Hi All-

I played the XV88 today! It is a beautiful instrument with a fine 88 note weighted action. It's sounds (as expected) are awesome and if I had to choose between it and the Yamaha S80, I would go for the XV88! The S80 is also great (nice sounds and additional expansion etc) but I prefer Roland sounds personally. I also think that the piano is a bit more responsive and less sharp than on the Yamaha. I'll be really interested to see what Roland do with future SRX expansion boards.

Yes the Korg Triton series really do have a competitor to be very afraid of! Comparing both side by side, they sound quite different with the Korg excelling in certain other kinds of sounds- but the Roland piano leaves everyone else standing at present!!!!

The D Beam controller is also nifty. If money and space was no object, I would have bought this new board yesterday!!!! Cheers.

PS- Mabey some mighten agree but it would have been really nice of Roland to have included Stereo audio inputs that we could have run external sources through to process through the XV's powerful synthe and effects sections. Oh Well, mabey next time!!!!!

Hello from a new member of this forum.

I joined because I am about 90% sure that I want to purchase the XV-88, not avaiable until May 20th - or so I am told.

This gives me time to see what Roland users are saying about the instrument to make sure I am doing the right thing.

I currently have an Alesis QS6.1 and from what information I have gathered off the Roland sites and from reading the messages on this forum, it sounds like the XV-88 will be a major change/addition to my small synth lineup.

I have a few questions, and will have to reference the QS synth so bare with me.

Question:: I am confused about the XV-88 ability to play midi sequences without an external sequencer. With Alesis you can burn a flash rom card with a sequence you created and have the synth play back the sequence off the flash card. Does this Roland synth also have a similar capability?

Also along the same line, can a person download a created sample and store it in a user bank or flash type of card to play back on the XV-88?

Appreciate any information anyone has concerning my questions.

Thanks





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Ken D

Ken D-

From what I know you can't play midifiles/sequences on flash cards like you can in the Alesis QS series. This is a great feature about those machines. The Yamaha S80 (which I also like very much!!) allows you to play sequences off cards in the same way.

No you can't import your own samples into the XV88. However, the XV5080 modules allows you to expand it up to 128MB of ram and you can load in Wav, AIFF, Roland and Akai samples. If you don't want the 88 note controller, perhaps you could get one of these and use your Alesis (with it's nice unweighted action) as a controller.

Sonically, you would get fantastic results by layering up the Alesis and Roland sounds. I used to own an S4plus (which basically sounds the same as the QS synthes) and when I layered it with my Korg and Roland stuff, it was awesome!!!!

However, do also check out the Yamaha S80. This is slightly cheaper than the XV88 and allows you to add different plug in boards for virtual analogue, harony processing etc. The Roland boards allow for additional sample ROM. Compare both the S80 and XV88 and decide for yourself but IMHO these are very closely matched (although I have a slight bias towards the Roland sounds! This only IMHO I might add!!!!).

Yes we synthe players are the real big winners at the moment with all this great new gear coming out! Mabey I'll start playing lotto so I can buy even more!!!!! (I'm poor afterall!!). Cheers.

Hey Korgasm,

The only thing I can't get past with the S-80/XV88 comparison is the price. Roland sure is proud of their products when it comes to setting retail prices, and yes, they are good; but hasn't Yamaha proved that a really good, 88-key instrument can be done for under $2K?
Just a thought,

Josh

here is 1 more piano sound set that is killer original- William Coakley's perfect piano for the ZR 76 and the ZR 76 expansion Rom for the P2K and Xl-1 ( eMu). It's a sampled Steinway and it is sweet and smooth as silk from bottom E to high G. I A/B' d it to the Roland Session grand. No comparison.