Sorry, Vic, I was just teasing you a bit. I agree that Roland is unlikely to provide the Oriental sounds in the VA series, unless what George is suggesting turns out to be right. I feel some of the same frustration. Some of my favorite sounds are on Roland's Asia JV card. Why can't they put some slots in the VA series, at least at the high end. With four slots they are bound to sell $1000-$1400 list of cards per keyboard. They could make much more money and make customers happier with this. But so far, Roland has left us arranger types out. Yamaha is almost useless when it comes to ethnic sounds. Solton I think is a good bet.

If Korg comes out somewithing World, MidEast or Asian oriented, I will install it in my Karma. The Karma is really excellent for non-Western music because it provides for many different tunings, including a whole keyboard alternate tuning (not just by octave). The Guitar Generated Effects should work well with plucked ethnic instruments. Also, the Karma can handle rule-based rather than pattern based music, so is better at evoking many types of Asian music. However, there will be a long learning curve and some programming required to conform a Karma to taste. Eventually, I could get the Karma to drive the XV-5080, but I am hoping to get the sounds I want using fewer pieces of gear.

In any event, all manufacturers are going to be approaching 100 MB ROM next year. (Technics 6500 is expandable to 80 MB ROM, I understand.) With that much sound capacity, they are bound to be more generous with World samples.

Clif