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Super Synth System!?!!

HugoBazZ

HugoBazZ

Guest
May 12, 2013
161
1
#1
Soo i've been checking out a lot of synth tread on here and i never seem to have seen anyone mention the Roland Gr-77b with the g-77. How can this be? isn't that like a wet dream for synth, and connect it with other pedals. From the demo's I've seen, i sounds killar! Why aren't people demanding a remake/rerelease or updated version of this?

What are you guy's thoughts? have any of you played the system? is it horrible or just too expensive for people? (even tough i don't think money would stop some people ;) awesome gear is priceless! ).

i must say I'm only have very little info on this, i would love to get some more :D
 
#2
I played with a guitar player that had the guitar version....he could make some pretty crazy, amazing sounds. I'd say that there are 2 main reasons that you don't see more of the Roland units. 1st, is expense.
2nd, is that you have to add the special pickup to your bass, which is unsightly. If I had spare money and an extra bass, I'd definitely do it though.
 
#6
I have the earlier G88 version and there are some great sounds on board for sure. The tracking is slow and noticeable with any fast attack settings. The hex pickup is very sensitive to the envelope of the plucked string, either not picking it up very well or reading it LOUD and clear. The GR77 tried to address these issues with the neck-bar and more processing power in the floor unit. The results weren't much better and it was really expensive at the time - $2500.00. You don't see many because they sold very few and those that own them are probably like me and like it for it's originality and irreplaceable value. A decent envelope filter will get you 90% of the tones that these synths have. Roland still makes a hex pickup you can tape to your bass and it will feed only the controllers from the GR20(ver.2) onward. BTW that's the G88 in the pic with me.
 
#7
kevteop said:
The Wal/Peavey MIDIBass was a better approach, and if you still want one it looks like you can get one Invalid Link Removed.

Not cheap. :)
Click to expand...


^^^This. Wired fret-sensors allow much quicker pitch detection & hence better tracking than a hex pickup driving pitch-to-voltage conversion alone. (The brilliance of the Steve Chick system used by Wal & Peavey was that it combined both technologies.)

The Roland GR-77 was noticeably sluggish in the tracking, especially with synth patches that had a fast, percussive attack. And the included synth engine was somewhat pedestrian; the few times I was able to get compelling sounds out of the Roland system all involved external MIDI modules being driven by the GR-77.

Oh yeah, plus the "cheesecutter" bass was fugly. :hiding:
 
#8
HugoBazZ said:
btw isn't the midi bass really complicated for guys how only play with pedals? don't you have to program setting and so on?
Click to expand...

Most guys (and girls, sorry) who are going for synth sounds with a bass guitar and pedals know their way around synths already.

I had a Jazz with a Roland pickup on it a couple of years ago, I got it in a trade with a job lot of other stuff. Tracking performance was better than I expected but I just couldn't see myself using the sounds at the time so I sold it.

If I was going to go the MIDI route (which I may actually, with the gig I've got happening now) I would definitely look at a split-fret bass though. It's obvious how much better it would be, even before someone shows you how the laws of physics will always make pickup-based pitch-tracking on bass notes impractically slow.
 

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