TC Electronics G-Major.....

[Cowinacape]

Being as I have never acctually seen one of these in person, I'll ask what may seem like a stoopid Noob question, how well does this multi play with other units?

 

I ask, because the GX-700 in my sig does not play at all (I.M.H.O., your may and probably will vary) my Tech 21 pre.

 

For what it is worth, the G-Major if I go that way will have to play nicely with a JMP-1 as well as the Tech21 unit.

 

I just found the GX and the Tech21 unit to be a brittle sounding, cheap combo. I had the GX before (and quite liked it buy it's self and rebought this one when the opportunity arose, but to say the least I am kind of disapointed this time around.

[BlackBoxDude]

I think you'll find that the G-Major is very transparent and wont affect the tone of your preamps. You should be very happy with it. I am.

Jace

[john l]

Ya know the G Majors been getting good praise for a long time around here. It always keeps comming back up even though its an older unit. Im probably going to pick one of these up and give it a listen as well. My main beef with racks are the lack of cheep as well as efficient controllers. Is the G- Minor one of those Up/Down/Engage kind of controlers? I really hate those because you have to scrole through a bunch of {censored} to get to your patch taking needed time away. Also racks allways seem to have a noticable delay when you engage a patch. How does the Gmajor do in this area?

[BlackBoxDude]

The G Major switching is instant. No lag at all. It even has delay spill over so your delays don't get cut off when you select a new patch.

The G-Minor can be put in to a few different modes so you can increment or decrement presets, you can scan the presets and then select one or you can toggle effects on and off like pedals. It does some other things too, but you're right that it can only give you access to so many things at once. My favorite MIDI pedal is the Rocktron MIDIMate. It can be had for $149 and has plenty of buttons to select patches and turn effects on/off. Digitech has one for about the same price that includes an expression pedal called the Control 8. The Behringer FBC1010 is also popular, but I've never trusted their products. The Rocktron unit has been a staple in professional systems for about 15 years. You can plug an expression pedal in to the MIDIMate plus the G Major has an expression pedal input on the back too.

Jace

[ryant]

i liked my gmajor, it sounded pretty good, i mean its no eventide but its a fraction of the cost. my problem with it is that it just suddenly crapped out on me, and now works only about 30% of the time, and when it does work you never know when its gonna freeze. I'd recomend the unit, but if you plan on gigging with it, for your own safety get a 2nd one as a backup.

[Karma1]

I have a G-Major and think it's one of the best available in it's price range. It's very versatile - I use it in my studio for guitar as well as a general effects unit patched into the aux send/recieve of my mixing board. I've had it for a few years but never had the G-Minor till just last week when I scored a used one on Craig's List for $30. It is limited compared to some other midi foot controllers, but is still useful for the G-Major and other midi switching. I've tried using it to switch presets on my Fender Cyber Champ amp and it works perfectly. With regard to the issue of taking too long to scroll through patches on on the G-Major, I find that by rewriting the patches I'm using the most in a row in the user bank, I can step through them very easily and quickly. I normally don't use more than half a dozen patches in a set, or on a recording, so it's not a problem.

[BlackBoxDude]

One thing to keep in mind:

The current software version for the G-Major is 1.27. This addresses past issues and adds features. All of the new units obviosly come with this version. I was scouting around on Ebay and every person that was selling one that I contacted had much older versions. This may be why they're selling them. To update a unit you must us a PC. A Mac won't work. There are also many listed MIDI interfaces that do NOT work for this procedure. I'm sure you can always send a unit to TC Electronic to be updated as well. This is a big enough deal that I recommend buying NEW units. Used unit are going for around $299. New units wil run no more then $399. For $100 I'd rather have a new unit with current software and a warranty. This way your experience will be good from the start and you'll be much more likely to have a solid product.

 

Here's what TC says about the update:

List of changes - G-Major update SW version 1.27

 

 

NEW FEATURES:

 

In Level, Global Out Level and Preset Out Level

We have added a Mapping Response Curve to the three level parameters the Mod Menu. This will make you able to define your own curve to the "In Level", "Global Out Level" and "Preset Out Level" parameters. This gives highly added value when using an Expression pedal to control one or more of these parameters.

 

External control of EQ and Noise Gate On/Off added

The Noise Gate and EQ blocks can now also be switched On/Off either via a MIDI CC message sent from your MIDI board or via a momentary pedal connected to the External Control In.

 

Level at "Bypass All" has been changed to be equal with Preset Output Level

This way the Output level is kept according to the set Preset Output Level also when the G-Major is bypassed.

 

Gain Parameter added to the Compressor

In many cases the Compressor will reduce the signal level. G-Major has a built in Auto Makeup Gain to compensate for this. On request we have now added a regular Gain parameter also.

 

Kill Dry Parameter

To get full benifit of all effect blocks the G-Major should be used in a serial loop. However, some amps or setups uses parallel loops. To achieve the best performance in these setups the new added Kill-Dry parameter muting the Dry signal on the Outputs, should be used.

 

The Pitch detection for the Tuner is now positioned before the Input Level control

This means that the Tuner works perfectly even if your expression pedal controlling the Input Level is turned down.

Independend level control of the two voices in the pitch section

The Pitch Shifter in the Pitch block features two voices. It is now possible to set individual Levels on the two voices.

 

Bugfixes:

- Fixed issue with DRAM timing.

- Small bugs fixed in the Reverb filters.

- The digital Input now works when you set G-Major to "Digital In" and "Internal Clock".

- Bug in Switch Input solved.

- Momentary switch now also works with Preset Boost.

- Global Input Level control has been moved to after the Noise Gate.

 

 

 

The update procedure

 

 

 

In order to update you need the following:

 

A PC

This is not a deliberate choice on the side of TC Electronic - we know that a lot of studios and musicians are Mac-users. The problems with the Macs are caused by the hardware-design of the G-Major coupled with the MIDI-implementation of the Mac Operating System, in which MIDI Sysex data is handled in a different way than in Windows. This makes the update procedure impossible to perform on a Mac.

 

Windows

You need either Windows XP or Windows 2000 to perform the update procedure.

 

A midi-interface that works

We have tested a number of midi-interfaces and found that the following interfaces can be used to upgrade the G-Major:

- Midiman USB Midisport 1x1, 2x2 AND 8x8

- Midiman Uno

- Steinberg USB2

- Creative Soundblaster PCI-128

- Oxygen 8

- Terratec EWS88

- MPU-401 compatible soundcards

 

We also found that these do not work:

- Creamware Luna II

- Emagic MT4 & Unitor8

- Edirol UM-1

- Edirol UM1S

- Edirol PCR-50

- Edirol SD-90

- RME HDSP Digiface

- Steinberg MIDEX3

- Steinberg MIDEX8

 

Please note, this does not mean that they

[scottkahn]

The G-Major used to cost almost twice as much... and it was a great deal for outstanding quality effects with one of the simplest programing interfaces of rack effects units. Considering it sells these days for only $399, it's a fantastic value for pro-level effect quality (just minus some of the more advanced sound-shaping/editing capabilities).

 

I used to use it with a JMP-1 in the effects loop -- it worked great. These days it's in the effects loop of my Mesa/Boogie Triaxis, along with a Lexicon MPX-1. I've recorded multiple CDs with the G-Major as well as used it when producing other artists, too.

 

The G-Minor is too limiting of a MIDI foot controller for most players tastes. If you want to be able to easily turn effect blocks On/Off, skip it.

 

You can read a very helpful tutorial on MIDI foot controllers at the link below. The site also has in-depth reviews of a few popular foot controllers including the Rocktron MIDI Mate, DMC Ground Control Pro, Roland FC-200, and Behringer FCB1010, and the tutorial has a PDF reference chart with info on many of the foot controllers available on the market today.

 

http://www.musicplayers.com/tutorials/guitars/2006/0306_MIDIFootControllers.php

 

Regards,

 

Scott

[Cowinacape]

Great heads up BlackBoxDude! Thanks to everyone for the replies!