Hi all,
When I plaied the G-70 I found styles some times to be too much quantisized. However, when I had a quick listen to the demo which contains some of the styles, most of them were not so much quantisized. To me some of them sounded better than the ones in the styles family. Have you noticed this?

Hi Christian. Interestingly enough, I too played (auditioned) the Roland G70 on several occasions, and noticed the very same thing you did. I'm convinced that manufacterer demos are not typically produced in the same manner as if were played by us, but tweaked using studio technology to impress (and possible deceive) the listener. I've since learned to never trust or rely on demos alone, and that imperative that you have the opportunity to play the keyboard yourself before coming to any reliable sound conclusion: Trust your ears, and yours alone.

The overly quantized (robotic 'omph pa pa') sound was most apparent with the 'swing' styles, of which so much require the alive breathing (un-quantized) sound of its swung 8th notes. Duke Ellington said it best in the title of his song: "It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing".

Scott

I had a chance to play with a G-70 for about an hour last monday and to me it's just like all the other arrangers I've played. Some of it is good, some is OK and some stinks. I certainly was not personally impressed enough to want to spend THAT much money on it.

The only thing I would REALLY like to have is the keybed and a good part of that is the rounded sides of the keys that allow really smooth organ smears (glissandos) with no damage to your hands or fingers, plus, of course, it is 76 keys.

I'll keep my Tyros, thank you. AND, if the Tyros II is that expensive I'll just keep my Tyros I and get more soft synths where there is a LOT more bang for the buck sound wise. Since I don't gig out with it and I don't make my living playing it, I don't need a new one.

Tom

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Bigger is not always better

Yep, I noticed this immediately as I got the G70 in december 2004. The internal styles were/still are disappointing to my ears (like programmed by technicians, no musicians) .... so I said "goodbye!" to G70

Why doesn't the 'feel' of the keyboard mean THAT much to you all???

After all, the most direct connection between you and what you play is the keyboard 'feel', and yet, most of the time, it is relegated to the back of the list in what is 'essential'.

No sound is THAT inspiring if you are fighting the lack of 'feel' in the physical keyboard. There is a reason people love the 'feel' of a piano. It feels good!! There is a connection between how you hit the wood, and what you hear, and a good keyboard (I won't lie, I believe the G70/1000/VA76 ARE the best all-rounders) makes you believe that.

Don't buy until you FEEL that connection. That is how MUSIC gets made!


And to Roel and previous posters, if you are saying the internal styles don't inspire you, in effect you are saying this is the only thing that makes this a good instrument or not........... Why not edit the styles (easy to do on the G70), make up your own, adapt others, etc. rather than say 'Well, I powered it up and with no effort at my end, it didn't do everything I dreamed of.........'

The more YOU have to put into it, the more it's sound becomes YOUR sound, not someone else's.

[This message has been edited by Diki (edited 08-07-2005).]

Diki,
I agree with what you said, to the point that I was ready to buy a G 70 just for the sheer feel of the keys. However, I am currently considering buying a Roland A 37 to use as a controller for both my Tyros and my synth modules (Yamaha Motif ES and Roland Fantom XR).
If I remember correctly, you stated more than once that it has the same keybed as the G 70, am I right?

NO, no, no............ read my posts more carefully :-)

The G70/1000/VA76 and the older A70 controller are the ONLY keyboards that Roland make that use this particular key-bed.

A37 (IMHO) sucks!!

Diki,
In my view an arranger keyboard comes with hi-quality styles, sounds and DSP-settings (out of the box !)

The key-feel is very OK on the G70, but what matters is the music-produced (output) The keys in fact are just an input device and I can live with a Tyros-key feel, specially because it SOUNDS so much better.

Others may think different and say it is normal to put many hours/days effort in it or to adapt other styles to make it sound OK ('personal' ) I don't share this view at all !

Kind of strange some people seem not to accept my views/comments on the G70. I play keys for more than 35 years now, owned many organs, synths and arrangers.... and think I know what to expect for my money.

It just is not the right arranger keyboard for me and many others.... dealers admit this.


Roel

Thanks! That's quite disappointing!

hmmm interesting thread this... as i raised a similar thread a month or so ago and i was led to believe that the G70 from the demo's sounded exactly like that..
http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/Forum37/HTML/010858.html

Was i deceived!??