Roland V-Combo VR-09

[Craig MacDonald]

Thanks Brenner.. the VR-09 sounds surprisingly good for a $999 instrument.. from my perspective all the sounds are good enough for me to use in my classic rock cover band.. My only issue using it is the various split/layer issues with expression pedal and effects etc.. I can probably work around these issues but I would prefer not to!!

 

I'm looking for the music rest as well, I want to put the iPad on it, and I already have a gig bag that fits it perfectly.. otherwise I would have probably picked up the custom Roland bag.

 

By the way I sent a note to my Roland Rep expressing my concern over the VR-09's inability to store individual registrations on USB.. if it could do that, all of us could save registrations individually and share them across all of the owners, and built libraries of sounds.. however all we can share is complete registration sets.. that's kind of useless.

[iluvchiclets]

Nice Who rendition Craig!

 

Does the VR-09 have an LFO you can assign? I think that's what is missing from your rendition...perhaps phasing would do in a pinch.

 

I would be interested to hear if you could really perfect that song riff...well, it's all I can do as I still have not seen an actual VR-09. Now I am asking others to do my programming!

[Craig MacDonald]

Nice Who rendition Craig!

 

Does the VR-09 have an LFO you can assign? I think that's what is missing from your rendition...perhaps phasing would do in a pinch.

 

I would be interested to hear if you could really perfect that song riff...well, it's all I can do as I still have not seen an actual VR-09. Now I am asking others to do my programming!

 

Thanks, remember that I'm not using the VA synth here.. I'm just using the straight hammond organ sound with this "tempo slicer" effect.. couldn't be easier to create this sound.. The VR-09 has an LFO built in the VA synth and I would imagine that if you really wanted to you could probably build this same sound using the VA synth (it has an LFO and it also has organ samples in the PCM Wave set), and perhaps get it sounding even more realistic.

 

BTW, had I chosen to manipulate the drawbars appropriately (in and out) during the recording, it would have been even more convincing..

[Craig MacDonald]

Just loaded in a demo of the clav sounds on the VR-09.. once again just me noodling on the keyboard going through the various sounds.. the last minute and a half I use the same program but adjust the sound using a couple of the live effect controls, tone, compression and overdrive.. so you can get an idea how much you can change the sound using these controls.. you can further change the sounds using the ADSR cutoff/resonance controls (drawbar alternate function).. but I did NOT do that in this demo.. So here's the demo

 

[iluvchiclets]

The VR-09 has an LFO built in the VA synth and I would imagine that if you really wanted to you could probably build this same sound using the VA synth (it has an LFO and it also has organ samples in the PCM Wave set), and perhaps get it sounding even more realistic.

 

Yes, you're probably right. Simple Organ sine waves should be easy to duplicate with most synth sections.

 

Very nice work on your Clavinet performance, too. I am very interested to finally try one out when I see one.

[Stokely]

Played this at Sam Ash on lunch break today. I actually liked the action quite a bit, it seemed very similar to that on the juno stage (which unlike many I thought was good). Organ sounded like that on the v-combo to no surprise. The many synth sounds and the controls were nice...very usable lead patches IMO.

 

If this had been out at the time I bought my pc361 it would have been in the running for a ~1000 $ board, though I do love the Kurz.

[grapite]

As long as there is a lull in the activity, Could someone please playback or Soundcloud a general midi song? just wondering about the quality of the gm sounds,also is anyone else thinking that maybe a simple librarian would be great for mixing single registration saves to make your own registration setlists? And lastly, I hope that besides the iPad, It would be nice if Roland would make the editor for PC and or Mac.

Regards

[HammondDave]

FYI... Guitar Center online has a $150 off sale today... So you can get this for $849 plus tax and free shipping! May buy a Casio today!

[simchaleh]

hey guys.

can anyone help me by comparing the sounds of the vr09 to the roland g70? i know its a funny comparison but it would help me a little more get direction on this keyboard. im wondering if they would make a good pair also. thnks

SB

[Kevmo]

Where in NJ can I demo one?

[Ekewaka]

Where in NJ can I demo one?

 

Many well-stocked GCs should have the VR-09. That's what I did (and thus cancelled my pre-order :-) ).

[Messiaen]

I have probably played on the only VR 09 in the UK, finally in London I was there to visit friends and went to the famous Denmark Street where there are some fabulous gear shops.

 

I'm a noob so my comments won;t influence anyone one way or another, i just wanted to say that overall I found playing around on the Vr-09 was a lot of fun, it was quite easy to navigate around, making layers, getting some nice stuff going very quickly. I was very impressed with the basic sounds, I know many are not 'proper' Supernatural sounds, but a lot of the pads are quite beautiful, strings ok, brass good, the organ is fantastic and although I#m not an organ player & cannot judge how good it is , I mananaged to dial in a lot of very pleasing Emerson sounds, (can't play liek him of course!!) The Pianos didn't sound especially amazing, not deeply resonant, passable, the rhodes etc sounded nice, but again I'm not an expert. Great with phaser and delay though.......

 

What I really loved was the quick way you could really change the basic sounds very quickly with the sliders etc ,especially with synth section, and the effects work very well together, by using subltle combinations of overdrive, delay, reverb, slicer, phaser, chorus, etc and other multi effects you could very easily create your own sounds, often quite complex sounding stuff, so its not quite a basic as it first appears. I imagine with the ipad editor the synth programming would get as deep as any decent soft synth out there?

 

Having all the fantastic drum sounds is also a bonus, plus lopper for creating riffs, its all fun and easy.

 

While in the shop I played a few other keys, roland pianos, Korg SV 1 and Jupiter 80 etc. Of course these other boards had far better keys and felt like premium products. If the VR 09 had had a better keyboard and all the sounds of the Jupiter 80, plus with drawbars & instance effects, for say £1500 it would be a total killer, I hope Roland put something like that out. BUT for the price, £739, which is 400 -500 cheaper than anything else like it I would say that I was pleasantly suprised at how nice it sounded. I didn;t have time to go through all the sounds but out of 80 or so, very few sounded bad, most were very good and some excellent, nice flute, saxes, strings, basses etc.

 

I think desite the obvious problems, such as you can;t assign effects to different layers etc, and other problems mentioned in the thread, some of which could be sorted its an excellent keyboard for a beginner, student, for someone wanting something thats very instantly playable. Its not intimidating, not bursting with 000's of features, no sequencer no arpegiator, but in a way I don;t mind, I quite like the fact its SIMPLE to use without horrible menus. etc. Yes a Big colour screen would be nice!!

 

A lot of fun, I think I totally agree with Craig, when he stresse that NO its not the great keyboard ever made, BUT for the money you are getting a really nice little package... its very immediate and playable. I didn't think I would like it as much as I did.

 

Probably will buy one as a learning tool, then maye when I'm a better player migrate to a 'better' keybed, but will probably keep it for the fun factor!!!!! Nice, heartwarming product

 

P.S Has anyone played the Korg Krome, how does that compare to VR 09 or the MX 61 they are only keyboards which are in price range, neither of which have organ drawbards.

[voxpops]

Took it to a gig this weekend. No real issues at all (although I'm not over-fond of the action). Was very easy to operate live, and was nice to have so much available in a small, lightweight box. I think it's a keeper. If nothing else, it's a fun board to have around.

[Dr88s]

Can't find any to demo in Montreal either.

[Dr88s]

Here's another question for those of you fortunate enough to have this board I'm pretty certain that somewhere in the last 45 pages this was previously discussed, though mostly speculative and based on the manual before the actual release of the board.

 

Do the drawbars send off MIDI CC messages, or only sysex data? The reason being, If I ever decide to switch to a receptor-based set up live, can I use the VR09's drawbars to control a VST such as vB3?

 

Thanks.

[voxpops]

Can't give a definitive answer, but the other day I very quickly swapped the VB3 input over from an Axiom 61 to the VR-09, and saw no activity at all when I played with the drawbars. I didn't get around to attempting to do a "MIDI learn" exercise, but usually, if the drawbars are sending any kind of CC signal, you get some response in VB3 - even if it's a drawbar toggling the percussion, for example. I doubt whether the VR-09 will be a suitable VB3 controller.

[Ken Beaumont]

I don't believe it sends CC signals, the bigger brother the VR-760 doesn't and I doubt the lower cost model does. Also reading the midi implementation I cannot find it anywhere in the transmit section. I haven't looked at the output in midiox to see what they are transmitting.

 

On the plus side I can absolutely confirm that the $14.95 WNA1100 USB wireless adapter works just as well as the $44.95 Roland / Netgear WNA1100RL

 

Though because of latency I would only recommend it for using the editor software or maybe patch changes in setlist.

[niacin]

The drawbars send sysex, not CC#s. You would need to get a processor from Midi Solutions in Canada and programme it to translate the data into CC#s for VB3. The SK-1 has the same issue. I would have purchsed a VR-09 pre-order if the thing didn't have so many of these scratch-your-head what-were-they-thinking issues.

[mobi]

The Sk1 transmits CC# 12 - 20, 80 for Upper Manual and C# 21 - 29, 81 for Lower

[Stokely]

The lack of cc is a bummer with the v-combo organs. I think the vk8 does send them, which makes it even more odd that Roland didn't include it. Especially with newer boards with the prevalence of software. The Korg cx3 sends cc from the drawbars as well. The hammond xk series sends midi and not sysex but iirc it would not have been a simple re-mapping of controller-to-software drawbar; it sent a range of values for one particular cc to represent the different drawbars and you'd need something with some intelligence to be able to map it. Again iirc.

[HammondDave]

Why would you want it to control a VB3? Is the Hammond emulation not good enough? I thought that the whole point of this keyboard is to give you an all in one performance experience... So why would you even want to use it as a controller for other sound sources? Especially with that Keybed....

 

If you want a good controller, buy a good controller....

[Ken Beaumont]

I agree with you there Dave. If I just wanted to use it to run VB3, I think I would use something that more closely emulates the feel of a Hammond.

 

Something along the lines of the VMK-161 Organ Plus at about $699 is certainly cheaper.

 

Me I'm quite satisfied with it. I wanted something to add what my SV1 is missing, namely organ and synth sounds. And after adjusting the velocity on the keys, I'm starting to adapt to them. There are much worse keys out there, compare them to the Krome 61 you will see what I mean.

[Dr88s]

Why would you want it to control a VB3? Is the Hammond emulation not good enough? I thought that the whole point of this keyboard is to give you an all in one performance experience... So why would you even want to use it as a controller for other sound sources? Especially with that Keybed....

 

If you want a good controller, buy a good controller....

 

Excellent point. I am sorry I did not make it clear when I wrote my post.

 

Clearly, I am expecting the VR-09 to have more than adequate organ sounds for my needs. I would never buy this otherwise, certainly not primarily to be a controller.

 

That said, I have always toyed with the idea of using an exclusively receptor-based system. It is tempting to have all sounds coming out of one module. I asked the question merely to have an idea if, if ever I do go this route, I could use this keyboard for that purpose.

 

 

 

 

[Craig MacDonald]

If or when you ever transition to a vst based gig rig, by using a VR-09 as the controller you have sounds available in the VR-09 in case your rig goes down.... And the VR-09 is only marginally more expensive than a good quality controller..

[HammondDave]

If or when you ever transition to a vst based gig rig, by using a VR-09 as the controller you have sounds available in the VR-09 in case your rig goes down.... And the VR-09 is only marginally more expensive than a good quality controller..

 

But... The VR09 is not close to a "good controller". We are really talking apples to oranges here. Very few keyboards can do both well. Personally my favorite weighted controller was the Roland AX 90. (I know Craig... A Roland!). Best damn controller ever! Gigged with it for many years. Weighed a ton, but a gem of an instrument.

[Ekewaka]

If or when you ever transition to a vst based gig rig, by using a VR-09 as the controller you have sounds available in the VR-09 in case your rig goes down.... And the VR-09 is only marginally more expensive than a good quality controller..

 

I would not call VR-09 a good controller, it's one of the worst key beds with a $999 price point I've seen during my short lifetime. It's cheaper to get a used MIDI controller and use an older MacBookPro with Mainstage in case you want more sounds.

 

PS: I used to be a Roland fan, now I've close to given up on this company.

[Halluxone]

Hammonddave, you are totally right about the A90 controller....amazing keybed and action. I'm lamenting selling it to upgrade to the RD700GX. Boy was that thing heavy though....

 

Also had a chance to try the VR at Samash today. Roland should be ashamed of themselves with that poor excuse for a keybed. The sounds were fine and I can see that this board may sell well due to all the features. I thought the Krome 61 keybed was crappy til I played the VR today and this coming from a Roland fanboy.

[RetroVintageOld]

Do the keys hinge in the proper place? On the Krome they hinge on the back of the key making if difficult to play in flats.

[Ken Beaumont]

They are hinged in the correct place and they don't have a lot of sideways play like the Krome 61 does. The Krome 88 either you like them or don't.

 

The VR-09 isn't nearly as bad as the Krome & King Korg keybeds. IMHO

[HammondDave]

Hammonddave, you are totally right about the A90 controller....amazing keybed and action. I'm lamenting selling it to upgrade to the RD700GX. Boy was that thing heavy though....

 

Also had a chance to try the VR at Samash today. Roland should be ashamed of themselves with that poor excuse for a keybed. The sounds were fine and I can see that this board may sell well due to all the features. I thought the Krome 61 keybed was crappy til I played the VR today and this coming from a Roland fanboy.

 

Well, obviously they are not ashamed. In fact, as long as people keep buying them and not returning them they could give a crap!