive, progressive customer focused upstarts. Come on Roland, no editing software? Bugs? No harmonizer?

mbenigni

#62
Quote from: SLICK on April 04, 2011, 05:14:11 AM
And another thing.......

I wish we had the option of selecting Patch level inc/ Patch level dec as an assign instead of Sound style inc/ dec
Would have been useful to map S1 and S2 to adjust patch level on the fly without having to bend over and take your hands off the guitar.

All of the Assign targets should have increment/decrement options, these could simply be implemented as additional Types in addition Momentary and Toggle, and they would add SO MUCH to the programmability of the GR55.  It's a relatively simple software solution that doesn't demand anything more in terms of DSP processing power, so I'm 99% it's feasible.

One simple chunk of coding -> tons of resulting improvements.  It's what some developers call "low hanging fruit" and Roland would be silly to ignore a request like this.
__________

Other things I'd like to see may or may not be feasible, e.g. hard panning of the DLY/CHO/REV/EQ blocks (to improve routing), optional routing of effects to the guitar out (an alternate means of improving routing), optional placement of the looper before or somewhere between the DLY/CHO/REV/EQ blocks, an Undo for the looper (pie in the sky), some means of controlling the looper from MIDI, some means of controlling PCM pitch bend via MIDI.

Kenmac

Quote from: kenact on February 23, 2012, 09:09:34 PM
I believe you're thinking of the GR-30.  I have a GR-33 and I don't believe there's a step recorder for creating your own arpeggios.

From one Ken to another, that's one patch I don't need, I have the real thing, a 1966 Grestch Chet Atkins Nashville.   ;D

Lucky you.  :)  You're right about the arpeggiator, it was the GR-30 that had that function.
"Let them brush your rock and roll hair."

tekrytor

#64
Along with the looper upgrades, it would be nice to have the looper and audio file output levels controllable via assignment to the GK knob and EXP when ON or OFF.

Also, it could be possible to extend the loop time by reducing the sample rate or in mono mode. Which might be acceptable in some situations. 20 seconds seems like an attempt to force looper fans to buy additional hardware. If Roland wanted to save money, they could have just made the inboard USB available to the looper for almost unlimited loop length and inboard recording, like the GNX4. Or they could have put an empty DIMM socket and let the owner add memory as desired.

However, for their first go at an "all in one" box, I'm pretty happy with the results. I hope they listen to us and add the better requests to the successor though.

One more wish. As long as it's an "all in one" box...a lot of us sing, too. Add an XLR in and a modest vox FX section. Basically, add a pocket studio, something like in the Digitech GNX 3 or 4, or like the Zoom PS line, for example. Put the display and control on iPad and Android apps to save hardware/production costs. Make all the pedals fully assignable. Ok, I'll stop now.

As we've seen with cell phones, integration will make powerful portable new tools for musicians. Will Roland lead or follow the trend?

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

Machh_2

My wish list has two itens:

A GR-55 more easy to use and programing...
A better (toooo much better) trancking on PCM sounds, like as COSM sounds...

is enough to me...

gumtown

Maybe more integration of the modeling functions built into the PCM tone generators.

External midi note input (sound module).

Ability to apply effects and amp sims to 'guitar out'.

Free "GR-55 FloorBoard" editor software from https://sourceforge.net/projects/grfloorboard/

whippinpost91850


Machh_2

All our wishes is good things, but...
If Roland making a synthesizer with everything we want, make an electronic monster that only Kraftwerk could operate it ...

Gassghost

Harmonizer!

Assignable Hold
Additional control and expression pedal jacks
GR-33 GLIDE!
GR-303 updated electronics, Stetsbar, Sustainiac
GR-808 (original) + Stetsbar (FOR SALE)
79 Strat w/ GK-2A
Eastman El Ray 1 and El Ray 3
94 Fender Tele w/GK-2A, Stetsbar
2 Fender GTX 100's
VG-99, GR-55, FC-300
And studio full of stuff

fish

Harmonizer. Appagiator. amp sim on guitar out. fs6 imput (or a MIDI version of the fs6.)

And a concentration button so that when I sit down to work on sounds for my band, I won't spend hours messing about and then turning up a practice saying "didn't get that sound sorted for that tune but check this out...." no limits" by 2 unlimited...... or.... I can play all the parts for axel f!  ha ha.

Machh_2

#71
A reader of chords on the screen, you mount the patch, then opens a page on the screen where you choose and assemble the sequence of chords that are played in your music (you choose the chords within a database or even chords can set up your chord the way you play) so all in graphic or text on the screen as if it were an chord above lirics on music, then you can assign an effect pedal or any function on a certain chord in a certain position within the sequence of chords you've created, so when you play that particular chord, the effect will be assigned run, and you can determine the chord that starts execution and determines the effect of the chord which ends the effect ...
conclusion, while you play the instrument, the GR will accompany their chords and performing the duties during the playing of music that you're playing, and chords may or may not be shown on screen during the execution, for you to visually track as it is happening all if there is any sudden change in music you can stop and play normally, by pressing a pedal for that particular function ...

I think it would be really cool ...


One detail:
GR needs to improve latency when changing a patch to another, much more needs to be fast to make the transition from one patch to another ...
but it is possible ..

gumbo

Wish List???

....that Roland actually reads this Wish List.......    ::)
Read slower!!!   ....I'm typing as fast as I can...

gafaell

Quote from: gumbo on March 10, 2012, 02:13:00 AM
Wish List???

....that Roland actually reads this Wish List.......    ::)

:) Yes, I understand they have to do something about this.



So many bugs and problems have to be solved soon !!!

::)

Harmonizer !!!!!!

Litesnsirens

I would like the ability in the master settings to disable the looper, I love to mess around with it at home but don't use it live and hate accidentally hitting it live.  I scroll patches from the guitar and then only access the CTRL and exp pedals so there's no chance of accidentally activating the tuner or the bank select.  Even if there was they aren't as detrimental during a performance if accidentally tripped.

I agree the smart harmoniser would be awesome.  I know there must be a few other things and I'll post them as I think of them.