I posted this at the G70 Users Club Denmark Forum, and thought it might get some discussion here -

G70 Variation Selection

I've been thinking about this for a while since I started playing the G70. I find the selection of the right fill and variation while you are playing to be MUCH, MUCH harder than my G1000.

While you are putting on a show, the less you have to think about, the better.. concentrate on singing and being creative/entertaining, whatever you have to, but worrying about hitting the right button at the right time, where a small mistake leads to audio hell, is counter productive.

First things first........ Most good players use BOTH their hands ALL THE TIME!!! Having to stop playing to trigger a variation is tough at best, and many times impossible.

Here's how I do it on the G1000 - I use the footswitch for FO/FV function, and manually select Basic/Advanced. FO/FV, in case you don't know, is Fill-in to Original/Fill-in to Variation. How this works is, if you are in the Verse (Original) of the song you hit the pedal and you get a fill up to the chorus (Variation), if you are already in the Variation, hit the SAME pedal and you get a fill back to the Original pattern. Here's the good part - hit the pedal twice, quickly, and you get a fill back to where you are (not a true Fill-in to Previous, but it does in a pinch).
So, one pedal - three functions. Pretty good, simple, HANDS FREE.

Now here's where things have gone wrong with the G70 - To be honest, although there are more fills on the G70, there really aren't any more Variations (Basic and Advanced, Original and Variation) than the G1000. The good thing is if you are into pressing front panel buttons, it is much easier to go from, say, Original Basic to Advanced Variation. BUT........... because you have more different fill-ins, the G70 has lost the ability to cycle up AND down hands free.

The way I see it, the best way for hands free selection with the least fuss is to use two buttons on the FC7 input, one for Fill Up, and one for Fill Down. A single, double or even triple tap to either of these switches gets you to where you need to go. (I have an FC7, and I know you can select each individual variation with four of the switches, but that honestly is too much to deal with live, especially when other nasty things like STOP or ENDING lurk nearby for careless feet!).

Amazingly, though, not ONE of the switch or footpedal options allow this. You can EITHER Fill Up or Fill Down (but not both, obviously) using Aftertouch or the D-Beam, but not with the assignable SW or the Foot Pedal OR the FC7. Unbelievable!

So here's the plan........ If Roland would allow the FC7 to do Fill Up AND Fill Down in a future OS (this CAN'T be hard to implement if other controllers can already do it) you buy a triple sustain pedal set (like several companies do for pianos - sustain, sostenuto and soft pedal in one case), re-wire the FC7 jack to go to it (I remember there was a site where they had a chart of the pin assignments) and voila! Hands free variations with a minimum of fuss, plus you get the benefit of a TRUE set of piano pedals for the wonderful Grand X, or independent sustain of Upper and Lower splits, or a handy Leslie slow/fast, or whatever else comes to mind.

So there it is........... a long post, I know, but important to working players like myself. You may think I am too picky, but years of gigging have proved the value of simplicity. If you CAN hit the wrong button, sooner or later you will!

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, Roland - implement this for us, we will love you forever!

Diki - you are so VERY right. This is one of the aspects of the G-70 (and my current VA-76) that bothers me most.

It is all very well having an instrument that has great sounds & styles (and by that I don't necessarily mean either of these Rolands) and loads of features, but all of this is wasted if you cannot get the damn thing to cooperate with you!

For the life of me, I cannot understand why Roland didn't just stick 4 variation buttons & 6 fill buttons on the G-70's front panel, then allow you to assign the behaviour of the fill buttons for each user registration. You could then pre-determine what happens when you hit (say) Fill 2. It could return to the original variation, go up one, down one, jump to variation 4 or whatever you chose.

Korg did this dead right with the old i-series (i-3 etc) well over 10 years ago, and I've yet to find a better system on any maker's arranger.

Nothing worse that having to fight the thing on stage!

[This message has been edited by MikeTV (edited 07-20-2005).]

Yeah, now I'm sitting with my new G70 I'm starting to find a few of the gotchas! The G1000 got many things right in the user friendly section, but the HUGE leap in sound quality makes the move a necessity.

I REALLY hope Roland Europe are trolling these forums, so much feedback from people actually trying to USE their creation live, I hope they take some notice.

I mean, what on earth were they doing taking off the Chord sequencer from the VA series onwards? And why didn't everyone raise enough of a stink to get it back? Doesn't ANYONE like to play with the pitch-bend lever? How on earth can you use it if you constantly have to keep your left hand playing the chord-recognition area?

I'm afraid I never even got to SEE a VA7 or '76 in my area, and never saw the point in the Varios audio stuff, but, geez!, how did the chord sequencer get away from them?

So c'mon, Roland, let's FIX what can be fixed with OS updates, and then let's revisit the whole control issue in the next model, put back the best of previous models alongside the new improvements.

Hey guys,

I feel your pain.

I use the G-70 both with a band and in a OMB situation. I agree that it can be frustrating to not have the simple fill/up fill/down buttons. It HAS caused "audio hell" (LOL I love that!) The only workaround I really found was to make User Programs for every part of every song. And name them as such. (i.e. HeyJudeVerse1, HeyJudeChorus1, etc...)
That way I can select User prog up and down and get exactly what I want on the FC-7 or via the panel. It was pretty time consuming indeed but after the 1st time I had some unexpected fills happen live, I invested the time and got 'er done. Each user prog set is saved on a Compact Flash Card (I bought a 2 gig) And I just load up my night when I arrive and set up and off I go for 3-4 hours!

I read over at the Danish G-70 site that Ver 2.0 might have a chord sequencer included (Here's Hoping) and apparently Roland US and Roland Europe are registered there and are actively seeking user opinions and bugs for inclusion and fixing on V. 2.0.

I am happy with my G-70 (besides a couple of little quibbles) Found workarounds for most things that bugged me. (Pun intended)

So, I guess I would advise patience for G-70 Owners (Myself included) as apparently Roland is listening and working to make the G-70 better all the time.