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Roland and Boss need no introductions. Roland Corporation is a Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment and software. It was founded by Ikutaro Kakehashi in Osaka on April 18, 1972. Boss is a division of the Roland Corporation whose first product was released in 1974.

Roland: roland.com/us

Boss: boss.info/us

I used a lot of Roland/Boss guitar equipment and I think it was much less than 1% of what they have ever released. Many of their legendary amps, pedals and effect processors became a reference point for further manufacturers.

Besides Delay and Reverb pedals I would point out here three lines of Roland/Boss products I find most interesting and useful for ambient guitarists:

  • VG – virtual guitar modeling processors,
  • GR – guitar synthesizers,
  • RC – loop stations.

A bit of history…

GR was a revolutionary line of guitar synthesizers. GR-500 was released in 1978. Then there came GR-100 and GR-300. They were not guitar-to-MIDI processors. They were analog devices controlled by specially made guitars. You might have seen Pat Metheny playing G-303 guitar and GR-300 synth in early 1980-s. Robet Fripp and Adrian Belew were among those who played with the first GRs.

If you are interested in the history of GR synths check this highly informative resource by Wayne Scott Joness: joness.com/gr300

VG - stands for Virtual Guitar modeling processor. VG-8 (launced in 1995) and VG-88 were other revolutionary products by Roland. They used 13-pin cable and GK pickup to separately send signal from every string to VG processor, not like it happened to guitars equipped with singles, humbackers or piezo pickups. This made possible to process strings independently changing their tuning, applying polyphonic distortion and so on.

If you are looking for more info about VG-8, VG-88 and VG-99 this is the place for you: vguitarforums.com

These days there are two cutting-edge guitar processors I use a lot: VG-99 and GR-33. They both work with hexaphonic pickups, often called MIDI pickups, though it is not quite right. If you don’t know the difference between VG and GR lines check this article and video where I describe their principle differences.

Let's see how things are going on with VG and GR systems today.

Unfortunately Roland discontinued the line of VG products. The last and perhaps the best was VG-99. It hardly can be found on the market today, but you can easily find a used one. At some point Roland/Boss is still in the business with VG modeling technology having switched to Boss GP-10 – a guitar processor capable of utilizing MIDI pickups.

As far as it concerns GR synthesizers Roland released GR-55 in 2011. They tried to combine GR and VG technologies in one, but it was an unconvincing attempt. Tracking was reported to be faster more accurate, but it was not and usability of GR-55 sound banks raised questions. Many of GR users will agree with me that GR-30 and GR-33 were more interesting though they suffered from lack of good FXs and could not process guitar signal – only MIDI converted. As I know Rober Fripp is still playing his old GR-30 and it is self-explanatory.

Boss released SY-300 guitar synthesizer in 2015, but it was no break through comparing to GR line.

RC is the line of loopers. Boss had a great success with RC-50 looping station released in 2006. RC-300 released in 2011 was a successor of RC-50 giving even more possibilities and it is still in the production. The biggest problem with RC that made me switch to Boomerang III looper was poor sound quality. You could hear more and more noise while overdubbing even if you didn’t play a single note. Another disadvantage for me was the size and weight. Nevertheless many ambient guitar players still use RC loopers, but if you are stuck on the sound quality (I know you are) maybe you have to look for another looper.

 

There are a number of delay and reverb pedals by Boss. First of all I would consider these four:

  • DD-500 – digital delay. Studio-level sound with class-leading 32-bit AD/DA, 32-bit floating point processing, and 96 kHz sampling rate. 12 versatile delay modes from vintage to modern deliver unlimited creative possibilities. Equipped with a built-in Phrase Looper, MIDI, USB, and more. Runs on four AA-size batteries or PSA-series AC adapter.
  • DD-7 - digital delay. Delay time up to 6.4 seconds. Modulation Delay mode offers natural, chorus-type sounds. Analog Delay mode models the classic warm BOSS DM-2 analog delay sound. Up to 40 seconds of recording for sound on sound (Hold mode). Reverse mode.
  • RV-500 – reverb. Studio-level sound with first-in-class 32-bit AD/DA, 32-bit floating point processing, and 96 kHz sampling rate. 12 modes with 21 reverb types, all with deep editing parameters. A/B Simul mode allows you to use two reverb patches at once. Runs on four AA-size batteries or PSA-series AC adapter.
  • RV-6 – reverb. Eight sound modes. Shimmer, Dynamic, and Delay+Reverb modes deliver lush, immersive textures sought by modern players. Supports mono or stereo operation.

The last, but not least - some big corporations are known to be irresponsive to their customers. They are too busy to solve our problems. It took years for Roland to write VG-99 driver for Windows 8/10. You were told you could use it with PC, but in fact you could not…

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