I recently took delivery of a Roland V-Synth GT. Shortly after, I read the Keyboard Magazine review of it. After reading it, I honestly question how much time Peter Kirn spent actually using the instrument. While I will concur that it is a brilliant sounding instrument, which is by far one of the most expressive tools in my studio, I also have found that it doesnt do certain things one would expect in an instrument developed in 2007.

My main complaint regards the file system, and how you can only load and save an entire block of data (a project), but nothing smaller. This means that if you want to bring sounds from one project into another, you cant easily do it inside the instrument itself. You can use a PC and move the files, however the tones and patch in each bank cannot have conflicting numbers.

The same goes for sample data - you cannot load an individual sample from another project into the V-Synth GT. Further, despite stating so in the manual and by Peter Kirn in his review, you CANNOT load samples from the USB stick and share them with the PC. The only way to get audio data into the V-Synth GT is to sample it manually (I verified this with Roland US Support). Further, despite stating that sample data created on the V-Synth GT can be edited on my computer, I failed to find any file format I could directly load into my audio editor on the PC.

What is completely baffling about the above, is that the original V-Synth could do these things, and perhaps that is why Peter Kirn assumed that the GT could and obviously didnt test the feature. These features are standard work flow elements that directly impact the usefulness of this tool. How on earth were their deficiencies missed by your reviewer?

Granted the OS is new, and I have a sneaking feeling that Roland will address these issues in the future, but only if they realize its a problem. Keyboard magazine, by glossing over these issues and handing the manufacturer a Key Buy designation have lessened their incentive to do so and there by done a disservice to their readers and owners of the V-Synth GT.