Possibly looking at the GW8. With only 128 onboard styles, I am wondering what 3rd party Roland styles might work in this board.

Zuki, I had the GW-7..It had a style converter that even converted styles from my G70...I would think that any styles converted to a Roland format will convert to the GW-8..

But your style conversion and editing MUST be done offline... There is no onboard style editing other than volume and mute only.

So any style editing has to be trial and error. Edit on the computer, send to the GW-8, listen, re-edit on the computer, send to GW-8, listen...

Rinse and repeat.

Just about anything you get Roland will have to be tweaked quite a bit to work well (probably OK if you're not picky, but I know you are! ) as the Sonic Cell engine is new, so little in the way of direct compatibility with legacy styles. Heck, even my old G70 needs quite a bit of work to get older Roland styles to work as good as the ROM ones. And that is with extensive on board Makeup Tools to make doing this easy.

G70 stuff works pretty well (on the whole), but older stuff needs tweaking...

A friend has a GW-8, and we tried this. Personally, I'd rather go for an E50, with the style editing tools onboard if I were you.

What happened with the VA?

No Lyric reader also.

BTW you were so happy with your PA800 why the sudden search for new kb's....?

Why not go for an AUDYA?



[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 02-16-2009).]

VA - too heavy for my 2nd board

800 - not ever looking to replace, just to add to

Audya - for the rich and verile

GW8 - lyrics reader not required, but extra styles would be great. With its weight and sounds/styles/performance settings, I think it would be perfect

Also, need to keep feeding my gear lust

E-50... 19 lbs. Way lighter than an S900 even...

Basically, zuki, I'd still shoot for this unless the onboard GW-8 styles really float your boat. I just think the workload for tweaking styles will put you off it, whereas tweaking styles on an E50/60/80/G70 is by far the easiest in the business...

Yep, the GW-8 has more sounds (and the GW-8L has some great Latin percussion), but the E50 is a no compromise arranger, whereas the GW-8 has some quite apparent ones, IMO.

what is "lacking" on your PA800 that you need to have another arranger & have to lug around & setup day after day with 50 gigs a month?

Nothing is lacking. Just thought the folks would love to listen to some Roland stuff.

At 17 lbs and the added versatility, it would add another element to my performances. As much as for me, I do it for them too

Maybe I could swap out boards once in a while if I had enough material on the Roland - just keeping it interesting.

Don't try to read too much in to this though. I've been known to be a lot of talk

BTW - I have gone headset wireless in the last (2) months. I will NEVER to back to a boom/wired system - soooo much freedom.

[This message has been edited by zuki (edited 02-16-2009).]

[This message has been edited by zuki (edited 02-16-2009).]

? E60 ?

Yep Cass, but hard to find????? I actually owned the 50 (my preference) one when first out and liked it. Wouldn't mind trying again.