Hi all,

I just got my GW 8E 2 days ago and on first impressions I cant believe how much keyboard you get for the price!

KEYFEEL – AWESOME! Nearly on par with my Motif XS and the Roland Fantom G. honestly it’s a great keyfeel – very high quality keybed for such a low end price range keyboard.

BUILD QUALITY - is very nice and tight, the buttons feel great and the analogue control knobs are fantastic. They feel exactly the same as my Motif XS. Very stiff, they aren’t flimsy or anything. I remember the knobs on the Yamaha MM6 and they felt like toys compared to this GW-8.

SCREEN – the screen does everything you need, a simple black and white screen with large characters. Its easy to read, its wide view can display the entire 8 tracks spread out with out having to squash everything together.

NAVIGATION – all I can say its I haven’t even read a single page of the manual except for a few quick references and I already know how to do pretty much anything on this board. Its so intuitive and easy to use.

The sound and rhythm categories are great, the effects menus are superb. I cant believe some of the effects it has and how good they sound. IT HAS A SLICE EFFECT!! For me that’s amazing it basically allows u to created arpeggiated voices and u can even create the patterns in extreme details… so a lot of the arps on my motif XS can be achieved using this SLICE effect on the GW-8.

Reverbs, Delays, and the rest are top class!

DRUMS – hands now cannot ask for anything more. They are Punchy, crisp and in your face. They are all very usable and also very unique between samples.

Everytime I play on this keyboard I just cant stop saying to myself - Cant believe I got this board for this price!!!

The physical size also – its so small and portable, when u carry it under one arm u think u are carrying a cheap casio board cos of the weight. Its thin, it isn’t deep but it has everything you need.

SOUND QUALITY:
I am using it through the Logitech THX Z2300 speakers and the sound is phenomenal! If only this thing had the mega voice technology or more multi layered guitars the backing tracks would be far more polished but still its good enough for live gigging and still sounds good.

Every sound category is there with many different options. I really cant find many weaknesses other than my original point about the guitars not having enough samples with the velocity range.

STYLES:
A lot of the styles possibly have too much. I am currently muting about 3 tracks in each style as they sound too busy or the accompaniment parts simply don’t fit the songs I am playing (no biggy). The style variety is great, my board comes with the E style set, one thing I want to know is if u can download the styles that come with L (Latin) version as that is my preference for the music I choose to play.

Using the styles is simple, the buttons are laid out very well and everything is easily accessed on the fly. I do wish this board had dedicated part mute and solo buttons for the 8 style parts. That is one thing it misses. Then again you can work around that by saving the variations into performances which are easily accessed on the right hand side just like the other high end arrangers.


My Biggest Drawback – I mentioned this above but the main thing I would point out that I thought was weak is that some of the voices especially acoustic guitars lack in the multisampling through the 0-127 velocity range

It’s just basically 2 samples for the entire velocity range as opposed to about 4 or 5 on the Yamahas that I have played on.

The funny thing is one of the acoustic guitar voices actually has the automatic fret slides that u get on the SA Concert Guitar on the Tyros 2. Annoying according to some people but it doesn’t seem to bother me at all.

I haven’t trying to convert any styles yet or set up the PC software.

I have tried song recording or the mp3 voice cut function and hope to explore this soon.

To sum up the GW-8 I would say:
- Simple, Straight forward arranger that does the basics plus a lot more
- Extremely portable
- Quality sounds and styles on par with high end boards at a third of the price.

thanks for reading
Nick

I hope they add the lyric reader on GW9 also...I love the weight and size.

good luck to you with your new kb..

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 09-20-2009).]

It's not a very big display, Donny. Not sure if it could legibly display more than one or MAYBE two lines of lyrics to a guy in the sitting position (forget standing!). I tend to want to look ahead (or back ) more than that...

So Diki you've seen the GW9? I rarely use lyrics... but if it plays SMF it should display them.



[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 09-21-2009).]

hes talking about the GW-8.

Nick.., have you updated to version 2 yet...????

Squeak, the board came already loaded with Version 2.

its pretty cool they give u another separate manual just for all the features in version 2.

I am putting in serious hours into this board My motif XS hasnt been switched on in a few days lol.

i am going to ring Roland Australia tomorrow and find out if i can purchase or download the Latin styles that come with the GW-8L...

I think Roland dropped the ball on the "small display" and no lyric reader...having a SMF player without it is like a half a feature. I actually considered one when they came out but after playing & exploring it there were too many deal breakers for my needs.But I guess at that price point they had to eliminate certain things.

Congratulations, Nick...it is nice to see you've found a gem.

My only beef with the GW-8 was the lack of style editing, and it was difficult to recommend the instrument because of that omission.

Seems that Roland was quick to fix that issue, and the GW-8 is now a more complete arranger, as well as a great "bang for the buck".

Ian

Donny its not really a small display.

it shows enough and what it shows is very clear. like i said above the layout is very simple and intuitive.

the best things about it is it has a lot of dedicated buttons for quick navigation which make things easier.

I am curious to know what u did before the lyrics viewers came out on keyboards? dont u take a laptop with u for every gig? a simple word document would eliminate the problem.

Anyways im not trying to sell you a GW-8, its probably a keyboard more suited to the player with an acquired taste.

besides - I dont sing - I play the melodies with my right hand and chords with my left so i have no need for lyrics or vocal harmonizer.

hope your enjoying PSR land

Ian thanks buddy!

it basically has the exact same style editor that the Yamahas have. (List view)

it does miss some features like being able to swap style parts from other styles on the keyboard though.

Nick.....like I said, I've played a GW8 a few times and enjoyed many of it's attributes..of course I use a laptop most of the time with my KB on stage....but many times for smaller gigs I don't & that is where the lyric reader and the Voc Processor comes in handy if you need it as a singer player. Another thing that turned me off was that the GW8 couldn't adapt and play G70 or other Roland styles.

Donny the GW-8 plays other Roland styles

Nick, perhaps they'll allow the swapping of style parts with another OS update...I know I find being able to assemble a style, from the bits of other styles, invaluable for my needs...style assembly is incredibly handy on the Yammies, as your new style parts are already adapted (as in note limit, RTR, NTR, NTT etc.) and ready to go.

I hope they add this feature to the GW-8 soon...thanks for the clarification.

You definitely seem happy with your purchase.

The Latin styles in the GW8-L use a LOT of drumkits and sounds that are exclusively in the -L variant. I think it would be pretty hard to adapt them. Each of the World variants basically has as much patch ROM as the basic GW-8 sounds that are in common, so that is a LOT of missing patches...

It's worth a crack at it, as some of the styles may be usable without the extra sounds, but I fear you are not going to get very close.

G70, Roland library also ?.....without conversions?

Nick, is the GW-8E guitar slide triggered by velocity, or does it happen when you play certain intervals whilst holding down the first note, and add more velocity?

The Yamaha SA Concert Guitar (and a few others) use the latter.

The Guitar slides are triggered by velocity. probably about 125-127 triggers the slide.

it can happen by just hitting one note. it doesnt do what the SA guitar does in legato mode. (wish it did)

some of the guitar samples also have the random fret slides like the SA concert guitar.