GR-55 Guitar Modeling + Axe FX Amp Modeling & Effects = Perfect Combination?

or8ital

Inspired
So instead of paying the $400 premium price for the AXE FX I decided to use that money to buy a Roland GR-55 Guitar Synth. One of the cool features of it is the ability to model guitar sounds off the GK-3 pickup (audio modeling not midi). I played around with it and was surprised by the amount of tweaking and great variety of tones you can get out of this thing. Lots of different guitars to choose from and you can select things like which pickups are enabled on that guitar model.

So with that said, are there other things out there that do guitar modeling better? Are there many people using this combination and what have folks found?
 
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I have been looking into all that myself, the consensus seems to be that the actual Guitar Modelling is better in the new Tyler Variax, especially the acoustics, but the altered tuning algorithms in the GR are much better than the variax.

One thing that i think would annoy me about the GR is that you can't really quickly switch from bridge to middle to neck pickups in a single guitar model, you would have to create seperate patches for each pickup and switch between those.

I'm still undecided as to which way to go.
 
So does this mean you are out of the running or8ital? You've been so helpful with your threads here, especially early on when it was so chaotic.

I will say, I myself got a little discouraged about the wait at first and had pretty much decided I was going to get an HD500 and be done with it. I came across an Ultra for a price I was willing to pay and it put me back on track for the II. I don't know anything about the GR-55 but if the II is how people have been saying i.e. it slays the Ultra, I will wait patiently for my turn at bat.
 
Nope still in the running for a II ha ha. I just know that part of the equation is solid. I'm getting to know the GR-55 in the meantime. Hoping to use the two together to give me a wide variety of sounds. Plus the midi synth part of it is just a lot of fun to play with.
 
Wtf?? Moved to the lounge? What exactly does a thread need to be about to be in the axe fx forum?? Crazy.
 
I haven't had a chance to test the Tyler Variax yet, but one of the things it's supposed to do better than the Roland kit is translate the playing dynamics. That's the reason I never purchased the Roland stuff. It couldn't translate my picking dynamics very well at all which always frustrated me. Some of the sounds were really cool, but the lack of dynamic range was intolerable for me.

D
 
dk_ace said:
I haven't had a chance to test the Tyler Variax yet, but one of the things it's supposed to do better than the Roland kit is translate the playing dynamics. That's the reason I never purchased the Roland stuff. It couldn't translate my picking dynamics very well at all which always frustrated me. Some of the sounds were really cool, but the lack of dynamic range was intolerable for me.

D

I will have to mess with that some more to see how it is.
 
I have the GR-55 and the Axe FX II. The modeling is cool on the GR-55 but what is best is the altered tunings for me . I can go from the Question (Moody Blues - Open C) to the Rain Song to others on the fly with a very good acoustic sound.That plus the synth sounds are bettert and what you can do with the assign switches is really neat.

Trying to see how to trigger the gr55 from the MFC to avoid the tap dancing but highly recommend the GR-55.
 
DonPetersen said:
uh, about the Axe-Fx, maybe?

you basically asked for it to be moved...

:D

Dude, it's about using the GR-55 WITH the axe fx. How is this not about the axe??? And how did I ask it to be moved?? Are you saying if I don't spend the extra $400 then I cant have a thread in the appropriate forum?
 
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I will have to mess with that some more to see how it is.

I should add that this was my issue with using it for normal guitar sounds. For serious detuning abilities and awesome synths, it's hard to beat the Roland stuff. I just don't need that stuff very much. For me, the Tyler Variax is probably a better solution. I'm more likely to buy an Axe-FX II than a Variax right now though as I'm quite happy with my current lineup of guitars.

I alter picking dynamics and guitar controls a lot when I play, and the Roland stuff just couldn't mimic that at all. It couldn't tell where I was picking the string and it couldn't sense and reproduce how hard or soft I was hitting it either.

D
 
the synth sounds are bettert

strictly speaking it's a ROMpler, not a synth.
you're comparing basic waveform generated synthesis with PCM samples.
Romplers might sound more appealing at first, but relying on a fixed sample set makes them sound outdated very quickly.
 
I should add that this was my issue with using it for normal guitar sounds. For serious detuning abilities and awesome synths, it's hard to beat the Roland stuff. I just don't need that stuff very much. For me, the Tyler Variax is probably a better solution. I'm more likely to buy an Axe-FX II than a Variax right now though as I'm quite happy with my current lineup of guitars.

I alter picking dynamics and guitar controls a lot when I play, and the Roland stuff just couldn't mimic that at all. It couldn't tell where I was picking the string and it couldn't sense and reproduce how hard or soft I was hitting it either.

D

Yeah its a concern for me that if I use the guitar modeling as the input into the AXE FX II that I will lose some of the nuance from the dynamics of the AXE.
 
I have a GR-55 and an Ultra. I haven't played much with the models in the 55- I tried the COSM stuff which didn't sound all that great to me. One thing that really bugs me about the 55 is the poor tracking when using my RMC equipped Brian Moore guitar. I hear there are filters you can buy to put in line with the 13 pin connector to improve the tracking so I may look into that.
 
Dude, it's about using the GR-55 WITH the axe fx. How is this not about the axe??? And how did I ask it to be moved?? Are you saying if I don't spend the extra $400 then I cant have a thread in the appropriate forum?

The problem is that you could make that claim about virtually any guitar related product, as many people have. That's why they get moved to the lounge. Like it or not, your thread really isn't about the Axe-FX it's about the GR-55, thus it goes in the lounge.

What does it really matter if it belongs in the lounge? It's not like we're ignoring the thread; we're still commenting on it and trying to help you...

D
 
dk_ace said:
The problem is that you could make that claim about virtually any guitar related product, as many people have. That's why they get moved to the lounge. Like it or not, your thread really isn't about the Axe-FX it's about the GR-55, thus it goes in the lounge.

What does it really matter if it belongs in the lounge? It's not like we're ignoring the thread; we're still commenting on it and trying to help you...

D

Any? I think you mean all. The axe isn't a standalone device.
 
I have the VG88 and VG99. Only use the 99 now. Its great for clean and acoustic and altered tunings. But as far as realistic distorted tones, wasnt quite there for me. Thus needed the Ultra, and now the II.
For synth sounds I prefer the GR33 and my GR300. At any given time I can switch in any of them In my signal chain.
I have ADD. lol
 
One thing that i think would annoy me about the GR is that you can't really quickly switch from bridge to middle to neck pickups in a single guitar model, you would have to create seperate patches for each pickup and switch between those.
You can switch between different pickups of a particular model, or even switch which guitar model you are using, within the same patch using cc assigns. Many GR-55 users who would not ordinarily use cc control are doing so since the GR-55 has a 200 ms gap between patch changes.

I chose replacing my VG-88 with a VG-99 rather than the GR-55. I think the PCM tones are nice in theory, but I don't think I would use them much in practice. The VG-99 allows two simultaneous modeled guitar sections (more useful than I originally thought), 12-string altered tunings, steel-guitar pedal bends, and other nice features. The main problem with the VG-99 is that the nylon string guitar model has a serious bug that makes the top three strings drop out until they are played with significant force. So if you will rely on the nylon string model, avoid the VG-99.
 
I have a GR-55 and an Ultra. I haven't played much with the models in the 55- I tried the COSM stuff which didn't sound all that great to me. One thing that really bugs me about the 55 is the poor tracking when using my RMC equipped Brian Moore guitar. I hear there are filters you can buy to put in line with the 13 pin connector to improve the tracking so I may look into that.
Yeah, you're right. Richard McClish from RMC makes one OPT-01 (a tracking optimizer) for the GR-55, it's not too cheap (mostly because of shipping and bank fee!) so I haven't yet decided to buy one.
 
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