Hello,

just wanted to tell everyone that I purchased the new Roland GW-7 workstation.

I want to tell this community because this is the only site where I could find user info on this synth.

I recently tossed away my PC workstation because I was too tired of staring at the screen and missed the times where one could compose music standing up !

I also have an Alesis Ion synth which happens to rival the best softsynths available to date which now adds to my GW-7.

So the GW-7 has a small sequencer which is nice to drop ideas into.

The casing is very light, almost toy looking,.

The layout is very simple. There are almost no obstacles between you and composition.

The sounds are very good too. This is my first real rompler but have played on a Triton a few times in the store and could say that the GW-7 sounds are really top notch. I had also used Hypersonic VST and Sampletank.

I initially wanted a used 01/W for the sound design possibilities and the sequencer but could not find one used. I always wanted a ROM synth that could do layered pads etc. like the D-50, Prophet VS, M1 etc..but really, the Ion will do the pad job just fine. Besides, a pad is a pad and why lose to much time over it ?

Now the GW-7 happens to have a very peculiar synth engine where it IS possible to create new sounds. I just took a bass patch a smoothed the attack and ended up with a great pad with different harmonics than the initial patch. Thats weird but good.

The MFX and other (albeit limited)parameters will make a VERY expressive sound if required.

Stock sounds like piano, strings, brass etc.. all sound really good.

This synth sure has more limitations compared to a 01/W or Triton but I know that the sonic possiblities are almost as big as those synths.

Roland will not get you lost in useless/redundant options that have no musical impact.

The same philosophy applies to my juno 106. Very limited synth but the greatest sounds.


[This message has been edited by goedikey (edited 06-17-2005).]

Congratulations on your new purchase Goedikey. You must be the 1st member on the SYnthzone to own a GW-7. Sounds like this is your 1st arranger keyboard.
Enjoy. We would all apreciate a full report when you've had it a couple of months.
Starkeeper

Hey Goedikey

would you by any chance be able to give me a little review of how youre getting on with the GW7.

I am very double minded as to if I should get it.
How are the sounds on it? Do you like them?
Eg. Pianos, guitars etc.
Is it overfilled with loads of weird instruments?

Would you be able to compare its sounds to the Juno D?

Thanks so much in advance

I walked into my local music shop tonight and saw a GW-7... tried it ... bought it!

It will suppliment my PSR3000 which still reigns supreme as an arranger for me, the GW-7's arranger section cannot compete with the PSR3000 although there are some nice styles to play with on the GW-7.

What did impress me were a lot of the stock sounds, some of them are are very expressive, especially the saxes which seem to have some velocity switching in them, the piano's are very good too along with a few nice Rhodes'ish electric pianos, nearly all the instrument banks have some exceptional sounds in them and at such a low price, its also very light and looks quite appealing in grey and black.

Basically, I've bought this to replace my aging Yamaha S03 Synth which sits above my PSR3000 when I perform, the S03 just cannot produce the quality of expresive instrument timbres avaialable on the GW-7.

Will try and post a few samples of what I think is worthy of merit in the sound department.

Rgds
Noel J

[This message has been edited by pasadoble (edited 04-04-2006).]

thanks!

do you find the keys are a lot smaller than normal keyboards?

thank you

I actually like the GW7 myself after I played one.....its lightweight, sounds great, nice keyfeel,looks good.. I only had some issues with navagation & memory access/storage of registartions etc. etc. .......
otherwise nice unit for sure!!

arent the keys really small?

It's a Roland...it has full size keys..

nah these keys definitely werent full size

I've never seen a GW-7, but I'm with Fran on this. It is highly unlikely that Roland would start making smaller keys. Smaller keys is a Yamaha thing.
Starkeeper

On checking this 'smaller keys' issue, I found that the key's are normal synth size 'BUT' each key's side edges have been chamfered slightly thus reducing the key's playing surface area giving the appearance of a smaller key.

I have an Evolution MK461C 61 note MIDI controller keyboard and the GW-7 was almost an inch longer in total keyboard length.

Rgds
Noel J

Maybe It's time to make a sheet containing all brands and models with keysize which could be placed somewhere on synthzone by Nigel.

thanks pasadouble, i really appreciate it