Roland V-Combo VR-09

[Dana.]

Yes, there's a big difference between a Hip Elite and a snob.

Really?

[Ekewaka]

Yes, there's a big difference between a Hip Elite and a snob.

Really?

 

Yep. Unless you don't know what a Hip Elite is, of course :-).

[Craig MacDonald]

Yes, there's a big difference between a Hip Elite and a snob.

Really?

 

He doesn't get it, and neither does he know anything about drawbar organs so I have no idea why he continues to post the same crap over and over and over in this thread!

[Dana.]

Really?

 

He doesn't get it, and neither does he know anything about drawbar organs so I have no idea why he continues to post the same crap over and over and over in this thread!

Really?

[Ekewaka]

Really?

 

He doesn't get it, and neither does he know anything about drawbar organs so I have no idea why he continues to post the same crap over and over and over in this thread!

Really?

 

I guess I'm Tragically Hip as an Elite, then. What is Hip, anyway.

[Synthoid]

Adjective:

Following the latest fashion, esp. in popular music and clothes.

 

[Ekewaka]

Adjective:

Following the latest fashion, esp. in popular music and clothes.

 

Cool, I will let Tower Of Power know about that. Some of their musicians visit local jams from time to time :-).

[DulceLabs.com]

Adjective:

Following the latest fashion, esp. in popular music and clothes.

 

Oh crap - that other thread is spreading...

like a canker...

[iluvchiclets]

As far as posting samples of "mellotron" sounds..

 

Hi Craig,

 

Don't worry about what others think. I am following this thread everyday, and I have really enjoyed what you have shown us through your soundclouds. I think you are providing a great service showing us the qualities of this keyboard before some of us can actually get our hands on it.

 

Personally I would ignore any posts that seem to be drawing you into an arguement...really, one can buy the keyboard or one decides not to. It's as simple as that. I am very intrigued by the VR-09s price and what it has to offer. It's all about value for the money for me.

[To B3]

I say post them mellotron-wannabees

[HammondDave]

 

As far as posting samples of "mellotron" sounds.. If I thought I could post them without Hammonddave (who is a resident mellotron expert) shitting all over me and telling me how awful they sound I would post them, but I'm really not interested in being the target of any more crap. Suffice it to say that by selecting the solo violins and adding overdrive and compression, you can get a reasonable facsimile of mellotron strings.

 

That's alright Craig... Go ahead and post them... I already emptied my colon for the day...

 

And you said that the overdrive on the VR-09 is "OK", so we know where your standards for sound are... (Kiss, kiss... Just having some fun with you...)

 

Just listen at 9:25 of this video... Maybe the worse overdrive I have ever heard (JMHO). Or maybe just a HEHO (Hip Elitist's Humble Opinion) ..

 

[video:youtube]http://m.youtube.com/?reload=3&rdm=mn654j1pp#/watch?v=0tU_UC2QCnY

[Craig MacDonald]

Dave, sometimes when I say OK I mean eh.. and as I pointed out the VR-09 is more about grunge than nice warm gritty overdrive so I suspect that you and I are closer together on our opinion of the OD than you realize. Actually, the more I compare it to the Ventilator, the more I dislike the OD in the VR-09..

[HammondDave]

Yeah!!!! Glad we agree! The Vent is the gold standard of Leslie sims... And few clones, if any, match it.

[Ekewaka]

Argh, that OD was nasty... A couple of amp sims would have been a better choice. I know bit crushing is Hip nowadays, but not for this Elitist.

[Synthoid]

Argh, that OD was nasty... A couple of amp sims would have been a better choice. I know bit crushing is Hip nowadays, but not for this Elitist.

 

I feel the same way about the XW-P1 OD.

 

 

http://videos.videopress.com/f41x0JaC/img_1053_scruberthumbnail_0.jpg

[Craig MacDonald]

As far as posting samples of "mellotron" sounds..

 

Hi Craig,

 

Don't worry about what others think. I am following this thread everyday, and I have really enjoyed what you have shown us through your soundclouds. I think you are providing a great service showing us the qualities of this keyboard before some of us can actually get our hands on it.

 

Personally I would ignore any posts that seem to be drawing you into an arguement...really, one can buy the keyboard or one decides not to. It's as simple as that. I am very intrigued by the VR-09s price and what it has to offer. It's all about value for the money for me.

 

Thanks iluvchiclets, that's why I've continued to put up with all the BS on this thread. Just trying to help people understand that there is some tremendous value in this little 12 pound keyboard, and for the right player in the right situation, it's golden.

 

If you follow this thread from the beginning, this VR-09 started out as nothing more than a curiousity for me, AND I was completely skeptical that it would sound any good (because I've always hated the Roland VK engine). Throughout these pages 49 pages (wow), I've gone from a curious skeptic, to "why not give it a chance for $999" to "wow it doesn't sound bad" to now where I really think this thing is awsome bang for the buck. Is it perfect, absolutely not.. are there some things that need to change, absolutely, will Roland make all the changes I want, who knows, but the VR-09 is tremendous value as it stands and it really has some huge untapped potential!

 

Roland needs to do a few things.. fix the expression pedal issue, allow controller info to be stored in registrations, and enable effects on the lower part of a split. They need to allow for individual registrations to be stored on USB stick so we can share registrations (as it stands only the entire registration set can be stored) and they need to change the iPad editor to give it the ability to STORE sounds and create a synth library. If they do these things, this $999 keyboard will be awsome! Notice that I haven't suggested that they change the keyboard.. the keyboard is just fine for a keyboard in this price range!

 

That's it, I'm done for a while.

[Josh Paxton]

Argh, that OD was nasty... A couple of amp sims would have been a better choice. I know bit crushing is Hip nowadays, but not for this Elitist.

 

Yeah, the OD is certainly not a strong point. About the first 1/8 of the range is usable, and I use it on organ, Clav and EP sounds. But anything past about 9:00 is useless for just about anything except doubling the guitar part in AC/DC tunes (which I actually do use it for).

 

Speaking of OD, it was one thing that really impressed me about the KeyB boards when I played them (albeit briefly) at NAMM. It's the only clone I've played whose internal OD I thought rivaled the Vent, and it has been tempting me for that reason. (Because clearly the Sk1, Mojo, Nord and VR09 just aren't enough clonewheels to own...)

[Craig MacDonald]

FKS,

 

I feel exactly the same.. beyond the 9-10:00 point the OD is virtually useless and all it's good for us grunge guitar sounds (actually try the clav through it.. it sounds like a grunge guitar.. I wonder if the D Beam could have a whammy bar effect?)..

 

I haven't really LOVED the overdrive on any of my clones.. and if I had to say which OD I liked the best (of my Bx3/CX3/C1/C2/C2D/SK1/Numa/Mojo/VR-09) I would have to say that the Numa was probably my favourite.

[Adan]

(Because clearly the Sk1, Mojo, Nord and VR09 just aren't enough clonewheels to own...)

 

I've heard of Crohn's Disease, but this must be Clone's Disease.

 

In your defense, I know at least one of those came your way gratis.

[LX88]

One of the things that is very different between the VK engine on the VK8/VK8m and the VR09 is the overdrive.

 

There were four types of over drive on the VK8m and three on the VK8 I believe.

 

Of the four on the VK8m, three of them are excellent.The overdrive comes on very gradually and for the most part sounds very natural, not some fuzz added to the tones but an intregal part of the sound.

 

I also agree that the Numa overdrive is pretty good too. I was using it quite a bit last weekend and it works well. My speakers are pretty well matched to the Numa to make it happen.

 

The Numa is still an under rated clone in my book. It does about everything I need it to do. Speaker selection and good amplification have a lot to do with it.

 

In review, still think that the chorus vibrato and overdrive functions of the VK8m are some of the best out there. It also has a lot of editing capability.

[jcazzy]

From what I've read, if the VR-09 could send effects to a midi keyboard with good action that it would solve a lot of problems people are talking about here. One could use the midi keyboard (of their chose) as their main board while using the VR keybed for other sounds. Not sure if it can do it but it would need to be able to be stored in the registrations so you could call up whatever keyboard you want to be directed to the midi as the main board.

 

Any thoughts on this?

[Josh Paxton]

Quick post from set break on a gig where I'm using the VR. Earlier some random guy from the audience came up to me after we played "What'd I Say," and told me "Man, that Wurli sounds great!" True story.

[brenner13]

This little board amazes me in the live setting. I've mentioned before: some of the sounds (AP, EP, Clav) seem a bit lackluster and plain by themselves, yet sit perfectly in the live mix with a band, cut through and sound great.

 

Just got back from practice with my classic rock cover group, and without even fishing for a comment, the gtr player and bassist both mentioned how much they enjoy the sounds of the new board, especially the fullness of the VR09's organ. We are all amazed that Gimmie Some Lovin' and even Born To Be Wild are actually fun to play again, if you can believe that!

[High Diving Act]

Hey Craig.. Waterloo here. I am seriously considering this board and I just downloaded the manual and read the 2 manual setup.. where you split the board and can run one sound on the vr and another on a midi controller. I am rather excited about this as I have a decent 73 key controller that I would patch piano to and use the vr as the supplemental organ synth or strings. Have you tried this and how well did it work?

 

**Just noticed 3 posts up.. someone else referencing the same function**

[voxpops]

I tried this very briefly this morning. The limitation seems to be that if you're running organ on the VR, the controller MIDI board defaults to lower manual organ. If you want to play piano and organ, I think you can only access the GM piano (via MIDI Mode 2) - someone correct me if I'm wrong. However, you can easily split piano and synth, for example, and have one of the non-GM pianos driven by your controller. You just need to be aware of the issue relating to only being allowed to employ a single set of effects.

[High Diving Act]

Thanks for the feedback. hmm the gm midi piano limitation kinda bums me out but could live with it for 1 or 2 songs as long as the piano sound is tolerable. As far as the effects issue.. does the lower Inherit the effect of the upper.. or just runs effect less. again.. I could live without the effect on the lower.. as I wouldn't want to inherit rotary on my piano anyhow.

[HammondDave]

From what I've read, if the VR-09 could send effects to a midi keyboard with good action that it would solve a lot of problems people are talking about here. One could use the midi keyboard (of their chose) as their main board while using the VR keybed for other sounds. Not sure if it can do it but it would need to be able to be stored in the registrations so you could call up whatever keyboard you want to be directed to the midi as the main board.

 

Any thoughts on this?

 

Kind of defeats the idea of a lightweight instrument...

[Craig MacDonald]

From what I've read, if the VR-09 could send effects to a midi keyboard with good action that it would solve a lot of problems people are talking about here. One could use the midi keyboard (of their chose) as their main board while using the VR keybed for other sounds. Not sure if it can do it but it would need to be able to be stored in the registrations so you could call up whatever keyboard you want to be directed to the midi as the main board.

 

Any thoughts on this?

 

Kind of defeats the idea of a lightweight instrument...

 

Dave your posts are getting more and more ridiculous as this thread progresses! You know as well as EVERYONE else on this list, that supporting a second keyboard via midi is a FEATURE that provides flexibility if/when someone wants to do so.

 

If it didn't do that, how long would it take you to complain that it didn't support a second keyboard via midi?

 

Seriously can you just drop your silly attacks on the VR-09 and pick some other thread to stir things up.. just give us all a break for a while please!!

[Craig MacDonald]

I tried this very briefly this morning. The limitation seems to be that if you're running organ on the VR, the controller MIDI board defaults to lower manual organ. If you want to play piano and organ, I think you can only access the GM piano (via MIDI Mode 2) - someone correct me if I'm wrong. However, you can easily split piano and synth, for example, and have one of the non-GM pianos driven by your controller. You just need to be aware of the issue relating to only being allowed to employ a single set of effects.

 

Voxpops, I don't think that split mode means you're accessing General Midi sounds (unless all of the sampled sounds on the VR-09 are GM sounds, and I don't think they are).. From what I can gather all of the other non-organ sounds can be used from the lower manual and they are the exact same sounds, but the effects are absent.. So for instance if you create a split where the lower manual sound is a phased electric piano, you will get the phased electric piano but without the phaser effect.

 

This is inconvenient, but not the end of the world from my opinion.

[Craig MacDonald]

Thanks for the feedback. hmm the gm midi piano limitation kinda bums me out but could live with it for 1 or 2 songs as long as the piano sound is tolerable. As far as the effects issue.. does the lower Inherit the effect of the upper.. or just runs effect less. again.. I could live without the effect on the lower.. as I wouldn't want to inherit rotary on my piano anyhow.

 

As I mentioned in my response to Voxpops, I am pretty sure that Voxpops is incorrect when he states that you get the General Midi piano on the lower split.. I don't think that's the case.. On a split you have full access to whatever sounds you want that are contained in the VR-09.. organ, sampled sounds and synth sounds.. The issue is that whatever sound you place on the lower part, will appear without effects.

 

That's not a problem if you want to use any of the sounds that are clean and without effects.. So acoustic piano, or warm strings, synth brass, and dozens of other sounds will play perfectly on the lower part (using a secondary keyboard if you wish).. it only poses a problem when you select a part that has a noticable effect, like phased electric piano, or wah wah clavinet.. you will lose the phaser and wah wah effects when you place them on the lower part.

 

Again for me, it's not ideal but I will be able to work around it no problem.

 

With respect to inheriting the rotary effect on your piano.. THAT'S NOT CORRECT EITHER.. the issue with the lower part inheriting the effects of the upper part is ONLY when sounds are LAYERED.. in split mode this doesn't happen (and split mode is the mode you should use with a second keyboard).. the sound that appears on the lower part does NOT go through the MFX section, it only goes through the reverb (so you process the upper and lower instruments the same, which does make some sense).

 

I hope this helps to clarify things a bit.. splits work very well with a secondary keyboard. I have my VR-09 sitting beside me on top of my Yamaha K8 weighted action controller, and with the exception of the lack of effects, it works and sounds great.. and for the most part on normal acoustic sounds you don't notice a lack of effects on the bottom part.

at all, except for reverb, the lower manual does go through reverb. effects at all (actually I think it goes through reverb