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#245105 - 10/19/08 11:01 AM Re: Roland GW-8 Arrives at Kayes Music Scene
bruno123 Online   content
Senior Member

Registered: 06/04/02
Posts: 4912
Loc: West Palm Beach, FL 33417
Hi George, Just called my friend – it is a Carnival (Latin) rack mount made by EMU.

John C.

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#245106 - 10/19/08 08:23 PM Re: Roland GW-8 Arrives at Kayes Music Scene
Lucky2Bhere Offline
Member

Registered: 03/04/06
Posts: 533
Quote:
Originally posted by ocomain:
From page 38 in the manual:

By selecting a preset Performance, you can quickly recall
settings that are appropriate for the song you’re playing.
When you select a preset performance, settings for the
following items will be recalled.
• Keyboard mode
• Upper Tone/Lower Tone settings
• Style settings
• Song settings
• Effects settings
• Transpose
• Octave shift
• D Beam settings
• Keyboard touch
• Chord mode
• Melody Intelligence

There are 128 Preset Performances, 128 User Performances, and 100 Favorite Performances.

Hope this helps!

Michael


Michael.....thanks for this info.

Now on my present Roland keyboard, as an example I set up some of my presets thus:

Patch 12 brings up the 6/8 dance style (for Irish Jigs and Tarantella's), the pre-set tempo, the accordion on the right side and the piano on the left.

Patch 2 brings up the Big Band dance style, the pre-set tempo, and Trumpet on the right side and Brass on the left.

And so forth.

So you're saying in current Roland language I can still do the same on the GW-8?

You didn't mention "pre-setting the tempo" in the pre-set performance mode. CAN I pre-set the tempo?

MOST IMPORTANT: everytime I call RolandUS in Calif, they tell me "it's an entry-level" keyboard and that you can't pre-set anything. Anyone have any ideas why they say this?

Lucky

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#245107 - 10/19/08 08:40 PM Re: Roland GW-8 Arrives at Kayes Music Scene
ocomain Offline
Member

Registered: 05/17/01
Posts: 163
The only way I can see to save a Tempo setting is within the GW-8's Song settings, which can then be saved to a User Performance. The manual only mentions Tap Tempo and nothing else! To be honest, the more I am learning about this keyboard, the less inclined I am to purchase. I think I'll be keeping my GW-7 and get the new Korg M50 when it's out.

Michael

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#245108 - 10/19/08 08:45 PM Re: Roland GW-8 Arrives at Kayes Music Scene
Diki Offline


Registered: 04/25/05
Posts: 14182
Loc: NW Florida
Quote:
Originally posted by Lucky2Bhere:
MOST IMPORTANT: everytime I call RolandUS in Calif, they tell me "it's an entry-level" keyboard and that you can't pre-set anything. Anyone have any ideas why they say this?


Because they are morons

Do you honestly think that, given how stupid and uninformed the salespersons in the brick and mortar stores are about arrangers, that those same pimply faced slackers that work the phones for Roland are any more educated?

Look, a Performance stores almost the entire state of the arranger... style, tempo, UPR and LWR sounds, split points, chord recognition types, effects, volumes (part and style part), etc., etc..

There are 100 User locations for this.

Plus you can back up to USB, and load another 100 (but I never tested how fast it can do this).

I think Roland should pay US here at SZ and fire the slackers at RolandUS that don't know diddley (at least a GW-8 at cost would be nice!).

If I didn't know better, I would be convinced that RolandUS has a corporate policy of ignoring the arranger division, using it as a dumping ground for every incompetent they have (including most of the demonstrators), and letting it wither on the vine while they try to compete in the WS and loopstation sectors.

Come to think of it, I DON'T know better...

[This message has been edited by Diki (edited 10-19-2008).]
_________________________
An arranger is just a tool. What matters is what you build with it..!

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#245109 - 10/19/08 08:49 PM Re: Roland GW-8 Arrives at Kayes Music Scene
Dnj Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 09/21/00
Posts: 43703
or just email FRAN

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#245110 - 10/19/08 09:10 PM Re: Roland GW-8 Arrives at Kayes Music Scene
Diki Offline


Registered: 04/25/05
Posts: 14182
Loc: NW Florida
BTW, the 100 or so Favorite Performances come from the pool of Preset and User Performances. They are not an additional set of performances, just an easy way of organizing them...
_________________________
An arranger is just a tool. What matters is what you build with it..!

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#245111 - 10/19/08 09:13 PM Re: Roland GW-8 Arrives at Kayes Music Scene
Diki Offline


Registered: 04/25/05
Posts: 14182
Loc: NW Florida
Oh, and if you are ever talking to anyone at RolandUS, before you say another word, ask them first how much time they have spent actually playing the arranger you are asking about...

That ought to winnow out at least a fair amount of the chaff. Ask to be put through to someone who HAS...
_________________________
An arranger is just a tool. What matters is what you build with it..!

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#245112 - 10/20/08 07:52 AM Re: Roland GW-8 Arrives at Kayes Music Scene
ykc Offline
Member

Registered: 12/12/04
Posts: 73
Loc: Denver, CO USA
How can someone get hold of a middle eastern GW-8? Are they - or will they be - available here at all?

Quote:
Originally posted by George Kaye:
My first ones came in today. The box is marked GW8L (Latin Version). This means that all the world styles from Latin American Countries and sounds are provided in addition to all the western, Latin and other world styles. There are 130 "basic styles" and 100 "unique for the region styles". In Europe, the model they sell has 100 middle eastern styles and sounds, in the USA we get all the Latin American styles and sounds.
The polyphony of this board is 128 note and there is 256MB(16-bit linear equivalent) of wave rom. There are 128 Preset Performance memory location, 128 User Performance locations, 100 favorite performances and 100 favorite tone user areas.
There are 4 Intros, 4 main style variations, 4 fill ins and 4 endings for each style.
There is a 16 track sequencer.
The USB Memory player can play 999 songs or contain 999 playlists including smf, mp3, wave and aiff files.
There is a dedicated music minus one button for turning off the melody track of a midi file song or it is used to center cancel a live audio song you play. I tried it out and it works quite well in both uses.
You can change sounds by catagory or by numeric keypad input.
There is a D-Beam controller with two assignable buttons and 1 solo synth button.
There are two dedicated octave up and down buttons, transpose button, melody intelligence, key scale, dual, split, and effects buttons.
The sounds are just what I expected. Right from the Fantom library but with the addition of so many more than the previous GW7 model had. All the extra world sounds are from the SRJV Latin board which includes all sounds dedicated for Latin musicians.
The styles in the basic library include very good Pop, Dance, Funk, Latin, Jazz, etc. and there is a single one touch button for providing an appropriate voice for that style. For those needing authentic Latin American styles, this machine is a must!
Years ago, Generalmusic came out with a WK6Latino keyboard which I sold a lot of and it had all the authentic styles and sounds as well. But, this board sold for over $2,000.00. This new Roland sells for $895.00 and it's a bargan.
Next, I loaded up a USB 2GB thumb drive with MP3s, Standard Midi Files, Wave Files and tried playing them. EASY! and the drive just loads into the front with a cover which can be locked or not depending on if you are nervous it might get stolen at a Gig.
The display is large and there is no way I would have guessed this keyboard could be as inexpensive as it is.
There is also a stereo mini plug in at the back for external devices and you can also choose to have the center cancel feature be on or off for your external players.
In keeping with Rolands existing arranger line of E series products, there are similar operating system features and although this is not a new technology but rather a whole lot of Roland products all put so nicely into one 13lb. package. There are no internal speakers but for most, this is not a problem because of how good all the studio monitors and amps are today.
In conclusion, I've been waiting for something from Roland that I can feel good about showing customers that doesn't have a comma in it's price and this is it.



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#245113 - 10/30/08 11:31 AM Re: Roland GW-8 Arrives at Kayes Music Scene
kalimero Offline
Member

Registered: 07/23/07
Posts: 90
Loc: Dubrovnik, Croatia
Quote:
Originally posted by Diki:
Sorry, got my info from Sweetwater's E60 product page. They state MB categorically. Where did you get the data from?

And sorry, but those E80/G70 comparisons look wrong, too. The E80 has MORE ROM data than the G70, I was informed (it's a newer, more expensive, higher up model)


Diki, sorry for such a late response, but I almost forgot about this thread.

All the information about correct wave-form memory size I got from the official Roland web pages: www.roland.co.uk

Just go to the 'Arranger room' for E-50/60/80 G-70 and 'Synthesizer room' for Sonic Cell, choose the model, and then click on 'Product Spec' link on the right side of the screen.

As for the G-70 ROM size bigger then E-80, Fran correctly noticed much bigger number of voices (about 500, or almost 50% more) is probable reason for the 50% bigger wave-ROM.

adimantis,

It's easy to get confused by reading different sources on the internet. But anyway memory size designation is following:
(b) is abbreviation for bit
(B) is abbreviation for Byte (group of 8 bits)

Roland did made confusion by stating the size of E-series arrangers in Megabits, which is ridiculous, useless and confusing, so only reason for that decision might be the marketing department opinion that 512 look bigger then 128, although they always put the correct size designation. And those sources that misinterpret Mb and MB didn't help much either.

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#245114 - 10/30/08 12:44 PM Re: Roland GW-8 Arrives at Kayes Music Scene
Diki Offline


Registered: 04/25/05
Posts: 14182
Loc: NW Florida
I don't see any value in Roland UK's figures. G70 is expressed in MB, E60 in Mb. I don't think even Roland know exactly what they are talking about. (big surprise!)

According to their figures, the G70 has 192MB wave ROM, and the E60 has 64MB (512Mb).

Strangely, the E60 has THREE great pianos in it, G70 just the one. The GrandX alone in the G70 was reported to be 64MB by itself! I fail to see how, with the E60's nearly similar soundset, that the G70 has three times the ROM. From what I have heard on demos, they certainly sound pretty similar on much stuff...

So, all in all, not much of a big deal. I guess it's kind of like brake horse power... Sure, there's a figure out there, but it doesn't tell you much about how the car DRIVES...

BTW, for anyone still confused about Mb vs. MB, a simple Wiki search should get you straightened out
_________________________
An arranger is just a tool. What matters is what you build with it..!

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