rien

beneath the organ section, there is a button for upper/lower manual. this button is dedicated to organ mode, i think it would be a handy button to select between the upper and lower part of splits and layers, whatever sound is used. actually, i find it painful to select upper/lower organ manual using this button but being forced to use the up/down arrows near the screen when there is no organ involved. the upper/lower button is more accessible, and gives a more visual clue with its red light ! also, the up/down arrows, beside selecting the split or layer part, allows to select the mfx type: multiple keypresses and many ways to miss the target. how many times did i mess a split because i highlighted the wrong line ! (you could argue that this button lies in the organ section but remember that the drawbars, which also lies in the organ section, are actually useful when using a synth sound)

i am using a yamaha fc-7 with a custom built adapter. i find it quite jumpy too, but since i never played another expression pedal (except for the one on a crumar 2003, 25 years ago...) i cannot really appreciate how it should feel. anyway, even with a jumpy behavior, i can easily find a mid-range setting.

Note that if you use an expression pedal, and set it half way, the overdrive kicks in more smoothly. It then becomes usable on a wider range. (A small early spoiler: my own PC version of the infamous editor is on its way... still a lot of work to do though, especially on the user interface. And since i used java, it should be mac compatible out of the box)

i bet it won't do anything. I would like to be proved wrong, but i guess the effects section is software based, not real hardware effects. That means that you cannot change any effect by just replacing a knob. Also, that would prevent any send/return circuitry.

Are you sure that the notes are transposed ? How are they transposed ? Did you try sniffing the MIDI output of your controller to see what messages are sent ? Tell us what kind of message you see when playing. I think that the organ will not process pitch bend messages (contrary to the synth section for example).

Set the vr09 to mode 2 and set your Casio to channel 4 for straight control. If you want to do split manual mode set the vr to keyboard and Casio to channel 3 for lower or 4 for upper. I struggled thru that a bit myself. Hopefully that works for ya. I shall add: when the vr-09 is set to "keyboard" mode, the external midi controller can only control the lower manual. you have to make a split if you want to make produce a sound in this mode. If you don't make a split, there are no lower manual, thus the external controller does not make any sound. Note that you can use the exact same sound for both the upper and the lower part. Also, when an external controller is plugged into the midi in port and you make a split, the entire vr-09 keyboard is dedicated to the upper part and the entire external controller is dedicated to the lower part. I find that "mode 2" is more flexible, but it implies that you can quickly change the transmit channel of your external controller if you want to use splitted registrations and non-splitted registrations.

The VR-09 mimicks a hammond B3, including foldback, and the hammond keyboard does not go lower. I think it is the reason why you cannot transpose the organ (although it would have been handy when splitting as someone already noted). But, i plugged my 88 note keyboard to drive the VR-09 through MIDI, and it allowed me to go really deep lower on the organ sound. However, the sound seemed strange when played so low, but i had no time to tweak the EQ. Also, note that if you plug a pedal board (an option costing almost as much as the keyboard itself) you have access to a third organ part with its dedicated 2 drawbars, as the real thing. I did not find how to enable those 2 drawbars when using an external midi controller (as opposed to a dedicated pedal board plugged through the PK-in connector). (I also had some problem when playing the acoustic piano from this same external controller, as if there was a flanger on the lower part. The piano may be transmitting on multiple channels, and is a pain in the a** to configure... i had no time to investigate further, plus i need to re-read the user manual of this crappy weighted piano... i will take some time later today to sort this out)

here is my impressions after a long evening playing with this keyboard: - keybed is fine for me, better than i expected given all was said in this thread... however, i seem to have a problem with the velocity curve. i will try adjusting the sensitivity, and will take some time playing it in order to adapt myself. anyway, i am not a real keyboard player so i may not qualify for judging this aspect. also, i have played many cheap and crappy keyboards, and never played a really good keyboard, so my judgement is completely subjective. - knobs and slider do not look sturdy. i have the feeling that they will likely be the first part failing on this board. the screen is clear, well lit and readable, although it becomes a mess while using the wheel to go through the instrument list: the redraw is to slow so you can't read and scroll at the same time. - the organ sound is gorgeous ! i was dreaming of this sound for so long ! i love this sound ! i was surprised by the quick firing of the keyboard: i think it is the first time in my life that i play a quick firing keyboard, and i really like it. - the synth sounds are really nice, good sounding, full, round. i love them too ! the "others" sound are nice too and cover a lot of different stuffs. so many sounds that i could not play them all... - the acoustic pianos are bad, really bad. i was not able to play properly with any acoustic piano sound. they sound flat and synthetic, and holding a chord for more than a second hurts. electric pianos are a bit better, but they do not seem to have enough velocity layers. i will try playing all the pianos through my weighted keyboard, which i am more used to. - i don't care about the drums sound, i own a TD-9. they sound quite the same (no need to say that i think roland is ahead of anything else in this matter), of course without the expressiveness of a good pair of drumsticks... also, the pre-programmed rhythm patterns are very, very limited. better use the looper to build pattern. (disclaimer: i am a drummer). - making a layer is sooo easy, i inadvertently made layers by pressing some buttons, and had a hard time cancelling them. i should re-read the manual to avoid this problem in the future. splits are very easy too. - any editing is generally one button press away, no deep menu diving, and that's really interesting. i found the interface very intuitive. - i tried the yamaha FC-7 expression pedal (through the required 1/4" TRS->RTS adapter, homemade). the pedal works, but the velocity curve is not linear and i could not find a setting which satisfies me. anyone tried a roland expression pedal ? i would like to know if roland's pedal have the same curve. also, when changing registration, the velocity is reset to the velocity stored in the registration, forgetting the settings of the expression pedal, which makes some big velocity jumps if you are not careful when changing registration. - the yamaha FC-5 damper pedal worked as-is. you may have to plug it before powering the vr-09 in order for it to work as intended. the function assigned to the damper is global and that bugged me when testing pianos after testing organ: i assigned the damper to control the rotary speed, when i switched to piano, the damper was still switching the rotary speed... i stumbled on this multiple times through the evening. i expect this to sort out once i get used to the board and stop switching sound every minute or so (plus i should mainly be playing the pianos through my other keyboard, which has its own damper pedal). - i did not find a good use for the d-beam. also i accidentally triggered it many time while adjusting the overdrive. maybe a good use is as a controller for n.control-enabled instruments, or as a wheel brake for the organ. - i am not an effect guy, so most of the time i shut the effects off. overdrive seemed too much, as was already stated in this thread, however i had no problem limiting my use of the overdrive to the first quarter of its range. - contrary to what is said in the namm video, not every parameters are editable from the buttons and menus. editing a synth patch REQUIRES the use of the ipad application. i was well aware of this limitation before ordering the vr-09, after reading the manual. the editor is only available for ipad, roland did not realize that some people may not have an ipad or will never have one (as i said, i will tackle this problem personally as soon as i can... but that "soon" may be a bit late) i don't think i covered every feature of the keyboard. to be honest, i fell asleep in front of it... bottom line is: i am so happy to have this board at home ! despite all the limitations listed, that's a huge improvement from the keyboard i already own. those limitations do not pose me any problem, and i will get used to them pretty quickly. i love that keyboard, and i will do my best to learn how make the best out of it !

the VR-09 starts shipping in europe: i received mine this morning. i have to wait until the end of the day to unpack and plug it. (i can't wait ! do you think my boss will mind if i replace my computer keyboard with a real keyboard ?). i will keep you informed.

You're not? Why not? I'll probably get there one day, but I would have preferred that Roland made their editor cross-platform, so I didn't have to go out and buy yet another new device. I am planning on taking care of this flaw. It will take a little bit of time though...

Remember that Roland themselves market the VR-09 as an organ: it is listed in the combo-organ section of their website, along with the VK-8, not in the synth or piano section. That's this marketing that makes us focus on its organ "abilities".

Except for hardware issues, they can update anything they want, including the whole bank of sounds if they wish. The most obvious example is the TD-9, for which a paid update was available, providing 50 new drumsets, years after the release of the initial module. Their USB facility is well designed and allows a lot of flexibility.

you forgot the simplicity and ease of use as a main selling point ! and really, it all depends on the profile of the buyer... i fear that most people who will buy this board are not seasoned professionals: they will not even consider buying a real good clonewheel because that's really expensive and overkill, they do not care about the keybed because they just don't know what a good keybed is, they will not add a ventilator because the onboard leslie sim is plenty good, they will not even consider adding a second board unless they already know what midi is. they will just hit the board randomly like a bunch of retarded monkeys in the hope of eventually realizing the full score of "tarkus", drums included ! (ever heard of the infinite monkey theorem ?) joke aside: many beginning keyboard player will find plenty of appealing things in this board. this is my case, and if i really had the skills to play an organ correctly, i would certainly not chose this board. but as much as i love the hammond sound, that does not make me even remotely close to my organ idol (which is rhoda scott, btw), and so does not justify a more expensive board (been dreaming of a real B3 since i am 10). let's be humble, start small, time will come later for a better keyboard...

ha, that's right, i forgot about those different midi channels. i guess i will have to learn how to quickly change the transmit channel of my 88 keys keyboard. (do you know how painful it is to change the system settings of an old 8 buttons/no menu/no label casio AP-21 ? i always wondered what they were thinking when they designed such a horrible HMI... plus this keyboard does not record its settings when powered off, you have to reconfigure everything on startup) as an aside: it is wonderful how much you can learn of a system by looking at its midi implementation chart ! the VR-09 midi implementation chart is available for download at the roland us website (but not available at the roland europe website), all the interesting information are (somewhat hidden) on page 11. so, unless roland go through a thorough rework, including all the midi-implementation (and, i think, an update of the ipad app too), we will never have any effects applied to the bottom part. eventually, roland could make place for the required changes regarding the damper and expression pedals in layered mode.

indeed, i also think he forgot to make a split. (his answer conveyed that he did not make a split, although i may be mistaken...) but i do need another clarification regarding the use of an external keyboard: when setting the VR-09 in keyboard mode, and NOT making a split, does the external controller trigger the main sound, as if it was played on the VR-09 ? if yes, does the sound include the effects ? (still waiting for my VR-09... delivery time is sooooo long !)

Thanks a lot for the test ! Regarding the "bug": are you sure your 88 keys controller was not sending program change events to the vr-09 ? (Or any similar midi stuff which could change the configuration of the vr-09 and make it forget about its damper and effect configuration)

indeed, the VR-09 manual seems to imply that behavior, and it is indeed considered a split. note that you have to set the midi-in to "keyboard" mode. from reading the manual, i don't understand the difference between "keyboard" mode and "mode 2". i hope it works this way, since this is what i intend to do when i finally receive my VR-09, which has already been delayed twice...