At their permanent home in Las Vegas this spring, Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp will be hosting two special edition camps featuring some legendary names in music. Brit rockers Def Leppard will lead a four-day camp from April 4-7, 2013, while renowned guitarist Jeff Beck and Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson will guest star from April 18-21, 2013. A wide selection of top-line Roland musical instruments and recording gear will be featured as well, at the ready for campers to use as they explore their inner rock star yearnings.

In a rare event involving one entire band, Def Leppard fans can spend four days with members of the group, jamming out to their biggest hits. Two weeks later, campers will have the opportunity to meet and play with Beck, one of the most influential guitarists of all time, and Wilson, writer of some of the most celebrated songs in American music history.

Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp in Las Vegas gives music fans a once-in-a-lifetime chance to jam nightly with legendary rock stars, write and record original songs, and perform on stage before live audiences at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino. Campers also have an exclusive opportunity to use world-class music equipment from Roland and BOSS.

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp main facilities are located two minutes away from the MGM Grand on the Las Vegas Strip. There are 12 rehearsal studios, plus a “Big Room” with a professional stage, large-scale sound system, and concert lighting. Each space features Roland instruments, including TD-30KV and TD-15K V-Drums, GA-212 and GA-112 guitar amps, BOSS ME-70 and ME-50B multi-effects, and the RD-700NX stage pianos. Additionally, the studios all feature pro recording setups with SONAR X2 Producer music production software and Roland OCTA-CAPTURE audio interfaces.

RRFC Rehearsal Room

The camp also has two professional recording studios, located on the main casino floor at the MGM Grand. These are outfitted with Roland gear throughout as well. The studios feature large windows that allow casino visitors to watch as campers record tracks and jam with famous rockers.

RRFC Recording Studio at the MGM Grand

RRFC Recording Studio at the MGM Grand

Both the main facilities and the studios at the MGM Grand feature a full slate of professional sound gear from Roland Systems Group. This includes V-Mixers, REAC Digital Snakes, and M-48 personal monitoring systems. An M-300 V-Mixer and Digital Snake setup is also in use at the Rouge Lounge in the MGM Grand, where campers perform nightly during their stay.

RRFC “Big Room” (Roland M-480 V-Mixer in the Foreground)

Stop by our Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp Flickr gallery to see more of the camp’s impressive facilities.

For more information about Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp, including the upcoming special edition camps, visit RockCamp.com.

For details about Roland and BOSS gear used at the camp, check out our Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp gear list.

Related links and articles:

• Roland Insider: Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp Giveaway Winner
• Behind the Scenes at Rock Camp
• Teddy “Zig Zag” Andreadis on the RD-700NX
• Rock Fantasy Camp’s New Home
• Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp Gear List

Behind the scenes with Ritchie Fliegler during a recent GA-Amp artist impression video shoot in Burbank, California. If anyone knows amps it’s Ritchie, he wrote several articles and two books on amplifiers, “Amps! The Other Half of Rock ‘N’ Roll” and “The Complete Guide to Guitar and Amp Maintenance: A Practical Manual for Every Guitar Player” both of which are considered expert reference works.

Not only is Ritchie a guitarist and authority on guitar amps, he also has a rich history in the Musical Instruments industry. He is the former senior vice president of marketing and business development at Fender Musical Instruments where he led the charge in making Fender a household name. Before Fender, Ritchie was a marketing manager for Marshall Amps from where Fender recruited him from. He was also an outside consultant for Gibson Guitar and a marketing manager for Korg USA.

Because of his history and expertise we believe it was important to get the thoughts and opinions of the best “Amp Guy” out there. Stay tuned for the full artist impressions video and share with us your thoughts on your favorite guitar amps.

Related links and articles:

• The Arrival of The Digital Guitar Amp
• Guitar Amp Roundtable Discussion Part 1
• GA-212/GA-112 Guitar Amplifier Overview

In this video Michael “Nomad” Ripoll demonstrates the GA-112‘s channel switching capability. For Michael, the GA Amp is a welcoming extension to his guitar rig because it covers a wide range of frequencies which eliminate the need for separate amps. This enables him to travel lighter and with less bulk. Furthermore, the amp’s wide frequency range gives hime the freedom to incorporate guitar synthesizers which vary in sounds and tones.

Up until now, a “truly great amp” usually meant an all-tube design. But while these amps can sound amazing, they often deliver only one or two basic tone flavors. There are other downsides, too: they’re very expensive, relatively fragile, and require tube changes and other regular maintenance to make them sound their best all the time. Roland’s GA Amp series are digital, which eliminate all these downsides.

Moving to the right, the Progressive Amp section has DRIVE and VOLUME knobs, with VOICE and BOOST switches that allow you to shape the amp’s gain and tone character. Next are BASS, MIDDLE, and TREBLE tone controls, with a mid-boost switch for adding a little fatness. A and B EFX LOOP switches give you convenient front-panel on/off control of the amp’s two effects loops. Finally, the master section has PRESENCE and REVERB knobs, as well as a MASTER knob to control the overall level.

Below the amp’s knobs are five Smart Channel switches that allow you to harness the programmable digital power of the GA series. So often, “programmable” means “complicated” or “confusing,” but don’t worry—that’s not the case here. The Smart Channel always saves your changes to the panel’s knob and switch settings automatically, and you can recall one of four saved settings for all controls with a simple button-push. In addition, the glowing LED knobs clearly indicate their positions when you select a memory. There’s also a MANUAL option for tweaking settings without changing your preset memories. Add the extra foot switch and control the channel switching hands free.

In this video Michael “Nomad” Ripoll demonstrates how easy it is to connect the GA-112. The rear panel provides connections for the optional GA-FC GA Foot Controller. With a convenient 1/4-inch TRS cable connection, the compact and intuitive GA-FC gives you foot selection of your Smart Channel settings, as well on/off control for gain boost, mid boost, EFX A and B, and reverb. The GA-FC also has jacks for connecting optional expression pedals (such as the FV-500H, FV-500L, or EV-5) to control DRIVE and VOLUME. Next to the FOOT CONTROL/LINK IN jack on the GA rear panel is a LINK OUT jack that lets you use a single GA-FC to control two GA amps at once. (To link amps together, use a 1/4-inch TRS cable to connect LINK OUT on one amp to FOOT CONTROL/LINK IN on the other.)

In this video Michael “Nomad” Ripoll demonstrates how quiet the GA-112s are.

On Friday, November 2, 2012 Roland invited three of the top guitarists and industry veterans to Burbank California for a round table discussion on guitar amps. They discussed the past, present, and future of various amps and their use in popular music. For this first installment, legendary guitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter shares his thoughts about the shoot and his time with Roland’s newest guitar amps, the GA-112 and GA-212.

Related articles and links:

• Billy Duffy on How He Discovered His Signature Sound
• Mike Scaccia – How I Got My Tone
• Michael “Nomad” Ripoll Demos G-5 V-Guitar

Michael Ripoll is a monster player who presently is the Musical Director for Baby Face and Chris Mann. Michael does tons of session work as well. (He recently played on the soundtrack for MIB III.) In this video, Michael demos the different guitar models and tunings found in the Roland G-5 VG Stratocaster. (He is also pairing the V-Guitar with the Roland GA-212 amp.)

More of Mike:

• Twitter: @michaelripoll 
• Facebook: Nomadsplace
• Blog: iLikeNomad.com
• YouTube: Nomadsplace

Related Articles:

• Billy Duffy (The Cult): How I Discovered My Signature Sound
• Mike Scaccia (Ministry): My Pedals
• Mike Scaccia (Ministry): How I Got My Tone