Hi Mike,

Don't forget this is an arranger keyboard (although named Music Workstation) so it cannot be compared with, for instance, the Korg Triton. That's why they make the Fantom X.

Instead of a (noisy, expensive and mechanical) harddisk they fitted a SSD memory of 50 MB and a PCMCIA slot. With that you can use any media device like the Sony Memorystick, Compactflash etc. If you ask me harddisks will phase out soon in musical instruments in favour of flash memory, because the capacity doesn't have to be very large and speed and affordability is very important.


------------------
Tom NL

[This message has been edited by Tom NL (edited 11-24-2004).]

I seek clarification on a couple of things.

Question:

£2199 = $4,137 USD. Is that the "Retail" price before MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) for the G70? For instance: The Tyros was $3,495 retail - [£1,857] but can be purchased for much less, at least here in the States it can.

Does anyone know what the G70 will go for in the U.S.? The MAP (Minimum Advertised Price)?, etc. Just curious..

Best regards,
Mike

I stumbled on this offer on the net, I might be interesting for our British friends: http://shopping.lycos.co.uk/7087en174186UK.html

The G-70 sells for £ 1904.16 or about 2.800,- Euro, which is slightly less than in Holland.

------------------
Tom NL

I just saw that the above mentioned offer links to a German online store. So it might not be that interesting for those who do not live in Germany. Sorry about that.

------------------
Tom NL

£1904.16 = 2,712.46 EUR = $3,606.88 USD

If that is a "retail price" then okay. If that is a MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) then dig deep in your pockets fellas because it will be a very expensive proposition to own a G70. Mucho Dinero Amigo! Start saving your pennys!

The retail price would be negotiable I would think, and the MAP price possibly a little bit too. But Roland is supposedly instigating a new selling platform that eliminates negotiating the price at all. So that £1904.16 = 2,712.46 EUR = $3,606.88 USD may be the standardized price which, if it's not really negotiable to a substantial level, it is way over the top IMO for a high end Arranger with a lot of missing features such as a Sampler, Digital I/O's, no Hard Drive capability, etc.

Best regards,
Mike

If a keyboard has less features than a Workstation and is an arranger, does that necessarily mean that it should cost more? I think that generally “arrangers” are way overpriced.

Also, with keyboards like Korg PA1X, Gem Genesys and may be the G70, the lines between arrangers and workstations may no longer be there. I think Roland is starting that by calling the G70 a “workstation”. I think they are right to do that because most keyboards today are really multimedia workstations with different features i.e. auto accompaniment and arpeggios.

Just my opinion.

TTG

I agree totally.
Just look at all the features the Fantom X and the Motif ES have for a price that is considerably lower than the top of the range arrangers. The Fantom X7 (76 keys) is about 2450 Euros here. That is 500,- Euro less than the G-70. It is hard to imagine that the making of the styles is that expensive.

But on the other hand, you would not expect that a manufacturer in this case deliberately overprices a product. So my guess is that is has everything to do with the fact that there must be a bigger market for workstations than for arranger keyboards.

Coming to that conclusion, adding styles to a workstation (Fantom X please) seems even more logical. If I remember correctly that is also a wish of a lot of fellow SZ'ers!


------------------
Tom NL

G70 Funky Demo 4 available
http://www.rolandkeyboardclub.com/v/prod...b1dd0828eaad5eb

nothing new
,since the G800 , basicly Rolands arrngeres in quality of sounds are not changed, except a few sounds that were added 'like the new trumpets in the VA 7\76 .
and since there is no sampler and no hard disk , I will not buy the G70 only for the harmonizer and more user styles.

dud

The Funky Demo is the best, to my taste, so far. Sounds very smooth, very tight, and veeery funky.