OK... I'm back... I went to the smallest room, and said to myself 'but it's only $895!' over and over again till I was finished. I'm not sure how much it helped

Here's where I have a problem... The styles are completely UNEDITABLE! You can turn a Part off, or change it's volume... THAT'S IT! No pan, no changing a sound, no changing effects, no NOTHING! The included software is a strictly 'SMF to style' conversion program, there's no way to get the style out of the machine (AFAIK) and edit it outboard. I wanted to try a few in my G70, but no go!

Here's where it REALLY hurts. There's an MFX insert effect just for the style. But you can't edit it, assign it, unassign it, anything. It makes for GREAT rock rhythm guitar parts, but they are TOO LOUD! And guess what happens when you turn them down... Yep, it turns down the sound going INTO the distortion, not the final output of the amp sim. And you have to dial the part volume down to about 3 or 4 (out of 127 ) before there's hardly any volume drop!

So.... You'd better LOVE the styles! Because short of muting parts, there's not a damn thing you can do to them! This thing is CRYING out for a style editor, the one thing Roland got completely RIGHT on the E and G-series

Talking about muting parts... forget turning the ACC off and on in a hurry. Part muting is done with individual mute buttons done with the wheel and navigation buttons. Muting ONE part might be doable live, but not the whole lot (and still leave D&B going)

{But it's only $895! )

OK, the styles section... Something is different... The fills don't transition as smoothly as the E and G-series. Notes get re-triggered when you push the fill button sometimes. Nothing out of time, just not as smooth as the G70, etc.. In fact, it reminds me a bit of the Korg problem, in a way... No idea why, but this better NOT trickle UP to newer high end arrangers...

Three fewer fills than the E/G's, but still four Intros, endings and Variations.. Tap tempo is very accurate. Buttons are in a good place except for the button that turns off bass and ACC but leaves the drums going. It is RIGHT next to the D-Beam, and accidentally triggers whatever that is programmed for most times you touch it.

Overall, I'm impressed by many of the styles, baffled by some of the mix choices, though (more drugs in Roland's style dept., I think!), but overall, for the price, pretty impressed. I've never had a cheap arranger, tried a few. Compared to an S500 (roughly the same price) this thing rocks! Full sounding, punchy, very live sounding, MUCH better keybed and display, light as a feather but solidly built (why can't Yamaha manage this? ).

BUT..... this thing is not a tweaker's dream come true. Without style EDITING software, you either love the styles, or you can't use them. Same for SMF's. You'd better have something like Cubase to re-mix and voice your SMF's to get the best out of this (but what new thing DOESN'T need this anyway?! I had to do it for my G70, but at least there, the tools exist to easily revoice styles and SMF's)

Overall, for me, it's a push... I would love one as a 'backpacker' keyboard, light enough to go anywhere (but no speakers, damnit!), sounds are strong enough to not make me cringe much of the time (can't say that for much else in this range), and there are a bunch of sounds in here I would DIE to have in my G70. OTOH, my G has some essentials I can't do without (the B3, for instance) and everything I need to tweak until satisfied. OTOH, it's $2500 MORE than the GW!

I am tempted, I must admit. There are times I want to walk around with the lightest thing I can carry, and do 75% of what my full rig can do, on just a little toss around backup keyboard. I can record my G70 to audio, and use the GW to play IT'S great sound (plus add my K2500 and Triton for their best sounds, too) on a gig, or LH bass and just use the great drum patterns.

But as a primary arranger, I would feel limited, and would probably go for something else. Neither flesh nor fowl, neither straight ahead arranger nor loopstation WS, it straddles both. How successfully, you try for yourself. For me, this seems like a great 'go out and jam, no pressure' type of keyboard, that could cover as a decent backup for the G70 for gigs where weight or size are an important factor. I took it out last night to jam with a great guitarist (Chris Clifton - used to be with James Taylor and many others) and his band, and they loved it! (except the organs. I think I have some better presets now). Not too shabby...

But it's only $895!

My friend tried to get it back today... I told him I needed to do more work on it! That's probably a sign