Laurence

Local off would be useful only in programming the backing tracks. Without it, I guess what you would need to do is use the VR-09 as a midi module with a different master keyboard during the sequencing session. The drawbars not sending CCs is a drag. I guess this really is just a live performance and nothing else instrument. I suppose the organ sounds do receive CC info, and the demo songs must have been done with another controller with drawbars that do send CC data. I can't think of any other way. This is important to me because I also play guitar and was getting ready to sequence some backing tracks.

The fact that the VR-09 functions like a generic USB midi interface is very cool, but I am frustrated because I can't turn midi local control off, which would be important for anyone actually trying to use the VR-09 for sequencing backing parts. The way this would be useful is in programing backing midi parts that could be loaded on a USB memory thumb drive. I have a question posted in the VR-09 blog about turning local midi control off, but I have a sinking feeling that this isn't an option.

I just discovered something pretty cool. If I plug in my VR-09 USB to an iPad with the USB camera connector kit, it shows up as a midi interface.

It would be a piece of cake for Roland to add the last little bit of code needed so that we could overwrite and rename the factory tones. We can already do that except that you can't rename them or save them to flash memory, and you can only call them up by recalling a registration. The actual tone rewriting architecture is already there though. Add that last little bit of functionality and the VR-09 would become arguably the best budget keyboard out there by miles. They may not have done this already simply because they don't want to compete with their higher end boards at this price point. They will have to do something like this if they are going to make proper use of that tone downloading site.

Thanks Craig. I was afraid of that because in spite of the wording of the iPad editor function, it really is saving the deep edits at the tone level. While the iPad editor deep editing is very cool and surprisingly good, this limitation hobbles it to the point where It really is of no practical use. Hopefully this will change before the development on this product loses momentum. On the bright side, I believe the distortion and reverb are now capable of subtler wet/dry settings. There is still vibrato/chorus on the percussion and anything layered with the organ is still routed through the Leslie effect. Delay effects other than the triple tap delay are still way too wet. It is a nice update and we are better off than we were, but there's still a long way to go.

Do the registrations as they are saved now include the iPad edits on tones? I suspect they do not, but haven't had a chance to try it yet. I've updated, but haven't experimented with the keyboard since the update.

I can't imagine using a transpose function to change keys. I use different voicings in different keys. If I was in a band that tuned their guitars down a half step I would probably do it just so that our chord charts would all match and the voicing so wouldn't be that different. That and I am pretty good at reading the chords off the guitar players left hand since I play guitar as well. It really isn't that hard to play in different keys. First, you mostly just do guitar keys anyway: G, E, A, D. If it's a jazz band with brass you can add a few flat keys like F, Bb, Eb and Ab. Heck most songs are just four chords anyway: 1, 4, 5 and 6. Then there are some simple rules for the harder keys. The most black keys any key is going to have is five. With the keys where you use all five black keys, it is just a matter of which of the two white keys that are together do you use. Key of B: it's E and B (the two lower ones). In C# it's F and C (the two higher ones). In F# it's F and B (the higher one under the group of three black keys and the lower one under the group of two black keys). Mess around with it for a few hours a couple of days in a row and you'll have it forever. The biggest thing I have against using the transpose function though is what it does to your voicings. Transpose up and key of C voicings are going to have a your chords high and shrill. Transpose down and they're going to be really muddy. I suppose you could learn to adjust your inversions and voice things differently as you transpose up or down, but that sounds like as much work as learning to just play in the different keys. Plus, what are you going to do if you run into a real piano or organ? What about multiple keyboards? Do you transpose them all? What if you're playing bass parts? They're not going to sound like bass parts if they get transposed out of the correct range. I really don't see how this is an issue.

The only global band transpose I ever run into is where the band tunes down half a step to make it easier for the singers. I know two local bands that do this regularly. The VR-09 will let you tune up or down a half step. I would just tune down to the half step limit if I was working with one of those bands. I have never run into a global band transpose other than a half step down, but that one is pretty common.

Overall I love the VR-09, but it does have some issues. Here is my list so far: 1 - when editing deeper level of sound programming with the iPad app, only one variation per editable synth patch is allowed. This can be saved in a registration but while if you directly access the synth patch directly you get the original, any attempt to use it in a new registration will give you the edited version saved in the earlier registration. If you try to edit it again it will also change any earlier registrations which refer to it. 2 - when the batteries start to die, you will get a "CHANGE BATTERIES" message that lasts for a few seconds. The trouble is it mutes the audio during this message. Roland tells me that most customers prefer it this way. 3 - audio DSP effects aside from reverb and Leslie have no subtle level settings. The lowest distortion is already pretty strong and all the delay effects aside from the triple tap delay have a level equal to what you are delaying which makes them all but useless. 4: The Leslie effect will also be applied to anything layered with it unless you use "Atelier mode". Unfortunately "Atelier mode" also turns all the DSP aside from reverb completely off the non organ sounds and it is a global setting that is not saved per registration. 5: Organ percussion has the chorus vibrato setting applied to it. Feel free to add to my list. I'm not slamming this keyboard because I really do like it. I just want to submit a list to their engineers of what us users would like to see fixed in a firmware update. Some of it would be quite simple to implement. For instance making Atelier mode a registration programmable setting would make a huge difference on registrations where an organ is layered with something else. Getting rid of the audio mute with low batter message would be easy. Some things like how chorus vibrato is handled may not be fixable with the way the audio is routed in the design. The way the iPad edited synth sounds is currently handled is almost completely useless. If there isn't memory allocated for all the deep parameters to be saved per registration, something as simple as having subsequent registrations use the original factory settings and giving an error message should you try to do a second edit on that sound. The levels of the echoes and distortion effects are ridiculous. Distortion kicks in at a higher level than I usually use and everything past about 11 o'clock is unusable. If the delays have to be set at one level, something like half as loud as the source could be actually used. A delay as loud as the source is way too much for every single use I can think of.