Roland GR20 guitar synth quick demo

[Brooks]

Here's a quick in-the-room-camera video of my fave sounds (B3, Piano, Rhodes, Clav, Sax, Trombone, several synths, & Sitar) on my Roland GR20 synth;

[Doctor Jeff]

Scene in a warehouse rehearsal space in Queens…

”Guys, I want you to meet the new member of the group, Brooks. He plays a Roland GR20. It can sound like anything, a B3 for instance.”

”But Joe, I actually do play the B3. And Rhodes. And Moog.”

”You bring up a good point, Ian. We’re gonna have to drop you from the band.”

”What?”

”Yes, sorry.”

”Well, it can’t play an entire horn section, can it?”

”Davy, it can, and can play the sax solo on Deacon Blues better than you.”

”You mean I’m let go too? And the rest of the horns?”

”Fraid so.”

”Thank god it can’t play a drum kit.”

”Well, Nigel, now that you mention it…”

[Doctor Jeff]

Very cool. I have always wanted one. If they had been out when I was in high school, holy moly, things would have turned out differently. (I played guitar but really idolized keyboard players like Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson.)

Interestingly, in a previous life my ES-175 had a Roland GK3 pickup mounted on it. Didn’t come with the guitar when I bought it sadly.

I don’t have a real need for this right now. I have an EHX B9 pedal which I use with a looper for backing tracks and just to fool around with. I did use it with our little jazz group one time, and the singer nixed it—“sounds like a carousel at a carnival”. So I stick with the usual jazz tones.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Cool! You'll have a lot of fun with it for sure.

I've been using a GR20 since they came out. Through good FRFR amplification and speakers, many of the patches are very convincing (e.g. vibes, sax, bass, electric pianos, trombone, Harmon muted trumpet, B-3 / Leslie). Through most guitar amps, they lack the punch of the real instrument. But through a decent system, they're pretty realistic and fool a lot of people in the audience. Unfortunately, some of the patches are terrible. The open trumpet sounds like a kazoo, and the acoustic piano reminds me of Schroeder's toy piano in Peanuts. The latest Roland synth is better, but not so much that I'll spend $800 for one. The sax vibrato is really effective - you can hear it well at about 45 seconds on the clip below.

The main caveat for players who want to emulate other instruments on a guitar synth is that you have to play the real ones well enough to understand the proper phrasing, articulation, etc for each of them. If you play a sax line the way you play guitar, it will sound like a weird guitar (and not in a good way). I've played trumpet, sax, vibes and keys for years - and I still lapse into guitar moments when I'm not thinking carefully.

Here's a short (1:17) clip of an original blues from a big band recording I put together over a decade ago for a demo. It's all Roland synth instruments except for the guitar, and every one was recorded direct. No, it's not exciting music - I made it for my website so prospective employers could hear what I do.

[Brooks]

Thx guys. Just got the synth last week in trade, but I had one about 20 years back. I recorded this original tune of mine w/ my pals band, the B3 & synth sounds are GR-33 (same sounds as GR-20), and I was deep in a fretless guitar phase (the great regualr ol' 6 string playing is my pal Bill Altman);