The Roland Connect countdown clock expired...

http://www.rolandconnect.com/product.php?p=fa-08

Look at the large color screen... why not in the BK-9?

Also the next stage piano RD-800

http://www.rolandconnect.com/product.php?p=rd-800

Yes, it's great that Roland has come back with an affordable workstation!
From the description however, there is not really an Integra inside, the choice of acoustic supernatural sounds is reduced, and there is no SRX library on board (to me the best part of the Integra). But (!) there are expansion slots.
So depending on the further details, it still might be very interesting!

The FA-06 is only 12 pounds!!!

You can download the whole integra 7 library for free... including the SRX libraries... and its a free download... its a workstation that you can set up as you would like to..

For that price its an incredible instrument.. and if done right, the fully automated DAW integration could be priceless..

Very cool new boards. Love the color screen on the FA-06 but don't know if I would of liked to pay the extra $$$ to have it on the BK9. I'm getting and IPAD which I can take away from the keyboard and use for multiple purposes. More versatile setup IMHO.

The RD800 sure sounds great and I bet the weighted keyboard feels good to.
Nice and solid board at a bag of popcorn under 48 lbs. LOL
They must of been spying on Kurtzweil. Another piece for the studio / home.

That must definitely be completely wrong. You cannot download the SRX library for free. It involves thousands of waveforms! There are only two slots for additional waveforms in the FA. In the Integra each of the 12 SRX boards requires one slot, the Integra can use 4 boards simultaneously as it has 4 slots. You can download all the sound collections, but not the SRX library with all its waveforms. Don't mix up sounds versus waveforms. Everything offered for the Integra on Axial only consits of reprogrammed sounds using the waveforms that are already inside the Integra! But only new waveforms would really bring you completely new acoustic sounds. (For the FA, you will be able to download sounds including waveforms for the 2 slots, but so far there is no information about the size of these collections - it won't be the complete SRX library fitting into those 2 slots, you can be sure about that.)
Roland themselves emphasize on roland.com that the FA provides a selection of the Integra, but the Integra remains the sound flagship.

The expansion slot might be the same slot that is on the BK-9.

This definitely looks like BK body construction and design... Very light, but probably not as durable as their previous generation WS's.

And no touch screen? How could Roland have got it SO right, then stepped back so far? It seems that cost trumps everything, and these idiots are willing to compromise function to save a few dollars. That's the sort of short term thinking that gave us the BK series.

Price is what is going to determine how well this does. The MotifXF series is king of the roost at the moment, I don't see this supplanting it... Unless it is more in the range of a MOXF series.

Just like the arranger line, it seems Roland are doubling down on abandoning the TOTL, $3000 range WS market.

Motif XF is far from being king of the Roost.... did you never hear of the Korg Kronos?


And for $800 that FA61 is a big deal... the best you probably can get for so few dollars... Obviously Roland left the top segment of Keyboards back in the past... And they are trying as much as possible, reusing the same old technollogy over and over..

But then, it is probably the best workstation you can buy for that low price..

Well, I'm afraid I rarely see a Kronos played on TV, but Motif's are in almost every show. I wasn't talking 'king' based on capabilities, simply widespread use.

The Kronos is very popular at least according to the main German synthesizer forums, maybe 50/50 with the Motif XF.

Regarding the mid-priced segment, I don't see that the FA could outperform the MoXF. It might sell better than the Krome. The most important thing lacking is a flash board in order to load third party sample libraries.

Regarding the (virtual) expansion slots, it could be the same as BK-9, but with a different sound structure: the BK-9 (like all arrangers) only has tones as the lowest editing level, whereas the FA PCM section most probably has the system of tones/patches consisting of 4 waveform elements (as it has all the sounds of the XV5080, in which this architecture is used). The SN synth section has a system of 3 waveform elements per tone. These architectures are also used in the Integra.

I don't take forum chat as any particular proof of sales. Primarily, I simply look at live shows on TV, try to spot what is being used.

Massive Motif dominance there, but admittedly, it's been out a lot longer than the Kronos. Not to mention, the Kronos is another step UP in price point, Yamaha don't really make anything in that ballpark yet.

I played one quite a bit (both, actually). On the whole, I still felt the Kronos sounded very 'Korg-ish' and reminded me quite a bit of the M3's and even Triton overall basic sound. Not that that's a bad thing (still have a Triton), but I was hoping, along with the new streaming capabilities, to have something that departed radically from what came before. There are some amazing things it can do, but as a pure gigging machine, not exactly head and shoulders above anything else, particularly the XF series. But it's a good start. And hopefully, the streaming from SSD approach rapidly becomes the norm.

What an addition to an arranger that would be!

Yes, the Kronos is definitely very much an M3 XPanded. I had an M3XP module last year, then I tried the Krome in a store and listened to many demos of the Kronos preset sounds. Korg blew up the German piano (which also sounds very much like the M3 XP 4-way grand) to 2 GB size due to very long samples, which however doesn't change its general timbre. At least regarding the PCM orchestral sounds like brass, strings, woodwinds, a lot is nearly identical to the M3 XP. But IMO it is the ample space for additional sample libraries which can turn it into a great sound monster, not so much the on-board preset sounds.

Keyboard Magazine Quick Review

http://www.keyboardmag.com/article/153803

Ron

The Roland FA-06 sells for $1199.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/FA06

Roland FA-08 sells for $1799.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/FA08

Roland RD-800 sells for $2499.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/RD800

Great prices. If the MoXF hadn't been released, the FA-06 would be mine.

The first expansion package for the new Roland FA has popped up on Roland's AXIAL website today. It is a slightly reduced version of the SRX-08 (not my area of interest, just vintage techno beat samples etc.). But it confirms that other expansions based on SRX boards will be available in future - and indeed for free. (Remember However, only 2 of these waveform expansions can be loaded into a FA.)

http://axial.roland.com

The second expansion package for the Roland FA, EXP 02, has been released now. It is a reduced version of the SRX-07 Ultimate Keys, containing 400 sounds and 629 waveforms, e.g.:
-Roland's best grand piano of the 1990s (from 1996)
-lots and lots of e-pianos and e-organs (again from the 90s)
-saxophone, flute, vocals which were oustanding in 1996
-lots of electronic synthesizer sounds.
Although all the sounds go back to expansion boards from the 1990s, the SRX-07 is probably the most popular of all SRX boards. But a considerable 200 waveforms have been skipped in the EXP02.

Just a quick note that the 3rd expansion pack for the new Roland FA-06/08 has been released: the EXP 03 is 99% identical to the renowned SRX 09 expansion board 'WORLD': more than 400 terrific ethnic sounds and waveforms ranging from plucked to brass, from Asian to Mexican and a bit of Country. Although the samples date from about 1995-2000, they are highly usable and partly excellent. (The FA has got 2 virtual slots for expansion packs.)
Here's a demo of the SRX 09:
https://soundcloud.com/rolandcom/srx-09-demo-song?in=rolandcom/sets/srx-09-world-collection
(Once again, Soundcloud seems to have some technical problems...)