How do I add a Roland synth effect?

oh ok. the triple play looks great. i've thought about getting one for ages, but all my previous forays into guitar synth have left me feeling pretty jaded about it. i never really felt "connected" with what i was playing.
 
oh ok. the triple play looks great. i've thought about getting one for ages, but all my previous forays into guitar synth have left me feeling pretty jaded about it. i never really felt "connected" with what i was playing.
Have you tried Midi Guitar 2 from Jam Origin?

I have a Roland GR-30 and it can be ok, but I hate that 13-pin cable and the pickups are not "portable".

I considered the Triple Play but you must mount the pickup right in front of the bridge, and none of my preferred guitars have space for that.

MG2 is straight pitch to midi and does a pretty good job. I think better than the Roland. Plus it generates midi, so I can use any synth that works with a Midi controller.
 
My overall take on guitar synths is that they can be fun, but, utimately, I never wanted to sink big money into them, because at the end of the day, its (IMO) a less than ideal input method.

Its like using a keyboard/sampler for guitar sounds.... sure there are tons of sample libraries, phrase samplers stuff etc. I've got the whole collection of the NI stuff, the funk, the strummed acoustic stuff, lots of libraries that have all these little licks and lead parts you can trigger, controller keys to change fingering, round robin sample stuff for repeated notes etc, but even with all that, even with a great midi keyboard, it is still far easier to just play it on a guitar.

Likewise, I find it so much easier to play keyboard parts on a........ wait for it... keyboard. Simple chords, basic left hand bass lines with right hand accompaniment etc is a piece of cake with a piano keyboard, but its next to impossible to finger that same stuff on a guitar neck. Now, sometimes that can be cool, you can come up with some different stuff, but usually at the end of the day, I prefer a midi style controller.

That might mean using things like pads or a iPad interface, Ableton Push etc, which I can quickly assign to a given scale, now each and every key is in scale, you can't hit a "wrong" note..... Makes it so simple to play in some parts even without knowing how to play piano.

Guitar synths, synth pedals, you name it, all well and good. I do enjoy Jam Origins stuff, I like my old EHX synth pedal etc, but at the end of the day, I often have to ask myself "why?"

Why do I want to go through a ton of effort to play what usually comes out to be a poorly tracked bassline on my guitar, when I've got like a dozen other controllers, ranging from cheap little usb midi controllers, ipad virtual keys and pads, etc right up a hammer weighted 88 key controllers all of which work so much easier to playing a simple bassline, and that can do so without any issues with tracking etc. I can have total control of legato, pitch bend etc, every note input triggers the correct pitch, no glitches etc

Sometimes I just have to step back and and ask myself is making a generic filtered bass sound (with glitches et al) really something I need to do ?

I pursue it because I enjoy the pursuit of it, trying to figure out how I can do it, seeing what new tools are out and if they are any better than the old stuff, etc, but am I actually doing it out of need, or just because I can try, and if/when I get those tones, do I really see myself making use of them in my music.... hmmmm...
 
My overall take on guitar synths is that they can be fun, but, utimately, I never wanted to sink big money into them, because at the end of the day, its (IMO) a less than ideal input method.

Its like using a keyboard/sampler for guitar sounds.... sure there are tons of sample libraries, phrase samplers stuff etc. I've got the whole collection of the NI stuff, the funk, the strummed acoustic stuff, lots of libraries that have all these little licks and lead parts you can trigger, controller keys to change fingering, round robin sample stuff for repeated notes etc, but even with all that, even with a great midi keyboard, it is still far easier to just play it on a guitar.

Likewise, I find it so much easier to play keyboard parts on a........ wait for it... keyboard. Simple chords, basic left hand bass lines with right hand accompaniment etc is a piece of cake with a piano keyboard, but its next to impossible to finger that same stuff on a guitar neck. Now, sometimes that can be cool, you can come up with some different stuff, but usually at the end of the day, I prefer a midi style controller.

That might mean using things like pads or a iPad interface, Ableton Push etc, which I can quickly assign to a given scale, now each and every key is in scale, you can't hit a "wrong" note..... Makes it so simple to play in some parts even without knowing how to play piano.

Guitar synths, synth pedals, you name it, all well and good. I do enjoy Jam Origins stuff, I like my old EHX synth pedal etc, but at the end of the day, I often have to ask myself "why?"

Why do I want to go through a ton of effort to play what usually comes out to be a poorly tracked bassline on my guitar, when I've got like a dozen other controllers, ranging from cheap little usb midi controllers, ipad virtual keys and pads, etc right up a hammer weighted 88 key controllers all of which work so much easier to playing a simple bassline, and that can do so without any issues with tracking etc. I can have total control of legato, pitch bend etc, every note input triggers the correct pitch, no glitches etc

Sometimes I just have to step back and and ask myself is making a generic filtered bass sound (with glitches et al) really something I need to do ?

I pursue it because I enjoy the pursuit of it, trying to figure out how I can do it, seeing what new tools are out and if they are any better than the old stuff, etc, but am I actually doing it out of need, or just because I can try, and if/when I get those tones, do I really see myself making use of them in my music.... hmmmm...
For me it's about the sounds... Honestly, your answer could just as easily apply to a keyboardist. Most of what they play is not piano. The big difference is that synthesizers just come in the same form factor as a piano... And it's easier to "digitize" because the piano has far less "expressive" range.

I like synth leads, pads, strings, horns, etc... I don't have time to learn those instruments. Also, I like doing things like playing a "guitar part" with a piano sound - there are some really creative things you can do with it.
 
The FTP with a FC-1 can be used sans PC to go direct to your MIDI HW.

If you have a laptop in your "rig" for other uses (recording? maybe your keyboard player has one in his gear path for various uses, maybe the singer for autotune - LOL, ....) then you could use either FTP (now sans the need for FC-1) or Jam Origins MIDI Guitar - since BOTH FTP and J.O. MIDI Guitar GUI's can be used to trigger any external MIDI gear via your existing PC MIDI I/O device (like an AXE FX III) as well as PC VSTi's.

If you are a three man "Cream" like act (bass, drummer and the virtuoso guitar star) you could STILL add a PC or laptop to your rig to play MIDI gear.


I have FTP, JO MIDI Guitar, Roland Ready GK guitars, a GI-20 as well as my original GR-50 (yes dated sounds), other GK guitars and for grins a Your Rock Guitar. While a game device it is actually the best of the bunch with respect to tracking since it is NOT a pitch to MIDI device it's direct “MIDI to MIDI” (each fret and open string has its own mechanical to electrical trigger – just like any of my keyboards, Montage 7, Fusion 8HD, and QS8)
 
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