I totally agree with you that Roland (GW-7)didn't do a great job on the 16 track sequencer.
I bought it for 3 month and already regret of my decision, I should have invest on triton TR, of course cost more but yet comes with great satisfaction.
The volume after record, playback can be real bad if you layer the song and have different volume, no volume control, no panning. The 16 tracks are very limited, which you can not record drum to each track, only certain track(i think only 2 track). I don't think this should be called workstation at all. I would rather buy a cheap MIDI keyboard and works in front of my Computer which will provides me much better sound and flexibility.
However, down to the sound part, for that price for the sound you get is pretty something. Great sound. Yet allow only 2 layer, you can save to user song but the VOLUME will not be saved, you have to adjust the volume again, how do you do it when you perform LIVE?? I think ROLAND did a pretty bad job through the price is low but the spec is low as well. Anyone out there, don't go into this if you want a WORKSTATION not just a playing keyboard.