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A Guitar Synth That Won't Kill Your Budget

You Rock Guitar as a live rig!

I put together a live rig based around the groundbreaking new Guitar Synthesizer called the You Rock Guitar.




This guitar is the first full-fledged midi synth, in a guitar form factor, at an entry-level price. I own the first generation - there has since been a 2nd Gen that has even more features.  It looks a lot like the plastic guitars used for games like RockBand and Guitar-Hero. Although it can indeed be used for "Advanced Mode" on those two games, it is also a powerful midi instrument that can be used in any computer based studio with ease.  I can use midi in my studio, but with limited skills on the keys. Now the world of midi is at my fingertips with the YRG (You Rock Guitar). It was literally plug-and-play with my Windows and Linux Studio computers (I run Windows7 and also Studio1337 which is a linux based Multi-Media OS).

So, now that I was using it everyday in my Studio, I began to really enjoy the YRG and started bringing it to work and practicing on my lunch break.  I did not like the built in guitar based "synth" sounds built in to the YRG, but I could live with a few of the default sounds.

I was surprised when I decided to mess around with an old Zoom GFX-707 guitar pedal with stereo effects. I plugged the YRG with a standard Fender tone (guitar patch #7) into the Zoom pedal and was blown away that I really couldn't tell I was playing a plastic guitar!  I'm not saying it will satisfy some tone purists out there, by no means, but for me, it's close enough to use. So, I only use a handful of distortion and clean tones out of the pedal, as well as the Wah effect. Like I said, I know it's not going to be good enough for some, but for me I can use it mixed with the YRG's other synth controller capability!



The YRG is capable of controlling other MIDI Synths. Most everyone is using the YRG to be a Midi controller via USB for Midi hosts on computers and iPads. I'm doing the same -- but the YRG can also control legacy (a new word for OLD) MIDI Synths via the standard MIDI cables. So I picked up an old standard from the late 80's and 90's, an Emu Proteus1+Orchastral rack mount MIDI synth.


I run the stereo output of the Zoom pedal and the Emu synth into a Beringher mixer - something similar to a standard synth rig anyway. I can blend both together and have found some radical tones I wouldn't have been able to produce with either by themselves.

I still have 2 mic/instrument channels to use up, so why not add vox?  EV-664


Basically I've got a small hybrid gyitar-synth-rig / vocal PA to gig with! 



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Bio

Chris Olson is a veteran of the Seattle Grunge scene of the late 80’s and 90’s as both a musician and a sound engineer. He has shared the stage with members of Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Soundgarden to name just a few -