One of the reasons I have allowed myself to jump in so aggressively on negative posting against the G70 in its' defense is that Roland's marketing strategy (at least in the USA) has resulted in it's arranger line being transferred from the MI division (regular Roland Fantom and Juno, etc. stores) with knowledgeable sales staff (sometimes!!) and aggressive sales pricing, online availability and good corporate support (OS updates, new styles, good demonstrators), to it's CK division, that handles Atelier organs and the home digital pianos.

Most of these stores (few and far between, compared to the MI division's stores) are ill equipped to promote the keyboard - they are mostly real piano stores that take on a digital line to get sales from folks that can't afford a real piano - they rarely have an experienced sales force (after all, these guys make their money selling Steinways and Baldwins, the profit margin on an arranger is hardly worth their time).

As a result, Roland have gone from the G1000 being one of the strongest arrangers on the US market to the near invisibility of the G70/E80.........

And so......... when a member here posts with negative information and opinion here, few have the ability to pop into their local store and check out the validity of said information for themselves. All to often, the poster themselves has either not heard and played one, has spent very little time on one, or played one when they first came out and discovered the voicing problems that were rectified in OS2. (Roland also share the blame here in releasing the G70 before the voicing team got some US ears on it - you know those Italians and their love of reverb!)

But why am I jumping in to defend it - I don't work for Roland, after all? Well...........

Poor reviews and misinformation about a product that is difficult to find are going to result in fewer sales, fewer players making the effort to find and play one, and consequently less support from Roland than we are already getting (hard to imagine, I'm sure!).

I think the G70 to be one of the best all around keyboards in existence...... not just as an arranger, but as a all purpose gigging machine. You can do anything with one of these, from solo all arranger mode, to SMF mode, to real band mode (watch their jaws drop as you play the VK organ section or the GrandX stereo piano!)........

BUT................ if it withers on the vine of Roland's indifference and the misinformation here, I'm not likely to get too many more OS updates and new styles for it, so self interest is the true reason I post in reply to some of the asinine comments this forum has devolved into making!

I really don't give a rat's a*se whether anyone thinks that 'Yamaha sh*ts on Roland' or some of the other, equally well-reasoned opinions spewed forth here lately. But I DO care that someone, faced with a long trip to see a very expensive arranger, chooses not to based on the Tyros proselytizing that goes on here.

GO SEE ONE, GO TRY ONE, MAKE YOUR OWN MIND UP.....