ROLAND - GP8
Steinar Henrik Johnsen
If anyone could tell me if this is a decent processor, and
its strengths, weaknesses... I would be extremly happy! :)
Henrik Johnsen
Jeff Veatch
:
: If anyone could tell me if this is a decent processor, and
: its strengths, weaknesses... I would be extremly happy! :)
I used a GP-8 for a good 5 or 6 years. Here are a few things that
come to mind:
It has 8 effects: dynamic filter (touch wah), compression, over drive,
distortion, phazer, EQ, chorus, and digital delay.
Dynamic Filter - Cute. Usable mostly if you get the FC foot controller
and the EV-5 expression pedal. Then you can use this as a
straight wah pedal, if you're into that sort of thang...
Compression - Ugh! Pain in the anus. When used in conjunction with the
chorus with a looong pre-delay, you actually get a good crisp
clean tone. But, it *really* boosts the output level. To keep all
of your patches somewhat consistent as far as output levels go, you
almost always have to use compression. This is not cool... (Don't
get me started on why compression sucks for anything other than
effect...)
Over Drive/Distortion - Gives you a good range of dirt, but the quality
of the distortion is way too brittle. Not anything close to a warm
tube type distortion.
Phazer - Usable.
EQ - 3 band (Lo Mid Hi) with an output level. Not parametric, or
anything fancy like that, but it lets you shape your sound to some
extent...
Chorus - Roland's chorus has always kicked royal butt. (The only
better chorus i've heard is the old MXR rack mounted
Flanger/Doubler.) There is also a pre-delay setting. Very handy.
Digital Delay - Up to 1 second delay time. It would be nice to be
able to adjust the modulation of the delays, but you can't.
(Putting a slight touch of mod on echos has always sounded richer
to my ears...)
All of the effects have various parameters that you can set in each
patch. Also, any parameter can be assigned to the continuous
controller. (Only one parameter can be assigned per patch) The foot
controller is very much worth the extra beans. There are also 2
external effect switches that will turn on or off two remote effect
units. This is also very handy.
WARNING: this unit is *really* bad with 60 cycle hum. If the chassis
of this unit is electrically touching the chassis of anything else,
and your guitar is not plugged directly into the GP-8, it will hum.
Using insulated screws when mounting GP-8 to your rack will correct
most of this. Definitely consider picking some up if you plan on
mounting it into a rack. (Really bad shielding on this thing...)
If you want a wide variety of sounds, this is a good unit, especially
if you like over-processed cheesoid sounds like Steve Lukather used.
If you want a straight ahead warm sound, probably be tough to get here.
All in all, not a bad unit. I've seen them for $200 - $250 pretty
commonly.
That's a quick brain dump. If you have any questions on the unit, let
me kno'. I'm *really* familiar with it.
By the way, just a geek note, the CPU used in this thing is an 8088.
Not sure if that's how they process the audio, but all the switching and
presets are controlled by it...
Hope the info he'ps...
Peace.
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"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.
Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx
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Jef Veatch \'o.O'
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jvea...@troy.eng.eds.com U
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