Which one should I get? The Roland looks great, but isn't as expandable, meaning the sampling option on the Korgs and all.

I heard that Roland is coming out with a Sample ROM card for their JV and XPs, if that did come out, I would definitely buy an XP as they are coming down in price. Please elaborate.

RS

It depends on what you want to do with it.

Drum & bass, Trance, Techno, Ambient, e.t.c get one of the Korgs

Orchestral and natural sounding instruments (piano, bass, organs, violins, and stuff) get on of the xp's. If you play pop and rock go with the xp's

I have an xp and love, there are very little things this baby is not capable of. At the end of the day Money talks as well (Refering to the XV's and the Ttiton now). Is sampling an issue for you?

Listen to the Rolands and the Korgs thoroughly before you buy, both through good headphones and amps/monitors. Also, play them both a lot; you may find that you definitely prefer one keyboard's action to another.

If you can, buy from a store that offers a generous, no-hassle return policy. It is hard to tell if you'll like a synth from what you can experience in the store. I've owned both of the synths you mentioned; I still own one and have returned the other...for purely subjective reasons.

Good luck!

Hmm....interesting choices.

It all comes down to what you like.

I had an xp-60 for a month, then returned it for a Triton.

I agree that the pipe organ, flute and trumpet presets on the xp seem better.

I returned my xp-60 because of a grunge/decay noise at the end of notes. I was going to get an xp-80, but they were 1700$ U.S. at the time. I was able to work out a deal and got the Triton for 1850$. For 150$ more, I grabbed the Triton.

To me, the Triton's PRESETS excell in techno, strings, pads, drums, and bass.

And when I want a super realistic sound, I LOAd a SAMPLE into the sampler..and whoila! I have an incredible sound.

In fact, I have already sampled all the preset patches I liked on the xp's.


The Korg does have two slots for KORG expansion boards, but they are annoying at best. You lose one program and one combination bank when you decide to use them. So the xp definately has a better waveform expansion setup.

But the Triton has an option for the MOSS card, Which is the same thing as the engine in the Korg Z1 synth. Read the reviews of the Z1 synth at harmony-central.com and sonicstate.com. When you plug one of these into your triton, it will give you 6 voices of physical analogue modelling. A completely different synth engine than in the Triton.
This is a HUGE plus. Plus, it is a very unique sounding synth. Plus, this card adds 6 voices, making Triton 68 voice polyphonic.

The Triton also has better real time controllers, with a ribbon controller, funky joystick, and 7 knobs to twist.

In the effects section, the Triton is the best synth, period. NO other synth comes close to the Triton effects. You can even run any instrument you want thru the Tritons inputs and use your TRITON as an effects unit for outside instruments!

As for keyboard feel...thats subjective. I vastly prefer the Tritons feel to the toy-like feel of the xp's.

Display--

Triton wins hands down.


Outputs- TRiton has six freely assignable outputs. xp does not.

Optional SCci connection allows you to load samples and songs at blazing speeds from a SCI cd-rom or hard drive.


Onboard synthesis-
The xp is slightly deeper. But adding the MOSS card will give you the deepest programming synth PERIOD, along with Kurzweils VAST.


Durability- I have only had my TRiton for a few months, so I dont know yet. It is pretty solid so far.


All these things come down to one thing-

What do you think ? Try em out.

I used to be a Roland only guy, never even looked at other keyboards. But Roland customer service ticked me off with that grunge/decay issue, and one day I went and tinkered with the silver beast, the Triton. It was love at first sight.


One of the great things about the TRIton is it's sampler keeps it up to date for a very long time. Think along the lines of a k2000 or k25000. Still great, viable synths.

If you really need sampling, then I guess your choice is simple...

But: The XP has a deeper PCM-synthesis than the Triton. Arvon45 mentions the MOSS-board for the Triton. This is great, I am sure, but it has only got 6 notes ov polyphony.

The sound-defect that Arvon45 is mentioning, is VERY minor IMHO, and not audible under normal circumstances.

I would clearly buy the XP-60 again. In my country (Norway) the Triton is also MUCH more expensive than the XP-60. (approx. NOK 9000/$1000 difference).

If you think you like a deep synthesis engine, like me, then the XP should deliver. The Triton, however, has more effect processing power.

StigF

Korg and Roland each have their own 'sound'.

I don't necessarily agree that the Rolands sound more 'realistic'. I think that many of the Triton's acoustic programs (the acoustic piano is shit though!) are very good particularly the enemble strings, saxes, acoustic guitars and electric guitars. The drums are also great particularly factory preset 'Standard Kit 2' with it's awesome snare sounds!

The XV's are more powerful in terms of progrmmability and synthesis power. The filters are much more flexible for a start. There are a number of different oscillator structures including ring modulation etc that is not found on the Triton unless you have the MOSS board installed.

However, the Triton's synthesis capablities are still reasonable (I don't think too much of the HI filters though!) and the modulation routings are very flexible. Yes, Arvon 45 is right- the MOSS board adds what to me is the most powerful 'affordable' physical modelled synthe to the Triton.

Whilst the XV's effects sound great and offer much variety, the Triton's multiple effects system is the clear winner (the best of any synthe as Arvon45 pointed out above). And yes, I love using my Triton as an fx unit also. It makes my other synthes really shine!!

If you need a sampler, don't bother with the XV synthes as they can't sample. I find this stupid in the case of the XV5080! Why give such detailed sample loading options without going the extra mile to add a full function sampler?????????? The Triton's sampler is not as powerful as say something like an Akai or Emu but it certainly gets the job done and is easy to use.

I have always found Korg synthes easier to use than Rolands and Yamahas. However, you get used to anything after a while! I am soon to become the proud owner of an XV3080 so I just have to say- GET BOTH AN XV AND A TRITON!!!!!!!!!! No seriously, go to a good music shop and extensively try both out side by side. You'll soon know which is the right one for you! DECISIONS, DECISIONS! Good Luck.

PS- Regarding the Trinity and JV series, just because they are superceded doesn't mean they are not worth chasing after- again you'll know quickly what is best for you.

Well, I think that anyone who is deciding to buy an XP, XV, Trinity or Triton should wait just a little while longer.

The prices on all units have dropped dramatically. I've seen the XP60 go for as little as $1199. I've seen the Trinity for as low as $999.

The Trinity has a sampling option. It has one that will allow for 8MB of Flash ROM to store your samples. I'm not a Korg lover, but with 8MB, you could keep you synth current forever.

There are rumors that Roland will release a 8MB Flash Rom card diguised as an Expansion board, and if this is true, then the XP will also have the ability to store samples.

The XV is great, but not appealing to me becuase it has a load of sampling options, but can't sample. You might as well get an XP with a Session and Bass & Drum expansion board. Expansion cards for the XPs are going for as cheap as $145 each!

Good Luck - The Infamous EPU.

Epu- Lets not confuse people by saying that the Trinity has a 'sampling' option. Yes it's true that you can load Akai, Korg, Aiff and Wav files into the Trinity with installed flash ROM option but you can't sample like on a Triton. No you can't even use the hard disk recording option for this which is a real shame. Oh well.

But to be brutally honest, here in Aussieland, paying $1,200.00 for this Trinity option is just a tad expensive!! This same money could get you a nice used Akai S2000 which would allow you to sample.

Arvon 45... the Liar..

Hey, Arvon45..
I know that you haven't bought the scsi board for Triton yet.. Otherwise, you hadn't asked about it on the Tritonica discussion board..
How could you load a sample to your Triton without the scsi board?... Using floppy disc?
Where did you save the xp samples? In your computer?
What a liar....

According to your post on Tritonica, you don't know how to use a sampler and even what it is..
Please, don't give a bad name to other Triton users.

Reggie

Easy question..
Buy what "you" like.

By the way, don't weigh too much on Triton's sampler..Not because it's bad, but because you need more cash to burn. It's not a "ready to use" sampler. You have to buy a scsi board, external cd-rom, and hard disc in order to fully utilize the sampler.
None of sample CD comes with Triton.
You probably need to upgrade to 64mb ram.

Here's what I like.
Xp-acoutic and ochestral instrument.
Triton- Synth, Bass, Drum

I like both of them, but if I have to choose only one, I'd go for Triton.