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Limited-time Offer!$100 Cash Back on GR-55!Between March 20 and June 30, 2012, purchase a GR-55 from Sweetwater and receive $100 cash back from Roland! See form for details. Download the Rebate FormRoland GR-55 (Blue)Item ID: GR55sGuitar Synth with 910 Tones, 93 Effect Types, 3 Foot Pedals, an Expression/Volume Pedal, and and Onboard USB WAV/AIFF Player 
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From Our Research Team:Guitar Synth Like Nothing You're Heard Before!With decades of experience developing the industry's hottest guitar synths, Roland's GR-55 guitar synth and effects processor gives you more incredible tones and features than ever before, making laggy and inaccurate tracking a thing of the past. When Roland designed the GR-55, they totally redeveloped their already leading pitch-detection technology to bring you their fastest guitar synth ever. Pitch, velocity, sustain - the GR-55 doesn't miss a thing!Click for Video & Audio Demos:
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The GR-55 also includes Roland's world-famous COSM tone modeling. Together, these amazing processor cores open up never-before explored realms of tone and texture shaping. From pop to rock to undiscovered genres of music, the GR-55 has the guitar tones you need to stand out. Dive in and create your own intensely intricate patches, or keep it simple and explore the hundreds of built-in tones onboard. The GR-55 has the perfect sounds of any music. On top of that, the GR-55 features an onboard USB memory music player with handy foot controls, so you can rock out with your favorite tones, long after the rest of the band's packed up. If you're ready to discover a whole new era of mind-blowing guitar tones, you're ready for the Roland GR-55! Roland GR-55 Guitar Synth System Features at a Glance:
The Roland GR-55 guitar synth and effect's processor is your key to discovering guitar tones beyond your wildest dreams! Features at a Glance: GR-55 (Blue) Image Gallery
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Reviewsbased on 12 reviewsi th ink it's great
by michael autry from arkansas
inow i need much more talent to truly e valuate th gr 55 but my god it's fantastic
February 3, 2012 Music Background: studio musician Awesome Guitar Synth With Loads of Options!
by Cory from Columbus, OH
I was looking for a guitar synth to replace my Roland GR-20. While the GR-20 is great, it lacks much in the way of editing the patches. Seeing that the GR-55 had deep editing capabilities, as well as ... read more [+]on-board effects, I was very anxious for it to arrive in the mail!November 3, 2011 Music Background: Recording Guitarist, Hobbyist This pedal has a very durable metal chasis, unlike the GR-20's plastic shell. The GR-55 also tracks a little better than the GR-20, especially with tricky things like tapping and palm mutes. At first, the in-depth editing, with lots of vertical menus to scroll through and pages to switch between seems daunting, but I came to appreciate them after getting to know them better. One of my favorite things about the GR-55 over my previous synth is that you can save individual tunings for each patch. The tunings will effect any synths and modeled guitar that you have playing (but not the actual sound from your magnetic pickups). These digital tunings allow you to set up a piano patch with a customized tuning to allow easier emulation of piano chords, or to digitally drop-tune your guitar for some chugging metal rhythms with a synth pad in the background. Each individual string can be tuned up or down and saved per patch, so there's no need to physically change the tuning on your axe. I will say, however, that once you get about 3-5 semitones below the original tuning, any modeled guitar sounds will have some synthetic pitch-shifted artifacts in the sound. The guitar pickup, amp and effect models are awesome on this pedal! You can process your modeled guitar sound with an amp and effect independent of any effects you slap on your synths. This means that running your modeled axe sound through a hi-gain metal amp sim won't distort your backing synths. Guitar modeling on the GR-55 uses the same GK pickup for your synth sounds to capture raw guitar audio. You can than choose from several popular pickup and guitar types from a classic Les Paul to a Coral Sitar (which sounds amazing on here!) for it to emulate. Then, you choose a simulated amp from several popular choices and add in an effect. The end result sounds pretty good, especially considering that you can also blend in 2 separate synth sounds with your modeled guitar! The synths come in a variety of flavors, with hundreds to choose from. Synth leads, synth pads, pianos, flutes, harps, drums, saxophones, organs, violins and tons more. Some sound pretty convincing, while others may need a little tweeking or some effects thrown in to make them fit better. What's also nice is that the expression pedal can be programmed to blend between instruments. For example, you can set up a patch to go from violin to oboe just by rocking the pedal. The Control pedal can also be programmed to turn on/off effects, or sustain synth notes indefinitely. Overall this pedal was exactly what I hoped it would be. More synths, more effects, more options. While it takes some getting used to, a little more than Roland's other synths, the end result is well worth the effort! close [-] Roland Gr55
by Steve Parker from Burtonsville, MD
I have used Roland products for years and they always are very innovative, the GR55 has a lot to offer, it is a total beast once you tap into it, alot of great sounds. I am very pleased with my new GR... read more [+]55 and the quick delivery from Sweetwater. close [-]
September 29, 2011 Music Background: Pro Musician Roland GR-55
by Bill Sykes from Manchester NH
I've had a few guitar synthesizers.GM700,GR09,GR-20.The GR-55 is the best all the way
June 20, 2011 Music Background: Hobbyist Another Huge Jump in Guitar Synth Technology
by JackL from chicago
As a point of reference, I have owned the Roland GR-20 and Axon 100 for several years, and have used the GR-20 in live settings.February 15, 2011 Music Background: extreme amateur The GR-55 is built very well, like the general layout, s... read more [+]teel enclosure, switch quality and action, the large display, and so forth. It is a solid device that should handle live environments better than the mostly plastic GR-20. In regards to layout, I prefer the GR-20 method for calling up instrument groups. It was nice having all of the instruments grouped and easy accessible by top side switching. For the most part the Lead, Rhythm, Other, and User presets are pretty lame. Unfortuntely, you cannot edit AND save the Lead/Rhythm/Other presets over their original locations. With that said, several presets are outstanding, but most are unusable for me. And I know this is a different sound engine than the GR-20, but many of the instrument/presets sound very very very familiar. Like identical. How can that be? Plus, the best piano preset is buggy. The Concert Grand patch, lead preset 07-1 cuts out like a speaker is going south. I informed Roland. I do not like the three bank setup to access presets. I find the whole preset setup cumbersome. Three banks 30 presets deep (or 99 deep for user presets) is a pain to cycle through. Am I missing something? I appreciate the ability to include two PCM (synth) paths into a preset. The GR-20 has a few multiple instrument patches but I never found a way of creating them. I absolutely love the configuration and voice programmability. I dialed in my RMC pickups (Piezo R) and triggering etc is improved over the GR-20 and perhaps better than my venerable Axon 100. Anyway, suffice it to say the GR-55 offers full control over hex pickup type, string sensitivity, you name it. Plus, you can configure multiple guitar/pickups. However, some dialing in of the individual presets are necessary. Some presets trigger without ghost notes, but others are all over the place. I created my own piano preset in a couple of minutes that works pretty well. Also, when dialing in the string sensitivities I noticed that when I picked, plucked one string, the sens display bars moved for all of the other strings at varying strengths. Not sure what it means, but it can't be good, right? The tracking is very good. As fast or faster than an Axon at least when triggering the synth and "VG" voices where no hex-to-midi conversion is required. But as the external MIDI (requiring hex to midi conversion) latency numbers show, the Axon is much faster driving external MIDI devices than the GR boxes. Editing or creating presets is easy and intuitive. The large display is much appreciated. Even still, bending over to the floor to edit presets is a pain. Roland needs an editor for this box. A third-party is working on one that looks great in alpha/beta form. The GR-55 includes COSM effects and amps. I prefer Line 6 and Digitech modeling over the COSM. The COSM related sounds and presets sound terrible through my acoustic guitar amp, but sound okay through headphones. Love the AC and 12str guitar presets/instruments through headphones, so-so through my amp. But through the headphones, they really pop. Nylon guitar is okay, jazz guitar okay. The COSM comfortably numb patch is nice. I have not connected the GR-55 to our midi keyboards or computer yet. There is just so much to this new box to configure, test, experiment with. It will take weeks, maybe months to figure it all out. Regarding amps. I was greatly disappointed that the GR-55 sounds muddy, bassy, and lifeless through my Loudbox acoustic guitar amp. The GR-20 sounds pretty good through it; not so with the GR-55. I have experimented with all of the GR-55 output options and found the best for my use was the JC-120 Return. Still sounds muffled, bassy, and dark. Turns out, according to Roland, you need to connect the GR-55 to a PA or keyboard amp to realize its high-fidelity. Based on how it sounds through headphones, I agree with Roland. The GR-55 sounds great through headphones. And I mean, GREAT! But is that not typical of stereo devices such as these synths and multiple effects boxes. They always sound great through headphones and not so great through any form of amplication. Check out the Fletcher-Munsen effect info on the Web to understand why. So, that's it in a nutshell. If some of it sounds negative, well, it's how I see it. I still give it 4.5 stars. The sound quality of the unit (at least through headphones) is incredible. The editing and configuration control is outstanding. It tracks better than any hex-to-midi device I have ever used (GR-20, Axon). So it is a huge jump in Guitar Synth technology! close [-] Also popular
Roland GR-55 (Blue)
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