I have historically used style based arrangers for years, but more recently gone over to the midifile based approach.
I don't want to get into the argument about the "live" versus "sequenced" approach here but, generally, I see the benefit of the midifile based approach as being that you can do all the "back-room" setting up stuff at home, thus leaving you free to concentrate on playing the live keyboard parts on the gig, without worrying about also having to hit buttons all over the place to trigger drum breaks etc when needed.
To my mind the essential requirements for this type of instrument are:
- - Satisfactory overall sound quality, accepting that tastes vary
- - Ease of setting up, and saving, all the parameters for each song you want to perform prior to gigging
- - Good control over each midifile part, so you can make it sound how you want it
- - Good control over the keyboard parts that you intend to play live
- - Ease of handling on stage. Ease of selecting next song, general ergonomics, quality and convenience of performance controls (keybed, pitchbend, modulation etc, and any buttons you will use whilst playing a number, perhaps to call up a new tone for a solo)
A suitable instrument will have a satisfactory balance of all these essential requirements in a way that suits
what you want to do. Secondary considerations may be things like whether or not it has a vocal harmoniser (irrelevant if you don't intend to sing), how good it's on board sequencer is (you might use a PC based sequencer anyway) and other such stuff. Bearing all this in mind, I think the Roland VA7/76 and G-70 are both worth a look at for this purpose.
In general, although there are differences between the two, both instruments do a particularly good job as midifile player based keyboards. They both make the task of setting up a midifile easy(choosing tones, effects, balance etc for ech part). Each can then and linking a file to a user preset which contains the keyboard settings (tones, layers, splits {up to three splits}, effects etc) that you want to use with this file. Both will then instantly recall the correct midifile for instantly playback when you select a user preset. Great stuff so far. The difference between the two lies in the detail.
I have been gigging a VA76 for the last couple of years using it exclusively as a "deluxe" midifile player. More recently, I have aquired a G-70 as it's replacement, and I've just about finished doing the programming on the G-70 prior to using it on a gig for the first time. I play in a band which has a regular set list as it's perfoming basis, so my first objective kas been to make the G-70 sound as near exactly the same as the VA76 does on each song, to give me a reliable start point. I can then further tweak it from there, where I think that the new instrument has a particular tone or feature which offers an improvement.
The logic in doing things this way is that I want to be able to introduce the new instrument into the band as seamlessly as possible. Also, I put a lot of work into the old VA to make it sound as good as it now does, so I want to make sure that I have set up the G-70 to be at least equal to it as a start point. For these reasons, I have both instruments set up side-by-side, going through the same sound system with the same mixer channel settings, which makes for a useful comparison between the two of them.
First, the sounds. Neither instrument sounds good straight out of the box, so don't be put off by this. Both are capable of being made to sound pretty decent, but you must be prepared to put in some work to get the best out of either of them.
My experiences so far suggest that, for practical purposes, the sound set on both is substantially the same in quality. Generally, if you pick a sound with the same name (and midi bank/prg number)on both instruments, and play it with NO effects, it will sound identical on both. The G70 has about half the number of total sounds available to the VA. However, the G-70 has some new sounds not on the VA and tends to have the "pick of the bunch" of what was on the older instrument. Essentially, Roland have thinned out the total number available on the G70 by getting rid of a lot of the older Mk1 & Mk 2 "Sound Canvas" based tones which were still included on the VA series.
One exception to this general view of the raw tonal quality is the drum kits. I am generally not too impressed with Rolands drum sounds, finding them a bit gutless on both instruments. However, I found that a could usually seek out a useable kit for each song on the VA, simply because it had so many (128 kits). The G70 adopts a different approach. It has drastically reduced the number of available kits, but added the (very good) facility to swap out specific drums within a kit. In other words, you pick a kit that is generally what you want - say a "Power" kit, as opposed to an "Electronic" kit - then you can fine tune it by choosing a different snare drum, bass drum or whatever. You can even alter the pitch of individul drums and do other clever stuff. Problem I am finding, though, is that some of the better sounding drum kits from the VA series actually came from older Roland sound sets, the G-1000 in particular. Despite it's versatility in this area, the G-70 does not contain some of these basic older waveforms that are needed to reconstruct some of these kits.
Enough about the raw sounds themselves, because things become different again between the two instruments, once you start to add effects. As a generalisation I would say that the older VA is capable of sounding better than the G-70. Sometimes they will sound identical, sometimes the G-70 will have a particular new stand-out tone that is better for a particular song - but the VA can, on ocassions, produce a quality of overall sound that the G-70 is just not capable of. This is mainly because the VA seems to have naturally better sounding effects. In some instances, it is possible to set the two instruments so that the overall sound (including effects) really is identical, but I have found a number of instances where the G-70 just could not produce the same quality of sound for a particular patch that I already had set up on the VA76 (and particularly liked).
There appear to be three reasons for this.
First, the main reverb processors on the VA seems to have a naturally better sound quality than those on the G-70 that no amount of parameter tweaking can overcome.
Second, there is no dedicated Delay processor available on the G-70 (VA has one, an addition to reverb, chorus, and an insert effects processor). This means that you have to use MFX (the insert effects processor) if you want some delay, reverb and chorus added to a particular sound. That is OK as far as it goes, but you have then "used up" all the available effects processors. The VA can achieve the same result without the need to use the MFX processor, thus leaving it available for other tasks.
Third, the VA had a separate EQ available which could be assigned to any part, and which could be saved as part of a user preset. The G-70 only has a global EQ which affects all parts and is of the type which stays "as you last used it" on power up. Whilst this is very useful as a tool for fine tuning the overall sound to cater for the accoustics of different venues, it is not a substitute for the old VA system, which allowed you to pick one (or more) tones in a given song's mix to add a bit of brillance or bottom end to, where needed.
So, sound wise - on balance - I would rate the two as fairly equal, with the VA having a slight edge. Both can sound good with work, they have a generally similar tonal quality, the VA has better effects and (some) better drum kits, the G70 has some additional good new sounds, and a useful drawbar organ section.
Next - ease of setting up prior to gigging.
Both are good here. Midifiles can be easily tweaked to sound at their best very easily. The appropriate keyboard patches, effects, controller settings, and so on, that you want for each song are easy to set up and store. Both instruments make good use of their touch screens - both to supply information, and to allow a vast amount of fine control in a user friendly way. However, out of the two, the G70 wins in this area. The older VA is pretty good to work with in this way, but is a bit short of dedicated front panel buttons for frequent tasks, relying too much on it's (generally good) touch screen. Also, it's operating system, whilst pretty good in it's own right, is not quite as intuitive as the G-70.
The G-70 has an excellent balance between dedicated physical buttons, knobs and sliders for specific tasks, and a really excellent touch screen. The screen is the best I have used by far. It is very sensitive, triggers reliably and is quite "fine-grained", meaning that you reliably select the correct item, even where several items are packed close together on the screen. The G70s operating system is also extremely intuitive and very visual. So much so, that you will only need to look at the manual once in a while, and then only for clarification as to how some of the more obscure settings work. It also has loads of convenience features, ranging from lots of very intuitive tools for fast tweaking of midifiles, excellent file search facilities, lyrics and score display etc etc etc. The VA has some of these features, but doesn't go as far.
Whilst I wouldn't claim that the G70 has a perfect operating system (mine is on the latest OS2 version), it is a seriously good effort and scores very highly indeed for ease of setup.
Both are also very good from a data storage point of view, with the G70 having the edge. The VA7/76 uses an instant access zip drive to great effect, whilst the G70 has a decent amount of permanent internal memory available, supplemented by a memory card slot. Both have floppy disks. The G70 also has USB which is very useful. However, the G70 wins here for the following reasons.
Firstly, the internal memory is virtually instant in terms of reading and writing. This is very impressive in terms of how quickly it will save a song modified in the 16 tracks sequencer. Secondly, I prefer the reliability and convenience of the permanent inbuilt memory - plus USB port - to the zip drive on the VA. The zip drive on the VA stores a decent amount of data, and works very well, but you will need another zip drive attached to your PC to really get the best from the system, so it is not as convenient overall. Also, there has always been a bit of a question mark over the reliability of these zip drives (equally true of the one on the older G1000, I beleive). Whilst I have personally never had a problem, the question mark remains.
So - on balance - for setting up the VA is good, the G70 is excellent.
So, how about on stage use? Not much in it here, as far as the basics are concerned, from a midifile based performance point of view. Both the VA76 and the G70 have the same 76 note keybed, which is much praised by many players. Both have a pitch bend/mod lever (which I prefer) rather than a set of wheels.
The G70 loses out to the VA76 in terms of aftertouch. Although both instruments are provided with it, aftertouch facilities are much more versatile on the VA. You have user settings available to adjust the sensitivity, or amount of whatever it is aftertouch is controlling on the VA, whereas the G70 has no adjustments. Further, the VA can use aftertouch to control more than one thing at once. You could, say, set it to increase volume, add extra brilliance and invoke vibrato on a trumpet sound - the G70 can only do one of these at a time, not a combination. Aftertouch on the G70 is also a bit "all or nothing", making things like modulation particularly difficult to invoke with any finesse. The VA is better here.
Both have good convenience features in terms of being able to set up playlists for a gig (via user performance sets) and good search features for those who tend to pick songs to play more at random. They both offer instant load & play of the next song via a dedicated footswitch. Both offer good connectivity (with some minor differences)
Biggest difference in terms of on stage use is the addition of a decent vocal processor on the G70. If you do sing, this is well worth having. Up until now, I have used a Digitech Vocaliser hooked up to my previous keyboards over midi. I have been very pleased with this in terms of the quality of results. However, on early aquaintance, the inbuilt unit on the G70 comes close and the convenience of having it built right into the instrument cannot be underestimated. Not only does it make for less kit & cables to set up and tear down, but it's integration into the keyboard's operating system means that it is much quicker to set up and save suitable patches for each song. Roland have done a pretty decent job in terms of giving you plenty of control and options for this section also. 10/10 for this.
So, to summarise, both these instruments are very good candidates for a midifile based performer to consider. The older VA7/76 maybe has a slight edge in overall sound quality - and has noticeably better aftertouch - but the newer G70 is generally much easier to work with from a setup point of view and is particularly user friendly by any standards. You will spend less time setting it up and more time playing. The G70 also has the bonus of a decent vocal harmoniser.
I can't pass an opinion on the Genesys or the SD1, as I don't know them well enough, but would urge you to take a look at a Korg PA1X. The latest operating system for this seems to offer similar midifile playback, plus live parts, operation to the two Roland instruments via its "Songbook" functions. It is likely to sound better than either Roland instrument, but will probably be less easy to set up (less user friendly operating system and less dedicated midifile-centric tools).
Sorry that this is a bit of a long post, but hope it helps you.
Regards Mike
[This message has been edited by MikeTV (edited 11-01-2005).]
[This message has been edited by MikeTV (edited 11-01-2005).]
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