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Roland Gr20 Guitar Synth, My Review


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Wonderful sounds, bad latency with the provided G3 divided pickup, especially when playing bass. Pickup install was a pain and I had to go out & buy more double sided tape. You'd be better off with a dedicated guitar like a Godin than the supplied pickup or pay mucho bucks for Graphtech saddles.

Here's a quick demo I made the day I brought it home using my Ibanez Artcore semi-hollow body electric guitar. There's no 'guitar' sounds. I used a drum pattern from my recording deck. Everything else is the Roland. I also tried connecting the GR20 to my Korg keyboard synth (an X50) but even with a 6' cable, the latency was absurd. I've since traded the GR20 for a real bass. Tracking was bad for the most part, other notes being set off, not being able to play faster than 8th notes, etc... but I attribute that to the terrible pickup. Other than that, if you have a dedicated midi guitar, this thing should rock your world.

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/tavernstuff/jimsGR20demo.wma

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Hey Jim

Not faster than 8th notes? That would do my head in :)

Do you think it was worth the money?

Cheers

John

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No, not worth the money playability-wise just because of the latency with the supplied pickup. The sounds were utterly wonderful (bend a flute or violin/clarinet/human voice note) and i understood that certain sounds (like a flute) should be played as if your trying to play a flute and not a guitar (bending, sliding to accurately reproduce the sound) but having the ability to bend or slide, hammers & whatnot is really cool. The problem is that you had to set the sensitivity of the pickup so high that any touch of the strings set off the sounds and some sounds just couldn't handle being sent to the unit so fast via the strings. Palm muting would set it off, sympathetic vibes too. Some sounds were spot on and tracked nicely but overall i'd stay away from it unless you had a midi guitar and the ability to try the unit out first because you know your going to lose money trying to trade it back in if you don't like it.

it blew me away when I first had it, then I started to really use it with recordings, mainly to play bass on my 6 string electric and the more I kept getting dissatisfied with the tracking and ultimately decided it was more a hassle & waste of time trying to fuss with the pickup. Buying another guitar just to use it wasn't feasible nor was spending about $200.00 each for 6 new Graphtech saddles that I wasn't sure would fit my guitar (not including the install & device module needed to make them work). So it was just easier for me to trade for a real bass guitar. I guess I'll just have to bone up on my sad keyboard skills.

here's another tune idea where I used it for the bass (use headphones, i mix down w/headphones...).

If you think the bass is 'late', your correct even tho' my hitting of the string/note is spot on and you can hear it's simple single notes. I did a little 'slide' at the beginning with the bass which sounds like the bad start of a tape reel deck when play was hit. Btw, your hearing some of the best intricate piano playing i can muster...;>)

All the other sounds are my Korg synth:

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/tavernstuff/monster.mp3

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  • 4 weeks later...

That was a just the sort of review thats needed here. That latency problem is unforgivable! Good job J.

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  • 2 years later...

This is quite interesting...I do not experience any latence really at all with my GR 20.

I think it was a install issue. I do notice that if I am playing the guitar with a sound that has a slower attack that a guitar string I do have to adjust my playing style slightly, but never do I experience latency rendering the GR-20 un usable.

Did you call Roland customer support? They are GREAT!

That was a just the sort of review thats needed here. That latency problem is unforgivable! Good job J.

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