Roland VR-760 - First gig impressions

[eric]

I played my first gig using the Roland V-Combo (AKA VR-760) last night. I left my RD-600 at home and carried the V-Combo and Electro 2 to the gig. I had spent about 2 hours the night before setting up some patches with the appropriate splits/layers/FX as required by the gig, but have not had the time to really tweak all the sounds in a fully amplified setting. Headphones at 2 a.m. does not allow one the flexibility to really know how it will sound pumping through an amp!

 

Getting back to the gig, I found myself very pleasantly surprised with the results I got and did not have many uncertain moments with this keyboard. Everything is labeled very clearly and well-presented on the interface. This made it easy to navigate "on-the-fly" and did not slow me down much at all when I was looking to layer strings or pads behind a piano sound, dial in organ amp settings, tweak resonance or filter cutoff in real time.

 

I did have a couple of "whoops" moments when I realized that I had programmed my default "go-to" organ sound a lot hotter than the others. The VR organ tone is fairly hyped and bright, so I had to work on it a little bit so it was not as over the top. It certainly has a lot of character and a lot of different ways to mangle the sound to give it personality. I felt like the Leslie simulator (in mono) was fairly acceptable and I have not even begun to dig into the edit menus for the simulator. I liked the D-Beam interface for changing Leslie speed. Just pass by the beam with a hand motion and it switches from slow to fast and vice versa. The drawbars were also a standout for me. Very fluid and realistic.

 

The piano sounds met my expectations, sounding very similar in overall tone to my RD-600, which has been my staple stage piano for 5 years. The VR pianos have a bit more responsiveness and variety of sample points between soft and loud, which was welcome to me. There are a number of ways to add or subtract to the sound using Mic modeling, EQ and onboard FX, right there on the panel. I was able to derive a piano sound that would work for most any song. Not of the caliber of Yamaha P series pianos, but passable for my general business gig. The EP sounds were passable, but I feel like the Electro sounds have more character and sound a bit fatter to my ears. I did not do an extensive A/B test between the two keyboards, but found myself trying to use the VR as much as I could to fully test it out.

 

Other sounds (strings, vocal/synth pads, leads) were decent and usable, with the Active Expression feature causing the expression pedal to do different things to the sound (i.e. the vocal sounds open up from doo to ahh upon pedal sweep). Pretty neat and musical-sounding to my ears.

 

The keyboard action felt very solid and pummel-worthy. I connected it to the Electro with MIDI and it was a good controller for the Electro EP sounds.

 

I was not really crazy about the "one touch" buttons that allow you to go back to an organ/piano/synth sound at the touch of a button. The problem is that these are presets that cannot be altered and I don't like the choices made by Roland. I really wish I could save my favorite "go-to" patches in the one touch area, but I don't think it's possible.

 

Next weekend, I am going to try playing a gig with only the V-Combo and see how it goes. I'm impressed with the keyboard as an all-in-one solution. I will do more A/B tests between it and the Electro. My thought is that I would like to keep and use both keyboards. I'll post more later.

 

Regards,

Eric

[RockyRoad]

Thanks for the report. I spent two hours on Friday in a store with the VR-760, hoping it will be the keyboard to let me leave my Roland A90 at home. It looks like it could be.

 

Did you buy a case for it? Those knobs on the top level stick out a bit, I imagine a case would have to be fairly deep to protect them.

[eric]

Did you buy a case for it? Those knobs on the top level stick out a bit, I imagine a case would have to be fairly deep to protect them.

Before buying the V-Combo, I compared its dimensions against my Roland RD600 and determined that they were almost identical in depth and heigth, with the V-Combo being about 4" shorter in width than the RD. I have a full blown Anvil flight case with wheels for the RD, so my assessment was that the V-Combo could fit into this case with a little 4" gap on one end (easily remedied with some spare foam).

 

This being the case, I was even more enthused to buy the V-Combo, because I already had a case that would fit! I never take a keyboard out of the house unless it is in a flight case, so this typically means a $300-400 extra expense for every new keyboard. I was pleasantly surprised to be able to use the RD case. I guess the only problem would be if I want to take the RD and the V to the same gig...

 

I bet your A90 case (if you have one) would fit the V just fine. The V does have rather large dimensions.

 

Regards,

Eric

[Tusker]

Thanks for an informative "live gig" review.

 

Originally posted by eric:

I will do more A/B tests between it and the Electro. My thought is that I would like to keep and use both keyboards. I'll post more later.

I'd be extremely interested in a comparison between electro and VR.

 

Jerry

[Botch.]

Originally posted by Jerry Aiyathurai:

Thanks for an informative "live gig" review.

 

Originally posted by eric:

I will do more A/B tests between it and the Electro. My thought is that I would like to keep and use both keyboards. I'll post more later.

I'd be extremely interested in a comparison between electro and VR.

 

Jerry

Me too. I was kind of surprised when you said you took these two to the gig, don't they essentially do the same things?

[eric]

I was kind of surprised when you said you took these two to the gig, don't they essentially do the same things?

Yes, they do essentially do the same thing, which is one reason the Electro may be phased out or put on "backup" status if the V-Combo continues to live up to my expectations. The main reason I used both on my first night with the V-Combo is that just in case I got into a situation where I needed a familiar sound and could not find it in the V-Combo, I would be ready.

 

Previously, I was using the RD600, mainly as a piano with the Electro mainly as an organ. So my muscle memory has me reaching for a top keyboard to play organ and a bottom keyboard for piano. My goal is to use JUST the V-Combo for everything, but I did not want to do a Big Bang on the first night and find myself getting lost. So I'm doing a phased acclimation to the new keyboard.

 

Regards,

Eric

[daBowsa]

Can you MIDI a 2nd keyboard to the VR-760 and have it generate two sounds at once? (i.e. what the Electro can't do)

 

I'd like to play EP on the 760 and have a controller on top triggering the organ sounds simultaneously, being affected by the drawbars and knobs, etc.. Seem possible?

[humannoyed]

Can you program splits with different organ patches on each side and easily change which side the drawbars are controlling?

 

Day

[eric]

Can you MIDI a 2nd keyboard to the VR-760 and have it generate two sounds at once? (i.e. what the Electro can't do)

Yes! The VR-760 is multi-timbral, with the Organ, Piano, Synth and Rhythm sections having their own assignable MIDI channel. I have not yet experimented with MIDI'ing something to the VR to play the organ separately, but know that it can be done. That's a big bonus to this keyboard. I will check it out and let you know how it goes.

 

Regards,

Eric

[eric]

Can you program splits with different organ patches on each side and easily change which side the drawbars are controlling?

No. This is one potential drawback of the VR-760, if you like to use multiple drawbar settings within splits or via MIDI. The organ section is not multi-timbral. It seems like an oversight, but the VR-760 is so content-rich that it is not a deal-breaker for me. I don't find it to be too bothersome, as I don't do the "dual manual" thing very often and just change settings on the fly with drawbars. One user has come up with a good way to get different organ sounds in splits and layers by adding the SRX07 Ultimate Keys expansion board.

 

Regards,

Eric

[Michelle ggurl]

Originally posted by eric:

Yes, they do essentially do the same thing, which is one reason the Electro may be phased out or put on "backup" status if the V-Combo continues to live up to my expectations.

Why are you planning on phasing the Electro out? Do you use sounds on the VR that aren't available on the Electro? I just ask because I tried both keyboards and thought the organ and E Pianos were much better on the Electro, but of course, that's all it does. For strings, pads, piano (cuz the Electro's piano is lousy), I have to have another keyboard. So maybe I answered my own question ... the trade-off for the sake of convenience is worth it, am I close? (Or maybe you don't share my sentiment that the organs and electric pianos are better, so it's not really a trade-off?)

[eric]

Why are you planning on phasing the Electro out? Do you use sounds on the VR that aren't available on the Electro? I just ask because I tried both keyboards and thought the organ and E Pianos were much better on the Electro, but of course, that's all it does. For strings, pads, piano (cuz the Electro's piano is lousy), I have to have another keyboard. So maybe I answered my own question ... the trade-off for the sake of convenience is worth it, am I close? (Or maybe you don't share my sentiment that the organs and electric pianos are better, so it's not really a trade-off?)

I have not made up my mind completely, but I would like to scale back to using one keyboard for most gigs. While I really love the sound of the Electro, its piano sound is unusable for me and it does not provide any synth sounds. I do agree that the Electro has killer EP sounds and the organ sound is no slouch, either.

 

One huge selling point for the VR is the real drawbars. I had used various clones (and real Hammonds) for years, always with drawbars. Then I started using the Electro and the LED drawbuttons were never quite the same. I do have a set of MIDI Drawbars that are pretty handy, but that's just one more thing to lug, along with a MIDI mapper and a couple of wall warts to use the drawbars with the Electro.

 

I like the VR's "all-in-one" philosophy and the fact that it accepts the SRX expansion boards. I am willing to make the trade-off for slightly less ballsy EP sounds, in exchange for integrated drawbars, great piano sounds, decent synth capabilities and the SRX expansion ports. I like being able to set up splits and layers of all these sounds and actually name them, all within the same keyboard. I had been considering one of the power boards, like an S90 or MotifES 8, but the VR-760 struck me with the drawbars and simpler interface, plus the 76 keys make it more compact and easy to lug than an 88-note weighted action board.

 

The VR is also built to last and has a very intuitive UI. The Electo is ok from a UI standpoint, but I do feel that the buttons are all grouped too close together and also the silk-screen graphics are hard to read on a dark stage. I dislike the location of the Leslie slow/fast button (should be on the left side) and also the percussion and vibrato controls are hard to grab on the fly. Not to totally knock the Electro, but I did have MAJOR quality issues with the first several units I received, requiring multiple replacements (I'm on Electro #4 now and it has been going strong for nearly a year). Apparently, Clavia had a bad batch and I had problems with everything from a bent key rail to rivet pieces floating inside to defective velocity switches and more. This was surprising to me, as I owned a Nord Lead for years with no problems whatsoever. I've never had any problems with Roland gear and expect that the VR would be quite reliable as well.

 

To sum it up, the VR is a solid keyboard with a great action, simple UI, all the staple sounds I need plus expansion, real drawbars and more. I probably will keep my Electro for some time, but my goal is to simplify things and I think the V-Combo might be the convenient solution.

 

Regards,

Eric

[loxley11]

Hi guys,

 

As a prospective buyer of the VR-760, I found your comparison between the Roland and the Electro really useful. It seems that the main area where the Electro wins over the v-combo is in the EP section. Are there any EP sounds comparable to the Nord (or better) on the Roland Expansion boards (i.e. the Ultimate Keys SRX board) or anything else? If so, that would really help me make up my mind!

 

Thanks,

Drew

[eric]

Are there any EP sounds comparable to the Nord (or better) on the Roland Expansion boards (i.e. the Ultimate Keys SRX board) or anything else?

The Ultimate Keys board has some great EP sounds. I have found that combining them with the stock V-Combo sounds works well. Overall, I am pleased with the EP experience on the V-Combo, but the Electro still edges it out in overall expressiveness and girth. The velocity switching and body of the Electro EPs is practically untouchable, in my opinion.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Regards,

Eric

[Michelle ggurl]

Cool, thanks Eric! Sorry to hear you had such problems getting reliable Electros. I've had mine for almost a year (I even bought it used ... tempting the reliability gods, perhaps?) but fortunately no problems, and I transport and play it on average 2x/week. Touch wood ...

 

As for your Question Drew, I would say, dynamic range of the Electro EPs is better than anything else I've tried (including VR), and in general the Electro is much fatter, ballsier sounding, including the organ. It's a matter of what's a priority for you. Like Eric says, the acoustic piano is pretty much unusable (want to pound out a few chords waayy in the background of a full band, I suppose it MIGHT be OK ... but I wouldn't use it), the organ's "drawbars" are LEDs/buttons (so if you know how to play a real Hammond that could prolly get annoying ... me, I'm a hack, so I don't really know what I'm doing there anyway), and the feel, well, like any keyboard, you either like it or you don't ... for me, I like the Electro, but its touch and shorter keys are not something I'd want as my main axe. I have a Kurzweil PC2 with piano-proportioned keys for that.

 

If I wanted all-in-one, or drawbars were very important, I'd lean toward the VCombo. If I wanted phat because I had another keyboard in my aresenal, I'd go with the Electro. Odds are the VCombo will sound more similar to other keyboards you'd have in your rig than the Electro would, if that makes sense.

 

The Guitar Centers around my house have the V-Combo and Electro set up on the same keyboard stand, going thru same amp ... great for comparing! Maybe a store near you has both?

 

Originally posted by loxley11:

Hi guys,

 

As a prospective buyer of the VR-760, I found your comparison between the Roland and the Electro really useful. It seems that the main area where the Electro wins over the v-combo is in the EP section. Are there any EP sounds comparable to the Nord (or better) on the Roland Expansion boards (i.e. the Ultimate Keys SRX board) or anything else? If so, that would really help me make up my mind!

 

Thanks,

Drew

[Keybass]

I actually played an Electro next to a CX-3 and next to a VK-8. Overall the Roland comes closes to my B-3/122 combo at home.

 

BTW I got my SE situation straightend out. It now officially rocks the house!