GEM did a good Job by bringing out the Gene-
sys. The Genesys leaves the most topkeyboards
far behind and will share he second place
with the SD1. GEM comes close to the real top
the VA7/76. GEM has a great history in key-
boards, the Genesys will be there toparran-
ger.Wait a few weeks and you can hear it by
your own ears.
GEM allways surprises us, not in the least
this time.

Nice to read your opinion .

how did you demo the genesys ? dano

Mark im just wonderring...
What makes the va76 such a high end arranger keyboard for you? I have the g1000 and I dont see much of a difference in the va76. Some of the new sounds are great, but the variphrase i feel is very limited since you cant incorporate that into the arrangement, and that just maes it a little more 'suped up' g1000 for me. Perhaps i am wrong.

Then again, if the GeneSys with all the hype onle "comes close" to the VA76....I am already disappointed.

But dano has a good point, where did you demo it?

Except for buttons, and convienience - the VA7 is WAY ahead of the G1000. Styles are better, sounds are better, features are better. It's much fresher in all ways.
(go ahead, Fran)

Much better?
I worked on the VA76 for several, several hours, and only found it irritating to work with. Since I never use arranger keyboards in my studio set up for the mere fact that I have other samples that will always sound better, I am talking from a live standpoint.
Before the VA76 came out, I, and many of my friends were all 'geeked' about the the keyboard. We were all looking forward to the ability to sample, multi sample, etc. What DOES it have? A Variphrase PHRASE sampler, that cannot even be used for accompaniments, you can't play multi samples, and you cannot even expand the sample memory. The new sounds will only be as good until the new version comes out, and then you have to go out and buy another keyboard? I guess Roland is smart that they ensure customers every 2 yrs and just make suckers out of the us.
It lost a lost of buttons, which stinks for live....that touch screen will never be as quick and convenient as the g1000 in terms of live style control.
What new features are there...style morphing? Thats got to be the dumbest concept i have ever heard. If I wanted to create a style with a different drum kit, i would have done so.
I don't know, this is obviously my opinion. Yes it sounds a little better, but not enough for me to sell my g1000 and spend $2495. I see why keyboards which may not be packed with features like the GEM WK8 would be a better overall buy since you can stick samples in to play as a multi instrument, and you can stick them into your arrangements (Not to mention that memory can be expanded as well). Why is that good? Because then all you need to invest in is some good sounds, and when you get tired of the ones you have, then just get some more, and you have a keyboard for life. Just my two cents.

I just returned back from Italy and saw, heard and played the Genesys. Please see my post titled "Review of Genesys"
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

For those who don't know the variphrase can
be played by the left hand together with the
arranger. Take a look on the site of GEM and
read the specs and you will see why George
Kaye came to Italy.
GEM came allways with spectacular improve-
ments and the Genesys will not dissapoint us.
McBabbi your G1000 is still a good keyboard
but now we live in 2002.

2002?
HAHAHA
Multi Instrument samples can be played on the left and right hand? Um I dont think so. 8megs is not enough to hold GOOD multi instument samples. Go ahead and think that just because you have a phrase sampler on your keyboard that its the coolest thing out. I'll bring my EMU as a sampler if its needed.

It is good to see that you can laugh Mcbabbi.
You must be a kind person and your Emu is
a real good thing.
But keep the Genesys in your mind and try it
when it is there!
Nearly as good as the VA7/76.

George,

welcome back. Did you post the review of Genesys already? or is the post you are referring to is a future post?

Alex

I totally agree about the VA7/76 being well below what was expected. I have owned both of the instruments (not at the same time) and sold them a while ago, keeping my G1000 and SD1. The VA range is just a glorified G1000 and far slower to use in a live situation. The sounds and styles don't make you go wow like they do with the SD1.
The real competition will now be Genesys, Tyros, KN7000 and Solton stuff

Yes I know there are people that prefer to
day still horses and don't like cars or air-
planes.But a fact is the sounds of the VA7/76
are the top of to day. The SD1 is a very good
second and the Genesys will reach that high
level too.Other factories soon will follow
in the future.

"My stuff is better than your stuff" doesn't get us anywhere. Different strokes for different foks. Anyway my stuff is better.
DonM

Mart Weeho,

Question 1: Many here believe that the sounds on PSR9Kpro or even PSR2k are better than Roland VA7/76. What do you have to say about that?

Question 2: Have you actually heard and sampled Genesys?

P.S., my keyboard is better than DonM's keyboard and that is what counts.

Yamaha has great sounds on the 9000 and the
2000 but that is for me not the only thing
that matters. The VA keyboards do offer me
more in their arrangers. For keyboardplaying
on a higher level you must have the possibi-
lity of varying in Maj. Min. and Sept. chords
or even more. The VA7/76 allow you e.g. to
use a drumtrack of 24 measures if you should
want this in combination with other tracks
of 8 measures. No other keyboard can make
this possible in the same way.
To answer the next question" Not only George
Kaye has seen and heard the Genesys"!

Mart,

Thank you for answering the first question.


However, you did not answer the second question. I did not ask whether George Kay sampled it or not. And I did not ask whether George was the ONLY person who sampled and heard it. I asked if you heard it and sampled it.

SK880user,
As you may know, I own a VA7 and these very days have been playing Scott's PSR2000 almost every day. I think that, quality-wise, the PSR sounds are on the same level as the VA7 (to my ears they are both sampled at 44.1kHZ/16 bit). I haven't had the time to check all the sounds and am almost sure that the VA7 has more waveforms (especially in the Synth department), but I liked a lot some of the PSR sounds, like the Tenor and Soprano saxes and the Organs in general. Other sounds, like the acoustic piano, the electric pianos or the drums are maybe better on the VA7. So, it all comes to a matter of taste, as usual.
I wonder: why instead of spending all this time debating about my stuff, your stuff, etc, like a bunch of adolescents don't we try to improve our chops?
I am learning a lot from Scott these days and this rootless chord thing really does make a difference when you play and I am not talking just of jazzy stuff.
Just my 0.002 cents
P.S.: make love, not war (I am in San Francisco, after all...)

DonM,

I agree with you a 100%, that your stuff is better.
After all we all look at you and Uncle Dave for the latest thing and what you guys have to say about it. After all you guys are the seasoned Pro's.

Let's play music (Santana or so OK,OK Elvis lives too )

Eric

Of course Costello still lives, didn't you know?

Dreamer,

Thanks for the comparison. This interesting because I never sampled VA7 before. I will be checking out this keyboard in the future.


Thank you always for the perspective. I agree with you. For me, I am always interested in comparing keyboards. I am always searching for the better keyboard. Not just for me, but so many other people in my daily live and my relationship within churchs depend on my recommendation on what keyboard to buy.

Finally, I am seriously considering buying a new keyboard. As you may know, I have an 88-keyboard which is over 90 lbs. I thought maybe it is time to give my back some break, and get 61keys/76 keys with speakers. and hence my questions.

Thanks.

Dreamer,

Did you get the chance to watch any soccer games?

reply back at the world cup soccer topic.

Thanks.

UD, I think you got confused on this post...how did the G1000 come into play in your comment?

Or am I the confused one

I was responding to macbabbi's post directly above mine. No harm, no foul.

ahhhh, fooled me
lol

I agree totally.I own both keyboards and am pretty dissapointed with the VA.This whole discussion (& others in the vein of my stuff´s better than yours )could have been avoided had Roland actually listened to G1000 owners/USERS suggestions,even their wish lists which have been postsd repeatedly in various forums(some wishes arent that difficult to make come true!). Had the mighty Roland done this and brought out a`G 3000´lets say,the competition would have been blown away.But,what could have been and should have been is Roland´s loss.

If u thought the VA7/76 is great wait till this summer... Roland is coming out with an all new arranger to replace the VA series...

Oh goody ..... more "hurry up and wait" promises.

Show me the goods !

I recently exchanged my VA7 for a Tyros(got it yesterday)For me the best features of the VA7 were the sounds,the polyphony and the style morphing feature.I really liked the way that you could switch to a different drum beat on the fly with the touch of a screne in the middly of a song.I ended up not preferring a touch screne for on the fly changes in an arrangement and often had to also use buttons as well-I would have got the hang of it with practice.I was dissappointed in the absence of an event editor so my mistakes had to be fixed up by punching in and out the affected bars and re-recording these bits.However the final disappiontment was the variphrase.More than half of the 10 or so wav files I encoded in it got distortions of various degrees.And the few that did work had a noticable loss of sound quality.I sent the VA7 back to the Roland service dept and they took a month to look at it before concluding that everything worked properly.So it was that variphrase couldn't handle the files I put into it.The files were complex pad sounds and choirs voices.anyway I am much happier with the responsiveness of the Tyros.I guess I am a button man rather than a touch screne man-but you don't find this out without trying out the alternatives.

And so say all of us Uncle Dave,Im am too a Roland fan but it must be said ,their ability to screw it up really amazes me.Not listening to their customers can be costly,does anyone remember the MEMORYMOOG !!!

Well I guess Roland knows how impressed the Yamaha fans are with the Tyros and also Roland have realised that lots of ppl were not happy with the VA series... I just hope they surprise us all

One question: So the VA7 sounds reallky suck compared to the Tyros huh ? lol