Vadim,

Thank you for your suggestion. There is a store here in town which has had a VA76 on display for over a year. Several times I went in, hoping to convince myself that the upgrade was worthwhile, and yet every time I had left the store feeling that the VA76 was not really an instrument which I can use for playing live.

While many of the buttons which are there do indeed light up, there is a number of function whose buttons have disappeared. For example, a Transpose Lock button is extremely useful - it allows me to set up performance memories in different keys, then start from the one in a desired key, hit Transpose Lock, and the perf memories will change sounds or styles, but keep the key transposition. Similarly, I often use Accompaniment Lock button. Many arranger control buttons are also missing, and I often considered building a FC7-type switch. Still, every time I try the VA76, I leave with the feeling that the big LCD screen was put there to make the demoing of the instrument easier. Unfortunately, the sluggish response and the low screen density make the vA76 not very worthwhile for me.

Regards,
Alex