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#93437 - 04/21/06 06:59 PM
Professional musician could use help with comments on E-80 vs. G-70
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Member
Registered: 03/04/06
Posts: 533
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Can I get a running conversation going here for a short time? I could use some help. I’m been playing Roland keyboards all my life. I thought I’d buy the G-70 and build a whole new act around it. Went to demo it, spent about 20 hours total, and found I’m not pleased with the sounds (mainly strings, piano and drums) or the dance styles. Played it through headphones, the Roland speakers, and my own EV’s and it never sounds quite right. As far as “ease of use” and design, I’d buy it in a heartbeat. Gorgeous looking too. I’m still considering buying it, but now the E-80 is on the horizon and I need to make a decision on whether to wait until summer. I would like to hear a few comments from you guys if you don’t mind. For now, have any of you actually heard the E-80 live and, if so, do you hear a difference in sounds (the rumor is it contains a different sound engine)? Also, I noticed when I took the reverb off some of the G-70 sounds, they sounded better. Do any of you G-70 owners find it helps when you edit the sound? Does anyone have the phone # for Roland in Italy where they actually make the G-70 and the E-80….NOT the administrative offices? I called them already (Italy) and they couldn’t help me. They said I need to speak to the factory itself. I appreciate any input from some of you professionals that will help me in my decision including personal opinions of the G-70. Let’s face it, after the sound card, carrying case, foot pedals, tax, etc it’s an expensive instrument to gamble on. Thanks in advance for your help.
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#93438 - 04/22/06 01:11 AM
Re: Professional musician could use help with comments on E-80 vs. G-70
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Senior Member
Registered: 01/28/05
Posts: 1159
Loc: Oradea, RO
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i am also interested in this topic. i know o3bor has listened the e50 keyboard at musikmesse. i think that are very few people until now that got the chance to play or listen a e50-e60 roland. we might have to wait for couple weeks and then we'll hear some demos hopefully. they won t release the keyboard without putting some demo on the website i guess. i am interested if the sound engine is the same in all 3 models, e80, e60, e50. somehow, i believe e80 has different (better) sounds, because the difference in price is too big, and the features are not that different. we'll see...
_________________________
Yamaha S770, Studio One 3, EMU 0404USB, ESI, ATH, Dell. And others.
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#93441 - 04/22/06 04:54 AM
Re: Professional musician could use help with comments on E-80 vs. G-70
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Member
Registered: 10/02/04
Posts: 113
Loc: UK
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Hi
I have been gigging a G-70 for about 7-8 months now. It followed a VA-76 which, itself, followed a Korg i3.
In general, I am not very satisfied with the overall sound quality of the G-70. Even after endless tweeking and fine tuning it still doesn't sound all that good. With both the previous instruments mentioned, I found I could get a decent sound quickly & easily, which could then be further refined if needed. Whilst personal taste comes into it, there are too many people (owners and none owners) who are making negative comments about the sound of the G-70 for it to be simple prejudice.
On the other hand, the ease of use of the G-70 is generally excellent - with two notable areas of exception:
1) - You cannot trigger drum fills completely freely and at will like you can with most other arrangers, as there are NO dedicated fill buttons. Instead, Roland have linked the fills to the various style variations. The main variation buttons then have a dual purpose in that a fill can be made to sound as you select the next variation. This is OK up to a point, but means that the fill that they have married to each style variation remains permanently permanently married to that variation only & can't be changed (e.g. you can't have the fill that they have used for variation one available to variation three, other than by programming a completely new user style).
2) - The one-touch settings facility is generally regarded by many G-70 owners as being less well designed than it could have been. Essentially, you can only link a group of one-touch settings to a particular style, rather than to a performance memory (full panel memory). One obvious consequence is that you cannot link a set of one-touch settings to a specific midifile as you can on instruments like the PA1X. Second consequence is that you can only have one group of one-touch settings per style. There are other limitations beyond this also.
One other point to consider between the G-70 and forthcoming E-80 is that the latter has has no separate output sockets available for the vocal harmony section. This may prove a problem, as the PA settings you might want to use to get the best from your vocals (and to avoid feedback) may not be the same as you want for the keyboard sounds. With the G-70 you can do this by feeding the separate vocal outputs into a different PA mixer channel from the main keyboard sounds.
Assuming that the vocal section is essentially the same as the G-70, there are extensive tone, volume & FX controls available on the instrument to fine-tune the vocals internally, but - in practical terms -this ain't the same as being able to grab a physical knob on the PA to solve a feedback problem in a difficult venue. You certainly won't be in a position to change the internal vocal settings for every single patch once you've got to the gig and found that you are in trouble.
Hope this helps
Regards - Mike
[This message has been edited by MikeTV (edited 04-24-2006).]
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#93443 - 04/22/06 11:16 PM
Re: Professional musician could use help with comments on E-80 vs. G-70
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Member
Registered: 03/04/06
Posts: 533
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You guys have been a big help. I've been wrestling with this for quite a while now. Everytime I go to demo it, I can't bring myself to get excited over the sound. So it's NOT my imagination. Forgot to mention, I spoke to the head of one of the Roland factories in Europe, and he told me the same thing about the sounds. He remembers the older Rolands. The sounds were grittier and had more bite to them because the wave forms were not digital in those days. He prefers the older keyboard sounds himself.
Dave: I think the dedicated Roland digital pianos probably have a great piano sound, but this one on the G-70 doesn't have the same quality piano patch (as the dedicated pianos).
Rolandfan: good info...can someone expand on the "bells & whistles"
Mike: that's a great letter you wrote. Thanks for taking the time for all that info, particularly the 2nd paragraph (In general, I am not very satisfied, etc) That has swayed me more than anything. Up to this point, I thought I was losing part of my hearing since everyone raves about the Fantom sound engine in there. I'd still like to get info on this mysterious E-80 before I'm tempted to start looking at the Tyros. Has anyone heard it, and....I can't seem to get the phone # for the factory in Italy. Not the administrative offices, the actual factory. Anyone have it? By the way, Italy told me the target date was June or July for distribution.
[This message has been edited by Lucky2Bhere (edited 04-22-2006).]
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