Well I could not wait until weekend! I went to my dealer this afternoon to pick out a new board.

I went to audition the G70, Pa1x and the Ty2. I had already half dismissed the Ty2 before I even got there as my last arranger was the Ty1 and I wanted a change. Playing the Ty2 whilst an exceptional sounding board juat made me feel like I had got my old Ty1 back with a few (very nice) extra's added on so I passed on that.

Next I moved on to the G70 fully expecting to hate it (mostly because of the slating people tend to keep giving it!). However I adored the keyfeel and when playing I thought the sounds excellent (this could be because I am used to playing my roland synth) and the styles extremely natural for the most part. The operating system seems to me to be intuative and logical and I have to say I spent the most time playing this board. It really invited me to play the more I sat there.

I moved onto the PA1x and if I'm honest I had partly made up my mind before I got there to buy it. However I found the OS difficult to navigate and not at all user friendly. I loved the sounds and the styles but again tyhey seemed a little too polished for me. The more I played it the more I wanted it to work like the Roland. Again this may be due to the fact that I have been using the Roland synth for months.

In the end I told my dealer to bring me out a G70 and put it in the car. I can't help it......I like it! It has OS v2 and also has the SRX expansion board fitted. I'm still getting used to it (it's only been unpacked two hours!) but I am sure I'm going to love this board.

I'm not trying to make a point here or say that any of the above boards are any better than the others but for my needs and for my ears the G70 won it! I've really missed having an arranger so was determined to make the right choice for me. I don't believe in brand loyalty anyway...I just buy what I like whoever makes it! I don't keep them long but I need to love them while I have them!

Ok I'm off to play now and set it up properly. (it's perched on a table at the mo!) Just wanted to share my news
Best wishes
Tony

Congrats Tony! I couldn't be happier for you. I played one back in January at AJ's workshop at Chuck Levin's Music in DC and it was awesome. I play the G 1000 so like you, I think there's nothing like the Roland feel. And it sounds great. I know you will enjoy.

Ciao,

Joe

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Songman55
Joe Ayala

Best wishes with your G70 Tony and many happy hours playing it. Maybe we'll hear a posting from you when you've settled in with the board ?

Tony, good for you.
Its got to be feeling good, exploring and getting creative on a board of that caliber.
I liked the stuff you've posted in the past.
Hope to hear some new stuff.

Have fun.

Congratuations on the G70, enjoy it! I'm watching and reading all the feedback on boards. At some point I'm going to purchase another board, may not even be this year. I stopped into GC again today to demo a PA1xpro. A couple of weeks ago I demoed the same board and liked it, today it just didn't do it for me. I haven't ruled it in or out, but I share your opinion seems a little difficult to navigate. One of the attractions of the G70 is 76 keys. Good luck with the G70.

Tony....
excellent choice my friend....congrats!!!!!

Good luck & make some beautiful music with it....share it all with us also....inquiring minds want to know

Hi Tony

Welcome to the G-70 club. Hope you will enjoy it.

Best Regards
Niels

YO TONY,
We are happy if you are happy Keep on keeping on.
I bought the Tyros 2 as I only have the 9000 and I am happy with it. I am going to sell the 9000 and the 4 Technics boards I have.
I was interested in the G70 and may get one yet. Keep us updated and enjoy it,
Best to you and yours,
Bebop

Tony!
Its been 24 hours now.
Give the keys a break, and get yourself some rest too!

i also got the G 70 recently, wich i added to my pa 1 x pro wich will be my main keyes now, i like the screen layout better 0n the g 70 better then on the pro, so i have my learning curve cut out for now, best regards ,Benno

Tony, congratulations and 'welcome back' to the world of keyboard arrangers again. Having auditioned the G70 on several occasions, I have to agree that it's got the best key feel responsiveness & perhaps the best navigation intuitiveness of any arr kbd I've played. I hope that the overly excessive reverb of the default instrument voice selections have been fully resolved with the latest G70 OS, because that, and the G70's bulk & weight (45+ lb), were the only things that kept me from upgrading to it instead of Tyros2.

Ok Tony, looking forward to hearing your next song, created on the G70 of course. - Scott

Hello All,
Thanks for all the encouragement! I do like this board and can't stop playing it at the mo!!! Still getting used to it of course and learning where everything is and what everything does! I have to say that I don't know how I managed without an arranger for so long! I've really missed just being able to sit and jam.

Scott you are right..... it sure is heavy. I'm going to call it the beast!! Luckily now it is in my music room it won't be moving very often so that is not an issue for me. Some of the default sounds do seem overly reverbed for my tastes although I assume that there has been an improvement with the new OS because overall I did not find them nearly as effect drenched as the KN7000 (which I also owned for a while.) Of course sound is subjective anyway and I am enjoying immensly tweaking the sounds to my preference. I have done this on nearly every board I have owned anyway so as long as there is a tweak and a setting or two then I can make it how I want it! Some of the sounds on the SRX expansion board are absolutely stunning.

I love the styles. A little bit more raw and dare I say 'dirty' than what I was used to on the Ty1 although there are a few standards off the Ty that I will miss. I really like the 'cover' utility for styles and midi. Some styles can be made to sound totally different to the original when using this feature. Very cool. I also really like the dynamic arranger function. Glad to see this included on the board.

Always one to be objective there are a couple of things I think could be better. Roland have included a smart memory card reader that reads compact flash and mmc cards which is in itelf an excellent idea but they have located it on the back panel!! Rather a strange place if you ask me as if I want to use this I have to pull out my board to get access. I would much prefer it to have been located on the fron like the floppy. I do like that the vocalist has it's own seperate L and R outs so that I can send the vocals to a different channel on my mixer to the main I/O's of the board. You can route the vocal through the main I/O's if you prefer but I like to tweak the levels at the mixer rather than onboard. Also it gives me the opportunity to send the vocal signal from the keyboard to outboard processors should I require. A very nifty feature I think.

Bebop...... Congrats on your Tyros2!! I am sure you will love it. I adored the Ty1 and the ONLY reason I did not go with the TY2 this time is because I wanted a complete change. It really is a stunning board. Hope you are enjoying it as much as I am enjoying mine.

Ok I am off to go play again. Will post some stuff when I get that far Thanks again for all the comments and whatever we play we all have the music in common
Very best wishes
Tony

Congratulations Tony,
on your new G70.

best wishes
Rikki
Bebop, does that include your KN7 or just your earlier models?

Thanks Rikki
Tony

The one MAJOR omission from the G1000 to the G70 is the loss of the Chord Sequencer, the little mini recorder just for chord changes, so you play a verse and chorus (or whatever), hit Play and seamlessly it starts playing the chords for you (you can still kick different Variations and fills if you choose).

You now have a whole extra hand you can play with!!! (or get a drink!)............. Honestly, how on earth can you actually USE the bend lever if you are constantly having to play the chords with your left hand???

I encourage everyone with a G70 (and the new E80, when they start shipping) to contact Roland and apply pressure to get this function reinstated in Roland arrangers (preferably as an update to the current OS).

Diki, you are right,,the chord sequencer is a great tool that can be used live effectively..

I use it on my G1000, to lay out a chord progression of a song,,,then apply different styles/patterns..till I find what I am looking for,,
It is a great, quick way to sequence a song...
At any given time[after you find the style], you can record it[16 track sequencer],and save as a SMF.

To be honest , very few people that I know[G1000 owners] use it...Matter of fact ,few people ever get into the great features of any arranger....

I am sure Roland would need little effort to implement the chord sequencer via software update[especially with a touch screen]..