{"id":6580,"date":"2013-08-21T10:00:39","date_gmt":"2013-08-21T17:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rolandus.com\/blog\/?p=6580"},"modified":"2014-07-10T12:16:42","modified_gmt":"2014-07-10T19:16:42","slug":"playing-guitar-synth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rolandus.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/21\/playing-guitar-synth\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s It Like Playing Guitar Synth?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hint: It’s Not About Playing Drums on Guitar<\/h2>\n
\"Roland<\/a>

Roland GR-55 Guitar Synth<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Author:\u00a0Roland UK Features Team<\/a><\/p>\n

Paul White, editor-in-chief of the esteemed Sound on Sound<\/a><\/em> magazine looks at some practical applications of guitar synthesis on the GR-55 guitar synth. (Hint: It\u2019s not about playing drums on your guitar.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The GR-55 guitar synth combines two of my favorite Roland guitar technologies in a pedal format specifically designed not to intimidate the musician, and I had plenty of time to play with one when I reviewed it for<\/span> Sound On Sound<\/em>. One is the fast-tracking<\/span>, sample-based sound synthesizer section, the other is COSM guitar\/amp\/effects modeling. Critics of “guitar synths” <\/span>often cite the need for an additional hex pickup, or the use of a guitar already fitted with one (such as the new GC-1 GK-Ready Fender Stratocaster\u00ae<\/a>) as being an unwelcome inconvenience, but in reality neither of these highly sophisticated processes would be possible without it. If you want to fire sampled synth<\/span> sounds from a guitar, the electronics need to be able to track the pitch of each string quickly and reliably, and the only way to achieve this is to send it a separate signal from each string. When it comes to COSM modeling, the reason may be slightly less obvious as there are competing products that emulate different amplifiers and effects using a standard guitar with a single output. With Roland\u2019s COSM modeling, however, the process extends to modeling the guitar itself in addition to amps, effects, speakers and so on. Once again separate string signals are needed to accurately model the effect of the pickup position on the guitar, especially if it is set at an angle as a Strat bridge pickup is. Alternate tunings and 12-string emulations also need separate string signals as different amounts of pitch shift have to be applied to each string.<\/p>\n