Is there any difference between the GW-8 and the GW-8L? Any differences in the Prelude... OTHER than the addition of speakers?

Anyone using any of these boards?

Glenn

The GW8-L has double the ROM of a Sonic Cell (what all the GW's are based on) with an emphasis on Latin sounds and percussion (pretty damn good percussion). I don't think there IS a 'basic' GW-8. All GW-8's have SOME kind of addition (either Latin, Eastern European or Asian, I think) to their basic shared ROM.


Do a search for GW-8 here. Several people have reviewed it, including me...

Does anyone know if there's any difference in the Prelude other than speakers?

In a word... no. What's amazing to me, the only GW8 version available in the USA is the GW-8L, and L DOES stand for latin. Of the 230 styles on-board, 100 are latin!

and how are those Latin styles?
any G8 owners care to weigh in?
I've been so disappointed by roland styles and drum programming in the past I didn't even consider this board.

thnks
tm

The latin styles are very good. The other styles not so. You can't edit them in any way. The best of the GW8 in my opinion are the synth sounds and the piano's. I am saving now for a korg PA800 because of the lack of styles on the GW8. So if you want programming of styles and drums and need better sounds I advise to go for a yamaha psr s700 or korg pa500. They all have the same price tag.

Why-oh-why won't Roland offer the GW8 styles as an upgrade pack for the E-80/G-70?

Don't forget the Roland E50/E60.
The best board for editing/creating styles!
Greetings
Peter


[This message has been edited by Rolman (edited 06-28-2009).]

Is it possible for someone to download the GW-8 styles to PC and then upload to your E-80?

There is no style file copy on the GW8. You can LOAD new styles, but the ROM style section is not available to the file system.

Sadly, the only way to copy the ROM styles is to painstakingly make SMF's of the style divisions (not forgetting about the different patterns for maj/min/7th) and then reassemble them with your MIDI to style capabilities in your E/G-series arranger.

And even then, you are up against it... Personally, I think one of the BEST things about the GW8-L is the very good Latin Percussion in the expansion ROM. Most of these sounds don't even exist in the E/G-series arrangers, so a translated style still has quite a battle to sound as good.

I know that Roland have moved on to ARX expansion for their Fantom WS line, but there is still a ton of current and legacy products with SRX slots. I am surprised that Roland hasn't taken the Latin and European and Asian expansion ROM's for the GW8 variants, and released them as SRX cards, for adding to Sonic Cells and G70 and E80 arrangers. I can see Roland making a decent chunk of change from us if they bundled the SRX card with GW8 styles translated to work on the card/arranger hybrid.

But them again, Roland seem hell bent to destroy any chance of success in their arranger division. So this fairly obvious move is probably pretty unlikely...

Diki, are you sure there is not a compressed file of styles like the rom file found on the G70?

Can the contents of the internal memory be seen on a PC via USB?

No, Fran... I hooked it up while I had one. No 'ROM Styles' folder at all. If only it WERE that easy!

BTW, the ROM styles folder isn't compressed on the G70, it is simply a folder of styles exactly the same as the User Files folder. So this allows you to edit a ROM style, set it up exactly the way you want it, then save it to the User area, then transfer via USB to the ROM area, overwrite it, and now your version of the style is now ROM...

The only thing compressed on the G70 is the ROM samples for the voices (same as pretty much all arrangers and WS's, for that matter), perhaps that's what you were thinking.

[This message has been edited by Diki (edited 06-28-2009).]

Roland are missing an opportunity for an easy sell here. Given that the replacement for the E-80/G-70 is still at least twelve months away, why not offer those customers who already have one a "Gold Styles" style upgrade pack of these new styles? They can't be expecting E-80/G-70 customers to buy GW-8s, can they?!

The problem with styles is that they are unprotected. So Roland would be unlikely to make much money off of all the work they would have to do to translate them. But bundle them together with an SRX card with these new drumkits and other sounds, and tailor the styles so that they only work well with the SRX card, and you have a recipe for profit.

Apparently, though, at Roland... not really a priority.

To be honest, though, I see Roland as holding these back and keeping them in their pocket for inclusion on a future E/G arranger (if they have anything at all in the planning stage). Style development being one of the most expensive parts of making the arranger, they might be keeping these for ROM styles for the next one.

I guess I should have made MIDI's of my favorite styles while I had the chance...

[This message has been edited by Diki (edited 06-29-2009).]

Diki, my G70 has the individual styles and also a ZIP file (compressed) of the ROM styles...

Where's the ZIP file, Fran? What folder? Don't recall seeing one in my G70...

It's possibly there so you can do a 'reinitialization' of the G70 (come to think of it, that makes sense), but the GW8's ROM can't be overwritten, so there would be no need to do a 'restore' on that, I suppose.

[This message has been edited by Diki (edited 06-30-2009).]