Am I right Rolandfan you wrote a review on
the G70 and you did not know about the up-
dates?
You called the thread "the truth about the
G70? How wrong can a man be!

Hi All; I have not owned a Roland keyboard before so I can't compair Roland to Roland. I traded a Technics Kn7000 for a G 70. I can compair there two. The roland, playing MIDI songs, has a wider range of instraments. On the Technics I hear a "hum" in the background on some songs, but not all. When I heard the G 70 it was through 2 120 watt speakers (240) and I was listening to the KN7000 through the installed speakers (35 watt) so that accounts for the sound difference. The KN7000 will play audio songs and the G 70 will not. The Technics has a proprietary form for storing songs. In my opinion better than MIDI/2.Is one better than the other? I would guess that is up to what you expect from a keyboard. I don't make a living playing keyboards. Would I buy the G 70 again --- yes. On the other hand -- I'm going to buy back the KN7000. There's a place for both in my home. Hope I didn't get too far off track, Dick

George, Is the G70 using the same sound engine [XV/JV] as the Fantom, instead of the SC/GS sound engine in the previous G's and VA's?
When you get time can you compare some common patches as you did the piano patches..particularly the "soft brass"[the G1000 is better than the Fantom X..
Steel guitar 2, choir and scat[VA is way better than the Fantom X]...
I have a Fantom X, and I can get a better feel for the G70 patches with your comparison...
Actually , I am hoping Roland retained the same sound engine {G and VA] annd just added an additional bank of G70 sounds, like the previous models...I prefer many G1000 patches to the counter sounds of the Fantom X..

The "soft brass" example has the fat sound we only got with the JX10 and D70....can't get the same thing from the JV/XV gear..

Wow, do you mean, even if someone likes the G70, he can't buy it unless there is a local dealer? And the local dealers that stock G70 are almost entirely non-existant? Amazing.
How do you come up with a marketing plan like that?
DonM

Dont know whats going on with Roland sales and Marketing. How do you release a keyboard that needs 2 or 3 software "upgrades" just to make it sound good AFTER you have purchased the product !

Fran,

As far as I can judge it both type of sounds are in the G70. Out of the box it is in the 'best selection' mode, which offers you only the new sounds. But, and now I quote from the manual, 'if you also want or need the 'older' sounds from the G-series and V-series you can select the extended mode and get more pages with sounds in each family'. This 'extended mode' gives you all 1596 sounds as the 'best selection mode' focuses more on the Fantom-based sounds.

My experience is that both are very good. I also like a lot of the vocal, brass, flute and pad-sounds of the previous series of keyboards. It is nice that they are in there!

In the mean time I am very much enjoying my new keyboard. I loaded some of my favorite midi-files in the internal memory and I really like the instant availability of the songs. You can change the sound settings of your song very quickly with the make-up function and there is a "minus one" button which instantly mutes the solo track so you can play or sing along with it. The chord recognition of the midi-songs is also a nice feature.

BTW Fran, you would do me a very big favour if you would mail me a few of your favorite styles. I am always short on good bossa-novas, ballads, swings and gospels. And oh, I can't find a how-down country style on the G-70. Thank's a lot in advance! I hope you get your hands on a G70 real soon now.

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Tom NL

Fran,
Tom is correct about the two modes available. Unlike the VA line which had the 4 tone maps which seemed to confuse so many people because you only could see 1 maps worth of sounds at a time and this made is quite difficult when selecting sounds for a song or style, the G70 allows you to see all the sounds all the time or you can just see the "new" sounds used for the G70.
I don't have an older VA product at my store to actually compare the sounds but I think you will be quite pleased.
Yesterday, one of the synthzone guys came into the store wanting to see the G70. He had read all the posts regarding this product the past few days.
I gave him a quick tour and made it a point to play for him many of the sounds that have come up here in discussion. After this, I played some styles, demonstrated the 16 track sequencer, plugged in a mic and demonstrated the vocal harmonizer and the auto pitch correction feature and when I was done I joked and said "does this sound like crap". Of course it didn't. And as always I suggest you get a demo that is done by someone who has spent some time and knows any keyboard he or she is showing. I could have left this member alone. Actually, he walked in with his headphones in hand and this always makes me nervous. I'm afraid they won't be using the keyboard right or know what's what, so I always walk over and ask if I can show some of the features and sounds and navigation menus before leaving the customer alone with their set of headphones.
After an hour of trying and comparing with the PA1X (he already bought a PA80 from me some years ago), he was convinced the G70 and the PA1XPRO are two amazing keyboards!
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

Hi,
one question: Would I combine Yamaha Tyros and Roland G 70 instead using a Korg PA 1 X, what would I miss (except the better vocal harmonizer)?

------------------
Regards
RF

Which keyboard are you saying has the better vocal harmonizer? The Korg vs the other two? Actually the G70 has a great vocal harmonzier. It works great and is very easy to use. I would suggest all that get to demo the G70 to go into the demo and select vocal harmonizer and then select pitch correction tab. You now can sing amazing grace using the pitch correction and no mater what you sing or say, your voice is singing the correct pitch. This is fun and and a very good demo.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

Would someone inform me (George?) whether the G-70's harmoniser (in pitch correct mode, not adding harmonies) will work like Auto-tune (where it detects the pitch you are singing and move/nudge towards the closest 1/2 tone or scalic value) or do you always have to either follow a preset melody or have to play the melody for the pitch correction?

This may be a source of confusion.... many (most?) of us don't like being forced to sing EXACTLY the same line every time we perform the song but if the pitch correction forces us to, this may not be very useful.

If the Roland doesn't do true Auto-Tune, do any of the other arrangers???