(cross-posted from rec.music.makers.synth)

I've been looking into getting a ROMpler for meat and potato stuff and
this one has caught my fancy.
From what I've read the "Session" expansion card has some good organ
and epiano sounds. Any truth to this?
How is programming with the synth? I'd prefer to not have to use Unisyn
on a computer to do so.

Also, does anyone know where I could find one new old stock, or in near
mint condition?

I know it's been discontinued, so that's a long shot, but I figured I'd ask.

Take care,
Des

In article ,
Desdinova wrote:


(cross-posted from rec.music.makers.synth)

I've been looking into getting a ROMpler for meat and potato stuff and
this one has caught my fancy.
From what I've read the "Session" expansion card has some good organ
and epiano sounds. Any truth to this?
How is programming with the synth? I'd prefer to not have to use Unisyn
on a computer to do so.

Also, does anyone know where I could find one new old stock, or in near
mint condition?

I know it's been discontinued, so that's a long shot, but I figured I'd ask.

Take care,
Des

I'm a keyboard player; and I still don't have much of a feel for how
well-received are the opinions of musicians on the forum (but I have a
thick enough skin not to worry.)

Anway, I have a very high opinion of Roland gear, particularly the JV/XV
synths.

Here's my opinion though. Get your hands on either an XV-5080 or -3080,
not a JV. Instead of the "Session" board, get the "Ultimate Keys"
SRX board. This would be a much better overall value, unless you're
finding JV-2080's with the Session board for $200.00 or something like
that.

Programming the XV is a matter of learning the architecture of Roland.
It comes naturally to me, because I've been using Roland synths for a
while. There's a patch editor from SoundTower for the XV-5080 that's
heaven to use, but I have no problem at all editing performances from
the panel of the XV. I totally love everything about this synth EXCEPT
for its real piano sounds, which suck.

Don't get me wrong on this, the pianos sound pretty good and sit well in
a mix, BUT, they are HORRIBLE pianos for the player. The problem is in
the velocity layers. They just don't work right and give invalid
feedback to a pianist.

On the other hand, I have other boards for Piano, including real pianos,
so this is less of a problem for me. A midi stream into the Roland
pianos actually works quite well, it's just no good for performance; at
least not for classical piano performance.


All that said, I cannot bring myself to part with my JV-880. Not that I
really use it; every one of its sounds are available in the XV-5080,
it's in storage, but I will keep it until it dies.

Same with my XP-80. I use it as my main controller, even though I don't
use its audio output at all. There hasn't been a keyboard since the
XP-80 that I like more. (I considered "upgrading" to a Fantom, and RAN
away crying.)

I don't think the pro audio guys will have any problem with the output
of the XV-5080 (clocked spdif, plus 8 channels of reasonably clean DAC
output, plus the proprietary R-Bus if you're into Roland recorders.)

The effects are great. Just my opinion, shared by many. XV is a great
bread-and-butter synth, especially if you buy into some of the expansion
cards. I don't think it could be my *only* synth, but then, I need
everything from my Waldorf (for everything from Subtle to Strange), my
Alesis QS6.1 (used only for tonewheel organ), and a PC running a VST
Host (energyXT usually) and VST Instruments (Kubik and WusikStation,
mostly).

But without the Roland XV, I'd be missing a whole hell of a lot of
important sounds.

By meat and potatos do you mean for live performance or studio recording? I
would think James' suggestion might be something to consider if it's
something to take out and play or to do double duty. I remember the day I
bought my Korg X3 and another keyboard player picking up the 2080 and
wishing I could have afforded the Roland. Ah, but Korg has always been the
keyboard of choice, and I am going up today to pick it up after 10 years of
use and finally having it refurbed. It is nothing in comparison of the
Korgs available today, and I'd think you'll find all the great sounds have
been translated to Roland's newer architecture, so it seems to be a much
better option than trying to purchase product that is now 10 years old and
has been out of play for quite a few years.

You may even be able to find a sample disk that contains a lot of the sounds
of the Roland and use a controller, if you are interested in those meat and
potato sounds for recording.

Then again, a quick search on ebay just resulted in a 2080 module that
claims to be virtually new. At $202 current and 5 hours left, you might
want to give it some consideration

--


Roger W. Norman
SirMusic Studio
http://blogs.salon.com/0004478/
"Desdinova" wrote in message
...
(cross-posted from rec.music.makers.synth)

I've been looking into getting a ROMpler for meat and potato stuff and
this one has caught my fancy.
From what I've read the "Session" expansion card has some good organ
and epiano sounds. Any truth to this?
How is programming with the synth? I'd prefer to not have to use Unisyn
on a computer to do so.

Also, does anyone know where I could find one new old stock, or in near
mint condition?

I know it's been discontinued, so that's a long shot, but I figured I'd
ask.

Take care,
Des

Or try the XV-2020 which is fully programmable through software and
holds two SRX cards and is the least expensive module Roland makes.
It's cheap, but still $500+ after cards. The sounds of the Roland gear
have traditionally been good, but ultimately slightly "canned" sounding.
They have a limited amount of memory that can be devoted to each
individual sample and most of the patches are a blend of synthesis with
sampling to create something approximating what you want. It's good for
a big bucket of sounds, though.

Cheers,
Trevor de Clercq

james wrote:
In article ,
Desdinova wrote:


(cross-posted from rec.music.makers.synth)


Here's my opinion though. Get your hands on either an XV-5080 or -3080,
not a JV. Instead of the "Session" board, get the "Ultimate Keys"
SRX board. This would be a much better overall value, unless you're
finding JV-2080's with the Session board for $200.00 or something like
that.