Roland GR-30 Guitar Synthesizer

just getting out of the box, and the knobs are a bit intimidating, but it's straightforward, the manual's easy to figure out, and anyone who's ever played a GR-1 or a GR-09 (my last guitarsynth) will have no problem.

tracking's still a bit glitchy at times on some of the guitar samples, but WOW, is this a big step up from the GR-09. better organs, strings, saxes, percussion, plus a complicated but terrific arpeggiator and an easy-to-program harmonist(a chromatic harmonizer), as well as a wah wah guitar that's straight out of curtis mayfield.

i'll be taking it to canter's as my synth starting this thursday, and i'm not worried. my GR-09 was a tank, in a high-impact plastic box that was actually high-impact. the GR-30 is a bit lighter, but it's at least as sturdy as the 09. no worries.

roland = good customer service thsat seems to take forever.

I FINALLY GOT MY GR-30! I AM SO STOKED! with more samples, better sound quality, and a price $400 less than the expanded GR09, which was cheap at the time, the GR-30 is the deal of a lifetime (until the next-generation GR comes out).i play everything but hip hop, so a box with all the bells and whistles (and 384 GOOD samples to begin with) is a big help, especially if someone wants to hear james brown. maceo is ready.

Any idiot can figure the thing out after a bit of fooling around with it even though there are tons of things to experiment with. However, you have to install the GK-2A pickup in order to operate it. This is the main reason I disliked the whole unit. You have to stick this fragile $200 chunk of plastic on your guitar with these adhesive strips. Aside from the fact that it totally ruins the asthetics of your guitar (it looks like your Stat has been assimilated by the Borg with that perpetually glowing red eye!), you cannot put it in a hard shelled case ever again. For those of you who have shell out a hundred or so bucks for a hard shell case, sorry, you're out of luck usless you want to reinstall this thing every time you fool with it. The GK-2A is only plastic, so I wouldn't even chance using a gig bag with it for fear of cracking the thing. Oh yeah, you'll probably have to readjust your string height to get all the strings to sound at the same volume. Enough about the pickup. Editing the patches is not that difficult, though there are a lot of parameters. The manual does a fair job of describing how it's done considering all that's possible to change. One thing guitarists won't like is the effects section though. Adding delay, flange or the so-called wha isn't all that great. Guitarists are generally used to being able to tweak the parameters of their effects, not just assigning a pre-designated mix of them. For example, there are (I believe) about a half dozen delay settings. This means there are only those few combinations of the delay level, time, and decay rate. Anyone who has fooled around with DOD's FX7 knows what I'm talking about, only it's worse.

Hell, the sounds are great, I can't lie. However, keyboardists are going to get a lot more out of this unit as an external sound generator than most guitarists. The problem is (and here I go ripping on that damned pickup again) that the GK-2A misfires so often you can't get a whole lot of enjoyment out of the sounds. That thing seems to pick up every false harmonic you never thought you could make. I would hear little chirps and squeals several octaves from where my fingers were and where any audible harmonics should have come from. I'm not imagining this, I hooked the GR-30 to both my as well as my girlfriend's computers (separte occassions, of course)and I would get these things showing up all over the screen. I was lucky I could edit them out of the MIDI, but what if I had been using this thing in a live situation? That would have been embarassing. The synth voices were great, especially if you're into this techno thing that's been getting popular, but don't bother with the guitar voices. You're playing a guitar already anyway, so why bother, I know, but there are some acoustic voices on there which aren't going to going to fool anyone. There are so many dynamics any physical (non-synth) instrument you will never be able to imitate with this kind of device, but I was frustrated that I couldn't try anyway. The acoustic steel stringed guitars are among the worst, take my word. I'm torn between the great synth voices on board and the fact that I couldn't get any use out of them from all the technical problems. I have to give it a 5.

There's so much that can go wrong. The pickup is my main concern (see above), but the box itself is only plastic. I can't think of anything out there more fragile than this unit. I probably wouldn't even use it live for reasons stated above.

I've never dealt with them. I plan on sending them these comments shortly.

No, I wouldn't buy it again. If fact (if you hadn't already guessed) I sent it back. There was simply too much I was dissatisfied with in this unit. Maybe if I had a MIDI pickup built into my guitar already I would be a little closer to liking this thing, but the tracking problems just drove the last nail into the coffin. I play all sorts of music, from rock to traditional and modern jazz, as well as pop. I found that once the novelty wore off I could have found a use for this toy in a number of situations, but it just plain lacked the dynamics of playing a guitar. As soon as I got rid of it and plugged into crappy my old processor I felt like I was playing guitar again, not faking something. I'm not some technophobe. I love synths and think they're about the coolest things on Earth. I wanted to be able to take part in that sonic arena, but still be able to use an instrument with which I had the greatest level of physical proficiency. I'm clumsy on keyboards, so I thought the GR-30 was my best means of entry into that previously cordoned off world of MIDI and imitating the sounds of so many other cool instruments like horns, orchestral strings, and other synthesized sounds. With all of the problems I had with this unit I can still see that some people might be able to get some enjoyment out of it. I just couldn't. There was so much I had to sacrifice for what little pleasure this box gave me that in the end I had to just send it back. I haven't decided what to do with the money I got back, but you can be sure it won't be on another gizmo like this one. Because the annoyances were so much greater than the sum of their parts, I ended up disliking it more than any single manufacturer's flaw could have made me. As a reult the overall rating I give it is a 2.

The manual does a great job explaining each thing detailed. Plus every program is easy to change and tweak it to your preference.

For the most part the sounds are amazing. The sitar and fender rhodes were right on. Certain tones are layered together to give a 3-d feel. Compared to the gr-9 and gr-1 it blows them both away. Even my parents were impressed by the synth sounds(jp series)

Its big and built well but fragile. One easy slip could do some damage. Best to make a protection shield around it if playing live. I wish they would make it more protective like the v-8.

As always my point of purchase and roland do a very good job on giving me answers to my questions.

Yes I would buy it again. There are so many things to fiddle around with that it will take me months to write my own patches. The speed accuracy is excellent but still needs a tad improvement on some of the instrument tones. When I say tad I mean very very small! This is for experimenters of music especially progressive rock. The fun will last a long time until roland comes out with something better than the v-8, jp8000, and the gr-30.

As someone who has struggled with the user interfaces of earlier Roland GR-series guitar synths, as well as more recent Axon models, I can tell you that this is the most user friendly of the bunch. Roland should receive high marks for providing a thoroughly intelligible owner's manual and straightforward layout, one which is similar to the GR-9 but with additional new features. Special dials for string select, edit targets, parameter select, and so forth make endlessly nested menus a thing of the past. Even the most midi-illiterate person will be up and running in no time.

As someone who was initially impressed with the sheer speed of the Axon NGC-66, NGC-60, and NGC-77 models, I was prepared to be disappointed with the GR-30's tracking speed, but the GR-30 features a newly designed parameter called "play feel," which allows one to select from a whole range of playing sensitivities--from "finger picking" to "hard picking," from "tapping" to "special envelope followers," as well as a special accelerated mode that dramatically speeds up response time. Playing with "soft picking" feel in accelerated mode, the GR-30 tracks every bit as fast as the Axon models in my opinion. Moreover, the 8 MB of tones packed into the GR-30--many of which rival the best JV-1080 tones-- far surpass the extremely mediocre GM sound board that is optional with the Axon NGC-66 and NGC-77. Of course, there are few duds here and there, but I was astonished by the number of phenomenally beautiful and expressive patches it contains: it is no exaggeration to say that the GR-30 contains some of the best bass, solo violin, sitar, and piano patches I've heard. But even more impressive than the increased speed and patch quality of the GR-30 is the phenomenal new arpeggiator function, which truly must be heard to be believed. The GR-30 comes with 128 different arpeggiator programs, covering every music style imaginable--from jazz to country, from rap to rave, from rock to ethnic. Or if one is dissatisfied with any of the preprogrammed arpeggiator patterns, one can customize one's own from the ground up--simply playing a pattern into the GR-30 and allowing it to sequence the arpeggiation pattern automatically, or manually tweaking an already constructed pattern. The arpeggiator, along with the advanced hold function (including 15 different types of hold functions), the very musical wah and pitch glide pedals, 2-part harmonizer and other effects, place this guitar synth light years ahead of the competition (listen up, Axon and Yamaha). Roland also deserves accolades for dramatically expanding the midi mapping capabilities of this unit. Not only is it possible to decide exactly if and how one wants the arpeggiation and hold functions to affect other sound modules being driven by the GR-30, but now for the first time in a guitar synth, the GR-30 sends out not only the standard program change messages but also bank select messages. This is a godsend when interfacing with any advanced synth module--such as the JV-1080, JV-2080, K-2500, etc.--since it enables one to access literally thousands of patches as opposed to simply 128. The Axon series includes the ability to delineate advanced fretboard zones, each of which can call up a different patch, but the Axon utterly fails to capitalize on that advance by taking the next step and including a bank select function a la the GR-30, which makes it possible to call up not only the 128 patches in the user memory of one's external synth module but also the thousands of more residing as presets on expansion boards, etc.

My only reservation about the GR-30 is that its case is made out of plastic as opposed to a more sturdy metal case (such as the built-to-last stealth-bomber-styled VG-8). This means that if one doesn't treat the box with a modicum of respect, it will not survive long on the road. Accidentally dropping a mike onto it would almost certainly crack the screen if not the case.

Though it usually takes forever to get through to someone, the Roland tech support has been extremely helpful once reached.

Considering that the Axon NGC-60 (with mediocre GM sound board) sells at a discounted price of $900 and the NGC-77 for $995, the GR-30 is an incredible deal. The GR-30 is by far the most bang for the buck. Roland should devour the competition with this model. I would buy it again in a heartbeat. This box stimulates creativity like no other device I know.