I have still goose bumps from hearing to Misty (formerly labelled as "Grand Piano") and today Dirk sent me five more demos made on the Roland VA 76. For jazz lovers there is an excellent Tenderly, made with a split: Grand Piano on the left and Super Tenor (one of my favourite VA sounds!) on the right. Latin music lovers can hear a short version of Tico tico, while Country aficionados will find a very good rendition of "Top of the world"; for the so called easy listening there is "Something stupid" (where did you leave Nicole Kidman, Dirk?). Finally, there is a composition called "Flamenco" for those who like gitano music.
Please, feel free to express your comments about Dirk's music and also the VA 76: that's what these demos are made for!
Andrea
http://andrearotolo.tripod.com/dreamer/id12.html

Dreamer and Dirk:
All I can say is that roland should hire both of you guys as reps to demo the wonderful VA76 KB. Wow! I listened to all the recordings and one is better than the other. You guys have me thinking very seriously about my next KB being a Roland V model. My only reservation is the lack of a vocal harmonizer(I can always get a stand alone). The effects and instrument sounds are excellent(loved the sax in Tenderly) Guitars are superb and so is the grand piano. Dirk, you have a creative talent and my only complaint is the lenght of the songs, not long enough. Dreamer, you are a good man and good friend posting Dirk's song on your website for al of us to hear.
You are both an asset to this forum.
Regards,
mario

Dirk, a nice electic mix of polished tunes, abeit short, which highlight the terrific sounds/styles of Roland's VA keyboard. Is that your voice on "We are the Champions"? Since Mario said that the VA76 doesn't include a vocal harmonizer, what were the harmonies produced with? I was particularly drawn to your solo rendition of Misty (w/o arranger auto accompaniment) and your great choice of chord substitutions. Too bad auto accomp arrangers are not smart enough to recognize these kind of lush sounding jazz style chords yet. Maybe with your influence, you can help convince the manufacterers to move even more in this direction. Thanks for sharing your music.

Scott

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http://scottyee.com

Not musically related, but my son, Rod, played basketball for Aalst last year. (This year he played in Spain.) He really loved Belgium and was very fond of the people there.
DonM

Hello,
Here some reply's
First thanks for the compliments of Dreamer,Mario,Scottyeeand sd1007.
To mario: This are very short demosongs to let you hear the sound of the va76. It's not for me here to make long songs but only short pieces so you can hear some specialities futures on that keyboard.
To Scottyee : NO!! The va 76 has not a vocalizer only a high-tech "sampler" i will try to explain some things on what roland call "variphrase". First you sing on one note a phrase and record it with "mic. line in" input. You sing the phrase on "one note"
(you sing every word from "we are the champion on the c-key) The technique of converting this into the sampler called variphrase and he set that piece you sing on one note automaticly good for every other notes in the "right tuned pitch" so you can play max 4 polyfony notes with the sampler in synchro without latecy !!

I have today make a last va76 demo inspirated on a concert that a visit yesterday of "Toots Thielemans"(he is monday 80 year and give his anniversery-consert yesterday). He was playin with Kenny Werner and oscar-neves on guitar and the dutch stringg orchestra without drums and bass(only acoustic!!)He played smile from chaplin only with the wonderful stringorchestra and beautiful chords. I have tried to make a arrangement on this what i heard yersterday with beautiful chords.
Thanks to everyone who like's this.



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Sorry i forgot to say i will send this mp3 to Andrea, Just wait till he has the time for uploading to his site.
Thanks.
Notlos

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All right, I have just uploaded Dirk's latest song (Smile) to my site; the link is, of course, the same as above.
Hope you enjoy this one too.
Andrea

Hi sd1007 my Belgium friend,
Thanks for the compliment !!
on the tune "smile" i was giving the expression of the sound i hear yesterday on the concert. I have it quickly arranged without metronome on two tracks (it was not always easy to play synchro you hear it sometimes in the mp3).
Regards,
Dirk. www.mp3.com/dirkbaert


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