Some new Roland VA Synths

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Thu Mar 24, 2016 11:42 pm

laterallateral wrote:...the small form factor and the bright LEDs on these might be a bit much for stage use.

Yeah I can see that. These are really cool studio toys if you're pressed for space, I've only been able to mess with the Jupiter one that my local GC carries so far.

BearBoy · Post by **BearBoy** » Thu Mar 24, 2016 11:55 pm

What did you think of it Nick?

BearBoy · Post by **BearBoy** » Sat Sep 03, 2016 7:05 pm

There are some more of these on the way:

And a larger polyphonic Aira synth:

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Sun Sep 04, 2016 1:03 am

Weird timing this appearing as I was playing with my mates Juno and Jupiter modules and now I want both of them (a year after the fact)

BearBoy · Post by **BearBoy** » Sun Sep 04, 2016 10:21 pm

There's also a boutique version of the VP-330:

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Sat Sep 10, 2016 5:13 pm

It's worth noting that if anyone was tempted by the Jupiter and Juno Boutiques they are included as part of the Project 8 synth. You van layer them together and the models on there have way better polyphony than the Boutiques.

I have the Jupiter one and it's got some great sounds, plenty of room for tweaking. The only downside is the 4 note polyphony and the sliders don't have much throw due to the dinky size. It can make it a bit harder to dial right in on the sound you want.

BearBoy · Post by **BearBoy** » Sat Sep 10, 2016 5:27 pm

Yeah, I found the four voice polyphony on my JU-06 a bit limiting. It's fine for baselines/lead lines but you run out of voices pretty quickly playing chords. I had thought about buying a second one and chaining them together but apparently there are some issues with the way Roland implemented the chaining and you end up with voice stealing. Plus it doubles the cost.

System 8 looks interesting though. Apparently it will load the monophonic synth models that they made for the System 1 too so you can get SH-101, SH-2 etc on there as well.

Even more importantly, it looks like they are doing optional side panels so you can make it look moar like a Juno 60/Jupiter 8:

Not hugely keen on the Aira green though...

UK price seems to be Â£1239.

The new Boutiques seem to be quite a bit pricier than the last lot. TB-03 and VP-03 are Â£329 (same as the JP-08 ) and the TR-09 is Â£369.

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Sat Sep 10, 2016 5:39 pm

Yeah the Roland guy in my local shop said they realised they'd really underpriced them last time. There's quire a hike on the new versions of the 303 and 909 compared to the last set. They probably could have got away with more. I'm really tempted by them both.

I think my next (and last for a while) synth purchase will be the Minilogue. I need a good analogue polysynth and they sound ace, they're easy to use and they're really cheap.

BearBoy · Post by **BearBoy** » Sat Sep 10, 2016 5:56 pm

There's also that Behringer one due out by the end of the year. 12 voice analogue. I know Behringer gear sometimes gets a fairly bad press but it looks fairly decent from what I've seen so far. Certainly nothing much comparable for the price.

I've been looking out for a drum machine but think the TR-09's a bit over priced tbh. For a little bit more you could get the TR-8 which, aesthetics aside, looks much the better package really.

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Sat Sep 10, 2016 6:11 pm

Yeah the Behringer Deepmind 12 or whatever it's called looks really good. Apparently the quality QC of their stuff has been getting and better better. I'll wait for at least 6 months to see how they are even Â£800 ish is a bit too much for me to get straight in there!

If they do end up making a module version of it that's more likely to be the one I'd go for.

The TR-8 is OK, you'll get one for about Â£250. It just seems a bit too limited sound wise for me. I like to load my own samples. It's size is somewhat excessive too.

I tend to use Spark or the Sequencer on my Push 2 for drums.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Thu Sep 15, 2016 6:54 pm

do want the TB, i already have 909 sounds and a decent sequencer with 'swing', so i don't really see the point in me getting that unless it was for convenience.

the system 8 looks cool but i'm done with keyboard synths, modules only for the foreseeable future. which reminds me, korg are releasing the ARP odyssey reissue as a desktop module...

lorez · Post by **lorez** » Fri Sep 16, 2016 10:53 pm

So many lovely releases this year I'm feeling the urge to sell all my guitars to satisfy the itch

BearBoy · Post by **BearBoy** » Tue Aug 08, 2017 9:27 am

Couple more of these announced today (808 Day or something):

TR-08

SH-01A (available in three colours)

They also announced an actual analogue Boutique synth a few weeks ago, the SE-02

Roland Boutique LANK

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Wed Aug 09, 2017 7:43 am

I'm after the SE-02 (and the Behringer D)

lorez · Post by **lorez** » Wed Aug 09, 2017 8:10 pm

Saw berhinger doing a teaser for their version of the SH101

BearBoy · Post by **BearBoy** » Sat Sep 09, 2017 10:01 am

They're on to VD now:

LANK

gusman2x · Post by **gusman2x** » Mon Sep 11, 2017 3:00 pm

BearBoy wrote:They're on to VD now:

LANK

Well, after watching all the vids from yesterday, I really just want to buy the fuck out of this. Mrs Gusman now has a Christmas objective.

BearBoy · Post by **BearBoy** » Fri Jan 05, 2018 12:54 pm

gusman2x wrote:
BearBoy wrote:They're on to VD now:

LANK
Well, after watching all the vids from yesterday, I really just want to buy the fuck out of this. Mrs Gusman now has a Christmas objective.

Did you get a D-05 for Christmas Gus?

gusman2x · Post by **gusman2x** » Fri Jan 05, 2018 2:53 pm

BearBoy wrote: Did you get a D-05 for Christmas Gus?

I most certainly did, and I'm LOVING IT!

Over the holidays my music room was used as a bedroom for my 5 year old nephew, so I've had little proper time with it, but played around loads just with headphones.

I was very impressed with the number and variety of pre sets. I'm coming from a microkorg, volca keys, and volca FM.

- Pretty vast and varied list of presets. Loving the woodwind, because I want to pretend I'm in feudal Japan.

- Surprisingly the sounds I'm enjoying most are not the dead obvious/famous partials, but the more traditional 80s synth type sounds. But I have done some Enya jams.

- All instrument sounds feel warm enough for me. The lead sounds also seem warm enough, not sterile like some complain.

- Sound building is much more complicated than any of my other synths (maybe not the FM), but I must admit to being a bit of a preset queen anyway.

- Joystick isn't massively useable, and again you have to do a bit of button bashing before it even works after selecting a preset.

- Not really used the chase feature much, but I normally run my keys through my guitar pedal board (therefore delays) anyway.

- Tempo, portmento, arp settings are more difficult/ballache to access compared to my other synths.

- Build quality is great. Seems really robust

- Battery life is about 3 hours?

- USB direct seems to be quite low on output. I'm running it into a mixer instead on my Mac. Tried installing Reaper on my laptop, but struggled to get the D-05 to be the input, and the PC to be the output. Ended up with the D-05 as the output also and had to run the headphones out of the synth.

- Not tried syncing with anything yet. But I'm a n00b, so probably not best to comment on this. Will try with the beats at the weekend probably

- I bought the K25 keyboard because I knew I would need to be playing on the sofa for the first couple of weeks of having it. It's kinda cool, but expensive, limited on functions, and expensive.

I really love it, but I want to get a bigger controller. Currently using my microkorg as the controller, and I'd like a 49 key with aftertouch. Looking like the Alesis Vl49 or the M-Audio Code 49

BearBoy · Post by **BearBoy** » Fri Jan 05, 2018 3:37 pm

Excellent. Glad to hear you're having fun with it. I've half a mind to pick one up as I'm pretty sure it'll cover different ground from what I already have but unsure it's ground I want covering. If that makes sense. I like the sound of some of the demos I've heard but not quite sure how I'd fit it in to my music.

I've also thought about picking up a K-25M for my JU-06, for sofa noodling and the like, but they seem pretty pricey for what they are.