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.

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.

so what are the Hammond organ ype sounds like? I'm looking at a dedicated module, but if there's a good range on there I'm tempted to get that and save the money

Al

I must say that the Roland Experience II board is also very good for a variety of reasons. However, it has an Organ sample from the 60 and 70s board. This one sample is so good that i haven't really even aspired to save up to get the 60s and 70s board.

The sample has a particular bite and crunch that has fooled every musician that I've played it for. Believe it or not, the ip-Hop board also has a good organ sample that has an added record noise sample that makes it sound so good.

My Roland SC880 has a large collection of organs. They sound MORE THAN GOOD with the rotary effect. If you ever get a chance to try out this module, try out all of the organs with the Rotary effect on.

The Infamous EPU.

Here's my 2 cents worth-

I own 6 boards-

ORCHESTRAL 1- Great all round board but I think the orchestral 11 has improved on it in sampling quality- strings are better as are the string sounds in my Triton and TR Rack. However, the strings in this board are great in a mix. I love the orchestral ensemble patches but the acoustic piano patches are a waste of time! A great board overall though.

BASS AND DRUMS- All I can say is F---- Awesome! The best bass sounds to find their way into a synth- I've fooled a few people with these sounds- Drum sounds- AWESOME but the kicks need some external EQ for a bit more 'kick'!! I love this board. Lets hope Roland bring out a complementary Guitar and Drum board for this one- that would be great!

VINTAGE SYNTHE- This board contains some great patches especially some of the brass and the phattest string pads I've heard this side of Jupiter! I also like the couple of hammond samples in here also. However, since I've gotten my Z1, I use these sounds less as that board has the killer analogue sounds in my set up now!

KEYBOARDS OF THE 60s AND 70s- Yes there are some nice hammonds here but they can't touch those in a Roland VK7!!!! Lack of real time drawbar control doesn't make these sounds realistic to play (obviously!). I also think they would sound even better if the internal rotary effect was bypassed and an external leslie unit used. I don't much care for the EP's on this board though- I've played a real rhodes and whilst they sound OK, they just don't have that same bite. I think my Z1 has way better EP and Clav variations but this is just IMHO- if you want these sounds they are OK if you have nothing else but I must say that this is probably the most dissapointing card in my collection- Sorry If I've offended anyone. (I studied organ up to Licentiate Teachers level so I know the sound of my organs!!!!).

TECHNO- the 2nd most dissapointing card in my collection. Some nice leads basses and pads but the loops are absolute crap as are the vocoder patches- useless!!!! I actually thought that this was a renamed 'Dance' board as Roland got sued over the other board- I got a shock when I bought it home and found out it wasn't my mates excellent dance board (so I went and bought the Dance module to get these sounds also- they are great!!!!). No I've kept this board only because it does have a few nice pad and lead sounds but had I have know it was different to the dance board from the start I would have put my money somewhere else.

HIP HOP- AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME- probably my favourite board of the bunch- BEAUTIFUL USEFUL LOOPS- unlike the Techno board!! I love the overall 'grunginess' of the patches like the EP's and pads. Yes even the vocal hits are useful and I usually don't care for these type of sounds. Roland really kicked butt with this board. I love it!

My next board purchase will be the Orchestral 11 board- it's a great compliemnt to the orchestral 1 board and I love the choir sounds it has. I was also going to buy the 'Session' board but with my new XV3080, most of those sounds are already in there (notably the better pianos, guitars and brass). I also don't mind the vocal board but there are too many jazz scat patches for my liking and really, the XV3080 has some of the waveforms already built in! Listen to the XV's awesome vocal patches!

Well- my 2 cents worth. Cheers.

PS- I've played both the SRX boards but I'm not prepared to spend $799 Aussie for these boards- way overpriced- Sorry Roland but whilst they are of great quality, I can get the same results by hooking a CD ROM to my Triton and loading similar sounds into there for much cheaper. Don't get me wrong, these are the best pianos and acoustic drums you would here in a synthe but the price for them is bloody ridiculous! And just for 50 patches on each board???? COME ON!!!!!!!

Hey Korg.... you said you played both SRX boards.... I'm looking for some info on the piano board..... you said it is the best piano sound ever. Does it have anything else on it? E.P.'s, Organs's, or is it just Acoustic Pianos......... also the info I found says all the samples are from the same piano....... doesn't that make for a fairly repititious board??? in other words... do all the pianos basically sound the same.... would I be paying just for someone to have preset the EQ and other effects for me???? Please help if you can

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John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Make no mistake, the piano patches on the SRX board are the best you'll hear in a S&S synthesizer! There are different variations and it sounds to me that the same piano was sampled in many different ways!

No there are no other types of patches with this board just acoustic pianos and some pianos/string/vocal combo's- no EP's at all- and there are only 50 patches which is trully stingy if you ask me. Likewise with the drum board- only about 70 patches.

I just picked up the Orchestral 11 JV board and I'm very happy with it, to me overall it is better than the orchestral 1 board which I also own- better sampling but I'll see how much muse I'll get from the celtic and bouzouki patches!!!! I love the vox patches on this board- like Enya!

I'm now looking at the country expansion board with great interest as it seems that it provides alot of new quality guitar and bass patches! Also has the Latin board been released or are Roland just teasing us???? Anyone who owns these boards please write and tell us what you think of that as I have one more SRJV slot left in my XV3080 to fill and I need to choose between either the country or latin board- thanks in advance!

Hello,all pros
Is "vistage synth" still recommendable if I've got 3080 already? Is there any cool patches missed from this board in 3080?

Besides, even though lots of negative feedbacks have been post toward "techno" board, I still wonder how are the synthtones in "techno" compared to those in "vintage" ?
Thankx!!!

[This message has been edited by YMH (edited 10-01-2000).]

Has anyone heard the Asia expansion board, or the Vocals expansion board? How were they?

THe vocal board has alot of the scat samples that are on the newer Roland stuff, like the FP9 and the VA7. Very cool, useable sylables.The scat voices are so much fun to play with - I'm doing a Take-6 version of alot of oldies and the result is great. Manhattan Transfer...... Look out!

Yeah the vocal card is good! The scat sounds don't interest me that much but these are for sure the best sounding group vocal patches this side of a sampler that's for sure! But the other piano/epiano layers are nothing special nor are the AMEN sounds and gregorian chant patches. But the vocal and scat patches make it worth the money if you get one of these cards for a good price!

Anybody using the country card- I just want to know what the acoustic and electric guitars are like.

Also has Roland released the Latin board- if so, is anybody using it- what is it like??

Thanks Uncle Dave and Korgasm

It sounds like the Vocal Expansion board is worth getting for the 1080 and 2080. Since the 3080 and 5080 already incorporate some of the Vocal samples, is it worth getting for these newer modules as well?