REVIEWED
ROLANDGR-55 Guitar Synthesizer
Guitar synthesis is generally associated with obscure experimentalism but will the new Roland GR-55’s powerful combination of synthesis and COSM digital modeling help guitar synthesis to gain the mainstream following it deserves..?
Words by Tim Slater
Guitar synthesis as we know it has been with us for almost three decades but it still remains something of a niche, confounding and inspiring guitarists who seek to get to grips with this often misunderstood technology. So what is guitar synthesis? In a nutshell it is a method whereby a guitar can be made to sound like virtually anything that the player wants: strings, percussion, a horn ensemble…even voices! At least this is how Roland originally
Guitar Synthesizer SRP
£699.00
All prices include VAT CONT
ACT
Roland UK T:
W: 01792 702701
www.roland.co.uk 26 3pickup
ROLAND GR-55
envisioned the guitar synth’s role when it launched the first GR models during the early 1980s. However, guitar synthesis as Roland originally intended it never really found a market among guitarists who wanted to sound like other instrumentalists. Whilst there are a significant handful of guitarists – most notably in the tribute band field – that have successfully blended the guitar synth into their existing rigs, more often than not it’s most successful and convincing users have tended to approach the guitar synth as a kind of super-duper effects pedal, literally a separate musical instrument in its own right. Closing the gap between the bold spirit of experimentalism and the practical mainstream doesn’t seem to have been a high priority as far as Roland is concerned. Its guitar synths occupy a pretty unassailable niche with nothing really to rival them, the Line 6 Variax probably being the only other any significant alternative without actually being a guitar synthesizer in the accepted sense. Nevertheless, the GR-55 doesn’t convey any feeling that Roland has
been resting on its laurels, this is an all-new product from the ground up that combines a completely overhauled synth engine with powerful onboard effects processing and digital modeling via Roland’s propriety COSM technology. The idea is that this is a completely self- contained unit: the player’s choice of ‘virtual’ guitar (including electric, acoustic and bass models), amplifier, effects and synth sounds can all be accessed and controlled directly from the GR-55. The GR-55’s integrated USB port and onboard looper are both new features that contemporary users should make good use of and the GR-55 can also play back audio files (WAV and AIFF) for a fully integrated performance.
Construction As a unit that is primarily designed for stage use the GR-55 is a relatively compact design that resembles a standard floor-based multi-effects unit. Being a Roland product there are virtually no build-quality issues to deal with, the steel chassis feels sturdy enough to withstand an
elephant standing on it whilst the four footswitches that toggle between banks, select the built-in digital tuner and control the phrase looper present a uniformly firm action. A built-in expression pedal located to the right of the footswitches can be assigned to control a variety of useful functions from a basic wah wah to controlling the overall timbre or tone of any selected patch. The clean control surface
acknowledges that guitarists generally don’t like fiddling about with transport buttons and the like, and so the number of switches and buttons is kept to a minimum. There are no rotary controls save the large dial that handles the bulk of editing, with a large LCD display dominating the GR-55’s control surface. Something that we immediately like is the Sound Style buttons that divide different patches into appropriate styles suited for soloing, rhythm and a third switch enigmatically labeled ‘Other’ that seems reserved for the more esoteric sounds that not so easily categorized. The Lead sounds seem to be mainly divided between keys, brass and dedicated synth lead tones, plus
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