Just curious what you all think. I must say that the "Hip-Hop" board surprisingly is one of the best. It has the greatest all around vareity of instruements than any other board.

It has Vintage Synths, Rhodes, Great Drums, nice Strings and even great guitar and instrument sounds. Although the first 100 patches are loops, this board is still the best bang for the buck.

I would also say the "Bass & Drums" board. Everyone should have this board as the first one on their list. This board has some of the most convincing and realistic boards that I have ever heard in a synth.

The Infamous EPU.

Hi,epu-Are we restricted to Roland boards in this dicussion?

Not really. But it would be nice if we could talk about the SRJV/XV Expansion Boards.

The Infamous EPU.

I would just not save the 200$ on the Expansion boards and put it towards a Korg Ms 2000 rack unit. The xp's , Jv's and the Ms200 r would make a great combo.

With $200, instead of getting a Korg MS, I would just get the Roland SRJV80-04 Vintage Synth Board. It has 255 different vintage synth sounds in there. Plus it keeps everything in one unit. The Vintage board, which came out 6 years ago still gets great reviews today.

Besides, put the Vintage Board in a XV5080, and you get 128 Note Polyphony instead of the 8 you get with the Korg MS.

The Infamous EPU.

But with the Korg MS, you get an actual different synthesis engine and crazy real time control.

Or what about that Roland Jp-8000? Thats around the Korg MS price, isn't it?

Im just saying I would be careful about spending 1200$ just on all soundcards for the same synth.

Hey..

My vote goes to Orchestral and Bass&Drum board. The sounds of these two boards are very realistic..
Who cares about the real instruments when you have tons of realistic sounds at your fingertip?

I really, really like the Roland expansion boards I own because so many of the patches (to me) are instantly usable. I have the VS, Session, Orchestral, and Hip Hop boards in my XP now, and I've adjusted the panel on the bottom of the synth to be removed in seconds so that I can swap the Vocal and Bass&Drum boards I own in an out as needed when recording. I don't really have a favorite board, but I can say that I like the boards I own better than the many I don't (I've owned the Pop, SSS, 60/70s, Dance; auditioned the World, SFX, Techno, more...).

I'd take a VA synth over the VS expansion board, but it won't work if $200 is all I have to spend. In my poorer days, I'd buy an expansion board, load each patch that I liked to user memory, print a list of the expansion board's waveforms, sell the expansion board (I'd buy it used, so I'd break even), and use the XPs non-exp board internal waveforms to (as best as possible) reproduce the exp bd sounds. Works well for some patches, not so well for others.

By the way...welcome back, SC! I haven't seen you post here in ages. Have I just not been paying attention?

I have to say the 60's and 70's have THE best organs, rhodes, and farfisa etc. I've ever heard on a synth (and I have plenty of synths) The orchestral is really nice too! I have a MARK I Fender rhodes, the exp card is very very close to the original sound.