what you guys think of the new Roland GW-8?
i own a G-70 and like it, but it's way heavy

all i know is that the Roland Demos for the GW-8 are HORRIBLE, except for one.

what i like on the GW-8 is that you can easily select sounds unnlike the G-70, and it seems to sound great, not sure how good the styles are...

i wish Roland would put out a good demo, sound samples, styles samples etc.

Its not even close to a G70 in so many ways FEATURE WISE.....do your homework to see if its for your NEEDS!! wait till you can try one & you'll see. Although the Gw8 does look awesome in te videos..I would take the E60 over the GW8 if your coming from a G70.
http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?ObjectId=826&ParentId=18



[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 06-24-2008).]

double post.

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 06-24-2008).]

dnj,

but since it's "sonic cell" don't you think the sounds will be an improvement over G-70?

and the demo says that styles have been "totally reworked"

i would like to get my hands on one and take it for a spin"

i know the piano and acoustic guitar on GW-8 is better than that of the G-70

I don't post here much anymore, but I'll tell you this. The GW-8 has its sound from BOTH the Sonic Cell and the Fantom X. This new GW-8 is a HUGE jump over the current GW-7. The GW-8 now has 128 note poly (GW-7 only has 64). The GW-8 now has 4 intros, endings, and variations (which is twice what the current model has), The GW-8 has a completely revamped voice engine-with more indepth velocity switched instruments (found in the Sonic Cell and Fantom X), The GW-8 has a completely new screen that is literally the difference of night and day compared to the current screem on the GW-7, The GW-8 has added the USB key player feature now where you can play wav, mp3, and aiff files directly from the USB key, and there's even a voice center cancel function that greatly reduces the lead vocal track in song files. Plus the GW-8 has a completey different color scheme that looks much more pro (especially with the new screen)

This new GW-8 is a vast jump over the current model, and with these new and MUCH bigger features on this unit I'm sure we can expect a price on this puppy at no less than $1000... The only thing I haven't seen posted yet is if there were any improvements to the sequencer section both song and style. Here's Roland's video demo for it. Sonic State (at the start of Namm) had a REALLY good video demo of the GW-8, but for some reason they replaced that one with something awful! Just simply a terrible demo. I don't know why they took the first one down.
http://rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?ObjectId=968&ParentId=72



[This message has been edited by squeak_D (edited 06-24-2008).]

my advice to you, wait until you have the chance to try it or at least roland will release a serious demo. the demonstration so far was horrible, it really kills the keyboard. but the blame goes to the demonstrator alone.
so, wait for couple of weeks.

that demo is better

they call this a "latin" arranger

but the styles are far from Latin.

that's got to be the worst salsa i've heard on any arranger, programmed by a wanna be Latin player,

salsa is all about "Guiro"
not closed, open hi-hats....

i wish Roland would get some real latin players to program their styles...

I'm going to speculate here..., and this is based off of info read on the specs (at other sites). It's possible there will be more than one version of the GW-8. The current model GW-7 is really geared for more "World" styles of music. I've read a few write ups on the GW-8 that said basically the styles may vary depending upon region. So one would assume there may be a western and eastern version of this keyboard.

The GW-7 wasn't orginally set to be released in the US. It was one of those last minute decisions by Roland. The GW was a pretty good seller for them and it appears they seem to now realize there's a need for a Western version as well.

on the Roland US site is says:

"Wide variety of contemporary sounds and interactive backing styles with special focus on Latin American genres, plus additional banks of ethnic sounds and styles from around the world"