HSS

In addition to the AP, EP, and clav sounds you mentioned, as well as the organ and synth we already know about, does the VR-09 also have a standard GM sound library? It would be nice to have few other sounds available in a pinch (e.g. horns, accordions, woodwinds, strings, etc.)

Yeah, that's pretty critical if this is to be at all taken seriously as a clone, even a lesser one. If nothing else, at least it's all there on the iPad screen. Yeah... I guess, you could, for example, use the Ipad to dial up the soft percussion level on one of the VR-09's presets to your liking and then save it to a registation if you didn't want to drag an an expensive easily stolen / breakable Ipad to a lowbrow gig (which unfortunately are the ones I play). But still it would be nice if one could do at least some modest tweaking of basic B3 parameters in real-time directly on the board. My SK1 is killer for just this sort of on-the-fly adustment, but then again it cost twice as much as the VR-09. Oh well, as stated earlier, we'll just have to wait for some serious some hands-on experience or at least see the user's manual to understand the degree of real-time standalone "tweakability" of the VR-09's B3 sound.

Yeah, that's pretty critical if this is to be at all taken seriously as a clone, even a lesser one. Perhaps it works by, for instance, holding down the percussion button and parameters popping up on the screen. Hopefully you are right. On the Hammond SK1, I currently have, and even on the older XK1, which I used to have, you could hold down just about any button for a couple of seconds and make on-the-fly adjustments for whatever parameter they are asigned to (e.g. percussion levels, C/V, Leslie, etc.). IMO this is a killer feature for live performance.

Yeah... Come to think of it I didn't see an Ipad app for the piano section in the demo video although I did see apps for the organ and the synth sections.

Agree.... In the Fortner demo, I saw that the VR-09 has at least a few effects with dedicated knobs / buttons (e.g. EQ, reverb, overdrive, ring modulator, tremolo) that can be adjusted in real-time without having to dive into menus or an external Ipad. But I am wondering about its ability to adjust on-the-fly basic basic organ parameters such percussion, C/V, key click, and Leslie sim. Without this ability, at least to some degree, I don't see the VR-09 being a direct competitor to the Hammond SK1, NE3/ 4D, or even the Kurz PC3 series, at least for those players that need a decent B3 sound and have the $$ to purchase one of these.

You nailed the reasons why I (an old guy with a bad knee) bought my SK1 and the reasons why I'm now interested in the VR-09 which is half the price of the SK1 and NE3/4D, but hopefully not half the quality (at least for the organ).

I have an SK1 and I'm willing to be open-minded about this new Roland VR-09 board, even though I'm not a fanboy of Roland. I really like the SK1's B3 engine, usuable extra voices, and it's portability, but even with the most recent OS update with the higher trigger point, IMO it's compromise action is still not optimal for B3, even with it's waterfall keys. In fact, I preferred the action on my old XK1 for B3, but it had no usable extra voices and it's Leslie Sim and C/V were not as good and tweakable compared to the SK1. Similar comments can be made about the compromise action on the NE's. IMHO if Roland improves on it's VK8 B3 engine and onboard Leslie Sim on the VR-09 and gets them even in the same league with the SK1's and the NE's, its compromised B3 action and lack of waterfall keys may not be that big a deal compared to the NE's and the SK1 which also have compromised B3 action. If this indeed ends up being the case, the VR-09 could be a Gamechanger and possibly a SK1 / NE killer, especially with its much lower pricepoint, high quality extra voices, full ability to split/ layer, pitch bend/ mod, and probably better Midi capabilities. Of course Hammond purists will still stick with dedicated fairly authentic clones like XK3c's, Mojo's, Key B's, Nord C2's, and Numa's, so there will likely be no competetion from the VR-09 in this market. WRG to previous comments about possible build quality issues with the lightweight relatively cheap VR-09, IMHO there is not much of a correlation between price point, weight, and build quality. I've had expensive boards that weighed a ton and were built like tanks that broke down repeatedly on me and I've had cheap lightweight boards like the Privia PX330 I currently have that takes a licking and keeps on ticking. The bottom line for me is that I'll just have to wait for some hands-on experience with Roland's new offering before passing judgement as to whether it is a worthy competitor to the the SK1 and the NE's. But, as always, I'm prepared to be disappointed.

Many thanks JMcS for the heads up about Release 6. As mentioned in a previous post, I only had to copy 6 files since I had already updated to Release 5. As suggested in Release 6's addendum, I set the new control function "SND.POINT" to "AUTO". This allows a shallower more authentic triggering point for the organ while retaining the deeper triggering point for the extra voices. IMO this greatly improves the SK1's playability when switching between organ and piano.

Yeah... When the jerk at the check-in desk measured the Gator GKPE 49 case I had my SK1 in a couple weeks ago, he actually used a laser measuring tape and caught the 2" excess in total perimeter length. With jet fuel prices at an all time high, the airlines are squeezing customers big time on baggage. If this trend of tightening up on air baggage and carry-ons continues in the States, it looks like VST's on a laptop or small modules may end up being the way forward if one is flying. Then one would have to buy or borrow a cheap controller on sight, or make sure one is provided in the backline.

Fits perfectly in the Gator TSA hard case.... I have the Gator 49 GKPE TSA case and flew with it a couple of weeks ago. It's sturdy and does the trick for the SK1. Unfortunately, however, the Gator case's external perimeter length (length+width+height) is a little more than 64" which exceeds the maximum of 62" allowed by most domestic airlines. As a result, on the flight out, I got hit with an unexpected $50 extra fee because the A-hole at the check-in desk measured the case and caught the 2" excess. On the return flight, I lucked out and made it with no extra charge. The bottom line is that airlines during the last couple of years are really cracking down on the baggage policies in an attempt to ramp up profit margins by gouging passengers. I heard this past week-end on the news that some airlines are even going to start charging for normal carry-on luggage. As a result, I am now looking for an ATA case for my SK1 with a perimeter length of <62" so I don't get stung again. FYI... there is another thread on KC addressing this issue today. Sorry for my rant on this thread and on that one, but I'm still pissed.

I sometimes midi my 24 lb. Kurz SP4-7 to my SK1 for a lower manual. The SP4-7 has compromise piano / organ semi-weighted action so it's at least doable for a lower manual compared to a fully weighted board. The benefit of the SP4-7 also is that it is thin with a tiny footprint and it has really good strings / pads, horns, and, IMHO, excellent EP's, especially the Stevie Rhodes, Belltone Rhodes, and Austin Wurly which are top shelf samples. IMO the AP's on both the SK1 and SP4-7 are equally gig-worthy, while the clavs and accordians on the SK1 are excellent and better than the SP4-7 (although the Kurz is no slouch WRG to these either). When I need more AP I bring my 25 LB. Privia PX330 with the SK1 or the SP4-7, if no high-end organ is required. In all scenarios, the total weight for my two board gig rig is only ~40 lbs. Life is good in this age of ultra-lightweght high quality keyboards compared to even 5 years ago.

Just a quick very useful "tip" that most of the those looking at this thread on KC are probably already aware of. When playing with blues, Zydeco, roots rock, and R&B acts in the past 10 -15 years, I would usually bring both a piano and an organ and stack the organ (i.e. Hammond XB2/XK2/XK1) above and piano below, as most players do. When taking a ride on the piano, especially during a slow blues song, I typically hold or comp a little on a simple 2-3 note root dominant 7th chord (e.g. 1-5 or 1-7) with my left hand on organ and solo on piano with my right hand. IMHO the organ chord kind of adds a ballsy texture and an underbelly for the piano solo, almost like a pad. Anyway, after getting the SK1 a couple of weeks ago, I saved a simple set up on it where I selected a default split with the mono grand on the right and organ on the left. I then held the split button down until the split menu showed up and paged twice to the right. I then dialed up the organ split an octave, tweaked the drawbars. C/V , and percussion to give the organ the "pad-like" sound I like. I then recorded and saved. Even though there is not much real estate to work with, this set-up got me through a couple of slow blues songs a few nights ago without having to lug two boards. The bottom line is that I had a high quality B3 and decent AP "sound" split on one board that weighed just 15 pounds. For my style of playing, this capability of splitting organ on the left and piano on the right is very important when I don't want to lug two boards, and I don't think that I'm the only one who plays this style. It's noteworthy that, even though just about any cheap rompler can split the board, it's not possible to do this on the NE 1/2/3 because they are monotimbral and this is the main reason I have passed them up as all-in-one Swiss Army knife boards for nearly a decade. I'm still shocked that Nord hasn't responded to the "memo" about multitimbral capability with their new Electro 4D board. Although, to their credit, they finally jumped the rather low hurdle for physical drawbars / faders. Sorry for the Nord bashing. The Electros are still great boards, but not for my playing style. I'm also aware that Nord's Stage boards are multitimbral and do splits but they are too pricey for this cheap old fart.

Yeah you're right. But despite my whining, out of about 20 times checking a keyboard, I only had problems a couple times. So the Sk1 will probably be OK if I check it.... But still the SK1 is a costly two grand instrument. It's not a $500 Privia where I wouldn't be so concerned if it got a few nicks from an overly aggressive baggage handler.

Call them! I used to call airlines when I was flying with a Nord Stage Compact, it usually worked out. Thanks for the rec but I already called Southwest a week ago when I purchased my ticket, and was referred back to their website where the specs for carry-ons were listed and of course the SK1 is too long by 11 inches (24" length max). I called back and was told that I could try my luck and attempt to carry-on the SK1 at the gate, but Southwest couldn't promise that it would be allowed. I was advised to check it or purchase an extra seat to make sure. This is the basis of my query to other KC members to see if they have managed to slide though the gate with an SK1 or a similarly-sized keyboard (like the NE1). Oh well... Either I won't take the SK1 or I'll carefully pack it in bubble wrap inside the SKB flight case, cross my fingers, and check it. I've already had two bad experiences during the last decade checking and flying keyboards in flight cases. Once, the flight case was lost and arrived the next day. Another time, the case and the keyboard were slightly damaged. This is of course why I never check my laptop, and my SK1 is more valuable than it.

Sorry for the segway in this thread... But has anyone tried to fly with an SK1 as carry-on baggage yet? I have a 61 key SKB flight case, but it weighs more than the SK1(!) and I would prefer, if possible, to try to carry-on the SK1 in a NE 61 gig bag for a trip I'm taking in about a month. Unfortunately, the SK1 is still too damn long for carry-on according to a literal intepretation of the airlines' specs for carry-on baggage. But I also know that sometimes, some airlines will pragmatically bend the rules, as I've seen people on occasion carrying on back-packs, duffle bags, etc. that are obviously too long. I guess the same question about the possibility of SK1 carry-on could be posed to NE 61 owners, since it is nearly the same size as the SK1.