I have had the pleasure of playing this KB a few days now .... It excells in all categories!!! I sold my PA1xpro that I had for a year and I am not sorry ... No.. Not one bit!!!
The vocal processor is awsome.
The styles flow from Variation 1 - 4 flawlessly!
The fills are very natural and musical.
Midi files ... could not be easier!! And they sound great!!

Hello JCkeeys. Nice to know that I'm not the only one here(almost) that appreciates the G-70! I've owned it for over a month now and I'm very pleased with it. Very musical and easy to use!

Dear JC;

Are you stating that the G-70s vocal processor is better the the Tc-helicon unit in the Pa1x? How do you compare and contrast them in terms of ease of use naturalness/accuracy in harmonies & sound quality that it produces. Does it just have a 1/4" Rca out for vocals, or does it also contain an XLR out?

Further, with regards to the midi files--do the same midi files sound better on the G-70 then the Pa1x?

Thanks
Regards;
BN

Dear JC;

Are you stating that the G-70s vocal processor is better the the Tc-helicon unit in the Pa1x? How do you compare and contrast them in terms of ease of use naturalness/accuracy in harmonies & sound quality that it produces. Does it just have a 1/4" Rca out for vocals, or does it also contain an XLR out?

Further, with regards to the midi files--do the same midi files sound better on the G-70 then the Pa1x?

Thanks
Regards;
BN

JCkeeys & Turnip: Great to hear that both you guys LOVE your Roland G-70 keyboards. I just read Keyboard Magazine's review (May 2005) by Stephen Fortner and he appears to concur. I'm now really looking forward to the opportunity to test drive the G-70 myself soon (still not available here in Northern California). Not only have I heard that the G-70's keyfeel the best of of any arranger, but I'm really impressed with the Roland Fantom's Acoustic piano patches, of which I believe is included on the G-70 as well. I'm also keeping my hopes up that with Chris Halon (former Technics kb artist & style designer) now working for Roland, he'll be able to use his influence to finally get Roland to include advanced 'rootless chord voicing' recognition on the G-70 too.

I'm really looking forward to hearing music produced by you guys on the G-70.

Scott

It seems G-70 is going to be the king in arranger market (although Tyros may be the most popular).
It would be a good choice from Roland if they make a new 61 keys keyboard based in G-70. There is a great market for; it would compete with PSR-3000 but with a far better keybed (key feel, key size).

[This message has been edited by Bluebird (edited 04-27-2005).]

Congrats on the G70, there are a some things that I think should be added to the G70.
That can be done by OS.

Does anyone know if there is a limit on the number of midi files that can be stored in the song file folder, regardless of memory?

JC & Turnip: Thanks for your posts on the G70. Glad to hear you are both pleased. The sounds from the styles posted a while back were great to my ears. Please continue to give the rest of us feedback. I plan to upgrade from my Yammie PSR-2000 sometime in the future and I have no preconceived notions. I just want a great arranger keyboard to support my songwriting activities and for preparing demos to submit to publishers, etc. Let us hear the negative as well as the positive. Thanks, RICE

Roland says the g70 has variations and also fill-ins. What's a fill-in?

A fill-in is a short passage that takes you more 'smoothly' from a variation to the other (if you want).

Hi,
G-70 Data are not organized by folders. There is one database including your midifiles. Three kinds of managing your songs are possible: 1. Playlist, up to 99 steps each. 2. Using 10 indices, that are pointers refer to the data. 3. The finder, manages up to 99.999 songs within one database.
Regards,
Hanspeter

It would be nice to be able to see a G70 somewhere in this area.. I'd like to at least take it "for a spin".

AJ

Thanks,

I loaded about 3,000 files on a 1 gig Compact flash, I had a song that was used on my Tyros, and moved it to the compact flash, I can see the file when my computer reads the card but when it's in the G70 it does not see the file. it is a midi file, any ideas?

Hi,
the following steps are necessary to get a
G-70 song database.
.Format CF - Card on G-70
.Copy all your 3000 (or less) midifiles into "Put New Songs here"
. Insert CF -card in G-70 Card slot
. Press Finder Song
. Choose External Memory
. After working a while you'll find your midis on G-70. Good luck and regards,
Hanspeter

I found in French Forum www.audiofanzine.com a member put on its ftp server some songs he played on his new G-70. As he says, he had no real time to play this new keyboard. http://amdus.u-strasbg.fr/G-70/
Give us your feedback.

The title of the song in G-70 is on midi track. It's different from the name of the midifile (that you can see too in the list of midifiles when searching songs in G70). Some well built files have the name in the first midi-track.
You need to rename them in G-70.

bbc,
I am listening right now to the songs posted on the site you mentioned: I am glad that there are finally MP3s of the G 70 made by "one of us": in other words different from the usual demo's made by Roland or other manufacturers!

Speaking of sounds, the ones I liked most were the organs, the alto sax and the french musette (almost unbelievable!) On a critical note, the recording level was at times too high (there was a lot of distortion especially on the bass in songs like "Samba pa ti", and even on the piano in the song named "Piano 2" and in "Clair de Lune"). Aside from that, I have to say that maybe were right those people who wrote that the G 70 overall sound is "drowned" in reverb, with an unpleasant effect on the "presence", because the sound seems always too distant. This is especially evident in songs like "Brazilia" (where even the drums are awash in reverb), or "The Entertainer" (listen to the piano and you will realize what I mean: it seems like it is playing in an empty hall the size of a tennis court!)
Speaking from a musical point of view, I have to congratulate your friend for the way he plays: he is really a good player, and this is especially apparent in the piano pieces.
Thank you for giving us this link!

As he said in the forum, he found that the reverb is right tuned, compare to the songs we found on the market. This is the same level of reverb.
In some marketed song when only piano instrument is played, you will found the reverb too, to make an ambiance.
However, you can put lower reverb level.

I have not had enough time to master all aspects of this KB as I am sure you all understand. The vocal effects, to my taste are better than the PA1xpro. The controls are far better ... you have knobs to control effect level, mike volume and Harmony volume. To me that is a real plus!! The whole vocal processor area is more user friendly. As far as midi files, very easy but the SD1 still sounds the best IMHO.

Dear BBC;

Thanks for sharing the demos. Did he state whether these demos are just made with the G-70, using its own internal sound banks and styles? In particular the Samba Pa Ti & Guitare lead guitar sounds and technique. I believe some of the songs are made using the arranger styles while others are totally sequenced.

PS-I wonder if he is using some of the SRX expansion cards

Regards;
BN

Scott,
I believe I've read in a post on this forum regarding the latest os update, that 'rootless chord voicing' has been added to the G70


------------------
The old Newb

Hi Jim. Though I certainly HOPE that you're RIGHT that Roland is actually going to add rootless chord recognition in their next G70 OS update, I suspect that what you read (shown below) was refering to the Korg PA1X/PA1XPro & not G70. If rootless chord recognition has actually officially annoumced to be implemented on the G70 as well, PLEASE 'somebody here' tell me. The suspense is killing me. - Scott

He plays directly from its G-70 and records (captures) with its analogic sound card, that makes the songs distorted. All is playing in direct with the arranger in one time, no remixed, retouched nor re-arranged.

Dear BBC;

I have a difficult time believing that some of the songs were played as a one time pass. This is my reasoning. Look at the song Samba Pa Ti. The right hand guitar lead requires a fair amount of technique to play. The dupletes, bends, slides, & vibrato of guitar require the use of two hands. One to play the guitar(right hand) and the other to use the joystick (to far left of keyborad) to obtain the effects. Then the B3 organ starts with chords( which could be part of a g-70 style).But when the B3 starts to play counter-melodies while the guitar is playing and the organ chords are chaging, I have a hard time believing its done in one pass play, versus a couple, or at least being a sequenced song.

Next look at the song Roger Rabbit. This is a combination of part style arranger accompaniment, then full keyboard mode ( piano & clarinet). Listen to the accompaniment piano ( I don't believe this a part of the style accompaniment, but actual left hand play).Listen when he switched from clarinet to sax while the left hand piano is still playing, the drums initiate. Does he have 3 hands? There are ways to acheive this. One would be a sequenced song. Two would be a trigger to intiate and stop accompaniment ( i.e. in this case drums). Maybe a foot switch.

I have to say that I am not ulitimately familiar with some of the styles that were played, so some of the accompaniment parts may be advanced and have intelligent features, but the items I have described above sound as if a keyboardist was playing them due to complexity, timing and technique.

Anyone elses thoughts. Possibly someone could verify the styles used.

Thanks
Regards;
BN

Dear BlkNotes,
I am listening right now to the songs you singled out and here is my humble opinion: even if I am not familiar with the G70, in the past I had a Roland VA7 and, given the similarities between those arrangers, I think I can say, for example, that in "Roger Rabbit" the piano backing is part of the style and is not played by the left hand of the player, who just keeps pressing the notes of the chords.
Speaking now of "Samba pa ti", I remember that in my VA7 the kind of tricks you hear done by the distorted guitar could easily be done via aftertouch, without having to use the joystick. In other words, you could route the aftertouch to control the tone and this would enable you to have that "bending effect" just pressing the key a little more. From this point of view, Roland arrangers are far more effective than -say- Yamaha.
Finally, as far as the organ riff goes, let's not forget that the G 70 is a 76 notes keyboard, so you could easily set a split point that would allow you to play the guitar part (which has a limited extension, btw) on the right side and also play a two-handed organ part in the left side of the keyboard. If you listen carefully, you will notice that the last note played by the guitar before the organ riff sounds truncated, like the player had to "hurry up" to the left, to play the organ.
So -yes- I think that it's possible that our friend (Maurice?) has actually played these songs in real time.
My only complaint, as I stated before, is the sound quality, at times poor due to distortion, but on the other hand I have to say that this was the first time that I had the opportunity to hear songs recorded with the G 70 "in the real world", in other words without all those "tricks" that we are accustomed to hear in the demo's made by Roland, Yamaha, Korg, etc, whose main purpose is to "fool us" into believing that we could do the same, once we buy the keyboard.

Dear Dreamer;

Thank-you for your response & experience of your Va-7. I found it to be imformative and explain a number of the anomalies that I heard. Its funny that you mention the distortion issue.I though that the distortion was caused by my cheap headphones because of the peaks in decibels (since I didn't listen using external speakers). Thanks for mentioning that. I wonder if the new upgraded OS ver. 1.10 resolves any of those problems?

Yes, I strongly agree about the manufacturers doctoring there demos to sound better then they really are. What did you think of the NAMM 2005 Videos/demos on the Roland website. Did you find them to be modified?

PS--As a VA-7 user, what do you think of the the G-70? I have heard that past Roland VA series users are dissapointed with the G-70 since it has to many similarities to their older keyboards.

Thanks for the comments
Regards;
BN

BLknotes,

It's possible to do it on G-70, let's say as the Roland vocabulary, G-70 has 3 "right hands" and 2 "left hands" + Intelligent arrangement (related to right hand analysis). Each note can have different sounds and effects related to the velocity and aftertouch. If you press the note deeply, the sound can trig to another sound and the effect too.


You can do it with FC7 foot/switch controler (7 programmable switches).
I don't know if you have the opportinuty to play on an Organ "Atelier" or Yamaha "Electone". You can do the things that we never believe.

Dear BlkNotes,
I have to agree that, as a previous VA7 owner, I have found many similarities with the G 70, especially speaking of styles: if one listens to the demo's on the Roland US website and on the Roland Italy website , it's easy to see that the majority of the styles are actually old VA7/VA76 styles.
I really enjoyed the video demo's made at Winter Namm (they are on the Roland US website), but if you notice they focus is mainly on the new sounds (which are really impressive), while the styles tend almost to remain in the background.
So, if I were still a VA7 owner, would I upgrade to the G 70? Well, I think that I would definitely upgrade, if nothing else for the wonderful keyboard, which has the best feel I have ever tried; aside from that, I think that the new sounds and the new user interface (with plenty of buttons) are worth the expense as well. On the contrary, I don't think that the new styles ALONE would be worth the upgrade and, speaking of styles, I think that the Tyros, the PA1 X pro and the Ketron SD1 have more to offer.
Just my opinion, of course.

To further clarify my point, the video demo that impressed me most was the first one, entitled "G 70 new tones", and especially the part where the demonstrator plays "Georgia on my mind" with an Alto Sax sound for the right hand and an Electric Guitar sound for the left hand: no styles at all, just plain sounds!

Can anyone share new styles for G-70?
I especially prefer jazz styles.
Thanks in advance.

It's not Maurice, but Philippe.

Dear Dreamer;

Yes the "new tones" are impressive. In a past discussion a previous forum member stated that he thought that the demos were heavily processed (modified/augment) based on his hearing/playing the G-70 in person.

I especially like the steel guitar. It is authentic sounding. But I did notice that the performer seemed to be making the struming, body noises, with various triggers on the Keyboard ( i.e to the far left & far right of the KB, outside of where he is playing the solo with his right hand). If I understand this correctly, then by just playing a right hand solo guitar voice selected from one of the Roland sound banks, one will not be able to duplicate the complex guitar sounds? ( i.e slides, struming,fret noises, body noises etc..)


Regards;
BN

Dear Blknotes,
I think that you are referring to the second song in the video called "G 70 new tones"; from that video it looks like the acoustic guitar multisample has fret noises on the left side of the keyboard, while what you hear when the demonstrator plays on the far right of the keyboard (at the end of the song) are the slide-notes which can be heard only hitting the keys very hard (in other words, there is a velocity split between "normal" guitar sounds and "slide-notes", just like Yamaha has done in the Tyros).
But this means also that, if you did choose that sound to play a song, it would be very difficult to assing another sound to the left side of the keyboard, because the guitar alone would take almost the entire 76 keys.... however I guess that you could still trigger the chords with your right hand, and at the same time be free to play the melody. To do this you would have to assing the chord recognition to the whole keyboard and at the same time choose a mode where at least three fingers are required to identify a chord: this woule leave you free to play single notes (the melody) between one chord and the following.

He judged that the aftertouch is only use to enhance effects and emulate guitare technique (slide with pormentato). The combination of 2 notes when playing with E.guitare gives the distorted sound.
All the sounds are from origin and internal ones. The only one that is not from the origin is the style on Samba Pati.

OK, I think that now you can throw the mask away and tell us the truth: the "friend" who is playing the G 70 is.... you!!!
Ai-je devinè?

Dreamer,
I cannot allow myself to say that they are mine. I have make a request to him to share his songs, on the french forum.
I also play piano long time ago, organ electone, synth, drums, and guitare when I was student, alone or with a band, and till now since 15 years from this time. I will show you how I play on G70, but later.
Just to say that if you play some of those instruments, it is more easier to emulate technique.
Regards.

Dear BBC;

Where did Phillipe obtain the guitar sound that was used in Samba Pa Ti If it was not an internal sound?


Regards;
BN

Dear BlkNotes,
The sound in Samba Pati is an internal sound. I just played all the Santana songs I knew on G70. There is many different sounds of electric guitar. That makes me come back many years ago (Hyppie time with "Peace and Love"). Oouch, I feel better now.
Regards