gr55-setups-1_130222

GR-55 Setups & Settings HintsSetups & voice parameters that impact trackingLast updated by shawnb, 2/22/13

BackgroundThe information in the GR-55 manual regarding setting up the unit is pretty minimal. This doc is meant to supplement the manual with real-world experience.

I wanted to pull together all of the best info I could find in one place, instead of scattered over a bunch of posts in a bunch of forums.

And, very specifically, I wanted a "cook book", i.e., a specific set of steps to follow to make a setting properly and consistently.

Major Sources of Issues with Tracking & Ghost Notes1 Playing Style. You really need play very consistently, near the bridge, with no incidental string contact, and you need to learn to mute unplayed strings with your palm.

If your pick 'rubs' the string at all, a tone is generated. If your pick 'touches' the string at all and pauses for even the briefest instant, a tone is generated. You need a crisp pluck, with your pick parallel to the string.

2 String Sensitivity/Velocity Dynamics/Play Feel too high. This makes small issues have much higher volume… I think the book's note to set sensitivity as high as possible led many folks to create hot setups.

3 The GR55 doubles up on notes very frequently. With Chromatic OFF, this shows up as a few pitch wheel events. With Chromatic ON, these wheel events become notes. I have found no way to eliminate doubled notes.

4 Nuance. The WHOLE POINT of Nuance is to take subtle string contact & do something BIG with it! We need to learn to use/leverage nuance properly or TURN IT OFF.

5 Picks and Cables cause all kinds of issues!!!

If wiggling your cable causes notes, use DeoxIT to clean.

You want to minimize pick contact with the strings. Pointed picks work better; smoother new picks work better.

Do not use any picks with any sign of wear. The rough 'worn' portion of the pick acts as a bow, creating squelching sounds.

The purpose of this document is to help you with #s 2, 3 & 4 above, and to provide you with some actionable things to try if your setup isn't working out.

*** Very helpful - While setting up your guitar, you can monitor the MIDI output on the MIDI bus within your DAW or a tool like MIDI OX. This provides hard data & measurements to confirm your setups are working well.

PARAMETERS Page Values Book Description Notes Calibration & Use

GUITAR SETUPStuning na na na Critical! Tune it or die!

intonation na na na Critical! You need the GR55 to determine notes as accurately as

possible. Note determination is more difficult &

erroneous pitch wheel events will occur up the neck if

intonation is incorrect.

pu height na na na Critical! Use the 1mm rule - when fretting each string at your

highest fret, the GK PU should be ~1mm from each string.

SYSTEM SETUPSGK config

string sensitivity 10, 75 0-100 Play the 6th string as strongly as you ever expect to play it in

actual performance, and use the dial to adjust the sensitivity

as high as possible without allowing the meter to reach the

full-scale position.

There are two schools of thought here. Some folks believe 'as

high as possible without clipping' and others like it low. The

'low' camp believes it can add expressiveness to the softer

voices, and suggest settings at ~20-30 range.

For doing setups, I am in the 'get the sensitivity meter up

to 85-90%' camp. Targeting 85-90% gives plenty of signal

to the engine, and provides your setup with plenty of

headroom for occasional higher velocity actions.

Expressiveness can be restored by properly setting other

parameters, e.g., play/feel & velocity dynamics, below, as

well as the PCM tone parameters described below.

Play with both strumming and picking (as hard as you play

when you play hard!) on each string. Don't let the meter

EVER max out on ANY string. Pick close to the bridge

(where you should be picking!), it's quite sensitive there &

may lead you to reduce your settings.


Velocity Some general info: Perform velocity tests using a single simple PCM voice

with tone level set low, ~30 and your output level set

about halfway.

velocity dynamics 75 1-10 Adjusts the sensitivity of the PCM tone’s volume (velocity)

change. The further you raise this setting, the more easy it

becomes to produce higher values for velocity.

This measures how quickly you get to max volume - I tend to

think of this as input gain. To avoid clipping, you want

headroom. In order to have some headroom, you need to be

shy of max volume when playing your hardest. This tells the

system how loud/hard you play when you play hard.

The meter here not only tells you what you're sending to the

PCM voice, but out on the MIDI bus as well. You do NOT want

to max out on this meter - EVER. This corresponds to a full

127 on your softsynth - you do NOT want that, you're clipping

out your MIDI.

When setting your Velocity Dynamics, the first step is to

set your 'Play Feel' to 4.

Start with Velocity Dynamics at 10. Play your

hardest/loudest chords & notes - on ALL strings.

Decrease by 1 & repeat. Stop when the Velocity meter on

the GR55 display NEVER peaks.

An alternative is to look at MIDI notes generated in your

DAW or MIDI OX. Lower values until you never see

velocities of 127 (clipping).

Lower values are preferred. (Jim Williams recommends

this at ~2.) If you find you need a higher value,

experiment with setting your string sensitivities a bit

higher.

play feel 75 1-5 Adjusts the volume (velocity) change curve of the PCM tone.

The lower-numbered settings give you a wider range of

volume change in response to your picking dynamics. With

higher-numbered settings, the volume becomes more

consistent regardless of your picking dynamics. The “5”

setting gives you a completely fixed velocity.

(*** Note this is wrong - PlayFeel 4 provides the greatest

dynamic range. See my 2nd illustration at the end of this

document.)

A Play Feel of 5 means a constant LOUD velocity. In MIDI

terms, the velocity is fixed at 120.

If you envision a simple line chart, in which your note's MIDI

velocity (volume) is your vertical axis and your picking strength

is your horizontal axis, Play Feel values 1-4 will result in

different 'slopes' of the lines. Play Feel 1 is more compressed,

and quiet, Play Feel 2 has a slightly broader dynamic range,

moving up to Play Feel 4 which has greatest dynamic range.

(See my 2nd chart below.)

A picture tells a thousand words... Please look at my PlayFeel

charts at the end of this document. (Applicable for my setup,

probably not yours, & meant to be illustrative.) In these

charts, all other settings are constant. I set Velocity Dynamics

to 3, measured soft picking, medium picking & hard picking,

and recorded the GR-55's MIDI note velocity values for each

note & for each Play Feel setting. Then I set it to 6 & repeated,

& finally set it to 10 and repeated.

This is why you want to set your Play Feel to 4 before setting

your Velocity Dynamics. It has the greatest dynamic range,

allowing Play Feel 1-3 to be compressed usable curves. If you

set Play Feel to 1 before adjusting Velocity Dynamics, you could

very easily make Play Feel 2-4 completely unusable (like in my

third chart below).

Set Play Feel AFTER you have set your Velocity Dynamics

as described above.

Start at 5. Play notes both soft & loud. Decrease until

you get the range and consistency you want.

This is another setting where it is informative to monitor

the MIDI note data generated while making this setting.

Jim Williams recommends this to be as low as you can

tolerate - 1 or 2. You may lose a bit of dynamics, but the

tradeoff is consistency & hopefully fewer mistriggered

notes.

low vel cut 75 0-10 Adjust this if simply touching a string causes a note to be

unintentionally triggered. Raising this value will make it more

difficult to trigger notes.

You want to find the highest value that still triggers your softest

performance, including hammerons. This tells the engine how

softly you play when you play soft, and will filter out anything

quieter, assuming it's incidental string contact.

Consequently, this is possibly the most important parameter

in terms of eliminating accidental notes! Higher is better, as

more erroneous notes get filtered out.

Start at 10. Play the softest performance you want

registered, including hammerons. If notes drop out,

decrease by 1 & repeat.

If you set this too low you are opening yourself up to

spurious notes due to incidental string contact. (As a

result, Jim Williams recommends this to be as high as you

can tolerate, try 7-8.)


Nuance Some General info: Nuance settings help you make changes to the PCM tone

dependent on the attack of your performance. Note this is

NOT the velocity of your performance. Regardless of velocity,

a finger-picked note will have higher Nuance and pick usage

will have a lower Nuance.

Another way to think of it: If you want your patch to do

something different when you put down your pick & use your

fingers, then make use of Nuance.

Note that your lower strings/notes more easily register

Nuance; this is the physics of the beast, I guess. On the other

hand, my .009 strings have a hard time registering Nuance.

I envision a "scale" from lowest to highest Nuance: hard pick

usage, soft pick usage, rapid finger picking, gentle finger

picking, side of thumb picking. You want a hard pick to

register very little (or zero) and a soft side-of-thumb pluck to

register a lot (and just saturate the Nuance meter).

Note Nuance can also help you filter some spurious notes, see

'level nuance sense' below.

If not used, since Nuance's whole purpose in life is to make a

big deal out of soft performance data, TURN IT OFF!

You want to set these to where soft finger picking returns

high Nuance and picking returns zero nuance.

To properly calibrate & test, create a voice as described

on page 28:

PCM TONE 1 settings

TONE CATEGORY/NUMBER: the tone sounded for a

note played with a pick

LEVEL NUANCE SENS: +50

PCM TONE 2 settings

TONE CATEGORY/NUMBER: the tone sounded for a

note played with your finger

LEVEL NUANCE SENS: -50

Use very distinguishable tones, e.g., a kalimba and a bass!

Ideally you want to be able to hear one voice ONLY when

finger picking and the other voice ONLY when using a

pick.

Nuance settings are reflected in the MIDI output as soft

pedal controller events (CC67). High values reflect high

nuance, low values reflect low nuance. Viewing these

MIDI events can help confirm your nuance is configured

correctly.

nuance dynamics 75 0-10 Adjusts the sensitivity at which Nuance occurs. Higher settings

will make it easier to produce the Nuance effect.

Adjust these settings so that the level meter reaches the

maximum position when you play with the softest touch, and

so that the level meter does not move very much when you

play normally.

Nuance dynamics & nuance trim are directly parallel to velocity

dynamics & low vel cut.

Nuance dynamics boosts the nuance effect/measurement as

nuance is detected. Too much and you can apply the nuance

effects to everything, even pick usage... Too little and it gets

applied too little. You want a setting where all of your finger

picking clearly reflects some amount of 'nuance'. But not too

much, or all finger picking reflects a nuance of 127 (i.e., nuance

'clipping', or not very nuanced...), and even pick usage gets

reflected as 'nuance'. Gotta find a good sweet spot.

Set to 0. Very gently finger-pick the string. I suggest using

the side of your thumb for this. If the Nuance bar is not

fully engaged, increase. Repeat until soft side-of-thumb

picking consistently registers most or all of the Nuance

bar. (CC67 value of 127)

Try out all strings when making this setting.

nuance trim 75 0-10 Specifies the threshold value at which Nuance occurs. If the

Nuance effect occurs more often than you would like with

normal playing, lower this value.

Like low vel cut, Nuance Trim defines the 'cuttoff point'. If you

are happy with how nuance is reflected, but occasionally your

picking produces undesired nuance effect, then you can adjust

the trim to ensure that all your pick usage properly reflects 0

nuance.

Set to 10. Use your pick. If the nuance meter registers

nuance, decrease the value. Repeat until picking

consistently measures very low or zero Nuance.

GTR to midi

chromatic 79 on off Turn this ON if you want to play an external sound module

chromatically.

Note that with chromatic ON, pitch bends are converted to

new notes. This system-level setting affects what is sent out

over the MIDI bus, and does NOT affect how the GR55 renders

notes.

Since pitch bends are very easily created accidentally, if

you are getting too many spurious notes, turn Chromatic

OFF - even for drums.

If Chromatic OFF is causing problems with your external

synth voice, try experimenting with filtering ALL or a

range of pitch wheel events in your DAW before the

events reach your synth.


PCM TONE SETUPSTone Some general info: PCM tone settings affect how the GR55 renders the tone. (NO

PCM settings are reflected on the MIDI bus.)

chromatic 25 on off Turn this “ON” if you want the tone to sound in chromatic

steps.

If this is “ON,” the pitch will change only in semitone steps

even if you “bend” a string.

Note that with chromatic ON, pitch bends are converted to

new notes.

Since pitch bends are very easily created accidentally, if

you are getting too many spurious notes, turn Chromatic

OFF.

Legato 25 on off When you play notes in a smoothly connected manner by

hammering-on or pullingoff, only the pitch will change, and

no attack will be heard for the subsequently played note. The

legato function can be used if CHROMATIC is ON.

If Legato is ON, hammerons & slurs sound more like they're

'tied together'. Many PCM voices employ a softer attack for

hammerons & slurs. With it OFF, hammerons & slurs sound

like distinctly new notes.

Only seems to work with Chromatic On, just like the book says.

Turn on if you want to be able to slur notes & perform

hammerons when Chromatic is ON.

level vel sens 25 -50-+50 Adjusts the amount by which the tone’s volume will be

affected by your playing strength. With positive “+” values,

the volume will increase as you play more strongly.

Negative values actually make your guitar quieter as you play

harder, and louder as you play lighter. 0 is "normal"…

Positive values may be used to try to 'quiet' your soft

notes further & make your louder notes more prevalent.

nuance sw 25 on off Specifies whether nuances of your performance (p. 28) will

produce tonal change.

Two possible uses, (1) add effect for gentle playing/finger

picking, & (2) usage as a filter to remove soft playing/incidental

playing. (See level nuance sense, below.)

If not being used, TURN IT OFF!!!! Nuance does a LOT of

things with your gentlest performance! If you don't

want those reflected in your sound, turn it off!

portomento SW 25 on off OFF Portamento will not be applied.

ON Portamento will be applied.

TONE The setting most appropriate for the tone will be used.

If on, can be confused with latency issues. When in doubt, explicitly turn portomento off when not

in use. I don't trust the TONE setting, mainly because you

can't see what it is doing…

TVA

level nuance sense 27 -50-+50 Specifies how nuances of your performance (p. 28) will affect

the volume.

Translates nuance to volume. When at -50, this voice will ONLY

sound if played Nuanced (soft). When at +50, it will ONLY play

if played normally.

This can be leveraged as a filter for notes caused by incidental

contact. Not perfect, but worth trying if your drums or piano

voices are giving you grief.

Can be used to filter 'incidental' notes. Set nuance on &

set to ~+30 or so! Depending on how well nuance works

for you, +50 may be ideal.

Diagnostics Issue Possible Causes Things to TrySensitivity too high Adjust Sensitivity per instructions above

Vellocity Dynamics too high Adjust Velocity Dynamics per instructions above

Play Feel too High Adjust Play Feel per instructions above

Low Vel Cut too low Experiment with increasing Low Vel Cut

Incidental Contact Practice your palm muting! Playing a guitar synth is NOT

like playing a guitar.

Cable Oxidization If wiggling the cable triggers notes, use DeoxIT

Fret Buzz If you have fret buzz, your guitar needs a proper setup

Chromatic On Try Chromatic Off

Playing too high up the neck or too far from the bridge Practice playing closer to the bridge!

Playing too hard Practice playing with a lighter touch!

Nuance On and not used Turn off Nuance if not used

You're playing incidental harmonics or pinch harmonics Practice your palm muting & practice cleaner picking!

Worn picks Try a new pick, or a different style pick




On external synthesizers… Try filtering out pitch wheel bend events. Many DAWs

allow you to create filters. Try filtering all of them, or at

least pitch wheel events <-1400 and >1400.


Sensitivity too low Adjust Sensitivity per instructions above

Velocity Dynamics too low Adjust Velocity Dynamics per instructions above

Low Vel Cut too high Adjust Low Vel Cut per instructions above

Legato Off Try Legato On

Nuance on & Nuance Level Sense high Lower Nuance Level Sense setting or turn Nuance Off

Sensitivity too high Adjust Sensitivity per instructions above



Portamento On Explicitly turn Portamento Off


Doubled notes too apparent Try voices that have slower attack or are mellower in tone

(External device) Driver issues, older gear Find the latest drivers for your gear

Sensitivity too high Adjust sensitivity per instructions above


Play Feel too High Adjust Play Feel per instructions above

Incidental Contact Practice your palm muting! Playing a guitar synth is NOT

like playing a guitar.

Tuning or Intonation wrong TUNE IT! Check your setup

Chromatic On Try Chromatic Off




Doubled notes too apparent Try voices that have slower attack or are mellower in tone

Chromatic ON Try Chromatic OFF (check both PCM Tone settings; check

the GTR-MIDI setting if the doubling occurs on an external

synth). If working on an external synth, Chromatic OFF

on the GR55 and a good pitch wheel event filter work

very well.

Dynamics make it too obvious Try a lower Play Feel

Notes Doubling

(I have not found any means to completely get rid of note

doubling - it appears to be inherent in the GR-55 when

playing sequences of notes.)

Extra Notes

Glitches, Squelches

Dropouts/Hammerons don't sound

Latency

Wrong Notes

Play Feel Charts

A Play Feel of 5 means a constant LOUD velocity. In MIDI

terms, the velocity is fixed at 120.

If you envision a simple line chart, in which your note's MIDI

velocity (volume) is your vertical axis and your picking

strength is your horizontal axis, Play Feel values 1-4 will result

in different 'slopes' of the lines. Play Feel 1 is more

compressed, and quiet, Play Feel 2 has a slightly broader

dynamic range, moving up to Play Feel 4 which has greatest

dynamic range. (Seee my 2nd chart below.)

A picture tells a thousand words... Please look at my PlayFeel

charts at the end of this document. (Applicable for my setup,

probably not yours, & meant to be illustrative.) In these

charts, all other settings are constant. I set Velocity Dynamics

to 3, measured soft picking, medium picking & hard picking,

and recorded the GR-55's MIDI note velocity values for each

note & for each Play Feel setting. Then I set it to 6 & repeated,

& finally set it to 10 and repeated.

This is why you want to set your Play Feel to 4 before setting

your Velocity Dynamics. It has the greatest dynamic range,

allowing Play Feel 1-3 to be compressed usable curves. If you

set Play Feel to 1 before adjusting Velocity Dynamics, you could

very easily make Play Feel 2-4 completely unusable (like in my

third chart below).

*** These charts are meant to be illustrative only. Equivalent charts for YOUR setup will likely be VERY different!

*** Nonetheless, these help to show the relationship between Velocity Dynamics, Play Feel, your picking strength and your note velocity (volume).

*** Note this is real, i.e., imperfect, data…

0

20

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140

soft medium hard

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Picking Strength

Play Feel - Velocity Dynamics at 3

one

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four

five

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soft medium hard

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Picking Strength


one

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five

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one

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gr55-setups-1_130222

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