Re: Picked up a G-Major
It's a bit early for anything more than a simple review, I'll know more in a couple of days. Yesterday I scrolled through the presets and I liked what I heard. The reverbs do sound very good as do the rest of the effects. It's nice to have phasers and flangers again and the filter and modulation effects are are pretty cool as well. I also like the fact that it has a gate and a compressor as well. My compression and gating used to get done by a DBX 166 XL but I removed that from my rack a couple of months ago. Now I can gate my high gain patches and compress my clean patches without having to do it globally. I didn't like having to gate my cleans and compress my distortions the way I used to have to.
The built in tuner is cool, but I already have a Korg rack tuner with a much larger display so it isn't nessessary in my rig but for someone looking for a one rack space, does almost everything effects processor the G-Major seems to be the way to go.
I believe the G-Force also has distortion patches, I'm not sure about the harmonizer.
The Rocktron stuff is a bit different, not nearly as many effects but the Rocktron stuff still has its upside. The Intellipitch (that I kept) has a 3 voice harmonizer that tracks like theres no tomorrow so I like that unit alot. They have been out of production for almost four years and they are getting harder to find used. The Intellipitch also has a 4 voice detune compared to the G-Majors 2 voice and the Rocktron stuff also has an 8 voice pannable chorus which is the lushest chorus I have ever heard. Also the G-major only shifts one octave down and the Intellipitch drops 2 octaves with another voice or two that can also be set to one octave down and one octave up simutaniously, which makes huge sounding octave work. The Rocktron stuff also appears to be easier to program, but that is probably a combination of the G-Major having more stuff on it as well as the fact that I'm just not familiar with it yet.
I've been playing with another originals project that has been getting some label interest and the Failed Grace thing got put on "slow mode" for a minute but I have another 6-8 songs that I'm getting ready to start laying tracks for. Yes, there will be new tunes coming up shortly.
I used to be a big pedal kind of guy but I got tired of all the clutter on stage. I'm to the point now that all I have on the floor is one midi cable and a midi controller. I run my controller so that I can send both program changes as well as controller changes. Since the Triaxis is midi switchable I can change my amp settings as well as patch changes with a single button and then I can switch in and out up to 5 individual effects at the touch of 5 individual buttons. Trying to switch that much stuff with pedals and amp switches while singing is nearly impossible, I do it all with a single button, often without looking at the floor. It can be done with pedals and there are pros and cons to both set-ups but for me, midi is the only way to go.
So far, the G-Major seems to have solved a couple of issues for me and it sounds great. Now if I can just get it programmed to my rig I'll be happy. I should have it worked out today.
