I have had a great deal of trouble with an AXON 50 using Graph tek Hexaphonic pickups so I ordered a Roland GR-20S. The salesman screwed up the order and I got a VG-99 instead. I have only had it one day and before I send it back for the GR-20S I want to hear from anyone familiar with the Roland. It is a very feature oriented unit for live playing, but want it for Logic input.
Hi Tommy,
I've never used a VG-99 live on stage, but I have used the VG-88 live on stage. I've also got piezo hexaphonic pickups in all my electric guitars (except a gretsch). I am familiar with the VG-99, however, as I reviewed it for gearwire.com. I've never used the GR-20S, but I played on stage with it's "big brother" predecessor, the GR-33. Finally, I own the Roland GI-20, which is the same guitar-to-MIDI conversion as the GR-20 and VG-99, and I used an Axon AX-50 for a long time (I reviewed it for Electronic Musician, and they let me keep it for nearly six months).
I found the Axon AX-50 relatively easy to use. You need to set it up with the included editor first, however-really read the manual to learn how to set up your guitar for use with the Axon. You'll need to adjust the string sensitivity to get the most out of your device, and it's not nearly as easy as it could have been, since there's no visual feedback on the hardware itself. You'll also want to set up the velocity curve, and so on. But once you set up the Axon-50, it's the fastest tracking unit on the beat. The conversion was faster than I could play-in other words, I didn't find any real tracking latency (obviously, you don't want to play the lowest notes on the low E-string), it was more than able to keep up with me.
With Roland units, I'm sure you will not be surprised to hear that they are designed for, and work better with, Roland's own magnetic hex pickups. In fact, the VG-99 has a very specific issue when you are using a guitar with piezo (graph tech or RMC) hex pickups. Unlike the VG-88, the VG-99 does not have an analog subsonic filter on the 13-pin input. This means that when playing synth sounds, it will sometimes get some extremely low end rumble and sub-bass garbage. This problem almost never comes up with just playing the guitar sounds, however, as most guitar sounds have very steep EQ filters so that the lowest end (like the high end) is completely removed.
Personally, I found the VG-99 to sound very good, for what it is. The Roland COSM models are generally high quality digital simulations. Of course, they are a bit "long in tooth" these days with so many great modelers around, but they still hold their own and they're very playable. The thing that I
really love about the VG-series (and honestly, part of me wishes I still had the VG-99) is the alternate tunings and acoustic sounds. Also, I really liked it's analog synth models.
The VG-series and the GR-series, when doing synth sounds, does things a bit differently than the Axon. The Axon converts your guitar note into MIDI, and then your synth sounds (either on your computer or a hardware synthesizer) are triggered from those MIDI notes. However, the VG- and GR-series "cheat"-the internal GR synth sounds are triggered directly by the electronic signal from your guitar,
the notes are not converted to MIDI first. This means that the internal GR sounds are actually quite fast, since they are truly "synthesizing" the guitar signal itself, tracking the pitch and then triggering their own sample engine without the converting to MIDI step. This has two effects:
- If you play a note on the GR-20S (or VG) it will trigger even faster than the Axon.
- If you send the MIDI out signal from the GR (or VG) to another synthesizer, the result will be slower than the Axon.
Okay, so after all these mini-reviews and explanations, the bottom line is this: if you are looking for the most accurate and fast tracking unit for input into Logic's sequencer, your best bet is to stick with the Axon-50USB. Really read through the manual, optimize your setup using the software editor (it's not terribly user-friendly, so expect this to take time), and that's the best you'll get. If you're looking for the fastest live synth option, the GR-20S is the best performing synth option.
Hope that helps,
Orren