Boss GM-800 and GK-5

[Trollbait]

As a former Roland "fanboy" willing to defend Roland's poorly implemented guitar synth products, I'm glad I read these posts as it confirms my bias that Roland is doing the repackage thing again and the "hey it's a new bright shinny object" shills are pushing it as the best thing since bread. Lol


This post at V is seriously funny.

"Keep in mind, this is from plucked string to audio waveform, and not plucked string to midi note production, which would be somewhat less, but yeah the GM-800 sucks. Hey Roland, the 80s called--they want their technology back! As long as you play on the top four strings around the 10th fret and higher, you should be good--ha, ha. It's also great for ambient pads!! Can't believe all the people that shilled for this piece of crap. Apparently, being a nostalgic Roland fanboy can cloud reason and good judgment."

"In addition, of my many different software synths, Zencore was at the very bottom. If horrible latency and dated 80s synth sounds is your thing, then I highly recommend it.

It's a pretty blue color though and the serial protocol is cool.

I realize fanboyism is a thing, so limit your vitriol towards me, please. "

Another user opinion:

"But it is undeniable that the guitar to midi latency being reported for the "new" Roland gm800 is significantly worse than my Axon AX50 which is 16 years old. With it's massive resources and market share, I think it's disappointing that Roland has never gotten close to the old Terre Tec or further developed Fishman systems on that functionality....
...As for Zencore, requiring a subscription to edit and load sounds on a purchased hardware device like the gm800 just feels sleazy to me. Yeah it's a fun little box. But I believe it should perform far better than it does."

Any feedback on midi tracking on gm-800 ? - Page 3

Any feedback on midi tracking on gm-800 ? - Page 3

www.vguitarforums.com

 

[JiveTurkey]

As a former Roland "fanboy" willing to defend Roland's poorly implemented guitar synth products, I'm glad I read these posts as it confirms my bias that Roland is doing the repackage thing again and the "hey it's a new bright shinny object" shills are pushing it as the best thing since bread. Lol


This post at V is seriously funny.

"Keep in mind, this is from plucked string to audio waveform, and not plucked string to midi note production, which would be somewhat less, but yeah the GM-800 sucks. Hey Roland, the 80s called--they want their technology back! As long as you play on the top four strings around the 10th fret and higher, you should be good--ha, ha. It's also great for ambient pads!! Can't believe all the people that shilled for this piece of crap. Apparently, being a nostalgic Roland fanboy can cloud reason and good judgment."

"In addition, of my many different software synths, Zencore was at the very bottom. If horrible latency and dated 80s synth sounds is your thing, then I highly recommend it.

It's a pretty blue color though and the serial protocol is cool.

I realize fanboyism is a thing, so limit your vitriol towards me, please. "

Another user opinion:

"But it is undeniable that the guitar to midi latency being reported for the "new" Roland gm800 is significantly worse than my Axon AX50 which is 16 years old. With it's massive resources and market share, I think it's disappointing that Roland has never gotten close to the old Terre Tec or further developed Fishman systems on that functionality....
...As for Zencore, requiring a subscription to edit and load sounds on a purchased hardware device like the gm800 just feels sleazy to me. Yeah it's a fun little box. But I believe it should perform far better than it does."

Any feedback on midi tracking on gm-800 ? - Page 3

Any feedback on midi tracking on gm-800 ? - Page 3

www.vguitarforums.com

So you're Bluesbird; not chris?

 

[BROCKSTAR]

Forgot to show my new kiesel zeus here with the gk-5 pickup that goes to my boss sy-1000 and gm-800.

 

[Enchilada Jones]

does disparaging others for the choice of musical gear make one better in some way?
or otherwise serve some greater good?

I wonder if there is some kind of null test to disprove the answer someone would have for that question.

 

[JiveTurkey]

For me; my GR got rained on on my last gig with it. The rotary encoder no longer worked and that was that. I was also tired of a huge box with ridiculously limited routing and switches that had no use compared to the ridiculous amount of space it took up.

I watched Alex Hutchins vid. Who is a complete virtuoso and certainly paints a favorable picture on the general rehashed turd that is Roland. I watched a vid or two from Brock but our styles and purposes for the unit could really not be further apart. And no disrespect meant to his ambient leanings or my "play the kazoo part in some random cover song" requirements. I bought the damn thing and it does the job. No more (certainly), no less.

 

[BROCKSTAR]

The beginning of the end for my GR-55 was at a gig one night, a speaker stack fell over, mic stand just clipped my nose,
but the poor old GR-55, even with its body of steel, got crushed right across the top righthand side.
The EXP pedal wouldn't move anymore for the gig, so after I had to strip down the GR-55 and beat the chassis out back to a box shape.
But ..alas.. the EXP pedal was never the same, the range was no longer linear, then problems of going out of calibration right at the worst times started.
Not to mention that it was damn heavy too.

So the SY-1000 + GM-800 is my GR-55 replacement.
And by jeebers they do a mighty fine job, never been happier with my tone in over 35 years of gigging (that I can remember).

If there was another product brand that can do the same as this pair does, I most likely would have tried it too,
and don't mention anything computer/software based, because that does not go down well with me due to a computer based setup some years ago (pre 2000) which decided to start crashing on me during a tour, in front of 25k+ crowds, super embarrassment, and never again (by diddly gosh - are you allowed to swear here ?).

Yeah don't say "dick" or you'll get everything removed like the other place "rolls eyes". Like we're adults, if you can't handle the word dick, then get off the internet...

 

[Trollbait]

More posts at V: can't figure out what all the angst from the Roland Fanboys or Shills (if you prefer) is all about. So some people have a different opinion from yours, so what?

Quote:
"I'm not struggling with anything. I can probably operate these units better than you ever could.

Gumtown's results of 58 ms for low E and 35 for high e for triggering internal sounds indicate the latency is higher than all of Roland products. Are you calling out Gumtown's results? Maybe he should do more tests?

GR-55 internal trigger: 30, 17 (E, e)
GR-700 internal trigger: 47, 22 (E, e)

https://www.joness.com/gr300/MIDI_SPEED.htm

Quote:
"You may feel something is a certain way, but that does not make it true. I prefer truth over your feelings on the matter."

The fanboy phenomenon rears it's ugly head once again. If there wasn't enough reason to abandon these products, you add to it this irrational fanboy behavior and that seals the deal.

I've already done all these GM-800 latency tests, and they were here for people to see before I took them down. They got a lot of backlash from the fanboys. I measured pitch to midi and pitch to internal audio. Depending on which patch you choose, the internal audio can trigger faster on certain sounds. Elantric thought the internal triggering was faster than the pitch to midi triggering, but I showed him it was not."

And the moderation hammer comes down:

"All -

I have deleted several posts that had devolved to name-calling.

Please stop.

If I need to mute accounts I will.

Shawn"

 

[Trollbait]

Can you post a latency test with your GR-50 so I can see how it compares to the GM-800 ?

Latency has never been an issue for me as it is a simple matter to add the guitar tone or a VG or SY tone or even an analog GR300 tone to cover that lag time between the note played and when the sample triggers.

It's the note glitches, shadow notes and octave jumps when playing the guitar using normal playing technique that is the concern.

Of course as you know, often there is an underlying noise problem that can contribute to the glitch problem like the group loop you pointed out in that video I posted. Good guitar setup is critical as well as adjustment to technique. We all know the drill, don't do slides or hammer on's using the Low E and A strings. Sometimes they work if flawlessly executed.

The guys seen in You Tube demo's mostly shred on the D,G,B,E strings, but only with countless hours adjusting technique.

So you're Bluesbird; not chris?

No, I'm Jive Turkey. Lol

 

[JiveTurkey]

I have not had much problem with those, the GM-800 is far more stable than the GR-55, GR-33, or GR-20 that I have/had.
Both on guitar with GK-2A and Bass with GK-3B

And also not a Roland fanboy, if there was a product/brand that does this better for live gig use, I would use it.
Certainly not a fan of the way Roland/Boss operate.

You've done their job for years by writing editor software. So if anything; there should be a bias against them

 

[JiveTurkey]

The beginning of the end for my GR-55 was at a gig one night, a speaker stack fell over, mic stand just clipped my nose,
but the poor old GR-55, even with its body of steel, got crushed right across the top righthand side.
The EXP pedal wouldn't move anymore for the gig, so after I had to strip down the GR-55 and beat the chassis out back to a box shape.
But ..alas.. the EXP pedal was never the same, the range was no longer linear, then problems of going out of calibration right at the worst times started.
Not to mention that it was damn heavy too.

So the SY-1000 + GM-800 is my GR-55 replacement.
And by jeebers they do a mighty fine job, never been happier with my tone in over 35 years of gigging (that I can remember).

If there was another product brand that can do the same as this pair does, I most likely would have tried it too,
and don't mention anything computer/software based, because that does not go down well with me due to a computer based setup some years ago (pre 2000) which decided to start crashing on me during a tour, in front of 25k+ crowds, super embarrassment, and never again (by diddly gosh - are you allowed to swear here ?).

Yeah I pulled the exp off my GR a waaaaaaaaays back. I would have loved to have it down to GR0 size, really. I never used the onboard switches. I used my GK switches which are no longer a thing if you go GK5 and I have adjusted to that? That would be probably my main complaint as well as needing two cables now.

SY+GM is probably a very capable rig. I futzed with that combo for a minute but it made more sense to blend the GM with something else that had a bit more routing flexibility.

"If there was another product brand that can do the same as this pair does, I most likely would have tried it too,"
Absolutely here as well. We're sort of stuck with Roland on this. Which is generally fine I'd say.

 

[JiveTurkey]

You'd have to do something like the Rockboard Quad, and that's before adding any expression pedals (which I actually never use a ton).

View attachment 19171

I'm interested in the S(M(?)-800)) iteration. We'll see if it pans out.

 

[mbenigni]

You'd have to do something like the Rockboard Quad, and that's before adding any expression pedals (which I actually never use a ton).

View attachment 19171

I'd put the GM-800 top right, mount the GKC-DA under the board, and position 1 or 2 mini expression pedals at bottom right. (It would still be too big for me, personally, though.)

Portability is a major concern when I move my pedalboard from one corner of my basement to the other.

 

[JiveTurkey]

That's a really good idea, thanks. I'll be lugging whatever synth setup I end up settling on, as well as the FM9T setup, as well as two Laney LFRs. So smaller is better.

Also;

 

[JiveTurkey]

I can confirm a GM800 and FM9 fit quite nicely on a PT Classic 24

 

[JiveTurkey]

View attachment 19173

Both of these in a 8 space rack with sliding shelves and an Axe III. FC12 with 2 expression pedals up front.

 

[Trollbait]

And also not a Roland fanboy,

Well I certainly was. I found myself defending them at V on the SY1000 faults because I wasn't having as many problems with some of the bugs as others were like the alt tuning worbles.
I wasn't getting them when using the Wilcox optical hex pup which is my main guitar.

But the P2M isn't any better and perhaps worse, than the GR50 and the osc synth (which obviously is PCM based) is still crap.

Not sure I can support a company that won't fix their bugs in their recent products and apparently fixed them in the current product.

This post at V sums it up well.

"Im not trying to piss on anyone's parade, but I've heard the claims of "improved tracking" "Faster conversion" before from roland. Now, I simply don't trust their claims in this capacity unfortunately."

BTW, I am surprised to see JT going from Roland's number 1 critic to their number 1 fanboy.











Just kidding JT.

 

[BROCKSTAR]

It's the note glitches, shadow notes and octave jumps when playing the guitar using normal playing technique that is the concern.

Sorry but I don't get that kind of stuff in the gm-800. It's nothing like the dreaded gr-55 and others that used to do bleeps and bloops. If people are still getting it, then they don't wtf they are doing when setting it up.

 

[Trollbait]

Sorry but I don't get that kind of stuff in the gm-800. It's nothing like the dreaded gr-55 and others that used to do bleeps and bloops. If people are still getting it, then they don't wtf they are doing when setting it up.

No need to be sorry. Some folks don't get those glitches with the GR55 internal sounds either and they are rare with the GR50 internal sounds using the Wilcox Atlantis hex fx guitar, but still there on low E and A strings when my technique is not flawless.

That midi guitar experience of course is not the same as just using a fuzz tone through a filter where a botched hammer on still works fine.

So be honest, you never get a glitch with the GM800 or when using it's P2M to an external synth module?

 

[BROCKSTAR]

Since we like quoting things from the V forum, I'll give another positive one for once lol

"I sold my gr55 and bought the gm800 though sounds and tones are impressive"

 

[BROCKSTAR]

So be honest, you never get a glitch with the GM800 or when using it's P2M to an external synth module?

Nope not now. When I first got the gm-800 in august or whenever, i had a gk-2a pickup and gk cable and tried it and at that time it did some weird stuck notes and bleeps etc.. But i was using a unbranded 13-pin cable so i switched over to a roland 13 pin cable and that issue went away. However i then switched to the new gk-5 pickup and braided cable and gkc converter box and have no bleeps or bloops or anything like that now.

As for P2M, I do not know, I haven't tried using it for that into computer and i don't have any hardware synths left anymore. However i did do that with sy-1000 (i've owned sy-1000 i think 4 times now since it came out lol) which im still using today along with gm-800 and I never got bleeps or bloops from it and i felt it was fine.