Hmm. Here's a product idea. Since we now know that Roland's new XV modules will only PLAY BACK samples, there's less of an insentive to get it.

Roland could make more money off of the existing XP/JV series by releasing an expansion board that had Flash ROM on it that could hold samples. They could write some new OS code and stick it on the Expansion Board so they don't slow down the CPU.

The Sampling OS could take up 0.5 MB and we could use the remaining 7.5 MB to hold samples. The XV series would be truly groundbreaking if it could sample period!

The Infamous EPU!

I'm not trying to Squash your idea, but I believe that there are more people (like me ) that will NEVER sample anything. I want the best sounds I can buy - I don't want to make them, and I think the largest share of the market is for players and not composers. I may be wrong about this, but it seems like that to me. Sampling is not all that easy, and a novice can get frustrated right away, thinking that any sound can be sampled and played back musically. I'll let the pros do that for me, thank you!

------------------
Uncle Dave

Uncle Dave-
I do see (and respect) your point.

However, if Roland have gone this far to allow us to read multifple sound libraries and expand the unit (XV5080) up to 128MB of RAM then why not go the whole hog and give us a full function sampler. It would really give the likes of EMU (E Synthe series), Yamaha (EX series), Korg (Triton series) etc a serious run for their money and if intuitive, people would sample, even to simply add their own loops etc rather than relying on 3rd party sounds.

It really surprises me that the XV5080 can't sample but hey, if I had $5,000 Australian knocking about, I'd still buy one!!!!!!

Well, they could continue to keep current JV/XP owners happy by issuing the SRJV80-19 Sampling Board like I just proposed.

Are you very familiar with digital synth architecture (hardware and software)? I don't know much, but just from what little bit I know, it seems that the card idea would be expensive and difficult to implement, especially using existing XP/JV series synths.

I think Roland wants folks to rediscover their very large sample library. So they are taking the basic proprietary approach. They have no incentive to allow 3rd party samples. Epu, I like your idea but Roland has already said no.
At least a Triton will read Akai samples.

The reason why I even bring that up is because if you look at Korg for example, they just released the Triton and yet they haven't discontinued the Trinity. The Trinity has been around longer than the XP's but yet it still continues to sell strong.

With the MSRP $1000 lower than it used to be on the Trinity, Roland will have a run for their money with the XPs. Hopefull Roland will implement sampling on it's XV80 and XV60 Keyboards.

Anyway, the Trinity continues to sell strong because of all of its upgrade options. A sampling board wouldn't be very hard to implememt because all of the OS could be written on the Boards ROM, which wouldn't require any upgrading of the XP's motherboard. All samples could be dumped to sample RAM via MIDI or floppy disk. I tell you, a board like that would sell, and it could seriously give the Trinity and Triton a run for their money.

Roland Rules!

The Infamous EPU.