Baldwin Funster Posted March 23 Share Posted March 23 The A800pro is discontinued by Roland. Getting one new might be possible but not for long. Quote FunMachine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reezekeys Posted March 23 Share Posted March 23 1 hour ago, Baldwin Funster said: The A800pro is discontinued by Roland. Getting one new might be possible but not for long. Where do you get this info? I do see it as "not available" at the usual sources but I remember this same scenario happened a few years ago - it was unavailable for months, then it was back. It's still on the roland website. https://www.roland.com/us/categories/keyboards/keyboard_controllers/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baldwin Funster Posted March 23 Share Posted March 23 1 hour ago, Reezekeys said: Where do you get this info? I do see it as "not available" at the usual sources but I remember this same scenario happened a few years ago - it was unavailable for months, then it was back. It's still on the roland website. https://www.roland.com/us/categories/keyboards/keyboard_controllers/ https://www.roland.com/ca/products/a-800pro/ Quote FunMachine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reezekeys Posted March 23 Share Posted March 23 Interesting - I guess it's official, although the usa Roland site has the exact same web page without the "discontinued" text - https://www.roland.com/us/products/a-800pro/ In any case, hardly a surprise given its age and with midi 2.0 starting to happen. What other midi contoller has been around unchanged for fourteen years?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thethirdapple Posted March 23 Share Posted March 23 yup looks like a regional availability thing the CA site shows it as : discontinued https://www.roland.com/ca/products/a-800pro/ the US site shows: where to buy https://www.roland.com/us/products/a-800pro/ PEACE _ _ _ Quote When musical machines communicate, we had better listen… http://youtube.com/@ecoutezpourentendre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baldwin Funster Posted March 23 Share Posted March 23 Still a huge number of vgc used ones that I bet were barely taken out of the box. I recently got an 800, 500 and 300 all unscratched and flawless as far as I can see. A little caig F5 on the sliders to hopefully prevent wear and ive been jamming since. And all parts are interchangeable, even the motherboard. So if you find one cheep with a broken key you have a parts stash for all the rest. Yeah there are a couple of negatives with the design. The pitch lever issue that doesn't bother me. Also the drawbars in b3x when CCed by the faders top out before the faders do so the last couple of clicks do nothing. Also the auto save to the current midi map without a save? prompt has caused me a bit of misery once or twice. Still the series has the best keybed in the price range. Quote FunMachine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reezekeys Posted March 23 Share Posted March 23 7 hours ago, dalpozlead said: The doubt about if a new unit will perform badly is preventing me to have a new A-800... Notwithstanding the fact none of us may be able to get a new A800 🙂 ... I took another look at that old thread and our videos there. The one I posted seems to show a smaller dead zone than yours - that's just how it hits me, watching this one right after yours. It does not strike me as being a very large dead zone, tbh. As I said in that original thread, I'm not bothered by the size of the dead zone on my A800 at all. Actually, in all the years I've owned synths or any keyboard with a pitch bender, I've never done a PB move the way you did on your video - very slow and deliberate (which I know was only to illustrate the dead zone, not a typical way to do PB). If I needed to do very presise, slow and wide bends, then the A800's bender would probably not work well for me - but that's never been the case. I have my PB range set to 2 semitones up & down, and as I said in that old thread, the most I do with it is quick little scoops or bends down that return quickly to center. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reezekeys Posted March 23 Share Posted March 23 16 minutes ago, Baldwin Funster said: Still a huge number of vgc used ones that I bet were barely taken out of the box. I recently got an 800, 500 and 300 all unscratched and flawless as far as I can see. [....] Still the series has the best keybed in the price range. Didn't want to take up the space quoting your entire post just to say I agree! 🙂 My two A800s have been in airplane holds over a total of many thousands of miles. Except for the USB jack falling apart on my first one due to its loose grip on the cable causing flexing as I played (which seems to be corrected in my current A800), they've been pretty good to me. I have a bad slider now, but the service manual has the Alps part # so I plan on fixing it... someday! (I mapped another slider I wasn't using, so no rush). To paraphrase, "it's the keybed, stupid"... it has the combination of lightness and springyness I like. Absolutely correct on the lack of any edit buffer, you have to be careful when messing with your setups. The "keyboard memories" are confusing too, and there are parameters that require the computer editor if you want to change them. The manual mentions a "panic" function (on the midi implementation chart) that doesn't exist. There are a few other weirdnesses too. I'd like to find a used A300 I can cannibalize to keep my 800s going as long as possible. You should get some kind of prize - you've collected them all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Mike Metlay Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 I learned to solo on Oberheim paddles, and whenever I ask the guys at ASM to make them reversible on the Hydrasynth, the veins in their foreheads start to throb, so I've stopped asking. mike 1 Quote Dr. Mike Metlay (PhD in nuclear physics, golly gosh) Musician, Author, Editor, Educator, Impresario, Online Radio Guy, Cut-Rate Polymath, and Kindly Pedant Editor-in-Chief, Bjooks ~ Author of SYNTH GEMS 1 clicky!: more about me ~ my radio station (and my fam) ~ my local tribe ~ my day job ~ my book ~ my music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Mike Metlay Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 Also, I own a WSA1. Not currently using it, but love the dual sphere controllers. All the advantages of a joystick, few of the downsides, and no protruding fragile rods to snap off. You can even tell which one you're using by tactile feel without having to look down. Genius. mike Quote Dr. Mike Metlay (PhD in nuclear physics, golly gosh) Musician, Author, Editor, Educator, Impresario, Online Radio Guy, Cut-Rate Polymath, and Kindly Pedant Editor-in-Chief, Bjooks ~ Author of SYNTH GEMS 1 clicky!: more about me ~ my radio station (and my fam) ~ my local tribe ~ my day job ~ my book ~ my music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reezekeys Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 I lost my WSA1 in a house fire. Technics/Panasonic hired me to do patches and sequences, and demo it at the intoduction for the music press at their HQ in New Jersey (the only "day gig" I ever had in the music tech world 🙂 ). I have a vague memory of them making my "Imperial Sweep" patch #1. I also sequenced a tune that might have made it onto an included demo disk. I remember a two-page spread in Keyboard (or EM?) advertising this "physical modeling" synth which apparently was not really a physical modeling synth! Nevertheless it had some good sounds - the acoustic piano was actually pretty decent for its time, but imo it was the analog side that might have doomed it - rather dull sounding as I remember, possibly the result of a low sample rate or more extreme low-pass filtering (needed for the low sample rate?). I agree those balls, er, "spheres" were pretty cool. That and the three wheels - lots of real-time control possible for sure. Wish I still had mine! [edit - getting some decent prices (well, asking prices!) on Reverb, as I just checked:] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeronyne Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 I love the IDEA of wheels and ribbons, and I have many of each. But the Korg joystick is the one I "grew up" with, so it's the one I'm most comfortable with. The Roland's I've owned (mostly in the 90s and 00s) had the great bender, but the mod trigger (pushing up) wasn't nuanced enough for my uses. I do like the Expressiv-E posted on the previous page, which is why I'd love a Polybrute...that's the Arturia keyboard with the Expressive-E built in, correct? Quote "For instance" is not proof. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Mike Metlay Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 Yes it is. Interesting use of the technology. I have no idea if it is licensed from them. Quote Dr. Mike Metlay (PhD in nuclear physics, golly gosh) Musician, Author, Editor, Educator, Impresario, Online Radio Guy, Cut-Rate Polymath, and Kindly Pedant Editor-in-Chief, Bjooks ~ Author of SYNTH GEMS 1 clicky!: more about me ~ my radio station (and my fam) ~ my local tribe ~ my day job ~ my book ~ my music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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