Roland VR09 as VA Synth - please educate me

[Morrissey]

Current/former VR-09 owners (and VR-09B): please help me to better understand its VA Synth functionality.  I've read the major KC threads about the board.  I've picked up bits of information but would appreciate additional opinions and insight on the VA Synth, in particular.  I value the all-in-one aspect of the board, and my use case would particularly emphasize using it alternately for Organ and VA Synth.  (Assume I'll be happy with the organ functionality.)

 

My questions:

 

(1)  What hardware VA Synth(s) are reasonable comparisons, when the VR09 is connected to the Roland iOS or CTRLR editing apps?  A forumite commented in one thread that the VR09 has the equivalent of two GAIAs.  Is that true?  What VA boards from other manufacturers would you consider in same ballpark as the VR09? 

 

(2)  What hardware VA Synth(s) are reasonable comparisons to the VR09, when the VR09 is NOT connected to the Roland iOS or CTRLR editor?  This is probably the bigger question because my use case is to craft my synth tones a home with the app but then use the VR09 live without being hooked up to a tablet or computer, to preserve the all-in-one convenience of the board.

 

I know this is a reasonably low priced board and I shouldn't overthink this.  Thanks for your opinions.

 

Oh, and to preempt the hecklers:  "Nord Lead"

 

 

 

[AnotherScott]

Sonically, it's the same whether or not it's connected to an app. When it's not connected, though, the only synth parameters you can tweak are filter cutoff and resonance, and amplitude attack, decay, and release (it repurposes 5 of the drawbars for these functions).

[Mike Kent]

So yes, it is basically like having 2 Gaias, but with some extras on each of them, with waveforms that go well beyond virtual analog territory.

 

When connected to the app, you can see that the Synthesizer voice layout is basically the same as the Gaia. Layer up to 3 "partials" each with Oscillator, Filter, Amplifier and 3 EG. Two shared LFOs for the 3 partials. It goes beyond the Gaia with many more waveforms available for the oscillators (363 vs. ~20). Does not have the Oscillator Sync. Expanded selection of Filter modes. Then you can double all that with split or layer.

[brenner13]

The app is free and will run in “demo mode” without hooking up to the board. It won’t make any noise of course, but it’s kind of fun to scroll through all of the waveform names and just get a general  feel where the controls are and how to work them.

[Morrissey]

27 minutes ago, brenner13 said:

The app is free and will run in “demo mode” without hooking up to the board.

Great idea. Thanks!

[Baggypants]

The iOS app pales before the Ctrlr pc app that Frankie wrote though.

 

https://v-combo.webspace.rocks/vr-software

 

 

 

[Gus Lozada]

I had one and loved it!

The organs and synths were good enough to cover all the basic needs of a covers band.

I love it has drawbars.

 

The synth will do pretty much whatever you need regarding the classic patches of Fat brasses, strings, leads, bass...

 

What I didn't like? Its pianos. That what I use the most and it is its weakest area. Good enough for comping but not for solo piano / vocals work.

[Morrissey]

Picked up a VR09 this weekend.  Starting to dig in, and enjoying it so far.  Thanks for all the advice in this thread!

[nadroj]

Make sure you join the Facebook page and check out this website here.  The 3rd party editor unlocks a lot functionality, makes it 7 part multi-timbral, with 4 separate split zones - without needing a laptop. You connect it to the app, set it up, save it to a registration and that’s you. Can take it to the gig and play your saved registrations without your laptop. There are some caveats, but it’s worth looking into if you want to go deep. 

[brenner13]

Congrats! 
I think it’s a great performance tool. Arguably there are some design foibles that really put off many that try it. I’ve tried to replace it in my gig rig a couple of times, but it continues to be the one I use the most with my dirty-little-bar-giggin’-band. The thing sounds great, is very versatile, and super light to move around.
 

Very durable, too…going on 9 years of weekend warrior abuse. Has been through tons of dusty outdoor events, a few pool parties, and several lakeside cordials. Never overheated when outside in 106 degree heat for a four-hour B&B gig. Even got snowed on early last month at a downtown event. I’m a rather exuberant player and really demand a lot out of my gear with heavy hands, lots of glissandos, and prevalent pitch bends, so I have had to change out the pitch-paddle assembly a couple of times. It never failed, rather Roland’s paddle design inherently wears out and can develop kind of a hiccup in the center notch. This also happened on both my Fantom X6 and X7. I got pretty good at replacing this component. Other than that though, I’m very impressed how well the VR09 holds up through all conditions.

 

Still having fun programming the thing, too. Always tweaking my synth sounds between shows. Keeps it fresh when playing that Cars cover for the 847th time.

 

Hope you enjoy yours as well.

[Morrissey]

Thanks for the tips.  I am hoping it will be a good swiss army knife for me.  Lightweight board for rehearsals and top-level board for synth and organ-light gigs.

[miden]

Is it true there are no user sound slots? What do you do with edited sounds?

[AnotherScott]

59 minutes ago, miden said:

Is it true there are no user sound slots? What do you do with edited sounds?

you save them in the registrations.

[EscapeRocks]

I also believe the last registration banks are repeats, so I placed my created ones there.

 

I haven't fired mine up in a couple years.  Has there been any firmware updates that allow sending patch change to the VR-09 to change registrations?  THat was a major turn off to me, in that it couldonly send PC, and not receive it.

Other than that, it's a great board.

[AnotherScott]

9 minutes ago, EscapeRocks said:

Has there been any firmware updates that allow sending patch change to the VR-09 to change registrations? 

nope

[miden]

3 hours ago, AnotherScott said:

you save them in the registrations.

 

With only 100 available and a lot of those taken up by Axial downloads, I would have thought they'd develop something else, mebbe USB storage? I could fill those reg slots many time over with the varying bass/keys combos I setup....the FA-06 would probably be better.

[miden]

3 hours ago, AnotherScott said:

nope

 

They (Roland) really do not want it to eat into sales of the next one up, the FA do they  

[AnotherScott]

19 minutes ago, miden said:

 

With only 100 available and a lot of those taken up by Axial downloads, I would have thought they'd develop something else, mebbe USB storage? I could fill those reg slots many time over with the varying bass/keys combos I setup....the FA-06 would probably be better.

IIRC, quickly swapping to a different set of 100 on a USB stick is an option.

 

FA-06 organ doesn't sound nearly as good as VR-09, nor does it have any real-time drawbar manipulation (unless you connect a controller that you can program to send sysex), so it's not really much of an alternative for an organ-centric model. OTOH, the new Fantom-06 is a strong (mostly) step-up option from the VR-09. 

[miden]

52 minutes ago, AnotherScott said:

IIRC, quickly swapping to a different set of 100 on a USB stick is an option.

 

FA-06 organ doesn't sound nearly as good as VR-09, nor does it have any real-time drawbar manipulation (unless you connect a controller that you can program to send sysex), so it's not really much of an alternative for an organ-centric model. OTOH, the new Fantom-06 is a strong (mostly) step-up option from the VR-09. 

 

oh ok, well that's not so bad then 

 

FA-0 series are a bit too exxy....some good pricing on the VR though...

[David Emm]

18 hours ago, miden said:

 

oh ok, well that's not so bad then 

 

FA-0 series are a bit too exxy....some good pricing on the VR though...

 

I have nothing but high praise for any manufacturer who sets it up such that an instrument can read an inserted flash drive for more patches. That seems like a practical and gracious way to get around the somewhat limited memory allotments here & there.

[Stokely]

Not sure how similar the VR-09 is to the VR-700, but I only had two patches I used on the VR-700.  One for Styx's Blue Collar Man (it had a different-sounding, crunchier organ) and one for everything else.  I just grabbed whatever "ensemble" sound I needed on the fly and tweaked my one organ patch as needed.  Granted I think the VR-700 was a lot more limited than the VR-09 synth-wise.   Also to be fair I had another keyboard handling synth stuff and ultimately I wanted a better piano too.