I wonder if that may affect quality of Roland? Are there any other Rolands made in china?

.

[This message has been edited by mc (edited 01-14-2010).]

In the world economy as it is, was anyone REALLY expecting anything new from a Roland TOTL arranger? I know I wasn't...

Roland's woes with moving production reliably to China have been common (or maybe not so common!) knowledge for a couple of years.

All in all, new products from ANY keyboard division are way down this year, many of the major players don't even USE NAMM any more, the internet being just as effective for information dissemination these days. Most of my friends in the business say privately that NAMM is of little use any more, they just go for the junket, most of them already know about new products before they go... They certainly know about it the day it is announced no matter WHERE they are.

Look, this is Economics 101. World recession, diminishing interest in a product line (for all we want to ignore it, arranger sales other than at the 'toy' end of the spectrum are plummeting), complete domination of WS and software sales, what were we expecting?

It's time to find out for ourselves whether we NEED a new arranger, or simple WANT a new arranger...

maybe the reason Ketron is not @ NAMM this year is because they are using these "funds" to better the AUDYA, like new board/chip with 2GB Ram, and TONS of new modern breakthrough sounds

or they are creating our AUDYA module, or AUDYA2 keyboard

Warning! Warning! Warning!

Gratuitous Audya reference alert!

Take cover!

Hey Lee... You even GOT one, yet?

Diki !!! That was good ....I love your humor. :-)

------------------
createsongstyles.com
fakesheets.com

I was hoping for a new high-end Arranger from Roland even though I thought it probably wouldn't happen at this NAMM show. The global economy is still wrecking havoc and I suppose that has had something to do with not only Roland's meager offerings at winter NAMM '10 but also Yamaha and Korg's too. Actually Roland didn't do too bad as they did release several new products. The new VP-7 vocal processor module looks interesting for keyboardists wanting a vocalizer as well as the new 76 key V-Combo VR-700 B3 Organ Clone (with Piano and other voices included). One thing missing from the VR-700 is possibly still no way to route separate outputs simultaneously for Organ and e.g. Piano sound, leaving it unchanged from its older sibling the VR-760 it looks like.

A real letdown was the fact the RD700GX Stage Piano (released at the same time as the Fantom G) just got an expansion sound upgrade taken from Roland's V-Piano technology from what I understand, whilst the Fantom G received nada, zip, zilch, goose egg i.e. nothing at all.

Disappointing to say the least, and it has given me more incentive and a wake up call to seriously consider dumping my Fantom G7 for a new "76 key" high-end arranger somewhere down the line. Whether that's this year, next year, or the year after, only Yamaha, Korg, and/or Roland know for sure. Oh yeah, maybe an Audya II could be in the mix perhaps too. Although, hopefully at a much more reasonable price point.

All the best,
Mike

Thanks for the report, George.

Beakybird

Hi George,
Really disappointing news regarding Roland.
I had hoped to see a new top of range board from them. In the circumstances, I think it's madness to cease production /sales of the E80 (and G70) when they have nothing in place to offer us. I would still be willing to purchase an E80 new but there are none to be found.

Maybe Casio will be persuaded to have a go - their MZ-2000 was a very respectable offering at that time and should have been updated/developed over time.

Many thanks for keeping us so well informed anyway - we certainly can't rely on the manufacturers to let us know what's happening so your news is always appreciated.
Best wshes,
Tony

Tell us about all the new arrangers from Ketron, Korg and Yamaha, then.