Today was my one and only day at NAMM. As expected, there was not a lot of new things for me, a mostly arranger dealer to get excited about.
Roland showed me the Prelude and told me it is exactly a GW8 with speakers and will have a retail price of $1299 and a map price of $995.00.
I asked again about the US getting the European version of the GW8 which instead of all the Latin Styles it includes middle eastern sounds and styles and they said it won't happen here in the USA.
There is no news about any replacement for the G70/E80 models and the G70, E09, EXR-5S and EXR-46OR are all still in the lineup.
It looks like the E80, E60 and E50 might have been moved back to the Organ and KR series dealers because these models are not in my dealer price list for Roland products this year. Last year, they were included in MI store pricelists. I will have to find out next week from my sales rep.
I went to Korg and same old, same old. I tried out the PA588 model which has 88 weighted keys. It's very nice feeling for those needing 88 keys.
Yamaha did a great job this year of really showing off the Tyros. They had a seperate listening room where Peter Baartman was giving demonstrations on the Tyros3.
I walked the show in about 3 hours and really, I didn't find much to get excited about this year.
I sure wish Ketron would have been showing the Auyda.
It was very strange being at a NAMM show and not seing my friends from Generalmusic and Ketron Italy. It's been one of my main reasons for attending NAMM shows all these years. This year was just not the same!


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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! What a rip man.., GW-8 minus patch modify but with speakers and it's selling for nearly $1,000

Sorry, but I gotta say BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! How in the hell does dropping patch modify.., and adding freaking speakers (to a shell already having them cough cough E-09) bump the price up to nearly a grand! BOOO on you Roland.

Save yourself the money and buy the GW-8 folks.

[This message has been edited by squeak_D (edited 01-18-2009).]

Thanks for the report George. I figured there would not be much in the way of new and exciting products available, which you confirmed.

I, for one, really appreciate all you do in providing us with the most up to date product information.

Keep up the great work,

Gary

Yeah I agree.., it's nice to have members who share the info from NAMM. Don't take my post as negative towards George in any way or that I'm unappreciative. Just shocked at the price slapped on that Prelude.

[This message has been edited by squeak_D (edited 01-19-2009).]

well, it's much easier now to decide between the two...

Isn't the Prelude missing the 'Favorites' feature as well?

Well, don't forget.... I TOLD YOU SO!

But A GW-8L and a cheap Logitech system for less money and it will sound gobs better... That's if you actually want to hear more than a click for the kick drum sound!

But, lest we forget... this isn't a Roland exclusive bonehead decision. We get raped on EVERY arranger/WS equivalent. Motif/Tyros - Triton/PA2 (should be M3/PA2, but Korg have not even gone there yet), FantomG/E80.

The price of failure (to be popular, I guess)...