Just out of interest. Do you think a lot of people use Harmonic Drawbars. This seems a strange thing to make a big thing out of for such a modern-looking instrument.

Our band is looking for a new keyboard and even though i personally feel arrangers havent moved on a great deal in some years, im hoping to use this in our home studio as a master keyboard (to replace a Tyros), and the 76 key solution is far more professional, as is the USB connection, which just DOESNT work reliably on our Tyros, even after a costly repair.

We looked at the 1x from korg, but at £2400 with speakers and only 61 keys and after having to pay £400 or so for vocal harmony add-ons, it would take us about 50 gigs to pay for after expenses (way, way too much).

I hear the G70 is around £2000 which works out to about 30 gigs, making it just affordable.

So lets hope those sliders do more than drawbars!!!!!!!!!

Digitalvision,

The sliders actually do work as volume controllers or as drawbars. You can quickly change the function by pressing the mode buttons for "Harmonic Bar" or "Part" on the right side of the sliders. They feel very solid I think. More like actual drawbars than simple volume sliders. When you select "part" the screen changes and shows all the music parts, or the tracks of your midi file. In the mixer mode you can also use them for effects, pan etc.

Hit "Harmonic Bar" and the 3D drawbars are shown. The position and registration of the drawbars only changes if you move a slider, and then it changes only for that drawbar.

I asked the Roland guys to explain this at the demo and I can tell you it works great and very fast.

By the way, it's very nice to hear a factory demo for the first time now. And it is a very good one I think!

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Tom NL

Which one of our resident SZ'ers will be selling this beast?

Tom, FANTASTIC.

Common sense dictates NOT to part with hard-earned cash before we actually get a chance to try it out and that the price, or any deal we get isnt above £2K.

Thanks for clarifying this.

Digitalvision,
The Hammond tonewheel sound is totally back in the modern music, if it was actually ever gone anyway!

Just listen to quite a few of the latest productions and you'll notice lots of Hammond added to the mix. But on stage it's where it really shines. The good tonewheel- (or in this case "clonewheel") organsound is immediately recognized and loved by many. But as stated in another topic, it requires the proper registration and playing technique. And I must admit that I personally have shortcomings in this area, but just love to have the sound as an extra cherry on the pie

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Tom NL

Frank, I use the inserts for this scenario;

My Amp only has two stereo inputs. One for my Tyros and One for my Korg Triton Extreme but what do I do about my add-on Roland VK8M Drawbar module? I'm out of inputs.

With the Tyros, I can plug the outputs of my VK8M module into the inserts of the Tyros which will thru-put into the amp!!!!

Nice to hear that these sliders also function 'otherwise' than just for the drawbars. I want a 'modern' keyboard to get along with the music produced nowadays.. The VA-7 couldn't fulfill this task always, unless editting and searching a lot for good drums, or other sounds... I have not heard the G70 yet, but I wouldn't just buy it seeying the specs. Also the demo's on www.rolandg70.com do not convince me, since my Roland VA-7 can also handle the jobs and I heard TOO much an old VA-7... I don't think there's any stunning development on this board. A lot of the features on board were previously invented AND implemented on other boards. The sliders, I have seen them on the PA1X Pro which I tried, they worked fine to me. The D-Beam is also on my VA-7.. There were other boards with colorscreens before this one.. Etc.

But! I now heard a new official demo and that sounded pretty refreshing! Also the new board looked very well and I think it's smart to trade my VA-7 as fast as possible for a G70, because the price of the VA-7 will drop soon way low..., I think..

Again, I hope to hear AND feel this G70 soon.. And I just feel I'm going to get this board soon when it's available.. Just a feeling.

I hope the keys are better too.. I had to screw the board open several times to fix the keys.. Opening and closing the case takes 2 hours, fixing takes 5 minutes. I don't know why some keys get disfunctional just now and then, but it's quite annoying..

So, that's my critical story.. I will stop now When I have played the G70, I'm sure that I will place my opinion here again.. To see whether I was true..

[This message has been edited by Sander (edited 11-12-2004).]

Al the G70 has inputs[stereo]..you would be able to do the same, adding another instrument..I have done the same thing with my VA7..

I would dearly love to see the G70 manual to learn all the nitty gritty details about this board. Does anyone know if and when Roland will make a downloadable pdf version of the manual available?

We went to Music Live Exhibition NEC Birmingham.UK. yesterday Friday.
Saw the Roland G70 for the first time. Very impressed with the construction, the top of the keyboard is metal. Excellent keybed response & feel (G1000-VA76). I was not pleased with the sloppiness of the potentiometer volume pots. This is just one of my bugs which other may feel is not important. They had a row of headphones for people to listen through whilst the demonstrator was performing which was acceptable but still difficult under noisy show conditions to come to any firm conclusions, but I have no reason to think the voicing would be less than excellent.
User friendliness was good. They have provided a button for most operations so you can either use the touch screen or it's appropriate button. This is lot of board for the asking price of £2,199 UK Pounds. Available Late this month November.
Other Keyboards at the show were Casio.Korg & Yamaha.