Finally! Played a "G" today
27 May 2008, 04:04After stopping by Sam Ash and finding they still don't have 'em, I reluctantly drove over to the new "super" Guitar Center in town. I was pleasantly surprised to find the G8 and G6 sitting front and center, and to the right on the wall, the RD700GX and RD300GX. A well stocked Roland display I would say.
Since I'm looking for a portable workstation to take on gigs, I hooked my Sony MDRs into the G6. First thing I noticed: The keyboard felt no better or even not as good as that on the X6. Disappointing. Next, I scrolled through what seemed like hundreds of variations on the same 4 or 5 acoustic piano sounds. Do we really need that many? I still wound up liking "X Pure Piano" the best. Here you can tell that the sound quality has improved overall. There is a presence in the "G", which is not apparent in the "X".
The Rhodes sounds were also very nice. If these are the SRX-12 sounds, then I'm getting the expansion board for sure. Otherwise I was really short on time and wanted to check out the 88 note "G", as well as the new digipianos. So I moved my headphones and the sustain pedal to the 88 note "G". WOW! What an action! For the first time a digital keyboard actually plays like a fine acoustic instrument. The same sounds I just checked out on the 61 were of course MUCH more fun and musical with the 88. But again, time was short.
So I moved to the RD700GX. Same great action, but maybe due to the sounds, not as great an experience as with the Fantom-G 88. And I was already spoiled with choices from the "G", thus running out of piano sound variations way too quickly. I guess I found a couple I liked. Then I moved to the EPs. If these first 5 or 6 sounds are the ARX board - they had some little icon thingy - then I'm way NOT impressed. I'll stick with SRX-12 thank you very much.
Thus, between the two 88 note keyboards, even if I never used the fancy workstation features of the "G", I would definitely choose the G88 over the RD700GX - even at the significantly higher price.
Conclusion - from this very cursory test-drive, I would say the star of the 2008 Roland line is by far the Fantom-G 88. A fine musical instrument.
Would I buy the G6 for portability. No. Why? It's too big. You can't tell from the pictures, but that massive screen and all of those buttons and sliders take up quite a bit of area. The 61 note keyboard is almost dwarfed by it. For me, I don't need all of that fancy stuff just to go out and do gigs. In fact, I was glancing at an "X" 61 sitting nearby. Quite a bit more compact.
Again, this is where the 88 note "G" shines. To get the full effect of the "G" experience, I'm convinced you need the new Roland 88 note keyboard. It's a total winner.
Very quickly I checked out some of the "80s" synth sounds. Still a rompler that's for sure. Motif XS does analog mimicry far better IMO. And as always, the usual Roland weaknesses are there - DX-7 Rhodes are as bad as ever. Didn't get a chance to check out too much more.
Conclusion: Still can't see where a hardware workstation can compete with audio and MIDI sequencing on a computer. Thus, while the display, which is much larger than I envisioned, is a luxury, I can't exactly see replacing a well-equipped PC or MAC based system with it. Sound quality significantly improved overall. Price too high. 61 note version too bulky.
Bottom line: Will wait for cut down version with same sound quality or rack. In the meantime the Yamaha Motif Rack XS is looking more tempting. Or if a windfall of cash showed up (not likely) I'd jump on a "G" 88 in a minute!
Since I'm looking for a portable workstation to take on gigs, I hooked my Sony MDRs into the G6. First thing I noticed: The keyboard felt no better or even not as good as that on the X6. Disappointing. Next, I scrolled through what seemed like hundreds of variations on the same 4 or 5 acoustic piano sounds. Do we really need that many? I still wound up liking "X Pure Piano" the best. Here you can tell that the sound quality has improved overall. There is a presence in the "G", which is not apparent in the "X".
The Rhodes sounds were also very nice. If these are the SRX-12 sounds, then I'm getting the expansion board for sure. Otherwise I was really short on time and wanted to check out the 88 note "G", as well as the new digipianos. So I moved my headphones and the sustain pedal to the 88 note "G". WOW! What an action! For the first time a digital keyboard actually plays like a fine acoustic instrument. The same sounds I just checked out on the 61 were of course MUCH more fun and musical with the 88. But again, time was short.
So I moved to the RD700GX. Same great action, but maybe due to the sounds, not as great an experience as with the Fantom-G 88. And I was already spoiled with choices from the "G", thus running out of piano sound variations way too quickly. I guess I found a couple I liked. Then I moved to the EPs. If these first 5 or 6 sounds are the ARX board - they had some little icon thingy - then I'm way NOT impressed. I'll stick with SRX-12 thank you very much.
Thus, between the two 88 note keyboards, even if I never used the fancy workstation features of the "G", I would definitely choose the G88 over the RD700GX - even at the significantly higher price.
Conclusion - from this very cursory test-drive, I would say the star of the 2008 Roland line is by far the Fantom-G 88. A fine musical instrument.
Would I buy the G6 for portability. No. Why? It's too big. You can't tell from the pictures, but that massive screen and all of those buttons and sliders take up quite a bit of area. The 61 note keyboard is almost dwarfed by it. For me, I don't need all of that fancy stuff just to go out and do gigs. In fact, I was glancing at an "X" 61 sitting nearby. Quite a bit more compact.
Again, this is where the 88 note "G" shines. To get the full effect of the "G" experience, I'm convinced you need the new Roland 88 note keyboard. It's a total winner.
Very quickly I checked out some of the "80s" synth sounds. Still a rompler that's for sure. Motif XS does analog mimicry far better IMO. And as always, the usual Roland weaknesses are there - DX-7 Rhodes are as bad as ever. Didn't get a chance to check out too much more.
Conclusion: Still can't see where a hardware workstation can compete with audio and MIDI sequencing on a computer. Thus, while the display, which is much larger than I envisioned, is a luxury, I can't exactly see replacing a well-equipped PC or MAC based system with it. Sound quality significantly improved overall. Price too high. 61 note version too bulky.
Bottom line: Will wait for cut down version with same sound quality or rack. In the meantime the Yamaha Motif Rack XS is looking more tempting. Or if a windfall of cash showed up (not likely) I'd jump on a "G" 88 in a minute!
