I received a new brochure from Roland today with the new products for the rest of this year.
"

The GW-8 Version 2 now features a Style Composer to create and customize Styles. New Preset Styles. The NTA (Note to Arranger) function allows handsfree control of the arranger engine from external MIDI gear such as Roland's PK-5A pedal and Roland V-Accordions. Create muti-track rhythms for a complex drums/percussion ensemble. Edit SMF files and save them as new songs."
The price was not included with this mailing but I would imagine it would still sell for under $1,000.00.


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

George,

Thanks for this great info! Looks like gigasonic-outlet (out of San Jose) is already selling the GW-8 version 2 on eBay!

Michael

Interesting George because the Roland techs told me when I asked them about 2 months ago about the NTA not being on the GW-8/Prelude, they said it was not going to be a part of the OS for these keyboards

I think I still have the email reply somewhere.

And NOW they say they WILL include it...

Makes one wonder sometimes where their collective corporate heads are at.

I always said that, were it not for the styles being uneditable without conversion to MIDI (and back), the GW-8 was a pretty good bang for the buck...

No info yet whether these new abilities approach the Makeup Tools of the E/G series, but any improvement is a plus...

Does this mean there's the possibility of getting the styles off the GW-8/L and onto the E-80/G-70?

George - 1. When is version 2 due and will it be marketed as such?
2. Can previous GW-8's be upgraded to version 2?

I guess that remains to be seen. It is possible that only the edits will get stored (as offsets to the style) and the style data remain unavailable, but it is also possible that the whole style gets stored in a user accessible area. This ought to mean that, finally, we will get a chance to use them in our E/G series...

One problem that is likely to remain unsolved is that, especially with the GW-8L, there are a large number of new kits that feature the Latin percussion unique to this product. Without those samples in the E/G series (and no SRX with them on), translation with the Makeup Tools is going to be iffy at best...

[This message has been edited by Diki (edited 08-30-2009).]

George is this going to be a PC program or will it be on the keyboard. Regardless, with a style making program, this will be one of the better arrangers with its size, sound quality and price.

The download of Version 2 is now available at http://www.roland.com/synth/GW/index.html

But still no definitive information as to whether you can access the arranger section from an external keyboard. IE to be able to set an NTA channel so it can be controlled.

This function was NOT available on the original GW-8 and I can find no mention of it being any different with this update.