Does anyone have a feel for why there isn't too much talk about the Roland VA 7? Not many owners or?
Also, George Kaye wrote his review of it, in one of these threads...I can't find it alone or with the search engine. I found one where he initially talked about it, but I recall he did a second one after sitting down with it for awhile. Anyone have a clue?
Thanks,
Terry

Jocko,

I own a VA7, Dreamer (Andrea) does and more people, I won't mention names because I'm not sure.

Several reason can apply to the reason why not much people are talking about it:
-If it works fine and everything is clear, there's no really need to talk about it
-The VA is the newest of Roland, but everyone is looking for the newest instruments, for example the hot issue of the moment is the PSR2000.
-The VA7 has a touchscreen, which is quite hard to use if you want to navigate fast. In reviews here and on the web, the touchscreen seemed not to be very welcome. So some potential buyers may buy another keyboard or stay with a G800/G1000 for example.

But after all, I find it a great keyboard .

Sander
The Netherlands

I have to agree with many of the things already said by Sander. The VA7 has excellent sounds (48 Mb of them) and a lot of styles; if you don't like the internal ones, you can always replace them (I like the G1000 styles a lot). Its biggest drawback, for live users, is the touchscreen, with the relative lack of real buttons, which is a step backward compared to both the G 1000 and the G 800. But, for home users, there is really not much to complain about. I paid mine about 2000 dollars, just 100 dollars more than the Korg PA 80 (I played them both and went straight for the VA7).
My personal wishlist is:
- more buttons (i.e. for fade in/out)
- a hard disk (instead of a zip disk)
- real sampling ability (Variphrase does not allow multisampling across the keyboard).
Sander is right also when he says that we like to talk about the latest or even the "yet to come" keyboard. The VA7, with about one year of life behind, is "old story".
By the way, even if I don't like to advertise myself, on my website you can hear a few songs made on the VA7 (with a little help from a Roland XV 3080).
Regards,
Andrea

[This message has been edited by Dreamer (edited 11-22-2001).]

Sander & Andrea,
Thanks for the input. I was starting to wonder, because it sounds like a great board. I don't do live, I record, so I don't think the touchscreen would be an issue. I'll have to have a look at one.
thanks,
Terry

Terry,

The time has come I think to get a VA, because George Kaye already mentioned that the price has lowered. And like Andrea said, the styles and sounds are beautiful. The styles sound warm. And yes.. also take a look at the site of Andrea! It gives you a good idea how nice the VA can sound. I also have made 1 MP3 yet.. But that's Apres-Ski style. If you or anyone else is interested, give a sign and I will upload it. Scott has it already !

The link to Andrea's site is: http://andrearotolo.tripod.com/dreamer/ . So I also did that now, Andrea.. No more worries

Sander

[This message has been edited by Sander (edited 11-22-2001).]

Sander,
Thanks,
Terry

Hi everyone,

I am also a happy VA-7 owner. It is true that there weren't not much chats going onfor such a fantastic keyboard.
The midi playback is excellent, the grand piano and electric piano are one of my favorite sounds for the board as well as the sax. The pop styles that I'm mainly using are really great and very creative.
but one of the thing that made Roland unique is the D-Beam controller which is both fun and practical to use.
I'm sure you'll have lots of good times with a Va-7 despite so many other great arrangers out there.

Claude

I see on E-bay a music store in Germany is offering a new VA7, with a big VERSION 2 placard on the right hand side. Item# 1486801886. I haven't seen it anywhere else.

Guardman,
the placard is part of the package of the upgrade to v. 2.0; you can stick it on the keyboard or not.
Regards,
Andrea

Thanks for all the input. I saw that one on E bay too.
I have the PA now and was thining of maybe adding the VA as a second board because I'm really happy with the PA.
Terry