[Darkstar860]

Hey there folks. I was given another gift for my bday. A synth pickup. My buddies also hooking me up with a GR-30. I was curious if anyone has any tips for a new midi user. Ive only gotten to mess with midi maybe 1 hour in my life. I know ive been living under a very large rock. lol. Im also not sure which guitar to put it on. I have 8 different Jerry guitars that id want to put this on, so i have to pick one and its never easy haha.

THanks folks as always and keep on truckin



https://www.roland.com/us/products/gr-30/
Theres more info on the net.

[lbpesq]

I’ve had a GR-33 for several years. Had the newer GR-20, but I found the interface far inferior and went back to the GR-33. My suggestion is just to take the time to try out all the preprogramed patches. If you are like me, you will soon discover which patches are really good, which are usable, which are just weird, and a few that are just noise. My favorites are the organ and keys sounds. Also the flute (which I believe Jerry was known to use on occasion). And I also really like the sax patches, especially “breathy sax” which I have found sounds great during the jam on “Bird Song”. I’ve never used the Roland GK pickup, so I don’t know if you will encounter any tracking issues. I have RMC Piezo saddles which track wonderfully.

One suggestion I would offer is to “think” like the instrument patch you are playing. You want to use the phrasing of the synth instrument as opposed to guitar phrasing. I especially found this approach useful with the sax patches. I actually started inhaling and blowing out like a sax player as I played guitar to get the feel of the sax rather than a guitar. Similar for flute.

Enjoy the Roland, they really are a lot of fun.

Bill, tgo