Roland got a long way to go just to equal the T2, yet alone compete with the T3, for those of you that are already in love with the Yamaha sound....

Personally, I hope they don't even try. Those of us that still love Roland's love them for precisely the reason that they DON't sound like Yamaha's

Roland WILL have to address a basic issue, that we Roland users have been bitching about for a decade or more, though... We need more than ONE drum track. Not necessarily for more drum tracks, but for other, more interesting things, as well. Primary amongst them is Roland's 'Guitar Mode'.

Currently, there is no way to incorporate this into style mode, because the 'trigger notes' (the notes which play the upstroke, downstroke, choke, rakes, etc.) must NOT change when you change chords, or the pattern changes. The darn Guitar Mode is SUCH a tease, showing how good things COULD be, if only it were incorporated into the styles section (a la Korg), rather than a realtime ONLY feature it is now... I am just not convinced any of us wants to tie up our RH just for an accurate rhythm guitar part.. I got better things to do than a rhythm part, myself..!

But this is an issue that Roland need to grasp, and pronto, because, on the whole, I think the Roland's have many advantages over Yamaha, especially in the drums, which are far more vibrant and dynamic than Yamaha (IMO), but Yamaha's Mega voice guitars are head and shoulders above Roland's guitars (admittedly, head and shoulders above just about everything except perhaps the few Korg styles they HAVE re-voiced for their Guitar Mode), but a simple change to the OS would go a LONG way towards redressing that imbalance...

This issue, and the return of the Chord Sequencer would tempt me away from my G70, but otherwise, firstly, there aren't enough notes on the T3 keyboard to work as an all-round keyboard for me. I don't just need an arranger, I need a live band and recording keyboard, too. I would prefer them to all be the same keyboard, thank you very much!

Secondly, although Yamaha ARE reworking the drum section, to be honest, I don't see them straying far from what they already have, for fear of losing their user base, who apparently LIKE anemic, washed out drum sounds (and hate punchy Roland and Ketron ones!), so strike two...

But lastly is the style philosophy. This is definitely a matter of personal taste, but I LIKE working with styles that don't play everything for you... I can play quite a bit myself, but Yamaha's styles always seem to do too damn much for you... and this isn't just a case of muting the part. I'd rather work with a simpler part (that I have room to play over) than a complex one that I either got to mute, or get out of it's way... Yamaha excel in styles that do most of the work, all you need to do is a melody, you're in business. Me, I WANT to play more, and can't often find the room on a Yamaha unless I start muting a bunch of stuff.

Arrangers really ARE like bands, in a way... Would you rather play with great players who do it all, or would you rather play with great players who allow YOU to play as well..? I'm the latter, anyway

Anyway, back to the Roland rumors...

One of the things I like the BEST is the thought that Roland, for whatever reason, chose NOT to show or release a new arranger at NAMM, or Musikmesse. Perhaps, if they had waited a while before releasing the G70, and had developed the V3 system that improved it so well BEFORE the initial release, it wouldn't have gone through the initial horror that greeted it's first showing. It never recovered from that, despite being a vastly improved arranger, subsequently.

If Roland have taken the extra time to make sure that whatever new they have developed, and whatever old they have fixed is TRULY voiced and working to expectation, they may regain a semblance of the respect they USED to have...

But, as I said, I can only HOPE they are not trying to be a 'me too' Yamaha clone. Those that want a Yamaha can have one, and best wishes. Firstly, they is way too much proprietary stuff in the Yamaha OS for Roland to match them at what they do best. And there is WAY too much stuff that Roland already have better that Yamaha (who LIKES style editing on a Yamaha? ) that might get lost in a battle of catch-up.

Let Yamaha be Yamaha... and let Roland be Roland