Jon,

Rumors of the lack of a G70 replacement are just rumors...but Roland has neither confirmed or denied them at this point.

Also, if you read some of the posts at Roland Arranger forum, it seems that Roland's fixes for the G70's OS have stopped.

Remind you of the PSR-9000 pro situation?

Maybe there will be a new high end E-series with 76 keys instead of a G70 replacement?

Ian

Ian,
"On October 1, 2004 Roland will be unveiling a new 76 key "top of the line" arranger keyboard." (a notable quote from the past from this forum). This means that the G70 has been around just three years. If it is being withdrawn now, (or has been placed on the slippery slide to oblivion) then that is not a really satisfactory (business wise) outcome for such a corporate investment, not to mention a good result for the fraternity that have made the considerable investment in dollars, time and patience, to get proficient with this board. One would hope that the rumors of its demise is a misquote or a poor interpretation of some statement, and that the G70 still has some life in the ol’girl yet. I guess we can all be victims of the corporations if we choose to make that choice. At the end of day Ian, we live in hope.

Jon

If Roland has indeed been faithful to support the G70 in the 3 years it has been out then they are to be commended for their diligence in my opinion. For instance Yamaha, on the other hand, supports their high-end boards with about a years worth of support and then they basically mothball the support. The support is mostly for bug fixes in the OS and apart from that the owners of said high-end arranger(s) are on their own even though Yamaha could provide additional support in the way of add-ons, hardware extras, or even OS enhancements (instead of just bug fixes).

So if Roland has been supporting the G70 for 3 years it is essentially 3x the amount of support Yamaha has given T2 owners.

Keyboards do reach the end of their cycle but it is noteworthy when a company continues to support a keyboard or other product beyond its life cycle i.e. beyond its production cycle. Roland and Korg come to mind. I wish Yamaha could do the same.

PS: Yamaha usually comes out with a new high-end arranger or workstation every 3 years or so, for example the Tyros/Tyros2 and/or CVP 309/310 and/or Motif/ES/XS. So Roland coming up with a G70 replacement after 3 years is reasonable and desireable. There has been new technology from Korg and Yamaha since the G70 came out e.g. RX voice technology and of course Yamaha's SAV technology. Roland needs to keep up with the Joneses so to speak and give consumers something that will better compete with these other newer sound enhancements from Korg and Yamaha or they risk being left in the dust and losing big time market share. Even though the G70 is a good sounding keyboard there is always room for improvement and also the necessity that if Roland doesn't keep up technology wise they will be left behind and I think they realize that of course and therefore won't delay the G70 replacement for too much longer.

I really think Roland has something up its sleeve or at least on the drawing board that is being developed and/or will soon be released to counter these threats from Korg and Yamaha. At least they better have.

If not, it may be curtains for them market share wise:

By the way I realize that the E-80 was released only about a year and a half ago but it was based and built on the G-70 concept i.e. its sound set and architecture. Also the E-80 is outrageously overpriced in my opinion besides weighing a ton (figuratively speaking of course ).

So even if Roland delays a new 76 key new concept keyboard they would still do well in my opinion to at least release a new 61 key new concept keyboard relatively soon, so as to compete with Korg and Yamaha on at least the 61 key keyboard front.

Best,
Mike

And then release a 76 key new concept keyboard after the 61 key has been released. But I think everyone would prefer they release the 76 key one first because of the fact that the G-70 is now over 3 years old and getting long in the tooth, whereas the E-80 is relatively new(er) on the market.

Best,
Mike

Boy how I wish we could edit our posts once again.

Best,
Mike

Long in the tooth? there are many many players that are making such great music with the G70......how old is not any indication of what a player that is happy & knows what they are doing can accomplish....
new toys dont necessarily make good music....attention to your particular needs is what is of the utmost priority...I see fantastic KB performers all the time and many of them have Kb's that are 15-20 yrs old....& sound phenomenal...because they know the unit in and out & they know how to play it......never count out the oldies baby.

Of course, side stepping the issue of the complete lack of a 76 choice from Yamaha, compared to nearly every other manufacturer, and trying to place attention on the fact that the G70 MIGHT (without a single word officially from anyone actually AT Roland) be the last G70, and MIGHT need a few last OS fixes or upgrades, WOULD be the response of someone that basically has NO answer to WHY Yamaha chose to take this path other than his own (and very close to solo) opinion that 'that's just the way it is, some things'll never change' mantra.

Of COURSE, no-one whines about the lack of new OS features and bugfixes (other than those that facilitate the marketing of online content from Yamaha), because they realize the utter futility of trying. The list of completely new features added to the G70's OS in the three years since it has been released should shame Yamaha owners (other than Ian, who sees no evil, hears no evil when it comes to his choice in arrangers) into realizing what poor after market support they do get.

But, for all of Ian's claims that only Yamaha can get it right, their arranger lines fly in the face of the ENTIRE keyboard industry, including the rest of their own divisions... Take a perfectly good sounding, very professional OS (let's face it, how few Yamaha users actually USE even a moderate percentage of all the advanced features on even an S700, yet alone an S900) and stick it in a toy 61 case and keyboard.

Even Yamaha's workstation division won't stoop THAT low... yet alone every other arranger manufacturer.

But trying to shunt the attention elsewhere doesn't fool anyone. Whether a G70 needs or doesn't need any MORE OS improvements has NOTHING whatsoever to do with whether Yamaha are too timid to go after a market segment dominated by other manufacturers after their first foray into it was such a poorly executed (you think the G70 had problems?!! ) fiasco.

Nice try no banana...

BTW if you care SO little, Ian, why the CONSTANT replies..? 'Methinks the lady doth protest too much'.

Diki,

You are beyond question a writer of power; and your power lies in your ability to make your posting so thoroughly, graphically and aggressively unattractive that one is fairly shaken to ponder how little one has been missing.

Ian

What has happened to the edit function???