About three weeks ago I have posted about a great guitar processor that I really want to make my own, BOSS GT 10. I am a long time user of BOSS and I like their effects and how they operate, how usable and tough they are. Really, they are kind of a tank, no kidding!
Today I have been pointed to another one that I didn’t know about, Roland GR 33, which is an other kind of toy. It is not a guitar processor like GT 10 but a guitar synthesizer, works on MIDI and boy, it rocks! Well, not rock is the word here, but for those of you involved in playing some electronic influenced music, new age or just want to sound strange, complex or just play around, well…that’s what you need: Roland GR 33.
Later edit: very interesting how you get the sound from your guitar. There is a specialized pickup which actually work as 6 pickups in a row, one for each string. The “normal” pickup gets the sound from the strings as a whole while this pickup gets the sound for each string feeding it to the MIDI synthesizer. Because I couldn’t find a similar video for Roland G-33, here’s one for GR-20 but I think the video tells enough to figure out for yourself about GR-33 also (click on video tab to watch the promotional movie).
- Tags: boss gt10, guitar synthesizer, roland gr33
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10 Responses to “Roland GR-33, for new age guitar players?”
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Ovidiu OprescuRomania, 31 years
Playing the guitar since 17 and enjoying every moment of it!
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nash
March 23rd, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Wow, that’s really cool. I would want one just for fun. Nice post anyway
Ovidiu
March 23rd, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Thanks,nash! I would also want one but just for fun, I don’t think I would find a use for it.
Dr. J
March 23rd, 2008 at 10:35 pm
But wait– you can still have your rockin’ guitar tones and use the synth-tracker to add a layer of lush strings on top (nice touch for a ballad). Think of it as adding a second player; your twin. You can still control the balance between guitar and synth sounds.
It’s also great if you want to play New Age music:
http://home.earthlink.net/~avainteract/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/glacial.v1.mp3 (sample from Chuck Hammer - Guitarscapes).
And it allows guitar players w/o keyboard chops to add simple backing tracks to their songs without calling in a keyboardist.
It’s been a few years since I played one of the Roland units. I wonder if the tracking is really all that much better…
Anyone out there own one?
j
Sammy
March 23rd, 2008 at 11:50 pm
I think I want to kill the guitarist in the video.
Ovidiu
March 24th, 2008 at 9:40 am
@Dr J: I have understood reading on the net, that some guys downgraded to GR20 because, even GR20 is less complex as tones, they say it sounds better. Very interesting that I couldn’t find the new toy on their website http://rolandus.com/products/productlist.aspx?ParentId=53 but it sounds great to me, and indeed, I would like to have one, just that of course, as a secondary unit, to add new features to my main sound.
Regarding the guitar sound…well, I would still need the GT10 that I want so much
to put the sound there, and then add the GR33 but than it would be a bit too much IMO.
@Sammy: why?
Sammy
March 24th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Well Ovidiu, I just find him infinitely annoying. So I guess I don’t really want to *kill* him, but he certainly doesn’t make me want to buy the processor.
Ovidiu
March 24th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
SynthAxe, the mother of all MIDI guitars?! | Guitar tabs,electric guitars,acoustic guitars
April 25th, 2008 at 9:59 am
[…] of all MIDI guitars?! In: MIDI guitars Friday Apr 25,2008 Looking again for some information on Roland GR33 guitar synthesizer, I found THIS THING, cause I have no idea how to call it. It is some kind of guitar-like instrument […]
Tim
July 10th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Hi - saw this post - I don’t believe that the Roland GR-33 is still in their list of current products - if you want to find one, you will need to find a used one on eBay or other classifieds. Not sure why they discontinued the GR-33, as it has far more editing capabilities than the GR-20. It would make sense if the GR-20 was considerably cheaper than the GR-33, but it is not.
Ovidiu
July 10th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
I don’t know, I think I looked for it at and indeed, I couldn’t find it, but I didn’t put too much weight on this.