Gk-ing. roland gk-3

[jim simpson]

I have a Fender strat with the Roland pickup and controls already built into it. This is not the recently introduced model that has the synth sounds also built into the guitar, mine plugs into the floor module. I wonder if the pickup and controls from mine could be ordered and built into a mando for a cleaner look?

[mandelect]

Is my impression correct that the main reason to use the MIDI pickup is that you can have a separate signal for each string, in order for the polyphonic synth patches to pick it up?

Kid - yes, in order to do pitch to midi polyphonically, and reliably, you do need a poly/divided pickup with seperate pole pieces for each string. However, Lateral Solutions produced a software Guitar Synth which managed to extract polyphonic information from a mono 1/4" jack input - it even named all the notes if you played a chord. Very clever stuff, but it needed careful setting up, and was not reliable enough for live use.

... I see a 1/4" out on my gear #input is divided ,but you guys say the GI10 INput is mono, so that must predate the GK divided pickup.

Mandroid - the GI-10 did have the GK input for normal poly stuff; it also had a 1/4" jack input, which was intended as a mic input for mono pitch to midi. You would need to play very clean single note lines in order to use the 1/4" jack input successfully - double stops, or chords would not work.

[mandroid]

jim simpson ,
I dont know about Roland's, built in, from my experience,
The ( brick and mortar) retailers that sell the roland gear would offer that info.
I opted for RMC pickups which is an in the bridge piece piezo based, and that allowed me to get my 4 string
retrofitted.

With their Poly Drive 2 which offers S1,S2 an eq for the dry mono out , and a instrument and synth volume.
RMC offers 3 sorts of of processing circuitry, 2 is outboard in a black box, the other 2 are internal.

Godin's SA guitars use the same components on their stuff.
Brian Moore offers an 8 string with 13 pin output.
[still pitch analog at that point]

I like the fact that my 4 string has 4 bridgepieces , and my 5 string has 5 bridge pieces,
and is an uncluttered installation.
they share the (one purchase) control box , one 8 pin input and a cable to the instrument.

and the 13 pin cable out from the box,
plus 1/4" Mono from a preamp [9v internal battery for when not phantom powered from the 13 pin cord]
& the installer fit a pass thru 1/4" out for the magnetic pickup in the instrument .

retrofitted 1st with acoustic guitar intended pieces 1/4x1/8th inset in a wooden floating bridge.
2nd one used 5 bridge pieces for strat type , both have an 8 pin jack on them.

cable has a lockring on it for secure connection.

. . . . . . . .

I had a feeling the combined to mono output from the instrument would be a trainwreck for pitch to midi.

. . . . . . . . .

Kid C, to play live, it sounds like, is probably going to need a divided pickup on his instrument.

[foldedpath]

I have a Fender strat with the Roland pickup and controls already built into it. This is not the recently introduced model that has the synth sounds also built into the guitar, mine plugs into the floor module. I wonder if the pickup and controls from mine could be ordered and built into a mando for a cleaner look?

I don't know if the Roland controls are available as anything other than the stick-on module, for non-OEM use. If you use the RMC system you could build the synth controls into the body, but there are some advantages to using RMC's external Polydrive 2 box, if you don't absolutely need those control switches. I don't use em myself. I can control synth volume, patch changes etc. with a Midi pedal board, and I'd rather do that than take my hand off the strings, but YMMV.

The instrument looks much cleaner without the extra controls (if you care about that), and there isn't a heck of a lot of free space to work with on a mandolin-sized body. With the external preamp/breakout box you save a little money if you get more RMC-equipped instruments down the line, since the box can be used with all of them. Another advantage is the very solid bayonet connector at the guitar end. The flimsier GK-13 cable plugs into the box instead of the instrument with this setup. I'll never understand why Roland used such a flimsy connector design as their Midi guitar standard.

[mandroid]

You use Behringer's Midi control pedal board or Roland's?

Can't imagine how I would separate 2 different Modules and shift patch selections on just one of them, though ..


perhaps... Jim's, AFIK the Roland ready Strat, Those were from a Non US contractor made, I think..

Cannibalizing is one way to get the parts, Jim

the guitar wont feel a thing...

[foldedpath]

I used the Behringer Midi pedal for a while -- partly because I also used it to control the functions on a looper. And it does work pretty well. But it has a VERY unfriendly user interface, and takes a lot of trial and error to set up. Still, it's a good Midi pedalboard and you can't beat the price.

Since I'm now using a hybrid of hex pickup waveform processing (Roland VG-99) and guitar synth (Axon AX00 plus rackmount Yamaha Motif ES) for my guitar processing, I'm using the pedal that mates with the Roland VG-99 for Midi control:

http://www.rolandus.com/products/pro...x?ObjectId=850

That controls both the VG-99 and the Midi synth stuff, using a Roland US-20 selector pedal to switch the GK-13 signal between the two. I don't know how well that works as a generic Midi pedal, since it's designed to go with the VG-99, but it looks like it might work as an alternative to other pedals. It looks like Roland is moving to a proprietary Ethernet cable interface for making Midi control pedals like this talk to their own hardware, so maybe it will work with their next generation guitar synths too. It will still work (I think?) with standard Midi connections to generic or older Roland hardware.

P.S. if anyone is thinking of non-Roland hardware synth modules for this kind of thing, I can highly recommend the Yamaha Motif Rack ES. It supports all the things you'd want a pitch-to-midi fretted instrument synth to do, and it sounds fantastic. The other approach is doing all this with VSTi plug-ins in a computer, but I like the reliability and low latency of a rackmount hardware synth... at least for now.

[mandroid]

That one pedal controller is for that one VG99 unit , right ?

there are switches I have to throw on the back of the GKP to send the S1, S2, functions to just one of the 2 GR modules, without both responding at the same time.
would be optimistic to think that a single pedal would change several modules when the company would prefer to sell several to each customer.