Hey thanks for your great comments. Very useful.

I have come to terms with what this can and cannot do and it's actually awesome.

The styles and sounds need a lot of customizing/layering obviously.
I will try chaining various custom styles and registrations to see how it can widen the possibilities.

Pairing it with another synth or importing audio is another cool way to bring it out imo.

I was a bit bummed out about the synth patches having limited modulation but it's all good giving a great 80-90's vibe that is hard to find elsewhere. Synth patches are crisp and layering sounds manually is great (think unison).

The PSR imo is more akin to a "modern" Farlight with hi def samples having few but meaningful modulation features and some midi magic. I can see the creation potential.

I found this video that captures some of what I think is interesting:

Youtube Terminator demo

I really like the EQ on this video I hope it can be done straight out of the PSR-SX but a DAW may be needed for final mastering.

One thing the DAW gives you that the arranger really can’t is the ability to split the output up by each individual sound for higher quality EQ, compression and reverb, etc.. Make multiple passes of the sequence with everything but one part muted, soon you have a multitrack recording of the whole thing. You can even separate the drum track into each drum, or group of drums. You haven’t lived until you’ve run the output of an arranger’s drum parts through a convolution reverb with an impulse of a REALLY good studio drum room!

Likewise compression. Your average arranger’s built-in compressors are garbage compared to a decent LA2A or 1176 type compressor VSTi, or a nice Neve type bus compressor on the final mix. Not to mention Lexicon and higher quality reverbs…

And yes, you’ve found the arranger’s Achilles heel, they are primarily sample based, so synth sounds just don’t cut it compared to even a budget virtual analog synth. You can spend a fortune chasing great synth sounds with hardware, when a few well chosen VSTi’s can be had for next to nothing.

Truth is, you CAN create with almost anything… look at how basic the gear was on some of synthpop’s iconic early 80’s hits. But nowadays, it’s more about the workload. It took massive skill to coax hits out of that old hardware. And, to be honest, it hasn’t got THAT much easier if you stick entirely to hardware. But a DAW makes it all easy…

Thanks

I am slowly figuring out the various possibilities of audio integration with my DAW too bad there is no USB audio like on the E453 and Modx but save to WAV is really nice.

The synths are actually pretty good and all useful. A bit mechanical PCM'ish which I like a lot. Some vintage synth tones are acceptable and the digital waves are pretty good.

I don't seek high end effects ( I do pop, synthwave, electro, ambient) anything more will go on a daw for sure.

I really need to get the eq'ing right to match the sound profile of the rest od my setup.

Cheers

It’s always the portamento or filter sweeps that tend to expose arranger synth sounds.

One little tip about matching EQ’s on Roland’s is, no matter where you set the Mastering Tools, the audio player bypasses everything. So you can load in a .wav or high bitrate MP3 of a target recording you are intimately familiar with, then switch back and forth between that and the sound or mix you are working on until you’ve tweaked your stuff to match.

This also gives you the advantage of the same d/a converters for both sounds, taking away one more variable.

It’s also really handy for sound check time at live gigs, allowing you to set your PA for best venue EQ, then adjust the Mastering Tools depending on whether you want a bit more or less compression for the gig (I tend to find super quiet gigs benefit from a bit more compression on styles and SMF’s).

Absolutely. The great news is that any PC with good software can do this quite easily. Not as convenient obviously.

Thanks for the sound tips. I have set everything to flat right now until I can do a proper sound test.

I don't play live nor covers. Everything is usually my stuff so I have a lot of flexibility.

Cheers