I just have to quote what the reviewer from Keyboard Magazine has to say about the Roland VA-7's user interface. I know there has been numerous discussions amongst us all as to whether or not we love or hate the new touchscreen technology. I just had a good laugh as I read the first line.....here goes.
"This is,without a doubt, the best user interface I've seen on a hardware synthesizer of any kind. There are plenty of buttons, so you won't find yourself paging through endless screens to get to desired parameters and functions."
I did notice a quick mistake made by the reviewer. He said "The user interface does have a couple of idiosyncrasies. For example, switching from arranger mode to piano mode automatically switches to a piano tone, regardless of the sound that's selected. It bothered me to have to go back and reselect the sound I wanted to use." He should have called Roland, because you can turn this feature on or off so that you can always return to the last sound you were using when you switch modes.
My point here is how amazing different players react to different products. One might hate a feature while another just loves it.
I think it is great that Keyboard Magazine is taking the time to look at and review arranger products now. It's about time.
One of the very few cons expressed by Keyboard Magazine was the price. "Very Expensive" . This really bugs me because in a side bar they stated that of the two CK dealers they contacted by phone, the average price was $5500.00. The captian at the top of this side bar says "Now how much would you pay?" I take this to mean that after Keyboard Magazine likes this instrument so much, they were shocked at how costly this product seems to be. They do mention that the CK division allows each dealer to establish their own prices, but I have maintained that the price dealers such as myself sell these keyboards for is in line with all other arranger keyboards with manufactures suggested retail prices and not very many VA7's will be sold if dealers continue to mark up prices as high as keyboard magazine suggests.
However, I am optimistic that more favorable articles like this one about the VA-7 will continue to be read by all interested.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene

I was told at NAMM that Keybord magazine was doing more research about arranger keyboards.
Great to see it happen !!! DanO