I like ROLAND

[brenner13]

I"ve posted several times before: I have no less than five defective Roland pitch bend assemblies from several different third party suppliers; all have various degrees of dead spots and do this annoying hiccup when attempting a slow, smooth pitch up.

I gave up searching after my last attempt. Syntaur seems to be one of the more reputable third party party places, although I"m pretty sure the one currently in my VR09 was procured from them...it was used from a GW-something-or-other...still defective, but better than the others. I"ve bought this 'new' piece now with your link. THANK YOU!

 

Still need another, NEW one. Sure would be useful to be able get it direct from Roland to be sure it is factory spec.

[Baldwin Funster]

What do you do to those pitch lever assemblies that breaks them? Normal use? Excessive dive bomb wheedly deedly? Are you heavy handed? Do you have ones that you didn't break after hard use?

I ask because I use the stick alot and would like to know where the limits are.

[brenner13]

Admittedly I am heavy handed. Here"s a SoindCloud link to a silly little modal piece done with the VR09 that uses extensive pitch bend:

Vr-09 song test

[S_Gould]

My 42 year old SH2000 is still going strong. Still a great monosynth for leads (with outboard effects).

[CEB]

The paddles eventually wear and the do not want to return to true middle. d-50, SH-101, SH-01, etc... FA-06 has started to act up and go out of tune a couple of times. It getting ready to go bad. I"m not heavy handed. I just play a lot. It"s the design. The spring eventually goes sprung. But you can replace just the spring. It"s a $3 part.

[brenner13]

Yep, I have other vintage gear with wheels (Yamaha) that still work like new. Even an old Rhodes badged Roland organ clone (VK 1000) from the late 1980"s functions like it should.

 

It"s just the Roland paddles from the last couple of decades that seem to wear out after several years.

[gino]

I've also loved my Roland products over the years. Jx-8p, Mc-50, jv-80, xp-80, fantom x8, cube 60 amp. The FA08 is my main board now married with a cheap maudio 61 key midi keyboard. I really love the Fa08, its got all the essential stuff i need to perform in a covers band. None of the products have been perfect and a couple had issues that needed repairs. I've also owned and enjoyed some korg keyboards along the way. M1, Triton Le, Triton TR. The 2nd hand motif xf7 I purchased a few years ago, a great board also, but started playing up and has been in for repairs 3 times but the they have been unable to eliminate the issue. There are so many keyboards from all the different manufacturers that I would love to own if i had unlimited funds.

[Tom Williams]

I like Roland -- on my third shoulder synthesizer keytar AX-Edge <-- AX-Synth <-- AX-1. I'd move from "like" to "love" if the AX-Edge had three attributes of its predecessor:

• Smaller Body without the Klingon industrial design;
  
• The AX-Synth's SuperNatural violin
  
• A PC-based editor, versus the current tablet editor that, objectively and without bias, sucks.
  

But with all those negatives, the AX-Edge is still the most mature keytar I've ever owned, and I suspect the most full-featured anyone has made to date.

[marczellm]

I like PIEROGI !

Me too!

[marczellm]

(Disclosure: My father used to work for Roland.)

 

When I was a kid I started playing around on an E-36 then cut my teeth on a FP-5 during high school. When I graduated I got the JUNO-G and learned everything I could about programming it as well as synth programming in general. I'm still using it and getting compliments to this day about the sounds I can coax. The university choir bought a FP-4 based on my recommendation and it has served great, the action and sound was both very pleasant. I also had multiple people asking me for board recommendations over the years and out of multiple brands I recommended they usually tended to choose Roland. A university friend, who was playing in an amateur rock band, fell in love with the VR-09 at first sight. Same with a female friend and the white F-140R upright. The church band has been using a JV-90 until last month and when I joined the band I took the board home and did some fun programming on it. Once we borrowed an RD-300-something for a while and that served great too. And I have an old PC-200mkII MIDI controller lying around.

The older Juno-G seemed really interesting, but I never had a chance to play one.

One of the best things about it is how cool it looks

I'm guessing (yes guessing) that the vast majority pick their gear on a range of factors, of which brand would only be one of many considerations.

When I think about it, brand comes last. I wasn't satisfied with the AP, EP and organ sim in Rolands so I've gotten the Nord. I wasn't satisfied with the programmability of the RD-88 so I recommended the church band buy a Kurz SP6 which is also very nicely priced.

I really love the Fa08, its got all the essential stuff i need to perform in a covers band.

That's what I thought too when it came out: This would be perfect for a cover band. And looks appropriate too with all the colors.

[Muad’Dib]

I like PIEROGI !

Me too!

 

I like mine with sautéed onions and sour cream.

[EricBarker]

I feel like a lot of the big synth manufacturer's are making strange decisions these days. I've always liked KORG, but their infatuation with micro keys is just extremely puzzling. They've started releasing very interesting synths, both analog and digital, that have very creative sound engines... with crap mini keybeds. Roland are keeping it full-size but have been completely ignoring vintage analog revolution. And Yamaha... will always be yamaha... completely unconcerned with whatever else is going on. It's kind of maddening. I find myself not drawn to either of the big 3 right now.

 

At least Roland did the Ax-Edge. Not really my thing these days, but that was a truly great product.

[stoken6]

I actually started with Roland - a Juno-2. I think I prefer the "old" Roland who knew how to put a decent action, aftertouch and internal PSU on a non-premium board.

 

I did quite like the VR09 when I tried it, despite my elevated principles...

 

Cheers, Mike.

[Muad’Dib]

I have owned the JX-305, The Juno-106 (should have kept) a Juno D, not too exciting, and finally a D-20. Which I bought last year.

[Moonglow]

I haven"t purchased a lot of Roland products over the past 35 years (n = 4), unlike the many Korg and Kurzweil keys I"ve swapped in/out of my rig as newer models became available. However, the Rolands I have acquired remained in my rig for extended periods. The MKS-80 and D-550 were in my rack for about ten years and I also used a Juno-106 for many years, albeit as part of a 'B' rig for wedding receptions back in the day (M1 + DX7 + J106). Most recently, I"ve been using a Jupiter-80 in my live rig for nearly ten years. So while I infrequently buy Roland keyboards, when I do they are actively used for the long-haul.

[ProfD]

I've owned a few Roland KBs (D50, A90EX, JV1080, JD-XA, System 8, FA-07) over the past few decades.

 

I admire that Roland has been able to repackage and sell the same "sound" in different boxes over the past 30+ years.

 

Not a knock as it makes Roland KBs great Swiss Army knives capable of covering any type of gig whether it's home, stage or studio.

[CEB]

Eric Persing sold a lot of synths.

[AnotherScott]

I'd move from "like" to "love" if the AX-Edge had three attributes of its predecessor:

• Smaller Body without the Klingon industrial design;
  
• The AX-Synth's SuperNatural violin
  
• A PC-based editor, versus the current tablet editor that, objectively and without bias, sucks.
  

But with all those negatives, the AX-Edge is still the most mature keytar I've ever owned, and I suspect the most full-featured anyone has made to date.

Yes to all of that, plus I wish they would go back to the pitch and mod wheels they had on the very first one (Axis, aka AX-1). I don't like the pitch ribbon, and I hate the bar for modulation, because it's basically just full on and full off, you have no subtle control, plus you can't leave it in place.

[allan_evett]

I carry a ever-burning torch for my long-sold-off Roland Super Jupiter Module and its programmer (MKS-80 and MPG-80). Real VCOs, an awesome VCF... It sounded as big as Montana and deeper than the Mariana Trench. What was I thinking? I need an analog fix....

[Muad’Dib]

I carry a ever-burning torch for my long-sold-off Roland Super Jupiter Module and its programmer (MKS-80 and MPG-80). Real VCOs, an awesome VCF... It sounded as big as Montana and deeper than the Mariana Trench. What was I thinking? I need an analog fix....

 

 

I saw an MKS-80 for $1,500.00.

[allan_evett]

Paul, that's tempting - if I had the $$. I I decided to go for a compact, analog synth with keys; so I just ordered a Korg Prologue 8 at half the money. The MKS-80 was awesome, but I've had a connection with 2-pole analog filters lately. A late friend, from Nashville, had an Oberheim OB-X; and I loved the sounds he got with that monster. The cheapest one of those sold on reverb.com recently was $3,600 (2018). And one just went for $10k, earlier this month. The Prologue has a similar architecture - with a 2-pole analog filter, plus a third oscillator that's somewhat a wild card of tone generation. I hear a lot of familiar sounds on the YT demos.

 

Now if f an analog module was my preference - and as a mono synth, I'd be all over the Roland SE-2. Played one at Sweetwater's GearFest two years ago, and almost took it home. It sounds massive.

[harmonizer]

I am addicted to the sophisticated splits that are supported by the XV and now in my FA-07.

And I really like the usefulness of many of the sounds from the base XV and SRX-07 expansion card for the XV, which are carried forward in the FA-07.

There are many sounds which sound unimpressive when listened to my themselves, but just work in a 7-piece covers band.

 

I am not "all-in" with Roland sounds: All organ and EP sounds come from my Nord Electro.

[LX88]

I have to tell all of you who are open minded to Roland....

 

The FP 10 Supernatural has the magic!

 

It just needs a small amount of help....a bit of low end EQ and good headphone selection.

 

Currently using Grado SR 60 .

 

Each note sounds warm and good.

 

And this damn thing gets pulled of the market!!!

[brenner13]

Thank you again wineandkeyz for the link. Syntaur to the rescue! The 'NEW' pitch paddle has restored the VR09 to work like new. Now I can sell it with good conscience to help fund the next non-Roland purchase. Kurzweil PC4-7 is looking mighty nice.

[Muad’Dib]

My D-20

[GovernorSilver]

I've owned a few Roland KBs (D50, A90EX, JV1080, JD-XA, System 8, FA-07) over the past few decades.

 

I admire that Roland has been able to repackage and sell the same "sound" in different boxes over the past 30+ years.

 

Not a knock as it makes Roland KBs great Swiss Army knives capable of covering any type of gig whether it's home, stage or studio.

 

I've been doing my homework on how RolandCloud, Zenology, and Zen-Core are related to the MC-101, and now have a better understanding about what can be exported from RolandCloud into the 101 and what can't.. and why.

 

Roland's own description of Zen-Core is just a tad short of full admission that the same tech has been repackaged across multiple products. They say Zen-Core is the same thing that runs on the MC-101, MC-707, Zenology softsynth, Jupiter-X, FANTOM, Zenbeats app, etc. They also say it "brings together nearly 50 years of synthesizer research....".

 

That all said, the MC-101 is looking more and more like an amazing (non-Behringer) value as a mini-workstation that can be tossed into a messenger bag/backpack.