My first ones came in today. The box is marked GW8L (Latin Version). This means that all the world styles from Latin American Countries and sounds are provided in addition to all the western, Latin and other world styles. There are 130 "basic styles" and 100 "unique for the region styles". In Europe, the model they sell has 100 middle eastern styles and sounds, in the USA we get all the Latin American styles and sounds.
The polyphony of this board is 128 note and there is 256MB(16-bit linear equivalent) of wave rom. There are 128 Preset Performance memory location, 128 User Performance locations, 100 favorite performances and 100 favorite tone user areas.
There are 4 Intros, 4 main style variations, 4 fill ins and 4 endings for each style.
There is a 16 track sequencer.
The USB Memory player can play 999 songs or contain 999 playlists including smf, mp3, wave and aiff files.
There is a dedicated music minus one button for turning off the melody track of a midi file song or it is used to center cancel a live audio song you play. I tried it out and it works quite well in both uses.
You can change sounds by catagory or by numeric keypad input.
There is a D-Beam controller with two assignable buttons and 1 solo synth button.
There are two dedicated octave up and down buttons, transpose button, melody intelligence, key scale, dual, split, and effects buttons.
The sounds are just what I expected. Right from the Fantom library but with the addition of so many more than the previous GW7 model had. All the extra world sounds are from the SRJV Latin board which includes all sounds dedicated for Latin musicians.
The styles in the basic library include very good Pop, Dance, Funk, Latin, Jazz, etc. and there is a single one touch button for providing an appropriate voice for that style. For those needing authentic Latin American styles, this machine is a must!
Years ago, Generalmusic came out with a WK6Latino keyboard which I sold a lot of and it had all the authentic styles and sounds as well. But, this board sold for over $2,000.00. This new Roland sells for $895.00 and it's a bargan.
Next, I loaded up a USB 2GB thumb drive with MP3s, Standard Midi Files, Wave Files and tried playing them. EASY! and the drive just loads into the front with a cover which can be locked or not depending on if you are nervous it might get stolen at a Gig.
The display is large and there is no way I would have guessed this keyboard could be as inexpensive as it is.
There is also a stereo mini plug in at the back for external devices and you can also choose to have the center cancel feature be on or off for your external players.
In keeping with Rolands existing arranger line of E series products, there are similar operating system features and although this is not a new technology but rather a whole lot of Roland products all put so nicely into one 13lb. package. There are no internal speakers but for most, this is not a problem because of how good all the studio monitors and amps are today.
In conclusion, I've been waiting for something from Roland that I can feel good about showing customers that doesn't have a comma in it's price and this is it.


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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com