Boss GM 800 Midi Controller and Tone Expansion 

Glad you liked the video

Thank you for your feedback

It amazes me when I see the tracking differences. The GM 800 tracks so much better then the GR 55. The pianos sound really close. On the GR 55 I miss all kinds of notes. If you set the sloppy playing aside every note I hit was right on target and right on time. No latency at all.

I had issues getting the Roland cloud to work too. I contacted tech support and they gave the usual canned reply, things like check your virus software. That's like taking your car to the mechanic because of engine problems and he talks about checking the air in your tires. They were not much help. It took me two weeks to figure out how to get the Roland Cloud to work. First thing is don't get the Roland Cloud directly from Roland. I know that it appears to be that Roland and Boss are the same websites but they are not. Any gear you register on Roland is not shared with Boss and the information on Boss is not shared with Roland. I am talking about their websites. I tried to get Roland cloud to work and I downloaded it from the Roland website but I could not log in. First make sure your GM 800 is registered on the Boss website. This will require an account. Once you set up your account and register your gear you should be able to download the Roland Cloud software directly from the Boss site once you sign in to your account. If you need to reset your password to get into the Roland Cloud do it from the Boss US website. Reset the Password on your Boss account and that will reset the Password on your Roland Cloud. Part of the problem I was having was that I tried to reset my password from Roland's site and it was not working. For everything that is related to the Roland Cloud use the Boss US website. If you use the Roland US website nothing will work and you will be frustrated.

@@marcuscurtismusic Hi Marcus I will give that go Thanks

I have not tried the Fishman Triple Play. I am not sure how you would interface this with the GM 800 in order to get the sounds from that device. You would probably need to use the 5 pin midi jacks on the FC 100 to get it to work. but that is a good question. How well will the fishman work as a midi controller when compared to the GM 800? It looks like similar tech. The only thing I see is that there is no 13 pin connection. after looking at the new GK 5 pickup I don't know if I could trust the latency on other systems. However, I think they are on the right track when it comes to wireless. My only question is what kind of wireless are they using? 5G, 2.4, or UHF. It looks like a good idea. I don't know how well it works.

Thank for your quick response and elaborate response. My question what just terms of tracking (delai between string stroked and note played). I do not plan to drive GM-800 with it. I had in the past several units like GM-70, GR-50, GR-33 (many years ago), AXON AX-100 then a last Tripleplay wich is fine for live but messy when it come to record MIDI tracks (too may false notes wich lead to a lot of editing kiling the fragile inspiration for composing). How GM-800 perform is this area? Thanks!!!

@@nchourot All the tests that I have run regarding midi controller show that recording in a DAW platform is right on the money. So far I have not experienced ghost notes or notes that are off timing. Then again, I have not been doing anything really complicated. Just basic chords and basic finger picking. So far it has worked beyond my expectations.

That is one thing I do not know. I am unfamiliar with those DAW apps.

Thanks for sharing!

I am actually surprised at how well the conversion is. It works well with GK3 pickups. It tends to be overly sensitive when using a GK5 pickup. I am able to record software synths in real time using my DAW with no problems at all. None of the other systems that I have used outside of a keyboard can do that. The processing power is greatly increased in this unit.

Boss does not make any extra money if they can't sell you extra boxes. I agree with you. However, they still have the best guitar sounding synths for now.

That's exactly right. The tones are like what you load in a PCM on the GR-55. The GR 55 has 910 tones you can choose from. The GM-800 has over 1200. With the expanded tones I have over 2400 to choose from. I can also load four tones instead of two. sorry for the late reply.

Immediately a checklist comes to mind. First make sure your firmware version is at least 1.03 or greater. If you are below that it will not work. For details on how to do this check the video I made about this topic. A link shows up at the end of this video. Second check your device manager and make sure the GM 800 is listed when you have it plugged in via USB. This is just to make sure there are no driver issues. If you see problems in your device manager uninstall then reinstall the drivers. Third if everything checks out then Studio One needs to be addressed. Studio one is really good software but each DAW program is different when it comes to settings. The settings are the same they are just found in different locations and sometimes they may have different names. You would follow the same steps as if you were making your keyboard a midi controller. Studio One may have some videos that explain how to do this. Basically you want to set up the GM 800 to be your main midi controller. Sometimes DAW applications will make your audio interface your main controller. Once The GM 800 is selected to be the midi controller you need to set up a control surface so that you can control software synths inside your DAW. I used Studio One and experimented with it. I like it but I don't know much about all the settings. I hope you get it working.

i am working on some other videos now but i plan on doing a video about recording a song from start to finish. in that video i will be using the Gm-800 as a midi controller.

I need to learn more about the Roland Cloud but from what I understand some of the sound packages are tailored just for the Juno and they won't work with the GM 800. but there are several sound packs and expansion packs that work with both.

Actually that all depends on the individual experience. I have issues with the new GK5 pickup. It will produce ghost notes and poor tracking. However, not everyone has had this experience. I heard from some people who have not had any tracking issues with the GK5. I use the older Roland pickups and I don't have any problems. In fact, I find that the GK3 tracks better with the GM 800. They track better than the GK5. I don't know why different people are having different experiences with this hardware. The problems should be universal. The older Roland Bass pickups should work well too. I should probably get one and test it.

When you are using an additional foot switch or an expression pedal, then just about any TRS cable will work. But going from the GK 5 into the synth you will need the cable supplied by Roland.

Glad you liked it!

some really good EPs on the GM800

My solution was simple. I don't use the GK 5 pickup. I have four more GK pickups that work great. I am currently waiting for a firmware update. I can't be the only one who is having this problem. The guitar I installed the GK5 pickup on had a GK 3 pickup installed on it. I moved that GK3 to my Telecaster. So it is not the guitar or the installation.

@@marcuscurtismusic I’m definitely having the same issue, I doubt an update can fix a pickup though…? But I’m hoping as this is my first time using a guitar synth and I only have the gk5.

@@ChrisBeam I am not trying to sell you anything but the GK3 pickup is on Sweetwater right now for 189.00 It is a good deal because they go for about 250.00. The only problem is you would also need to buy the grey box which sells for about 200 bucks. This is not a real good solution. When The GR 55 came out I had issues with the pickup which was a GK3. At that time I had similar problems with tracking. A firmware update came out and fixed everything. They did it once and since this thing is new I expect they will do it again. If you have another guitar try installing a GK3 pickup on it. I know this may not be an option for you. www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/GK3--roland-gk-3-divided-pickup The other idea I have is to select a different pickup in the pickup profile section. use your GK 5 but in the area where you set your sensitivity select GK3 and see if that helps. I am going to try that as soon as I get home. If it works I will make a video about the fix.

@@marcuscurtismusic thanks for the quick reply! I will try this and hopefully they do address this issue as I’m finding the tracking to be really good. I also thing the cleaner of a guitar player you are the better this works. I see people complaining about the tracking but I do think a lot of it has to do with how you play and how clean. And thx for the videos, very insightful! And you’re a great player! Do you happen to give lessons? Gonna check out your website later!

@@marcuscurtismusic I tried the GK3 setting for the GK5, definitely didn’t work, made it sound completely different. So I didn’t even get as far as checking for the problem we’re talking about. Hopefully they fix it soon as it’s definitely a bummer when it happens and should have never went out to the public like that!