Hello everyone,

Until last week I was considering to buy an EM2000, but after the guy in the shop showed me the new VA-7, it sounded rather impressive to me. I still have a few questions, though, and I would appreciate any help I can get:

1. Is the VA-7 indeed so superior to the EM2000?

2. Suppose I want to play along with a piano that isn't exactly tuned right, is it possible to tune the VA-7 or the EM2000 to the instrument instead?

3. I would like to use the keyboard as an accompaniment tool when playing the clarinet. Is it possible to record the clarinet through the microphone input, together with the midi accompaniment file?

4. The possibilities for hooking up to a computer seem rather limited as compared to e.g. Yamaha. Can .wav files only be input with the ZIP drive, or also directly from a computer?

5. If I input a song through the audio input channels, can it be recorded by the VA-7 or EM2000?

6. Is it possible to plug in a microphone to the EM2000, and make recordings with that?

7. Is there a drawbar organ on these instruments?

8. Is it possible to store MIDI computer files on the ZIP drive?

I know I have a lot of questions, and I would appreciate any help I can get!

Best regards,
Gert

Gert,

I own a G1000, which is in most respects equivalent to the EM2000. I think I understand most of the functionality of the VA-7, but will let someone who actually owns one correct me. I was going to let others answer your questions, but this seems to be a slow time of the year, and people do not seem to write to this bulletin board much, so I will take a stab at answering your questions.

1. In many respects VA-7 is superior to the EM2000, as it has a new sound engine with more sounds (though not necessarily better ones), and twice the polyphony. It has a more friendly user interface with the large touchscreen, and a bank of voicle/ style/ performance selection buttons with two sets of buttons (one set for the group, e.g. 8*, one set for the numbers (8)1-8). This is very handy. It is able to store several one-touch settings with each style, and quickly access a short list of the sounds you use the most. It also has this thing called Variphrase, which allows to take a short monophonic sample (of, say, a female vocal), and then play it back with changed pitch but whithout shortening the sample time. Some people think this is handy, and really adds to the quality of the resulting sound, others think this is a gimmick. You have to try for yourself if it suits your style of music.

The VA-7 also has some drawbacks (in some people's opinions) compared to EM2000: its speakers are not as powerful, it has a smaller number of performance memories, and only 64 disk link locations instead of 111 disk link and 16 user style (total 127)location, some functions have disappeared from the panel buttons into the layers of the menu. There is not SCSI port. And it is more expensive, more than twice at today's prices.

2. EM2000 can be tuned to match an off-key piano, or another instrument. The master tune parameter is buried in several layers of menus, so if you want to set the tuning (by ear) and keep it that way, it will work fine, though it may not be very practical if you have to often change this master tuning to match other instruments.

I am sure VA7 also has this function somewhere in the menus. You will find that most arranger keyboards do not have this function on front panel switches.

3. I am not sure if EM2000 has a microphone input, but VA7 does. You may be able to use the microphone to play the clarinet through either instrument's speakers (I am sure someone will correct me on this), but it will not be able to trigger the accompaniment in real time.

Other than in real-time, you can record the accompaniment track with the sequencer, and play it along with the clarinet through the instrument's speakers.

4. There is no dedicated computer port like Yamaha's ToHost, though that is just a simplified MIDI connection, which you can do on either keyboard. There is no way to use .WAV files in the EM2000 (you can not expand the set of sounds it comes with), though it has a SCSI port. The VA7 uses .WAV files to store the Variphrase samples, but ZIP is the only way to load (and store them), as there is not SCSI port. You can not load them via MIDI (it would take forever, even if it were doable).

5. The short answer is NO. While some other arranger keyboards allow you to do sampling (Solton, Yamaha, GEM WK6/8), none of them are designed to be digital recorders, like some of the Korg or Kurzweil keyboard workstations. You will not find the functionality to record, store, and edit the audio on any arranger keyboard.

6. As I mentioned before, you may be able to plug in a microphone into a keyboard, but you would need to use an external recording device, connected to the audio outputs (analog) of the keyboard, to make a recording.

7. There is no drawbar organ on the EM2000, though there is at least two dozen organ sounds built in. I am not sure if the VA7 has one.

8. You may store the MIDI files created/downloaded with your computer on the ZIP cartridge, and if these filesa re GM/GS compliant, they will play back very nicely on either instrument (Roland is known for impeccable GM/GS support). A word of caution, though: ZIP drive is not the most reliable media type, so make a periodic backup of the contents, but otherwise do not plan to remove it from the keyboard often. You can input the MIDI files via floppy diskette and copy it to ZIP, in fact that is the only correct way, as it also updates the EM2000/VA7's song database, so that the instrument will be able to find these files on the ZIP.

I hope this helps,
Regards,
Alex