BOSS announces the new Serial GK system and the GM-800 Guitar Synthesizer, a powerful and versatile product that elevates guitar and bass synthesis into a new age of natural playability and boundless creative range. Driven by the newly developed Serial GK digital interface, the advanced ZEN-Core engine in the GM-800 unlocks any sound imaginable—from acoustic instruments to classic and modern synths—while high-performance DSP delivers tracking stability and expressive scope never before possible. Users can also expand the GM-800 experience with a growing selection of ZEN-Core content on Roland Cloud. In addition, BOSS has released a variety of complementary products for the GM-800 and Serial GK system, including GK-5 and GK-5B Divided Pickups for guitar and bass, BGK-15 and BGK-30 connection cables, and GKC-AD and GKC-DA GK Converters for interfacing with classic 13-pin GK products.
GM-800 Guitar Synthesizer
BOSS and its parent company Roland have been the worldwide leaders in guitar synthesizer innovation for nearly five decades, beginning with the revolutionary GR-500 system in 1977. Expanding and elevating the concepts behind many historic Roland GR products, the GM-800 provides guitar and bass players with cutting-edge creative tools and access to sounds typically only available with keyboard-based instruments.
The GM-800 is built around the expandable ZEN-Core Synthesis System, the sound source found in professional Roland products like the JUPITER-X and FANTOM keyboards and ZENOLOGY software synthesizer. ZEN-Core combines modern PCM synthesis and advanced modeling to provide an infinite playground for sonic discovery. With over 1200 Tones, GM-800 users can play everything from pianos, organs, and orchestral instruments to classic Roland synth sounds like the JUPITER-8, JUNO-106, and many others.
The GM-800 features an intuitive workflow based around Scenes, which contain four Tone parts, a Rhythm part, and a vast selection of synthesis parameters, effects, pitch settings, and sensitivity adjustments. Users can layer Tones to create combined voices or assign Tones to individual strings, such as a bass sound on the low strings and a piano or sax sound on the high strings. It’s also possible to assign Tones to specific fret ranges, a powerful new feature made possible with the GM-800’s advanced pitch detection.
