rien

the updated manual can be found at the usual location: go to http://roland.com/, select the product tab, navigate to the vr-09 product page (either by going to synthesizers/v-combo, or by going to organs/combo), then go to the support tab, click on the "manuals" link, you are redirected to the support page for downloading the manual. latest manual is dated from 2013-09-05 (the date the update was published). here is a shortcut to this same download page: http://www.roland.com/support/article/?q=manuals&p=VR-09 as for the atelier mode, we still have to figure that out...

A falling knob is what happens when moving a board without due care (gigbag, flightcase, ...), whatever the price, build quality, or "tankness" of said board. And now my board is unique: the only vr-09 in the world having only 8 drawbars and a metal stud ! Indeed, messing up with undocumented features does not count as a defect. Yes, i discovered many undocumented sysex messages, regarding split point position, part muting, spliting/layering... of course i was not able to make those messages work reliably, and that may be the reason why they are not documented. But I am confident there is a way to build a pc based librarian, allowing to save single registration, or even only specific effect settings to be applied at will...

since the update is very new (less than 1 week old), i don't expect any keyboard to be shipped with the upgraded firmware soon... the current stock (which is factory programmed with the 1.0 firmware) has to be exhausted before a new batch becomes available, factory programmed with the latest firmware.

The only issue i see with build quality is that i lost one of the drawbar knob ! It dropped while i was moving the board, but i did not hear it fall, so i was not able to recover it. Now i have a knob missing, and have a hard time moving this drawbar. The only way to replace it is to order it from roland... Regarding the software, i have freezed the board multiple times or put it in an incoherent state when experimenting with sysex messages. But then, I was not supposed to try cracking the undocumented features of the midi implementation of this board !

Idem for me. I also would like to use the rightmost fader (called "level") to adjust the volume of the currently selected part, instead of having to use the dedicated pushbuttons. Unfortunately, this fader has been assigned to resonance...

Go to http://www.roland.com/ and navigate through products to the VR-09 page. Then select the support tab, and click on the link named "downloads".

indeed ! you can make some very interresting sounds, like putting up some strings on top of a piano on some parts of a song. i love that. this board gets more and more interesting.

i took some minutes to test the expression and damper pedal settings. some weird tricks here... i was using a piano sound, layered with a brass sound. when setting the damper to 'to UPPER', it sustained the 2 sounds. when setting the expression pedal to 'to LOWER' it affected only the brass sound. i am not sure i understand what this means... another new bug ? also i tried saving 2 registrations with different functions for the damper pedal, and unfortunately, it was not saved with the registration. (also, i could not remind how to save the current sound to a specific registration in another bank. i loaded a registration from bank 1, made some edits, and wanted to save the result into bank 9... can somebody tell me ?)

Quick test of the new update (so happy that i could not wait longer !): - the note retrigger issue has indeed disappeared ! And you hear the new effects settings aplying to the remains of the old sound. - the percussion still goes through C/V... I had no time to test further.

Read the downloadable manual again, could not find anything that answers this... but by the previous example, I'm really hoping that's possible... To any of the VR owners: did you try something like this? I did try, but was not able to layer an organ above another sound when the keyboard is already split. Yes, hold the split button and press the key you want to set your split point to.

by the way, i don't know if you finally bought the VR-09, but one big limitation that may get in your way is that the organ cannot be transposed at all ! never, ever, not even by whole octaves... this can be very limiting when splitting the keyboard, the playable range for the organ becomes very small.

thanks SynMike, this is a nice sound ! it seems you can achieve the same sound one octave higher by NOT transposing the EP, and fiddling with 8' and 4' drawbars.

"Classic piano" or "european piano" (they are at the end of the acoustic piano set), triggered from an 88 weighted keys controller. but i do never play live, and i do always play alone...

you get it ! not a single word from Roland about an update... (but personally, i don't care: i knew the shortcomings when i bought the board, i did not expect an update, any update will come as a pleasant surprise) this will not work. as i understand it from the midi implementation documentation, the VR-09 only has a single effect section, so there is no way of applying 2 times the same effect. this may be due to a limit of processing power in the DSP controlling the effects onboard, or may be an overlook from the designers at Roland... but there is only one global set of parameters for the effect section. anyway, you cannot use a registration as a side of a split or as a layer: you have to use default sounds to create your split or layers, then only you apply effects or global settings (like leslie sim parameters), and you save the whole lot into a registration. it cannot work the other way around.

a TRS cable should work without problem on a TS connection, in this case the ring and sleeve will be connected together inside the socket (the female connector). BUT you shall NOT use a TS cable on a TRS connection ! although it might sometimes work, there is the possibility of creating a short-circuit which may damage your equipment. anyway, when in doubt use the right cable. the type of connector (TRS or TS) is always documented somewhere in the manual.

the expression pedal input on the VR-09 is a standard 1/4" TRS (tip-ring-sleeve or stereo) connector. thus, the connector is compatible with every expression pedal on the market, though the wiring of this connector is not compatible with every pedals. there are 2 possible wiring for an expression pedal: the roland/kurzweil/maudio wiring and the yamaha/kawaii/korg wiring. the difference between the 2 wiring lies in the way the tip and ring of the connector is connected to the pot in the expression pedal. anyway, you can easily build an adapter cable (that's what i did: i use a yamaha fc-7 pedal with my vr-09), or modify the connector on the pedal, or buy an adapter cable. here is a great webpage regarding this issue: http://www.soundonsound.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=322584 the damper pedal input on the VR-09 is a standard 1/4" TS (tip-sleeve or mono) connector. it is compatible with every damper pedal on the market. here again there are 2 ways of connecting the switch in the pedal, but the vr-09 seems smart enough to automatically adapt to any of the 2 wiring. always plug the damper pedal before powering on the keyboard.

The original part from roland has model number PSB-1U. The VR-09 power supply outputs 9V DC at 2A (18W), connector is a standard barrel type with center pin negative. Since there are many sizes of "standard" barrel type connectors: external diameter is 5.5mm, internal diameter 2.1mm, plug is 10mm long.

I can't tell, i never owned any other clonewheel... (except for the old crumar 2003 that my father sold 20 years ago). But i am pretty sure that other owners of the VR-09 on this forum can shed some light on this matter.

Back from holidays, where I brought the VR-09 with me. I enjoyed the light weight, really ! And the different sounds were a pleasure to play. Also, someone lend me an ipad for a day, so I discovered the official synth editor. It seems there is a lot of possibilities in this synth, I would have loved to spend more time with the ipad. I also tried driving it from an external sequencer, and I can now tell that the GM2 sound set is pretty basic... I also used the looper a lot. Crappy looper: 20 seconds is not enough for most chord progressions, no way to undo if you miss something while recording, could not find a way to reload a saved looper sequence for replay. however, my kids enjoyed it a lot ! They are not very old, 8 and 10, but the user interface is very intuitive, and they were quickly at ease with the keyboards and all its features. Last but not least, I lost a drawbar knob...

When you are the "home" screen, press the "play" button in the drum section. (Alternatively, you can read the manual)

This is indeed the second demo on this board. The sound is produced by the VR-09, including all effects (when you stop playing the demo, the delay keeps sounding the last note played...). The specific sound you are talking about seems to be a square lead, with a low pass filter and a low cut off frequency. But the VR-09 does not have a built-in arpeggiator, so you either have to play all notes yourself, or you need an external arpeggiator or sequencer.

Did you find some music rest that may potentially fit ? Last time i look, there was no music rest listed on roland website. I briefly looked at a Nord Stage rest, but i could not find any measurements or specifications whatsoever, so I can't tell if it fits the VR-09.

Welcome here ! I do have one question : when will the VR-09 editor be available on the PC, Mac or Android ? Some people do not have an iPad and the VA synth section of the VR-09 is pretty useless without the editor. I started working on a PC version, based on the MIDI implementation chart, but i don't have enough time to complete it in a near future, and its interface will never look professional (i am bad at GUI design)

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 ?)

If you put it in a nice sealed plastic bag, it is. of course, the plastic has to be clear, or you can't see what key you are playing. i just hope the water pressure does not trigger the quick-firing keyboard ! (actually, it triggers when i lay my tablet flat on top of the keyboard)