Reviews from sonicstate.com
(many people are having big-time problems with this unit. I would pass on it till Roland fixes the many hardware problems)
"I just returned my unit back to where I got it from. If you were looking to get a more stable, hardware version of ACID and RECYCLE like I was , FORGET IT! This unit must be made from old PC parts and a Windows OS because in my 37 days of testing it crashed more than Evel Kinevel. The worst part was that it crashed right after I spent over 1 hour trying to repair some sync problems with a wave. TOTALLY RUINED. My studio guys are convinced that the VP stands for Virus Prone . There really are a lot of bugs . Very disapointing Roland.
The first thing I noticed in the Virus Prone 9000 is the shoddy construction. The same plastic knobs found on the piece of junk SP-202 can also be found on the VP. For 3000 dollars you get lots and lots of plastic as the front panel is also made from the same material.
As far as syncing goes.....FORGET IT. You cannot sync a sample properly that is longer than 5 seconds otherwise drifting will occur. The encoding process is alos a lenghty one. About 25 minutes per 3 second sample. And then you have to re-encode if it contains sync problems! It could theoretically take weeks for you to get 2 samples to sync properly .
The VirusProne-9000 is a major Roland blunder. I am suprised that this thing doesnt take punch cards from an old IBM System/25.
Built on old computer chips , ancient technology and recycled SP-202 knobs the VP-9000 cannot be reccommended as a good choice for the year 2000.
Rating: 1 out of 5 posted Wednesday-Jul-26-2000 at 02:26
Kypski kyp@aol.com a professional user from NYC writes:
oh gosh i am not happy with these reviews. I have an internet friend who works at Roland Japan and he said that Roland was hesitant to put it out yet as they wanted to use more up to date parts but decided just to use old stock ( stuff that dated as far back as 1991!) and build the system around that.
Well Roland , this is what happens when you cut corners. You are going to have to rebuild this unit now because once word gets out you will have a bunch of unwanted stock laying around.
Rating: 1 out of 5 posted Saturday-Jul-15-2000 at 14:06 "