Which rack module: 3050, 5080, or Korg TR ?

All three literally sound great to my ears. Yes, I know TR and 5080 are not superlative samplers/sample players. Can you help me out with this decision? (I was thinking of the Kurzweil K2600 rack which is being blown out for $2600 or so but it's add-ons are expensive and this isn't my main instrument.) I'm a guitar player of 20 years with no MIDI experience and no piano skills just getting into this arena. Eventually I will add a MIDI guitar controller (Roland, RMC, Ztar, etc).

Triton:

• You have to re-load the expansion boards every time you power up?! Heinous.
• Triton not compatible with Trinity expansion boards. Will Triton's replacement leave Triton owners in the dust?
• Official Korg website is not so helpful. But this is offset to a degree by unofficial sites and forums.

Roland XV 3080/5080 modules

• No problem with expansion boards when you power up/down.
• No arpeggiator! What to 3080 and 5080 owners do for this function?
• Roland products historically back compatible. Eg--all JV owners' expansion boards can be used with XV modules.
• More helpful official website than Korg.

Regarding the XV modules, I'm tempted to get the 5080 because of the bigger, better display and extra 2 SRX expansion cards. I assume Roland will develop a whole library like they have with the JV cards. Over several years the price difference of ~$400 is not significant to me.

FYI, I have Protools Digi001 with Sample Cell II card which is a sampler integrated with the Protools software ablet to read audio CDs and CD-ROMs specified for it. I don't need MIDI sequencing because I can do that in Protools. The latter is moot since all have sequencing 3 modules have some form of sequencing anyway.

Thanks for any help!

[This message has been edited by Jim S (edited 03-23-2001).]

Jim,
I will try to help you "X-ray" the problem (how many projections, by the way?)
I have just bought an XV 3080, because my main concern was sound quality and I was reassured on this forum that it was the same as the 5080; I didn't go for the 5080 because it claims it can load samples via SCSI but it doesn't yet (and I don't like buying promises); so I think that Roland is somehow losing the train here and this makes the difference between a commercial success and a failure. Sound-wise, I think that both have terrific sounds, better than Korg (try to switch the effects off on a Trinity/Triton and hear the difference). I haven't ever used an arpeggiator, so I cannot comment about it. All I can say is that the XV is so good (even without expansions), that I hardly need anything else. Sounds I like most: electric pianos (terrific), drums, basses, strings, choirs, woodwinds (need some tweaking, though). Sound I like least: acoustic piano (nothing beats a dedicated digital piano here).
So, I hope you're closer to making your diagnosis now; however, you can always ask for a second opinion (even to me).

After exploring the products a bit more I'm inclined to get the XV-5080 (compared to 3080: better display, spdif out, sample playback, COSM, greater ROM and RAM, $400 not big deal to me averaged over years of use) but wish it had an arpeggiator. I don't have a MIDI keyboard controller or any keyboard for that matter. Can I use a MIDImasterkeyboard with an arpeggiator to "arpeggiate" the sounds in the 5080? Do I have to get a full-out cheap synth with an arpeggitaro like like the XP-10 or RS-5 to arpeggiate the 5080? I don't play piano so weighted keys aren't important and neither are 88 keys. Any recommendations or ideas would be greatly appreciated to help arpeggiate the XV-5080.

Someone at Guitar Center recommended the Anatek (?sp) Pocket Arpeggiator?

Hi Dreamer,

You wrote
> I didn't go for the 5080 because it claims
> it can load samples via SCSI but it
> doesn't yet (and I don't like buying
> promises);

That's a good philosophy. However, you are incorrect in saying that it cannot load samples via SCSI. I do it all the time. I load in samples from my SCSI CD Rom and Zip without a problem and can save to the Zip drive.

If you're talking about SMDI transfers from your PC that is true. However, who cares about that when you can save your samples as .wav or aiff files on a zip cartridge or burned on a CD Rom and then simply load them in. Connecting samplers and transferring samples via SMDI is vastly overrated IMHO and was necessary when samplers and sample-playback devices could not load .wav or aiff files directly from a hard drive. Now it is so much easier IMHO to work on all of the samples I need to, save them to a zip or CD and then taking them over to the XV and loading.

Anyway, SCSI loading of samples is not a problem on the XV-5080 and has worked ever since I bought in back in October of last year.

regards,
Fernando

Hey, to make it even more difficult: For the amount of money you're spending you can also get an EMU E4[e-synth-ultra],maybe even 2nd hand. Now you've got yourself a heavenly synth/sampler with 128 voices, good patches [and if you don't like 'm, buy a good sample-cd], ultimate z-plane filters and a huge lcd screen. I'm a student so i have to stick with my JV1080, but...in a couple of years..out in the big bad world..I'LL HAVE ONE ;-)

The 5080 is the way to go.. I just bought one and will review the unit and post at a later date..Fran

A sampler is the way to go. The Roland XV5080 is cool as it lets you import lots of sample formats. I'm getting a Roland S760. I wish I knew that samplers really wasn't just for loops years ago. Whether you get an XV5080, or an EMU, samplers are where it's all at!

The Infamous EPU. D

[This message has been edited by epu (edited 07-16-2001).]

I'm not sure if you solved the arpeggiator issue yet but waldorf makes an arpeggiator and then there's always the Kurzweil ExpressionMate. The EM's a bit pricey but it's 3 arpeggiators that can trigger each other and it's also I nice ribbon controller...

I'm not sure 5080 is the best choice. You see, now 3080 costs under 1000$, 5080 - right under 2000$ - it's 1000$ difference, not 400! So you can have two 3080 instead of one 5080. The only really bad thing about 3080 is one MFX (instead of 3 of 5080). That's terrible. I don't miss any other features of 5080 at all... And don't count on sample CDs - majority on the market are shitty. I'm telling you this, cause I have almost 200 of them... It's only worth to play drumloops, sfxs, vocals or ultra-realistic acoustic sounds. After 3 years, I'm selling my E4XTUltra, absolutely useless thing and not worth the money... (especially for ambient-trance producer like me) Better buy another synth (triton or trinity) - it will help you much more!
As for appregiator - I never used them, never wanted it, it's a toy, I think, if you have fingers you can play sequences yourself! I don't understand all the fuss about it...
As the only sound source in the studio I like triton much more... Dreamer said it sounds not so good without effects, but we are all wise big boys and we all know, that's there is no single idiot around the world who'll play triton without effects! ))


[This message has been edited by Neonchik (edited 07-29-2001).]

Thanks all. Months ago I decided to get the Roland XV-5080 and a Kurzweil PC2. Not bargain prices but it sounds excellent and the Roland is relatively open ended and Kurzweil frequently updates their products. More than enough, perhaps stupidly so, for me needs.