Ekewaka
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Everything posted by Ekewaka
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Yes, the more reps from keyboard companies are here reading/posting, the better for us all. Thx for joining.
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Was $1495 the MSRP price? If so the street price would be down to $1200 or below and then suddenly VR-09 has a hard time competing with something like XK-1c. I think PX-5S will do fine as it's cornering the weighted keys/piano/EP market with additional stuff included. Meanwhile, I'm happy with Mainstage/B3 + much more as the top-level keyboard in my rig. Ultimate flexibility -- if I need to I could even install stuff like SampleTron (Mellotron plug-in) if needed. Or Reaktor :-).
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Hmmm, that sounds intriguing. Gotta have tight seals around the audio cords...wonder if warranty covers water damage? Remember that the vr-09 can run on batteries, and there is that nitty little wireless usb dongle. You don't need no stinking cable !! (Btw, anybody tried to run it on batteries ? From the manual, it looks like you should only put rechargeable batteries in there, so I expect the batteries to recharge while the keyboard is plugged to its wall-wart. Is it really the case ?) I seriously doubt it, maybe you get a little bit trickle charge but few if any keyboards with battery support are not constructed for charging batteries.
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Some take this forum work very seriously!
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In this age of SW code that takes less than a week to port over to a new device, I personally don't think having weak ODs is a cost issue. Rather a market positioning issue avoiding cannibalization of higher cost Roland products.
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I don't see the big deal of people disagreeing, or agreeing. That's normal.
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Now, Roland (Boss) has lots of experience with amp simulations for guitars so maybe a future product have those rolled in for better distortion/overdrive support.
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Some companies have strict policies about forum attendance -- don't know Roland's internal policies myself. I think it's best to keep any personal insults from postings, they are not relevant to the product. It's just a plastic thingie with electrons spinning around, it should handle critique.
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I have thought of running the VR-09 through my guitar effects pedal for OD but I don't know how much of the character of the organ sound would be lost by the fact that the signal going into the pedal would only be mono, not stereo. This is my own lack of knowledge about these things. Any ideas? Well, if it sounds good, it is good. So try out.
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It would be much easier to put between VR-09 and the amp a good OD or amp simulation guitar pedal.
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I just can't imagine that it would be so difficult for Roland to implement a global transpose that would override the preset registrations... Again, a poor design decision... It could indeed be handy for blues organ gigs where the guitar player insists on using Eb tuning to be close to his SRV hero across all the songs....
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...well, the other workaround is to learn the song in various keys...
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I totally agree that personal attacks has nothing to do with VR-09. Plus I think it's always good to hear all opinions about products. I also believe readers are intelligent and could filter out nonsense from important information.
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I'm indeed one of the Roland fan boys back in the eighties. I guess I'm a spurned lover, too. And crazy, been trying to purchase a new Roland keyboard for the last three years. Still trying, maybe in future.
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Not even close. Were you around for the Oasis Wars? Nope. Just give this thread another two months! If it would not have been Roland, it would have been some other Japanese company offering a $999 keyboard with flaws... Maybe this is cyclical. Also, it's pretty easy to avoid it -- release good products.
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VR-09 is the most polarizing keyboard ever released!
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Hmm, the more I read customer reports, the more I think that VR-09 was a good idea that was not properly executed on the design/engineering side. If they made those changes plus added in a deep keyboard, let's say VR-10, I would certainly revisit the unit and there's a good chance I would purchase it this time.
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There's always the option of returning the unit, as well. But most companies charge for the return shipping fees. Plus could get annoyed if the unit has blemishes. Or have a 15% restocking fee. In most cases it's better to take a trip to the nearest bigger city and do an evaluation. I used to do that long time ago, driving 300 miles to check out a MiniMoog. Those were the days. I would also like to say that most of by silliest purchase decisions have been based on cost evaluation and thinking that I save money by getting a cheaper system. While what happens in real life in most cases is that the equipment will be used for 10+ years or more. Plus it's not that easy to resell equipment today. It's also nice to bond with a quality instrument for a very long time.
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Go to a GC store or something that has plenty of equipment and test out SK-1 versus VR-09. The local GC store actually had the VR-09 below the SK-1. I don't want to repeat my findings comparing those two.
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Then you will really hate the Korg MS-20 (mini) As I added to my previous post,its really about robotic manufacturing and directly soldered connectors. GearSlutz people are indeed complaining but one can't say much until the new MS-20s are actually out in the market. The 1/8s are mostly for patching purposes, anyway.
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Yes MP3 inputs are special case. I'm always worried about 1/8 connectors as they are thin and if someone steps or yanks them, large parts of the unit could follow along. Few L-connectors for 1/8s as well. Now, the 1/4 low-end Monster cables are excellent, I use them for keyboard work as well even if I have to retire them each year. I don't like the trend of hardware synths using 1/8 inputs and outputs.
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As a guitar player, I can attest that 1/4' cables aren't so immune to failure. I have had enough cable failures to say that the only certainty is that at some point it will fail, so carry a spare. I'm forcing myself to retire my guitar 1/4 cables each year as there's lot of wear-and-tear. Most of guitar equipment is 1/4 based with some XLR stuff, never really seen any 1/8 cable systems for guitar equipment. Most likely guitar players would shun those as the plague.
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You could get a 1/4 to 1/8 cable converter at any local store nowadays. Need a cable for the iPad, anyway, so I don't think 1/8 use is of that reason. I prefer 1/4s of a simple reason, thinner cables and connectors break more easily, plain physics.
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There's a point where all this cost-cutting in parts and design will backfire in forms of returned units from a couple months of gigging and the unit falls apart.... I don't know about VR-09 longevity yet so I can't say it will happen. But in general, if you save on parts and labor, something has to break. Compare this with the early day monster synths that are still ticking and keep on ticking. Or the Hammonds...
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As for magazine reviews, maybe I'm old but I think the best way to evaluate a product is to try it out rather than to read something and assume that's the truth. You get good ideas of what the product is capable of, but as with most music related things, this is all so subjective.