Hi,

I went to the musicstore today to play the WK8 SE. I played it for about 30 minutes and liked the instrument. I also played the Roland VA-7 last week and also liked it very much. I think the sounding is much better.

I didn't have to much time to play the VA-7 and I explored the WK8 a bit more.

What I liked about the WK8 SE:

-The option to create styles.

-You can load so called blocks which can be songs, styles etc. When you start a loaded song, the board starts automatically and you can see the lyrics and even the notes so you can play and sing along.

-A fade out button, very nice and handy.

-The 4 variations thing.

-And more, but forgot them already

But I DO like the VA-7 too, especially the sounding. Can anyone say if the VA-7 contains the above mentioned options too, or something like it? The price doesn't matter. Convincing me is the 2nd thing

Sander Thalen

The Netherlands



[This message has been edited by Sander (edited 03-15-2001).]

Sander,
I can comment on a few of your questions.
The Roland VA3,5 and 7 can all record user styles.
The Rolands can also play songs, show lyrics and choose the next one to play while the current one is playing. Than, when the song is over, the next song is ready to play.
The Roland can also play styles direct from disk which is something the WK8se can't do. The WK8 makes you load the styles into the internal memory before you can play one.
Roland has more than the 4 variations. There are 4 different size bands and each band has 2 variations for a total of 8 variations in all.
The Roland's sounds are in my opinion much better than the Generalmusic. I especially like the fact that the VA7 and VA5 have 128 note polyphony compared to the WK8's 64 notes. Also, the roland has I beleive 64MB of sample Rom which is much more than the WK8se so the sounds are much richer and more realistic. Also, if Drums are important to you, no comparison here either. The Roland drums in the new map are incredible. Did you know that there are 4 maps of sounds in the VA series. Map 1 are Sound Canvas, Map 2 are from the G800, Map 3 are from the G1000/EM2000 and map 4 are the new sounds. Over 3600 in all.
The WK8 does has volume fader controls which are really handy and has a really good sequencer, but so does the roland, however, the WK8 sequencer has the edge on the internal sequencer. Also, it has a lot more memory than the Roland.
Good Luck in your Choices,
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene

George,
I have a question to you...
is the memory of the sampler of the V-7 can be expandabl from 8MB to 136MB?

I got this information form www.roland.co.jp



------------------
vic:)