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COSM Instrument Modeling
With the VG-99’s COSM instrument modeling, you can turn your guitar into
a completely different instrument. That instrument could be:
an electric guitar—
• Inside the VG-99 are ten electric
guitar models, including Fender Stratocasters, a
Gibson Les Paul, a Fender Telecaster, a Rickenbacker
360 12 string, a Gibson L4 archtop, and more. Each
electric guitar model has pickups that sound just
like the original articles, and you can shape the
tonality of the instruments to taste with a powerful
EQ. There’s even a “Vari” guitar model that allows
you to construct your own custom virtual electric
inside the VG-99.
an electric bass—
• There are two different electric bass models, the classic
Fender Precision Bass and Fender Jazz Bass.
an acoustic instrument—
• The VG-99 features models
of five different classic steel string flat-top guitars,
including a Martin D-28 and 000-28, a Gibson J-45
and B-25, and a Guild D-40. There’s also a nylon
string guitar, a resonator-type guitar (think
bottleneck blues), a banjo, and a sitar. As with the
electric models, there’s a variable acoustic
instrument, where you can build your own guitar,
with adjustable parameters such as body size and
type, as well as mic and pickup settings.
a synthesized instrument—
• Utilizing digitally
created waveforms, the VG-99 can transform
your guitar into something completely
unique and un-guitar like. Use the Pipe model
to make your guitar sound like a woodwind
instrument, or the Organ model to impart,
well, an organ-like quality. Among the many
available synth voices is a spot-on model of the GR-300, Roland’s classic
analog polyphonic guitar synthesizer from the early 1980s.
For more information on COSM instruments, see the VG-99 Owner’s
Manual.
Unlocking Instrument Modeling with a Divided Pickup
The VG-99 creates its virtual instruments by processing each of the guitar’s
six strings individually. This is accomplished by using a special pickup on
your guitar called a “divided” pickup, such as Roland’s GK-3. This type of
pickup is actually six separate pickups, one for each string. As you play, the
signal for each string—along with the output from your guitar’s normal
pickups, if desired—is sent through a special 13-pin cable to the VG-99.
Additionally, the divided pickup’s control section provides a knob and two
switches that allow you to control various VG-99 functions remotely from
your instrument, and a three-way switch for choosing the divided pickup,
the normal pickups, or both.
Input for connecting the
guitar’s normal output
Three-way switch for
selecting GK pickup and/
or normal guitar
Six separate pickups, one for
each string
GK knob and S1/S2 switches
for controlling VG-99 functions
13-pin output
Anatomy of the GK-3 Divided Pickup
A guitar’s normal pickups sense the sum total of the guitar’s six strings,
creating a single monophonic output. For this reason, they can’t be
used to drive the VG-99’s COSM instrument modeling section.
Divided pickups are also sometimes called “hex,” “hexaphonic,” or
“polyphonic” pickups.
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