Roland VG-99 Announcement
Posted on January 18, 2007 at 06:12 PM
Even though the book isn’t done, I had to take the day off to attend the NAMM conference down in Anaheim today. Roland Corporation announced their VG-99 V-Guitar system at the show and I was invited because my website, VG-8.com served an important role in the development of the new VG-99. My web site and its mailing list is for users of the Roland VG-8 and VG-88 hexaphonic guitar processors, devices which Roland released many years ago. None of us in that group thought Roland was ever going to make a new VG, and in fact Roland didn’t have any plans to, but I posed the question “What would you like to see in a new VG?” When the response was too great to manage using just email, I set up this wiki page:
http://vg-8.com/wiki/Next_Generation_VG
to collect ideas and allow others to edit them. Secretly, back in Roland Japan the topic of a new VG device was brought up and someone (I think I know who, but I won’t say because I don’t know for sure) found our wiki page and it was used as a starting point for new development. Roland never let us know about it though, which is probably smart corporate policy.
Now, at NAMM we got to see the fruit of this virtual collaboration. The VG-99 is most of the important items from the users wish list plus more that we didn’t even dare to imagine. It feels great to be part of its creation, thank you Roland, and thank you fellow users of VG-8.com.
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Hey there Aure,
Happy to see you are using my fingerboard design.
I am sure that it will catch on, and perhaps on violins and basses, as the patent also covers.
Hopefully we can get together sometime this year.
Time flies when you are having fun!
Best to you,
Aaron
Heres some more things I've noticed on my VG-99 that may be an indicator of faulty software. On a nylon patch, after I've got it adjusted properly, right after I save the patch the top end has gone off the strings. If I play hard then the trebel on the strings comes back. But it doesnt stay consistent. If I keep playing hard, then the top end and the volume of the strings stays, but if I play soft then it eventually goes. Also the banjo sounds horrible....but ....if I make a patch using Vari, and select Banjo for the instrument....then it sounds OK. I know the unit is new, so maybe other people have not noticed this yet. When I play the nylon patch or a banjo patch in my VG-88 everythig is fine. There seems to be something not quite right in the 99. see if you can re-create it. Initialize a patch and then call up a Nylon on chanel A. Get the top strings sounding bright enough, then hit save. Strum the top strings softly and see if the top end on them is gone.
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