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Bass -> MIDI Converter-> Roland GR20 ?

Tom Henrich

Tom Henrich

Dec 22, 2023
65
35
59
Queens, New York
#1
Happy New Year everyone. I hope that everyone had a good holiday season. Now, back to bassics. :)

Question and / or opinion...

Many moons ago I bought the Roland GR20 guitar synth. I bought it when it first came out. Of course that meant installing the GK3 pickup on one of my guitars. What a massive steaming pile of s#!?. Polyphonic my a--. The thing never tracked well. Then certain strings wouldn't register. I threw everything in a draw in my little home studio and forgot about it.

With no longer being able to play guitar, for the past year I've been getting my chops back on bass. I should have never strayed from my true love, bass. But I digress. I'm starting to look at guitar effects and processors that I'm not going use to sell or trade for bass gear. I almost put my Tech 21 Sansamp GT2 (1st Edition) up for sale on Reverb tonight. At the last minute I saw online how to get an SVT tone out of it. Wow !! Sounds amazing !!

Anyway...

I saw the GR20 and got to thinking. (that's what that smell was). The Sonuus G2M claims to convert any guitar or bass from 1/4 to MIDI and into a MIDI device. So hypothetically, I can put the converter on my board and run it into the Roland and from the Roland into a separate amp or FOH with a DI ? And from the 1/4 out on the G2M I can run that into my bass amp or DI ?

I'm not looking to play YYZ and make it sound like I'm playing a tuba. If I can get it to decently be parallel to my bass playing with a synth sound I'd be happy. I can also hold a chord on the GR20 while playing a different bass part in the same key. I'm looking for a reason to keep the Roland.

Opinions or suggestions?

sonuus - Music Products Designed in the UK
 
#4
Tom Henrich said:
Happy New Year everyone. I hope that everyone had a good holiday season. Now, back to bassics. :)

Question and / or opinion...

Many moons ago I bought the Roland GR20 guitar synth. I bought it when it first came out. Of course that meant installing the GK3 pickup on one of my guitars. What a massive steaming pile of s#!?. Polyphonic my a--. The thing never tracked well. Then certain strings wouldn't register. I threw everything in a draw in my little home studio and forgot about it.

With no longer being able to play guitar, for the past year I've been getting my chops back on bass. I should have never strayed from my true love, bass. But I digress. I'm starting to look at guitar effects and processors that I'm not going use to sell or trade for bass gear. I almost put my Tech 21 Sansamp GT2 (1st Edition) up for sale on Reverb tonight. At the last minute I saw online how to get an SVT tone out of it. Wow !! Sounds amazing !!

Anyway...

I saw the GR20 and got to thinking. (that's what that smell was). The Sonuus G2M claims to convert any guitar or bass from 1/4 to MIDI and into a MIDI device. So hypothetically, I can put the converter on my board and run it into the Roland and from the Roland into a separate amp or FOH with a DI ? And from the 1/4 out on the G2M I can run that into my bass amp or DI ?

I'm not looking to play YYZ and make it sound like I'm playing a tuba. If I can get it to decently be parallel to my bass playing with a synth sound I'd be happy. I can also hold a chord on the GR20 while playing a different bass part in the same key. I'm looking for a reason to keep the Roland.

Opinions or suggestions?

sonuus - Music Products Designed in the UK
Click to expand...
My answer in short: don't translate audio (bitmap sound) to MIDI (vector sound) until you "need" to.
That may imply having no need for the GK-3, the GR-20, nor a Sonuus G2M. (Note that the G2M device is monophonic.)

Me, I have several options to translate audio from a guitar to MIDI, but I'm not currently using them. I used to be happy playing a Roland GR-30 from a MIDI-ready guitar (Godin LGX-SA, with "built-in" GK-3), but I didn't push it to the limits.
It seems to me, that most guitar effects can be achieved without the "detour" of translating to MIDI. Among these effects can even be a synthesizer. (Just think of the Boss SY-1 pedal.) As you say that you can't play a guitar anymore, think of bass effects too (like those by Zoom).

(I say "translate to MIDI" rather than "convert to MIDI", as there is some room for interpretation or threshold settings. That's another topic.)

Hope this helps... ;-)
 
#5
The G2M is glitchy unless your technique and/or you have a bass set up for it (super clean, no fret buzz, probably flat wounds) and won't track below B. The B2M is hard to find now. I am not sure I'd recommend the G2M for bass.

If you want something generically synthy I'd suggest effects not MIDI. If you want to play piano sounds, then MIDI it is...

An old VG-88 and a GK-3B is a valid option too.
 
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#6
Chris Laarman said:
My answer in short: don't translate audio (bitmap sound) to MIDI (vector sound) until you "need" to.
That may imply having no need for the GK-3, the GR-20, nor a Sonuus G2M. (Note that the G2M device is monophonic.)

Me, I have several options to translate audio from a guitar to MIDI, but I'm not currently using them. I used to be happy playing a Roland GR-30 from a MIDI-ready guitar (Godin LGX-SA, with "built-in" GK-3), but I didn't push it to the limits.
It seems to me, that most guitar effects can be achieved without the "detour" of translating to MIDI. Among these effects can even be a synthesizer. (Just think of the Boss SY-1 pedal.) As you say that you can't play a guitar anymore, think of bass effects too (like those by Zoom).

(I say "translate to MIDI" rather than "convert to MIDI", as there is some room for interpretation or threshold settings. That's another topic.)

Hope this helps... ;-)
Click to expand...
Thanks. It definitely helps. Translate is a much better terminology. I was looking for a reason to keep the GR20. I'm probably going sell it or trade it for a decent bass amp. I wish that I acquired bass gear over the years. I have a million guitar amps which doesn't help me now. The SY-1 is amazing !!
 
#7
Unless you can find a way to work within the abilities of the GR 20 and a hex p/u you're better off with pedals. The Boss SY series and Source Audio offer a lot without the headaches inherent with these systems.
Now, selling/trading your GR 20 for a 'decent' bass amp will be the real challenge.
 
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#8
There are some software plug-ins which will work with mono but the Jam Origin one looks like abandonware. It's ok-ish - a little better than the Sonuus G2M if your playing is good. I have a GK-2 and -2B and an Axon (or the Yamaha versions thereof) and can only just get it all to work (why did they put the mode switch on THE BACK?). It does pretty well just mono into the front panel. But I still have to use a bass set up for it with heavier strings, etc., to reduce artefacts.
 
#9
Tom Henrich said:
Thanks. It definitely helps. Translate is a much better terminology. I was looking for a reason to keep the GR20. I'm probably going sell it or trade it for a decent bass amp. I wish that I acquired bass gear over the years. I have a million guitar amps which doesn't help me now. The SY-1 is amazing !!
Click to expand...
You're welcome. :-)

I agree: keeping the GR-20 may not make too much sense in your situation.
(Note: I try to be accurate in mentioning model numbers, as it may make searching easier. Roland/Boss always uses hyphens.)

Regarding "bass gear": if a small "decent amp" will do (like for home use), you may consider the Boss Dual Cube Bass LX. A year ago, I bought both that one and its guitar sibling Dual Cube LX, as well as two Boss Katana combos (guitar, bass). Like "everything", the Dual Cubes LX are demoed on YouTube.
Apart from that, I happen to live "near" the German retailer Thomann. I have fallen for their house brand Harley Benton, both for instruments and devices. You could consider buying a Direct Input box like the Harley Benton one, then play your bass through other amps. (For a short spell, I played bass at home using this DI-box and a Behringer PK-110A active PA-loudspeaker. You could also use a mixer (with a low-impedance setting) instead of the DI-box. (You'd then have a plain sound, instead of it being colored by a proper bass amp.)
And yes, four of my seven basses are by Harley Benton.
 
#10
Roland GR 88 said:
Unless you can find a way to work within the abilities of the GR 20 and a hex p/u you're better off with pedals. The Boss SY series and Source Audio offer a lot without the headaches inherent with these systems.
Now, selling/trading your GR 20 for a 'decent' bass amp will be the real challenge.
Click to expand...
Thanks. I've seen what they sell for on Reverb. More than enough to pick up an SWR Workingmans 12.
 
#11
Bass guitar to MIDI still has a long way to go to be usable for most of what we are looking for but the past few years have granted us bass players some seriously good sounding and performing options that are much less hassle, literally plug and play.
The Boss SY200 does mono or poly sounds with little latency and is very accurate, tons of useable sounds for all occasions.
Source Audio C4 Synth and [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] give us access to a very accurate 4 voice semi-modular synths with lots of potential for creativity, you might need to dig into synthesis to really get deep. Hit me up if you want more info.
EHX 9 series pedals offer polyphonic keyboard and synth sounds that cover a lot of popular or otherwise hard to get sounds.
 
#12
I have a Godin Multiac Grand Concert SA Nylon guitar along with a Roland GR-55 synth. It is a fantastic combo together and tracks really well. I have heard of a lot of tacking issues with the GK3 pickup but, of all the Roland guitar synths, the GR-20 and GR-55 are known to work/track the best. BUT, all of this is for a guitar and not bass.

With that being said, I think there are better paths for what you want to achieve. As others have stated, maybe look into the Helix products.
 
#13
I have a Roland G77 bass synth and floorboard. It's a pretty fun toy though I haven't used the synth part in years. (I haven't used the bass much either, but that's another story.)

The tracking is decent but you gotta play notes cleanly/clearly. Ultimately, as fun as it is, I can also play keyboard/piano, so using my midi keyboard as a midi interface is just easier than trying to go through my bass. But going through the bass is a fun novelty, and the synth floorboard gets some great 80's synth tones I don't have on midi. (I have a Roland GM-70 pitch to midi as well, to connect the bass direct to midi device. But all my rack gear is currently stored away.)
 
#14
Lucky enough to have snagged a VB-88 a long time ago. Tracks great. Not made in a while and was not cheap. And when I say tracks great I mean both ways - analog in or 13 pin in.
 
#15
If you didn't get on with a GK3 on guitar with your GR-20 you will like driving it with a bass even less, irrespective of the pickup. The Sonuus G2M won't work usably for bass with a GR-20 (I've tried one).

I have a GK3-B on a 5-string and it works great with my VB-99 but with a GR-55 many of the patches are unusable. Works perfectly with most SY-1000 patches. Basically for bass anything HRM works well, anything PCM doesn't.

There's really nothing wrong with the GK pickups themselves, the tracking issues are in what they are driving.
 
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#17
RandomKaren said:
If you didn't get on with a GK3 on guitar with your GR-20 you will like driving it with a bass even less, irrespective of the pickup. The Sonuus G2M won't work usably for bass with a GR-20 (I've tried one).

I have a GK3-B on a 5-string and it works great with my VB-99 but with a GR-55 many of the patches are unusable. Works perfectly with most SY-1000 patches. Basically for bass anything HRM works well, anything PCM doesn't.

There's really nothing wrong with the GK pickups themselves, the tracking issues are in what they are driving.
Click to expand...
I installed the GK3 properly on one of my guitars when I first bought it. It wasn't nearly as fluid as the SY-1 is. Not to mention that I could not get the damn thing to sound like a Moog or Oberheim. I'm basically looking for one last shot at liking the thing. I'm leaning heavily to selling / trading it.
 
#18
ashtray said:
I have a Roland G77 bass synth and floorboard. It's a pretty fun toy though I haven't used the synth part in years. (I haven't used the bass much either, but that's another story.)

The tracking is decent but you gotta play notes cleanly/clearly. Ultimately, as fun as it is, I can also play keyboard/piano, so using my midi keyboard as a midi interface is just easier than trying to go through my bass. But going through the bass is a fun novelty, and the synth floorboard gets some great 80's synth tones I don't have on midi. (I have a Roland GM-70 pitch to midi as well, to connect the bass direct to midi device. But all my rack gear is currently stored away.)
Click to expand...
I'd like to have the synth to really widen
my playing. I can picture in my head how I want my sound if that makes sense.
 
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#19
Tom Henrich said:
I installed the GK3 properly on one of my guitars when I first bought it. It wasn't nearly as fluid as the SY-1 is. Not to mention that I could not get the damn thing to sound like a Moog or Oberheim. I'm basically looking for one last shot at liking the thing. I'm leaning heavily to selling / trading it.
Click to expand...

It's a whole new era of tracking technology with the SY series. It really isn't the GK pickup that's the problem, it's just a pickup. It's the GR-20.
 
#20
RandomKaren said:
It's a whole new era of tracking technology with the SY series. It really isn't the GK pickup that's the problem, it's just a pickup. It's the GR-20.
Click to expand...
Oh yeah, that b*!?# is going up for sale. LOL. When I first saw the demo for the SY-1 and the dude was nailing "Subdivisions" I knew that was a pedal to acquire. I really wanted the GR20 to work out for me. I didn't expect to be Keith Emerson on it but I figured it could be a nice addition.
 

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