As I had mentioned in one of the other posts, I bought the G70 last weekend. Before anyone starts speculating about the steep learning curve or suspecting that Roland instruments eat their owners alive , I will tell you that disappointingly, I had to go out of town last week, and have been away from both my keyboard and internet until coming home this weekend.

However, now that I have had a few hours with the G70, I am happy to say that compared to the G1000 (which I still have after 8 years) it is an improvement in every area.

It does have a lot of features, but to me the Operating System is quite well thought out, and makes it easy and intuitive to get around (though IMO Yamaha may be easier by a notch). To my ears the sound is great , and the styles sound good too (this is my subjective opinion). I am yet to transfer my custom styles and performances from the G1K, but so far the built-ini styles cover most major genres. I like having a flash card instead of a hard disk - more reliable and less affected by the rigors of moving the instrument around - and am about to by a 4 GB card. There are larger ones out there, but 4GB seems to be the most cost-effective size, and since the G70 does not store audio data, but only MIDI and text information for songs and styles, this should be more than sufficient to accommodate my entire collection of MIDI files and styles, with plenty of room to spare.

The built-in styles cover a large variety of genres, and although I have some work ahead of me in setting up the associated one-touch presets for my taste, if I had to play a gig tonight, I probably would take the G70 instead of the tried and true G1000.

I love the vocal harmonizer. I am not much of a singer, but it really helps me sound better. I have played with the Digitech Vocalist Workstation some years ago, and must say that the built-in one sound much better and is easier to use.

I will have more comments about the things I like, find interesting or odd, or dislike (yes, I do have some pet peeves about it too) in the coming weeks.

Nonetheless, overall I am very happy with buying the G70. I feel that it will improve my ability to entertain my audiences better.

Regards,
Alex

[This message has been edited by Alex K (edited 08-05-2006).]

[This message has been edited by Alex K (edited 08-05-2006).]

Hi Alex,
I think your post will contribute to a normal treatment of this keyboard,-- I often be missing here.
Peter

Hi Alex. Congratulations, & thanks for sharing your insightful G70 review. In my G70 evaluation, I shared many of your impressions, especially the G70's intuitive navigation and terrific sounding built in vocalizer, admittedly better sounding than the one included in Tyros2. I'm really looking forward to hearing some music (songs) played and recorded by you on your new G70 keyboard now. Happy G70 keyboarding. - Scott

Hi Alex,

Congratulations with your new board.
As a long time roland user I am sure you will like it

Fred

Hi Alex,

Glad to hear that you have a G-70 and are enjoying it. I truly look forward to the music that I'm sure you will be making and recording, also any additional information that you will be able to share about this great Roland keyboard. Have fun with it.

It's all about the music...


Regards,

Dennis L. Almond
aka...TwoNuts

Alex,

Congratulations on your new G70! I know what it feels like when you get a new board, and it feels just great!!! Hope you have many happy years with it!



------------------
Al Giordano
www.al-giordano.com

Tyros 2, Yamaha P-250, Korg Triton Extreme 76, Roland VK8-M, DW Collectors Series Drums

Alex,
congratulations for the G-70; please, keep us informed, as I value your input as an unbiased one.

Alex,

Just wondering if you are getting aclimated to your new Roland G-70. I was hoping to hear some of your music and additional comments about the board.

Regards,

Dennis L. Almond
aka...TwoNuts


[This message has been edited by TwoNuts (edited 08-03-2006).]

Dennis,

Thank you for asking. I am still pleased with the sounds and styles of the G70.

However, I have come across a problem that may be a show-stopper for me. I described it here http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/Forum38/HTML/000355.html
as well as on the Danish G70 forum.

I am a bit disheartened by Diki's point of view in that post. I hope it does not represent Roland's official position, and they will commit to fixing this problem quickly.

I will keep you posted about my progress.

Regards,
Alex

Unfortunately, to a certain extent, this IS Roland's official position. A bug is a feature that does not work as described. This 'feature' is not described at all, therefore, no bug (just poor design!)

BUT......... Roland have fixed many 'poor design' features as well as true 'bugs' in other OS upgrades, so this is really only semantics. Hopefully, this will get 'fixed'.

As long as we keep the pressure up and ask for it........