BTW, Jam Origin is a completelly different story. These are modeled synth sounds processed from the actual guitar waveform (they capture all the playing nuances), not a triggered guitar-to-MIDI conversion . You surely know that, since you had a VG8. I just point it out in case that someone thinks that a modeled synth guitar can be replaced with Jam Origin.
Oh yeah, I know. I loved some of the awesome non-guitar sounds I created on the VG8, and when it came to that it was
so responsive. I don't own anything with a 13-pin input or output anymore, and I don't think I'd get back into any of that stuff any time soon. I'm dubious of the sound quality of digital Boss or Roland, but that may not be fair any longer (I haven't cared enough to explore). I do think that for straight conversion to MIDI, there's nothing better with a standard guitar output than Jam Origin, from what I've seen.
Not that anyone would give a damn, but I was utterly positive the intro to Beneath the Remains by Sepultura was the first factory patch of the GR-1. When I got the unit I played that intro and was shocked that it sounded the same. Also, I'm pretty sure the outro solo to How Could I? by Cynic, was absolutely the organ factory patch on that thing too haha.
So many Boss products come and go it's gotten hard to even pay attention.
That's a huge problem for me. In general I don't trust stuff that's too proprietary these days, unless there's a ton of evidence that the company behind it is awesome. For small companies that are awesome and innovative, there's can be too little demand to keep them able to produce and support the awesome product, or there's some copycat or royalty problem that ruins it, and for companies who have a cool idea but are staffed with assholes, they don't care about leaving customers in the dust. I don't get the impression that Roland is a bunch of assholes, but I'm dubious anyway. I feel like they just throw a bunch of stuff at the wall to see what will stick.
The only editing interface is via iPhone or Android app. What’s the chance they’re gonna sell enough of these to keep supporting that for more than a couple of years?
Totally with you on that. You're saying this just has me tangentially thinking of Tronical Tune; their latest version has an app to control the hardware, and I just don't see the app lasting, given everything else about that company (holy crap, I tried to read reviews one night, and it was brutal). Further to the point is Jammit, an abandoned app (had nothing to do with any hardware though) that left many users in a lurch.