I have to say that, were it not for the 80's inspired styles, the G70 would come close to the perfect keyboard. And you CAN change them, either by buying new ones (MidiSpot have some EXCELLENT styles optimized for G70) or converting older Roland styles, or converting other manufacturers' styles (probably easier to do on the G70 than any other arranger).

What you have to understand about these kind of reviews is the kind of person writing them........... Is the glass half full, or half empty? The REALLY telling question that MikeTV answered was E. Would you purchase another G70?

Despite the panning he gave it, the answer was YES!. So I guess the glass is half empty.

My major beef with the G70 is mostly ergonomic and control changes from the G1000, and reading MikeTV, he obviously misses the layout from his old Korg. I think, though, that this tends to point out the fact that, once we are comfortable and familiar with a particular interface, it gets very hard to adjust to something that, from a fresh player's perspective, is just fine.

Quote "The lack of proper "break" buttons makes it a none starter in terms of the most basic style control functions" just means that Mike is probably unaware that OS2 re-introduced the Break/Mute function, and tied it to the AssignSW by the left hand.

Quote; "The new touch screen is excellent and Roland have generally got the mix of hard buttons versus touch screen controls about right (with the exception of the lack of "fill" buttons mentioned earlier)" The fill buttons are in a cluster of four in the Style Control section. They double as Variation selection, all you have to have is the Auto Fill-in button enabled and as you select whether you change variations or return to the same, a fill is triggered. You can also trigger the variation and fills from Rolands excellent FC7 seven button pedalboard, making for a pretty good hands-free operation (I HATE having to stop playing to hit buttons!).

I guess the thing you need to realize is that, despite the glass being half empty, MikeTV didn't go out and buy a different glass.

But if anyone from Roland is trolling, here, if you don't want the G70 to wither on the vine, get some of the hippest programmers you can find, and bring out 50-100 new styles that, at least, compare favorably with Tyros2 and other 21st century arrangers.