On the Roland site of Italy there is a new collection of styles for Roland VAs (76, 7, 5 and 3).
The styles are from the Roland EM 55.
Here is the link: http://www.roland.it/download_arranger.htm
Enjoy, you lucky VA owners!

Thanks Dreamer.

You welcome, Bevan.

Nice to see that you're more polite than me
Andrea.
I downloaded the new ones about a week ago,
and did not tell it here. Shame on me!!
Well, they work OK on my KN5000 too
GJ

Andrea---did you check out the audio demos of the EM55? I was impressed!
The very first mp3,"contemporary", I saidYes! that is what I find lacking on the yamaha.The Roland drummer plays with a touch of "attitude". He HITS the drums!
I must say that I liked these demos much better than the VA series demos.
But you say that these styles can be used on the VAs.Very interesting. Are there styles on va7/5 that are more aggressive than what Roland puts on their site?
It seems like the EM55 is being developed for a different market, or at least by a different team of programmers, but I welcome this trend. Thanks for your always helpful posts.
Bill

Bill,
unfortunately I didn't hear the EM 55 demos; in my opinion in the VA7 demos Roland made the mistake to insist too much on the variphrase and, after a while, you get bored of hearing someone saying "Honey I need you" or something like that. Re. the EM 55 styles, they are for all Roland VA; I tried them and have to say that, while less impressive at first than some VA 7 styles, they are more versatile. The intros and the endings are shorter (1 or 2 beats) and the same goes for the basic and advanced variations; this may sound a bit repetitive at first but makes for a greater flexibility and nobody, in the audience, can say that your ballads (or whatever) begin and end always in the same way.
Bill, now it's my turn to be impressed: you live in Nashville, the capital of country music, and not far from Memphis (need I say anything?): how is the musical scene there?
Best regards
Andrea

Gunnar, do you mean that Roland posted these styles before Christmas?
They didn't tell me anything!!

Hi Andrea,
I use to look into some sites regulary, and
the new Roland styles was converted at 24, so
I probably downloaded at 23.
Nice X-Mas present.
GJ

These styles use the VA sounds. That was
another surprise.

Bevan---does this mean that a EM55 would have the same sound quality as a VA7? This keyboard is looking better all the time.

Andrea---the best music made in Nashville rarely makes it onto the radio(IMHO) and has nothing to do with the hokey over-commercial "country music" that this town is famous for.This is still a guitar town. It is not hard to find players that will make your jaw drop and say"who IS this guy!"---and of course often these talanted people are never heard from again. Commercial success has more to do with hard work and good marketing than with creative output..This town is FULL of home studios and many of the clubs feature singer-songwrighters of world-class quality.
also Andrea, I did enjoy your songs done on the VA7,please fell free to treat us to more anytime! You seem to enjoy an easy-going style of music. Do you ever play anything with a bit of a punch to it?
I am very interested in roland arrangers as I have not been able to find satisfaction with yamaha or korg so far,but no local dealer carries them and information is hard to come by. Thanks for the info.
Bill