Roland VG-8

The Roland VG-8 Virtual Guitar is a guitar processor unit from 1995 (now discontinued), designed to emulate popular vintage guitar sounds.

It featured Roland's Composite Object Sound Modelling (COSM) technology, where the user can virtually select the pickup type (as well as its place on the virtual guitar body) and different virtual amp/speaker/mic distance combinations to provide an accurate reproduction of vintage guitar sounds, in addition to on-board effects like reverb, chorus & delay for treatments. Also includes polyphonic pitch shifting (for the effect of a 12-string) & synth-like filters. The VG-8 can be controlled from guitars with a Roland GK-2A pickup (which was to be installed, but some Fender, Godin & Ovation guitar models have this built in), which is input into the VG-8.

Sting caught onto the VG-8 during the late 1990s, which he got into and used very extensively during the writing and recording of Brand New Day in 1999 with a guitar. Co-producer Kipper also talked about Sting having the GK-2A pickup fitted to his bass as well, so he can play a couple of melodies of either that or a VG8-modified guitar. His last credit with the VG-8 was on the My Songs album (2019), for the first two songs - presumably lifting material from the original recordings.

Quotes
"'I wrote most of 'Brand New Day' on a Roland VG-8 with synthesizer sounds. That gave me a shot in the arm about being creative on guitar. I created most songs by jamming with a drum machine and getting riffs - that sound is all over the album. The theme from 'A Thousand Years', for instance, comes from the VG-8. I do sometimes write on the bass, though.' (Bass Player March 2000)"

Further information

 * Roland website
 * SOS review