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Updates: June 2016

Roland GR-700 and GR-77B
Updates: From the Roland User GR One Step Beyond...Part 2
Group Archives, a complete MIDI
guitar and MIDI bass system
profile! Roland User Group, Volume 3, Number 3, 1985
Roland GR-77B Updates:
Finally! The Roland GR-77B and by Peter Mengaziol
G-77 pages have been updated.
Be sure to check out the G-77
page as well.
Vintage Roland G-505 and
GR-300 combination magazine
advertisement.
GR-700 One Step Beyond!:
From the 1985 Roland User
Group Magazine
GR-700 4x Memory
Expansion!: Easy to do, super
DIY Memory Expansion!
Ibanez IMG2010 and MC1:
Updated! High-Res Brochure from
1985
G-707 Steve Hunter: Vintage
Product Review from 1985, Part
2!
G-707 Steve Hunter: Vintage
Product Review from 1985, Part 1
GR-500 Steve Hackett: Vintage
Product Review from 1978!
GR-500 Patch Sheet: Original
Blank Patch Sheet
GR-500 - Solo Voice Tuning :
Adendum on Tuning the Solo Click to enlarge
Section
GR-300 Filter Mod: LFO to Last time we talked about the initial setup of the GR-700 for optimal performance. After the unit is set up properly, you're ready to
Filter Modification
start playing, right? Well, yes and no. Since the guitar synthesizer is not merely a guitar with effects added, consider some special
GR-300 Output Mod: Increase
playing techniques and pointers to help you get started using all the new features of the GR system to the fullest. Since the GR-700
the output of your GR-300!
GR-55 Schematics, Service
system offers so many timbral possibilities, it would be a shame if it were only used to play the same things that would normally be
Notes: Full factory service notes played on an electric guitar. The truth of the matter is that some cliches played with new sounds just don't work. The Interaction of
for the Roland GR-55 the sound patch and the musical setting must be considered. For instance, take a nice string-orchestral patch and play some "skanky'
Ibanez MIU8: Specs, photos, R'n'B-type seventh chords, or a take a clavinet-like sound and play a nice, full sustained chord. Doesn't sound too swift, does it? You
details on the rarest of rare! have to tailor the sound and the musical context together. Here are a few rules-of-thumb to follow.
MIU8 Schematics: Schematics
and Service Manual (pdf)! Single-String Playing. While the GR-700 can keep up with fast runs, it will make little sense to play blisteringly fast licks where the
Korg Z3 Product Page: From
Initial setting of the patch is slower than the fastest note; some notes will necessarily be missed because the sound takes longer to
early Product catalog!
develop than the time allotted to it. If the release time is long, the GR-700 will prolong notes and run them Into succeeding notes,
Hamer A7 Guitar: Added to the
guitar pages, a tribute to the
causing a probable clash and jumble. You will see that some of the new preprogrammed GR-700 memory cartridges from Roland have
Hamer Phantom A7! Tubo Lover several attack and decay settings for the same timbral patch. It might be wise to set up three versions of each favorite sound of yours
rocks! tailored for slow, medium, and fast playing.
GR-500 24-pin Connector
Change: Documentation of the Sometimes if you use patches that change during the sustain section, playing too quickly also will hinder the desired effect. Since the
change from the original, pin- GR-700 is programmable, you have a great degree of control and the ADSR settings should reflect the musical requirements. There is
type C24 connector to the much no formula to apply here, you must experiment to get the best results. When using settings that include two DCOs tuned to different
more common C24 positive
notes, be aware that since the intervals produced are constant, there is the possibility of a clash with the background harmonies on
(locking frame) connector.
certain notes. For example, if you tune your DCOs in perfect fifths and play a C-major scale, the note produced with the seventh
degree B-natural is F-sharp, which can clash against a F-major chord, the IV chord in the key. This may be a desired effect, or, then
again, it may not. This is no different from what a keyboard player must consider when he devises a solo patch. Octaves, of course,
are always safe.

Chords. While most people who play electric guitar rarely spend as much time thinking about the chords that they play as they do
about the solos, when using a guitar synthesizer, the proper voicing of chords can make all the difference between the "right" sound
and a "so-what" sound. The standard simple barre chords that are the staple of most accompaniments may not be appropriate with
many of the patches you set up. Simply put: It isn't always necessary, or even desirable at times to play all six strings, and always
using mot voicings can be boring. Break out those dusty old books on harmony!

The use of the right inversion (remember what those are?) in the right musical setting can make the guitar synth produce sounds that
are idiomatically correct. For an example, very rarely do arrangers write for strings using root voicings consistently. An arranger will
usually use chord inversions which produce smoothly moving voices; the approach is that individual voices merge to produce chords.

The guitar synthesist can take advantage of the sound of moving voices by considering the inversions used for a chord progression.
Take a nice string-ensemble sound and play C, G, F, and G barre chords In succession (I, V, IV, V). Then play the same progression as

http://www.joness.com/gr300/GR-One-Step-Beyond-Pt2.htm 6/12/16, 11:11 PM

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