As one of the 'stick with it and tweak it 'til it's right' school (I just can't justify losing money on a keyboard - it's supposed to MAKE me money!), I have to admit that the G70, especially for style play, is just poorly voiced. I don't think that the majority of voices are inferior to the G1000 (my previous keyboard of 8 years), a favorite of many of the G70's detractors. Many, if not most voices are quite superior, especially soloed.

BUT......... (and here's the rub) the G1000 had one overwhelming advantage. It's entire sound-set was from the Sound Canvas lineage, a tried and tested sound-set specifically designed to work TOGETHER. Although many of the voices, when listened to in solo, felt quite weak, especially compared to top of the line workstations, in a mix (where they are going to be heard 90% of the time) they all 'bed' together very well, and the whole was greater than the parts.

But Roland (and most other manufacturers) have been moving further and further away from the tried and tested sound-sets, partly as a result of one-upping each other in certain instrument areas, and unwillingness to spend the enormous amounts of cash to develop another completely coherent sound-set as integrated as the Sound Canvas/ Yamaha XG are.

So what we are left with is the remnants of many of the Canvas sounds, with newer sounds from the VA series and Fantom series grafted on, plus V-Drum kits and a partial VK-Organ implementation.

I don't think that Roland spent sufficient time on their voicing team to really successfully integrate all of these elements in the G70 OOTB....... This is not to say that they can't be made to bed together, just that Roland didn't finish the job before they released the G70 - prematurely in many opinions, including mine. The new E80s most touted feature is an independent EQ on every single voice, and every single drum sound WITHIN a kit, a tweaker's dream, perhaps, but also a tacit admission that it actually NEEDS this to sound good.

If the newer voices had been balanced against the originals in the first place (as was every new addition to the Sound Canvas set from the beginning) then the transition, and OOTB compatibility with older styles, would have been far more seamless.

But, I admit, Roland cut corners, cobbled together several already voiced components from different Roland lines, and just crossed their fingers that it would all work seamlessly. It doesn't..........

It CAN be made better, but it is up to the user to do the grunt work. This is a two-edged sword. On the minus side, it takes time, and a level of skill some don't have or care to learn, but on the positive side, once done, that G70 is YOURS, and no-one else's. No cookie-cutter styles, no sounding just like everyone else in the area that has the same arranger...... You are an individual.

It worries me that those of us who prefer OOTB perfection are content, when they hold down a C chord on a certain style, to sound just like everyone else holding down a C chord on that style. That's the LAST thing I want.

I completely understand Donny's decision to move back to Yamaha, to an OS he's familiar with, and sounds he's content with. He just did not have the time to spend personalizing his G70, and if he had said he only had a week or so to get it ready, I would have been the first to say 'forget it, can't be done'.........

Roland have a whole boat-load of new styles ready for the E-80, and I am anxious to see how well they can re-voice them for the G70. They obviously need to do this to shore up the style reputation of the G70, and help with the OOTB sound of the G70. This is a new sound-set for Roland, and obviously, it is taking them a little time to fine-tune it (remember how much better the SC-55 sounded, compared to the MT-32?), and prepare good styles for it.

The addition of velocity-switched drumkits and sounds COMPLETELY changes the playing field for style creation - in the past, it didn't matter if a style was programmed with less velocity and more volume, or vice versa...... not so with vel-switched sounds and kits - and it is taking time (and some Roland style creators STILL don't always use the bitchin' V-Kits!) to get new, well balanced styles out. In fact, since the G70's introduction, Roland themselves have come up with barely a handful of new styles, letting third party style developers (with a less managed balance and volume consistency) do most of the development. And, once again, too few of these use the V-Kits, so much of the vibrancy is lost.

Hopefully, much of this will be addressed in the future, but for now, if you hate tweaking and don't like the OOTB sound.......... STAY AWAY FROM THE G70.

But if it sounds good to you in the store, well, just relax....... (And I'm still confused as to why Donny, if he hated the sounds, and hated the styles, bought one in the first place..... I had two 4hr sessions in the store pretty much by myself before I would commit to the G70!)