Inray we all owe you for your valuable information. I am very interested in the new Roland workstations which will be coming out.
(I presume these will replace the XP60/80) What information do you have? Roland reps will not talk. I am sure that comparisons with the Korg Triton will be inevitable. Will this use the 3080 or 5080 engine? How many expansion slots? etc. Thanks.

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Korgasm, nowayout and all good friends here hi...
As you know from prevous posts i never post rumours as i hate 'em. I don't work for Roland or other firm but i'm on pro electronics audio business in a way i can have some "inside info".

BTW Korgasm the drum SRX is really excellent and has some of the best samples i ever heard. The vintage organ SRX has some very rare (today) sounds sampled not only using state of the art gear and software but also in one of the best studio in the world. I think that this is the Roland's secret on SRX excellent audio reproduction.

nowayout
Yes the new workstations will replace XP series. The only info i have this moment is that most of them will use 3080 synth engine (due cost) but with onboard seq and FDD. Roland will introduce one with large LCD (like 5080) and ability to read CD samples. I really don't know if this one will be based on 5080 or on 3080 engine. As you know both of them share most of their internal parts so it is easy for them to create hybrids. The real problem for Roland is the cost. If you are involved with microelectronics you already know that their new circuits use some of the most expensive IC parts and difficult to develop algorithms. These excellent electronics produce excellent results but cost too much.

I have no more info this time but stay tuned.

PS: SRX cards are not just replacement of older JV cards. Are new or resampled sounds using new algorithms, gear and studios. The media also is very expensive as the capacity is 64 MB. I've heard that new onboard sounds and SRX ones cost Roland more money and development than synths themselves

See you soon...

I am interested in additional information on the XV-88, if you wouldn't mind?

Does Roland provide PC software to interface with the XV? I understand they use something called a smart card media storage on the XV to store user stuff. Would that include sequences and samples?

Also is there Roland or other software that provides a GUI to tweak with the various parameters on the Synth? This is always preferable to having to scroll through an LCD display?

Thanks

KenDuesenberg hi...
Roland doesn't have yet any kind of released software specifically for XV. As i understand you mean an editor-librarian. I don't think that Roland will introduce this kind of software soon. But soon or later a third party maybe do that.
On XV88 smartcards hold user sound patches and not samples. On XV5080 you can save preloaded samples on its smartcards.

Anyway if you need more info take a look on Roland's web sites though information on them is limited to a few pages only.
http://www.rolandcorp.com/worldwide/products/NAMM2000/XV-series.html

Hi all,

That URL has changed, so try:
http://www.roland.co.jp/worldwide/products/NAMM2000/XV-series.html

Tons of useful info. on the XV stuff.

Regards,
Chris

Have any of you actually played the XV-88? If so I envy you. You must not be in the U.S. or something. I'm in the states and all the music stores around me don't even know when or if they're getting one. Anyway.. some questions about the XV assuming ya'll have seen them up close. Does anyone know what kind of jacks it has? Number of pedal outs... line outs..... headphones, etc, etc. I'm trying to decide whether it's worth waiting for the XV's or if I should buy a Yamaha S-80 right now. And if anyone HAS played it... how's the action, does it feel like a piano?

p.s. What does S/S keyboard mean?? Synth and Sequencer????

The japanese roland site seems the most thorough of all the online xv-88 information I've seen. I played an xv-88 at Sam Ash music in the Chicago area a week ago. It has a very nice action. I didn't check ins/outs etc. No, there is no sequencer on this model.

S/S or S+S means Sample+Synthesis. This means that the synth uses a sample as source for its sounds, and shapes/processes it through a traditional synthesis like in an analog synth...

Stig

Hello folks...
feefer the URL you wrote is just an alias of what i wrote.
Nate_Straight i have XV88 and one 5080 on my desk. For more information read older posts in this forum. I've posted much of them so you can search or browse and read about XV88.
BTW XV is far better than Yamaha S80 although S80 is also excellent value. XV88 feel is exactly piano weighted and somehow better than S80's feel. The real case is if you need the Roland or Yamaha sound. Synth engine in two keyboards is similar but Roland always had deeper synthesis with much more control on various parameters. Take a look for example in matrix mod, cross mod, insertion FX etc.
As stigf says S&S means sample & synhesis. The S&S synths are just playback samplers using internal or plugin sample waveforms and many modulations editing options to shape the sound but not the samples themselves. Most of current synths are S&S and they differ in editing method, algorithms, FXs, and quality of internal samples. These are where Roland XVs shine.

The XV88 has a great keyboard action for an 88 note controller IMHO. I love the D Beam controller and the other real time control features. Also I like the fact that it's not so big (the S80 is also a good size) unlike the Korg Triton ProX which is just too darn big IMHO.

I'm slowly paying off my XV3080. I'll be a very happy man when it's sitting in my rack!!!! Cheers to everyone!