GR-30 (Frequently) Asked Questions

This page was updated last at dinsdag 28 december 1999

At this date there are 13 questions of which there are 6 unanswered

Please contribute by answering a question.

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Question 1	Answer 1(educated guess)
When I play a certain note (E on fifth string @ fret 7), the note triggered in the GR-30 starts out fine, but then jumps up an octave. Has anybody else found this? I suspect it has something to do with a resonant frequency, but I'm not sure how to fix it!	I would suggest to check the guitar as a guitar - i.e. the nut and saddles, etc. It sounds like the fundamental note is decaying swiflty, leaving the main harmonic. Unknown at the moment. You're invited to mail your reaction on the subject or to give the answer/solution. When you do, please include the number of the question in your mail.

Question 2

Answer 2

I have been having problems with my gr30 and my keyboard as you can see I m trying to record and playback different tracks of guitar synth on cakewalk pro audio. I can only get one sound from my gr30. I can record multiple tracks with my scc1 sound card with no problems so the interface is working fine. I ve tried the mono and poly mode and everything I could think of. I m sure there must be a way of getting more sounds into my sequencer. Your help would be greatly appreciated!

The "problem" with the GR-30 is that it isn't your average synthesiser. It is specially designed to function with a guitar as the input device and to achieve this some offers had to be made. To be specific: you can only get one patch at a time out of the GR-30. The only thing that you could try is to get two tones in one patch, designate them to particular strings and address those strings by their specific MIDI-channels. But that is a whole different ballgame than a fully fledged synth as you would have liked to have. I'm sorry, but that the way it is. You could always try to use your wavetable soundcard to emulate the guitar sounds. I am not familiar with the scc 1, but I own a Maxi Sound 64 card and this card has the possibility to load soundbanks into its (expandable) memory. Also the card has a good DSP so it is possible to have effects with the sounds. The GR-30 is a tracking (sequencing) and on-stage device first of all and least of all a standalone synth.

Question 3	Answer 3
I hooked up the GR-30 to the Akai MPC2000 sequencer, but no sound from GR-30 could be access through the MPC200 sequencer. I matched up the midi chanels like the manual instructed, but it did not work. Any suggestions?	Unknown at the moment. You're invited to mail your reaction on the subject or to give the answer/solution. When you do, please include the number of the question in your mail.

Question 4

Answer 4

I would like to find a real schematic

for the GK-2a to tell me which wires

in the cable are for what!

Pin #	Function
1	signal for string #1
2	signal for string #2
3	signal for string #3
4	signal for string #4
5	signal for string #5
6	signal for string #6
7	Guitar output
8	Volume
9	NC (= Not Connected)
10	SW1
11	SW2
12	+7V
13	-7V

Additional information:

These data are retrieved from

MIDI GUITAR PAGE

MIDI Guitar Pickup Page

Copyright 1998 Joel B. Christian

Question 5

Answer 5

I noticed that eventhough tracking was excelent for the first four strings, it was not the same for the last two. Specifically, when I play semiquavers or faster, just a few of them (about one every five or six, randomly distributed) were converted to MIDI and executed through the GR-30's tone generator. Since I planned to use it for sequencing, this was unacceptable. Everybody says GR-30 is "great, marvelous, amazing, thrilling, terrific". But I have tested three different GR-30 units and all had the same behavior when playing fast in fifth and sixth strings. So I want to know what is the source of my problem, and what to do in order to solve it, if there is any solution. Please tell me what do you think about it, and if you have heard something similar.

This seems to be a good guess:

The slower response is due to the lower pitch. The unit has to identify pitch and needs a finite amount of cycles to do this correctly. If you tune the other strings lower you will probably experience similar responses. Different patches mask the delay somewhat.

Question 6

Answer 6

How about a step by step guide to getting midi files off the web and into the roland gr-30? because I haven't a clue how to set the gr30 to receive and implement these.

Getting MIDI-files from the web doesn't seem to be the problem, or is it. You can download them at many places, especially the MIDI-newsgroups at usenet, but there are many places on the WWW, just take a search. When you want to load MIDI-files into the GR-30, you just connect you MIDI-out from your soundcard to the MIDI -in of the GR-30. Then you select the patch that you want to hear. Keep in mind that there is quite a difference between the MONO- and POLY-modes that you can choose between at startup. It is NOT possible to use the GR-30 for generating more than 1 patch at the time, no matter how many parts there are in the MIDI-file. Also keep in mind that the sequenser or player that you use has probably the possibility to configure the MIDI-out port and the MIDI-echo option. These things depend on the program you use.

Question 7

Answer 7 (educated guess)

I own a Roland GR-30 guitar synth and I wanted to know if you could help me out. I recently bought a Fatar SL-161 midi controller to use with it. The midi controller is hooked up to the gr-30. (I want to use the keyboard for some songs and the guitar synth for other songs, because some songs I play are just easier to play with a keyboard) The problem is that I am using the gr-30 in poly mode (holding + button when i turn it on) and I want to be able to change from playing the midi controller (keyboard) to the guitar synth on the guitar. When I play the guitar I can hear the regular guitar but cannot hear the synth guitar. I want to be able to play both without having to change to mono mode because poly mode is able to pick up more than one note when played simultaneously. Can you please help me, so I can decide if I should just return my midi controller? Thanks a LOT!!

To answer your question, please look in the manual on page 78: "About Local control Off". There you'll see an illustration of the internal connection between the PitchToMidi and SoundSource parts. When you boot the machine with PolyOn, this connection (LocalControlOff) is broken, which means that no sound is generated as there is no signal going to the SoundSource.When you need to have PolyOn and still want to hear the SoundSource, you must take care to have a MIDI-signal going to the SoundSource via the MIDI-in connection. In your case you maybe can connect the MIDI-through from the SL-161 to the MIDI-in from the GR-30, but I am not sure how you did connect the keyboard, Fatar and GR-30 together. Maybe you can send me a drawing (scanned) or description of your set-up. When you succeed in sending the wanted through-signal to the GR-30, take care to select a correct MIDI-channel on it, I mean: knob "edit target"=MIDI, knob "parameter select"=c and then choose one of 1p to 16 p instead of the usual 1 to 16 MIDI channels, otherwise you will indeed hear NOTHING. In case you don't have the (same) manual, I'll attach a scan for you convenience.

Unknown at the moment. You're invited to mail your reaction on the subject or to give the answer/solution. When you do, please include the number of the question in your mail.

Question 8

Answer 8

When I try to use my GR-30 to produce sounds from a keyboard , I can't bend notes anymore. When I try to increase the bendrange I am able tobend the notes but the notes are delayed in some kind of strange way. Moreover, whenever I try to play chords with the GR-30 trough my keyboard, with a higher bendrange setting , some notes in the chord are delayed very strongely. Now I can only use the keyboard with the bendrange set to 0, that means just chromatically. How can I change this?

Triggering keyboard-bend range problem: trig synth with patch selected on GR-30 where bend range is 24. Also, put bend range on keyboard 24, too.(if it is possible, X5/d doesn't work). [Dragan Todorovic Buca]

Question 9

Answer 9

Is there any truth in the following report which I came across in the digital guitar newsletter last year:

<start quote>Date: Mon, 6 Oct 1997 00:53:02 -0700 (PDT) From: Manuel Guerrero <eisis@mx2.redestb.es> Subject: GR-30 HOLD PEDAL nasty bug.

I've found a problem with the HOLD pedal of the ROLAND GR-30:

If You play a chord and then hold it with the "sostenuto" function (to play a melody with the direct guitar while the synth chord sounds in the background) at the moment you release the pedal in order to play the next chord, a group of nasty dissonant notes sounds spoiling everything. If you don't play any note between the two chords, the problem does not happens (it's like if the notes you play between the two holded chords were kept in a buffer, and they suddenly appear in a chaotic manner when you release the pedal)

Unknown at the moment. You're invited to mail your reaction on the subject or to give the answer/solution. When you do, please include the number of the question in your mail.

Question 10

Answer 10

I am looking for a way to program the GR30 with a 'b-bender' program, that is to set it up so the b string will bend up a whole tone with either the control pedal or an expression pedal. So far, I can see how to make the whole sound move pre-set amounts with pitch glide, or to transpose individual strings, but I suppose what I need is to transpose string 2 up and back down again in real time. Any ideas?

PLEASE DO MAIL THE QUESTIONER ALSO (NEXT TO SENDING IT TO THE GR-30 PAGE) WHEN ANSWERING THIS QUESTION: stephen.whiteley@btinternet.co.uk

Unknown at the moment. You're invited to mail your reaction on the subject or to give the answer/solution. When you do, please include the number of the question in your mail.

Question 11

Answer 11

I downloaded the GR-30 editor because I understand the potential. However, I'm not quite sure what to do with it or how to do it for fear of screwing something up. Can you send me some hints, suggestions, examples, in short,anything you can to help me along? How can I save my patches? Am I in danger of losing all factory patches if I make a mistake? How can I avoid this? I am also puzzled by the wah function, because each time I use it, it changes the sound of the patch. I know the manual mentions this can happen and to return to the previous patch but it seems this should not happen.

The GR30 editor is just about the most useful thing you could have for the GR30. If you hook your p.c. up to your GR30 you will be able to see all aspects of each patch in separate windows. As you change patches on the GR30, the settings all appear in the GR30 edit program. This is a brilliant way to program the GR30 and you can easily experiment - for example with play feel settings, and chromatic settings; these were examples I found I needed to change to get good organ and piano responses in my case. Nothing will change permanently on your GR30 until you write the patch you have edited to the GR30, just use the usual write procedure on the Gr30 itself. Once you have made any settings in GR30 editor you can save them as an .edit file, which this program can write in bulk to your GR30; you would then lose your own patches , but see below. You can try loading up someone else's - try Dragan's site, linked from here, which has his patches in an .edit file format for the GR30 editor. If you use someone else's patches, you may well need to change them a bit to suit the way you play, and the type of guitar you have. Don't worry about losing your factory settings - you have a second copy of all factory patches in the second set of groups. Also, if all else fails, you can always re-initialise. If you have some patches you want to save, use one of the utilities you can download from this site, e.g. Dumpster, to save your patches as a syx file so you can always restore them if you want to. The help files on the GR30 are quite good. You can't really go far wrong with this program - I think this is the first piece of shareware I've liked enough to pay for it. Good luck. [Steve Whiteley]

Question 12	Answer 12
I have the first Roland Synth. Are there midi song files available for it.Please advise	Unknown at the moment. You're invited to mail your reaction on the subject or to give the answer/solution. When you do, please include the number of the question in your mail.

Question 13	Answer 13
I BOUGHT A USED IBANEZ MIDI GUITAR MODEL NO.IMG 2010, I NEED EARLY ROLAND PATCH CABLE,I'M TOLD ITIS CALLED A BC-13 THIS CONVERTS 24 PIN TO 13 PIN FORMAT,ANY IDEA's,LIKE WHERE,HOW OR IF THIS IS STILL AROUND.WOULD REALLY MAKE MY DAY FOR ANY INFO,THANKS. HAROLD. PLEASE DO MAIL THE QUESTIONER ALSO (NEXT TO SENDING IT TO THE GR-30 PAGE) WHEN ANSWERING THIS QUESTION: mmbhal@istar.ca	Unknown at the moment. You're invited to mail your reaction on the subject or to give the answer/solution. When you do, please include the number of the question in your mail.

Question 14	Answer 14
I wanted to ask you something about the GR-30. I've got one myself and I enjoy it everyday. But I have a little problem with the wah-pedal. With most of the preset patches you delete the program and get a completely different sound as soon as you touch the pedal. What you got to do to get the patch sound back is to go back and forth to an adjacent patch. Likewise with most of the 384 tones or any mixture of these tones. When you program a mixture of tones you entirely DELETE the programming when you hit the pedal. The weird part is that there are no problems whatsoever with the pitch glide pedal that is located right beside the Wah pedal.	You're right. It was one of the first things that struck me too after I bought it. It's a nuisance.
The (badly written, by the way) manual mentions something in passing about the Wah pedal possible ruining the programming. So I assume that it is not a quirk of my device in particular. Is there a way to get around this with clever programming?	It is indeed not a peculiarity of your device. It is a stupid flaw in the set up of this synth. Luckily I bought a EV-5 pedal (1 Roland EV-5 Assignable Control Pedal) at the same time I bought my GR-30 and whenever I need a wah (or anything, for that matter) in a patch I just program the pedal and have no problem.
Does the manufacturer know about this? I don't see any electronic reason for why things have to be this way. There is nothing so simple as the technology of a wah pedal. It is a frequency filter and you shift the frequency window when you push the pedal. It is something that can in principle be done with any sound.	As you said yourself, it is mentioned in the manual. So they know about it. I don't understand it either, assigning an effect to your own pedal while most patches don't work with it. If I were you, I would just experiment a little: assign certian wah settings to a patch and see whether they stay that way (I assume you use the GR-30 editor, otherwise it would be a lot of ado). Good luck and keep me informed about your progress, so I can report on it on the GR-30 page.

Question 15

Answer 15 (request for reports)

My guitar(analog) signal is 50% lower through GR30/GK2-A then normal. It makes noise, and I have to play live with an 13-pin cable for synth and normal cable for guitar tone. It is very boring ( I have to put volume onmy guitar to zero every time when I want to play only synth tone. 13-pincable and other cables are OK.

I didn't find such a problem in my own setup. Would you, who is reading this, try it out with your own equipment and mail me your report ?

Unknown at the moment. You're invited to mail your reaction on the subject or to give the answer/solution. When you do, please include the number of the question in your mail.

Question 16	Answer 16
I am using the GR 30 with my regular guitar set-up. The patch changes on the Gr 30 are controlled by the midi foot pedal which controls my guitar pre-amp. However, in some programs I only want to hear the guitar, and not the synth. Is there a way of doing this besides turning down and storing the level of the patches on the GR 30?	As I understand your problem well, you want to mute the synth in certain patches. The manual says something about that on page 72 (bottom), set the layer to "_".
Secondly, is there a way of program mapping on the GR 30? F.e. my midi pedal sends out program 30 to my pre-amp while prog. 30 is mapped to 52 on the Gr 30?	I don't think so, as on the next page (p.73 top) is told in the manual, program changes are sequentially assigned to the patches without the possiblility of alteration

Question 17	Answer 17
Is there anywhere that I can find a printout listing of what tones are used for the preset patches (without having to go through them all and see what they are using edit)?	Unknown at the moment. You're invited to mail your reaction on the subject or to give the answer/solution. When you do, please include the number of the question in your mail.

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