I went to listen to one of the members playing tonight... on his Roland G-1000. That’s some nice-sounding keyboard. I never knew about it. It seems to have slipped right by me…. I guess somewhere between the E50 and the G70.

But it‘s really a big sound, and versatile too. The styles are excellent on a par with the Tyros, the bass lines on each of them are well well-thought out and are powerful, driving the music more than the drum track. A big, fat sound on each style. The lead instruments sound authentic, pianos fooled me into thinking they were real, trumpets true to form, even the sax I thought was real good. Left hand "strings" were very, very lush and filled out the background. The only thing I noticed was not up to snuff were the crash cymbals, very much lacking in clarity.

Of course the player is the one who makes the keyboard work, and in this case he did! It's rare that I sit and listen to another one-man-band, but by tuning in to someone who plays their keyboard well, it’s not only an opportunity to expand your own knowledge and presentation, but it also makes you realize how "big" the sound can be "out there" sitting in the audience when someone is using the right equipment!

I would say, at least in my opinion, this keyboard sounds as good as the Tyros, much better than the Korg (although the PA3 is probably more versatile), and, in some ways even right up there with the Ketron products. I'm guessing the G-70 sounds just as good.

A very impressive FULL sound on that G-1000. Styles are important to me…..that’s the first thing I look for. And these styles really make you want to dance. I can see why Fran raves about his G-70 now.

It may not be everyone else's cup of tea, but that keyboard can easily turn into my flavor of the week, for many weeks!

Mark

Mark

I still have my trusty ol' G-1000 racked up beside me here, but it IS getting a bit dated. It only has one intro, one ending, and two main accompaniment variations, and the voice set is Roland's single element SC-88 Pro (GM/GS) voice set from their Sound Canvas series. While that voice set was quite adequate at the time, I would be hard pressed to consider it on par with Tyros, or even any of the upper end PSR line. I typically let the G-1000 accompaniment default to its internal voices, but feed the right hand lead parts into a JV-2080 sound module with 4 expansion cards and use its 2, 3, and 4 element SR-JV80 voices for some sounds that are absolutely superb, even by today's standards. I am wondering if the fellow you heard was doing something similar. At any rate, I will probably keep this guy going until he completely gives up the ghost. The internal voice set is decent, but the 76 key bed has a feel and playability that I have never found on any other synth or arranger.

It pleases me very much to hear that someone else is still getting good use out of their G-1000. I would have liked very much to have heard it.

Regards,

Ted

Mark... having moved on from my G1000 (ten years of hard use!) to my G70 (going on seven now), I have to say there isn't much I miss from the G1000, except of course, the Chord Sequencer. Fortunately, the G70 (unlike the E80 and other E series arrangers) much of the SC88Pro's soundset was included, so it IS possible to get pretty close if that's what you are after, and few of the Tones got left off (there was a banjo I miss a bit!).

But ALL my G1000 styles translated just fine, and with the newer velocity switched drumkits (most of the main drums have 3-4 samples as you get louder) now sound even better! And, when push comes to shove, it is still really the styles that make the difference. One thing I have always felt is that, compared to Yamaha for instance, Roland styles leave room for the PLAYER. That doesn't mean in the NUMBER of parts, just how busy they are. Roland styles keep it buttoned up a bit, so what YOU play can come to the fore without having to simply be loud. You miss this with some other arrangers, who tend to do so much in the style, all you have room for is a melody.

By the way, you missed the mark quite wide in placing the G1000 in the arranger timeline. The E50 was actually AFTER the G70, and the G70 was preceded by the V- and VA- series. We are talking about an arranger some 17 years old! Yet, in the hands of a good player, still capable of sounding excellent.

Truer words have not been said - agree 100%. All the manufacturers (including Korg) could really benefit from adopting the Roland style system. My experience with the G70 styles was exactly the same as Dikis.

They were just so "sweet" to play with, and one never felt like it was a competition between player and machine!!