I couldn't agree more.
Fran I wait for your review of the G70 not just for how it sounds out of the box but as an experienced Roland user it would be interesting to see if the G70 has the basic sound and style structure, tools and potential to be a real top arranger in 2005 and beyond.

Exactly!



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The G-70 sound engine is actually new if compared with VA's one.
The effect section has been strongly improved and a lot of new sounds (more than 150) has been included:
Grand Piano, VK-8 Hammond Clone, Electric Guitars with Distortion/Overdrive, Nylon and Steel Guitar, Saxophones, Flutes, Hammond preset tones, Electric Pianos, Electric Basses, Choirs, Leads, Pads, Accordions, Oriental sounds and Drum Kits,...
All of these sounds are brand new sounds or coming from last Roland products.

Maybe you don't like anyone of these new sounds, but you cannot say that there's no appreciable difference with VA.

I have to agree with Ohrenarzt's opinion of the G70. Many of the sounds are extremely similar to those off the Roland JV1080 Expansion boards of the early 90s (which I know very well)although the overall quality of the G70 versions are worse. I tested the 3 accordion presets and simply played C3 - each preset was out of tune with the next and ALL were out of tune with concert.

The acoustic guitar samples (especially the "hard picked" samples) are so out of tune to my ears that I laughed out loud when I played them (String sampled so hard that the pitch warps unpleasantly). They also sound very thin and nasty. The acoustic Piano does not even sound like a piano, let alone sound anywhere near as good as the JV1080 PRA 004 Nice Piano,until recently one of my favourites. . . .

The version of the G70 that I played also had the software anomaly of failing to affect the drawbar settings until I had pushed the slider beyond the value of the preset value, certainly not a realistic Hammond effect. The styles were limp as well as having many errors in the chord voicing, in my view, the demos were rooted somewhere in the GRP 80s and the level of reverb was astonishing, as if trying to "hide" the poor sound quality.

I have been a long time Roland fan, ever since the Juno 6 and VP330, and considering the company's fantastic history and ability to innovate and trend-set, I do not know what possessed them to put the thing on the market in this state. How many more software updates are going to be required to make it a genuine contender in the arranger marketplace. Surely it is not the paying public's job to betatest a 5000 dollar keyboard!

Wow!
Yesterday I received a phone call from one of my best customers who has purchased at least one of every keyboard brought up here the past two days. Tyros, PA1XPRO, Ketron SD1 and just a month ago a Roland G70. Upon his receiving the G70, a phone call came saying that although he liked many things about the G70, he thought he might want to return it because he just didn't think the voices and their associated effects sounded that great......
This was the same day that I received the version 1.10 software upgrade (Italy refers to as "the George Kaye request" upgrade because I complained to them at the NAMM show about the overuse of effects, etc.).
My customer waited, upgraded and called me two days later and said "this keyboard is the greatest". "I love the piano and the more I play it the more I enjoy all the other sounds".
So yesterday, after reading this topic, my freind called me and asked if I've been reading all these posts with those that love and those that seem to hate (might be too strong a word....dislike!) the G70 sounds.
I went over to my display with the G70 above, the PA1XPRO below, the SD1plus just to the left and a PSR3000 just below this one and a Genesys Pro.........my point here is that I have all of them with my ability to try them and compare all at the same time.....
I think the G70 sounds great.......I choose different sounds to compare and to my ear, when comparing Tenor Sax as an example, I listened to the softest touch play and increased my touch to hear the realisim in the sound of the mouthpiece, the pads, the air...........and although I've loved the Korg's Tenor sax and the Ketron SD sounds, I actually like the G70 better.
I avoided getting involved hear because as a store owner, I didn't want my friends and customers here to think "George sells the G70 and doesn't want to see sales go down so he's telling us how much he likes it". I think most of you know me pretty well and know how opinionated I am.
For this reason, I decided to spend a couple of hours yesterday comparing keyboards in my store again.
If I am disappointed with one thing on the Roland G70, it would be that I would have liked more styles within certain catagories. I would have like to have more "live styles", some Ethnic styles, etc. However, because of my complaining to Roland Italy about this, they have begun creating free styles and putting them on the Roland Club website. The first four are great, but I would like to see a lot more and fast!
I would also like to mention two more things which were brought up here in earliear posts.
First, After one downloads the update from Roland's website and transfers the update via USB cable, there is still another step which must be done from the G70 to actually load the update and make it take effect. I hope all the stores are aware of this and don't think that by just installing the system it has changed.
Next, many times before I talk about the quality of a good demo by the dealer. Someone who knows what to show you and how to explain it. And of course, the quality of a sound system is very important. I also worry if someone has played around with a keyboard and changed parameters which could have changed the sound quality.
All this said, and I agree that it's great to go and play each keyboard when you can and if you can, my opinion is that all these top keyboards sound very good, none of them in my opinion deserve low marks in sounds, styles, features, but realize that we all have sounds that we think are best for our own tastes and our comparisons are often made by what we know and expect to hear. (I hope this makes sense and I'm not offending anyone with my words). I sell keyboards, I'm not an English teacher, like my wife!
It's interesting to me that almost everytime a new keyboard comes out, discussions like this follow. We have some very passionate people here.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566

Hi

Here is a little demo http://nielshs.homepage.dk

regards

George,

On the subject of G70 sounds, one thing that confuses me is that the G70 has a slot for an SRX sound expansion card. But as these cards are older than the G70 and as Roland state the G70 has the largest set sound bank ever (for them). What sounds are already in the G70 compared with the SRX cards? In other words, is there a danger of purchasing a SRX and finding the sounds were already in the G70 to begin with?

Hoping you can enlighten me on this 'cos the info on the Roland websites is hazy.

Can you compare the Roland G70 piano directly with the fantom X piano George ?

Thanks George, THAT is a valid comparison and I'm sure is will be very valuable to those considering the G70.
DonM

I own G70 since mid january. I was rather disappointed after trying it at home, but decide not return it. And win. After installing OS 1.10 I am completely satisfied. It is great keyboard with great sounds and features. I think that with OS 1.10 G70 is good right out of a box.