I hope this keyboard sounds terrible and doesn't inspire me so I don't catch the dreaded 'TECHNOLUST- I MUST BUY IT!' disease again.

XV-88 and the two new rack modules use Roland's new synth-engine scheme. Officials from Roland here in Greece told me that we might expect non weighted - 76/61 keys -workstation versions of this synth. I don't know if these would have larger LCD or sequencer etc. but the engine will be the same and that's good news. On XV-88 though the synthesis is the same (good) as the XP/JV, the new processors,DSPs,EFXs have the extra power to drive 64 MB stereo sample playback. Yesterday i checked a demo-XV88 for a while and i really believe that it has the best S&S sound i ever hear. The stereo samples are great (especially piano,strings,percussion,FX) and the EFX sounds better than any external unit. A month ago i bought a Triton-PRO with MOSS board and i am very happy with almost all its sounds. But XV88 is something else.
I know, it has no sample builtin or SEQ or big touch screen but IMHO it has MUCH BETTER sound.
I did not check the extra 64 MB (32 MB - 32 bit really) PCM boards as they are unavailable yet.
128 polyphony is great for MIDI setup but you may notice that stereo samples count as two parts so if you use them divide polyphony by two. (At least on the demo i saw).

You'll like the infrared beam system and you will feel like JARRE and VANGELIS

Anyway i really believe that new Rolands will drive S&S synthesis to the limit but at a price (2800 US$ in my country).

If you have more info,news, post'em here



[This message has been edited by Inray (edited 02-11-2000).]

Inray you said that you heard a demo of the XV-88. Where can we get/hear this? I can think of no better comination than a Triton Pro (loaded) and the XV88 with the 64 meg piano expansion card. I would like some feedback on this expansion board if anyone has heard it. Thanks!

"Love & Peace" hi...
On Frebruary 10 here in Greece in Roland's distributor i tested myself a prerelease version of XV88 (but no any expansions) and i listened its sound. I sounds great and believe me, not at all the same as XP/JVs. Roland's salesmen told me that some sortcomings will be corrected when XV will be on the market (April in Greece). I must say to you that though recently i bought a Korg Triton, i ordered an XV-88.
You can read some posts on Sonic State from people who heard piano board at NAMM. (http://www.the-gas-station.com)

Will the new Roland XV series contain many waveforms from the SR JV80 expansion boards (like the XP30 with the built in orchestral, sesssion and techno boards)?

The builtin ROM samples are new or new resampled for use with new stereo S&S engine. The new plugin system can hold new SRX 64MB ROM cards (only for XVxxx) mostly with excellent stereo samples. It can also hold old SR JV cards and has full compatibility with older JV/XP patches.
XVs will not contain "bonus" extras like XP30. That was only a Roland's marketing trick to shell XP parts and cards and hold its customers until XV announcement.

The xv 88/3080/5080 has JD 990 waveforms + 424 new waveforms and 100 drums= 1083 inall.
I have orded a XV 5080 and VM 3100pro.

I wonder if the XV's contain some choice waveforms from any of the SRJV80 boards?

For example- the lovely piano, strings and nylon guitars from the session board.

Some of the great string and vocal sounds from the Orchestral 11 board.

Could anyone who has tried the XV series let us know about the 424 new wave forms. Also do the other sounds sound the same or better than on the XP series?

Also,could anyone who has ordered the new XVs particularly the XV-88 tell me where they ordered it from and how much it was in US dollars. Thanks!

The xv new waveforms are :
Stereo grand pianos.
Rhodes pianos.
rock organs.
saxophones.
guitars like slide and harmonic.
Analog synthesizer waves.
Orcestra unisons.
112 Jd 990 waveforms.
New drum samples.
and the same waveforms as jv 2080.