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Section 17
What is the Slow Gear?
The Slow Gear lives under the SFX group on the GT-3 and
with the Feedbacker on the GT-5. Many guitarists probably
don't know this effect as 'Slow Gear' but as an 'Attack Delay'
instead. In its simplest form its an automatic foot volume.
The Slow Gear will fade in each note/chord that you play.
Rise Time
The time it takes to change the volume level from 0 to full
is determined by the Rise Time parameter....I feel a table
coming on!! Roland HAVEN'T supplied me with ANY
information, so the timings are obtained from observations
using Sound Forge as a .wav recorder/editor, and
SpectraLab (to use the 1kHz signal generator) to obtain a
pure signal with no decay. The timings below were derived
using a GT-3 but the GT-5 is expected to be identical.
Rise Time
Rise Time in
Parameter
Milliseconds
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
75
80
85
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
As you can see from the table the increase in rise time is not
linear! Indeed once the rise time gets to 95 it starts to
lengthen extremely rapidly. Below 75 a rounding effect
occurs and above this the delay becomes more pronounced.
Using short times will give a sound similar to woodwind or
bowed instruments, longer rise times give organ type swells.
It is possible that with the longer rise times your string
decays quicker than the rise and therefore you never reach
full volume, fading in to a quiet note or worse—almost
nothing. Using a compressor in front can help this by
producing increased sustain.
© Copyright 2000-2002 Barry S. Pearce et al.
Slow Gear
Approx. Time
in Seconds
100
110
125
150
180
230
0.25
285
380
450
0.50
560
0.50
730
0.75
1050
1.00
1170
1310
1.25
1470
1.50
1670
1.75
1950
2.00
2350
2.50
2920
3.00
3910
4.00
5860
6.00
11700
12.00
Sensitivity
The sensitivity control is probably the hardest to juggle and
yet is very easy to understand. With the sensitivity set at
100 everything will trigger the slow gear. This may be a
problem as it may be triggered by noise etc. this is known as
false triggering. At 0 it is actually insensitive and you have
to play extremely hard in order to get the slow gear to
trigger. In fact, on my system setting this to 0 is pretty much
a guaranteed way of avoiding triggering! I just cannot get it
to go! I need the sensitivity at an absolute minimum of 5,
but 10-20 is a better minimum for me.
In all cases you will need to fiddle with this until you find
the best response for what you are playing. If you are
having problems you may find that inserting an extremely
brief pause between notes may help you get a more
consistent trigger response. The triggering can be very
sensitive to picking technique, so you may need to
experiment and alter your technique to get this effect to
work to your satisfaction.
By reducing sensitivity down from 100, we can achieve two
things. Firstly we can obtain a more natural run, and
secondly we can 'play' the slow gear. One thing to be aware
of here though is that sometimes non-slow gear notes may
sound louder than those trigger the effect.
Effects Chain Ordering
The slow gear can be placed anywhere in the effects chain
of course, feel free to experiment, but there are two places
which are most likely:
At the start of the chain:
This is least desirable if used before compression
or distortion. What happens here is the sound fades
in but then compressor/distortions get hold of it
and before you know it the rise time has
disappeared almost completely.
At the end of the chain after DD/CE but before RV:
My favourite place for the SG is here. Just before
the RV. You get the rise time you expected, and
distortions are faded in better.
Using the Slow Gear
OK, at this point I would like to present a new patch called
'Metal SG'. This is quite a simple one to use. Take our level
matched METAL DIST called 'Metal Dist*' and then add
the Slow Gear, sensitivity 50, and rise time 60. Make sure
the slow gear is at the end of the effects chain just before
the RV. OK. When you play use single notes and a lot of
wrist vibrato. This makes it really sing and the vibrato helps
make it sound more violin like. Of course you could use the
VB effect to make life easier. By having the sensitivity at 50
85
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