Here’s a series of official videos, via rolandmedia, that take a look at the Roland V-Combo VR-09. The VR-09 is designed to be a live stage keyboard, so it emphasizes ease of use and providing a variety of performance-oriented sounds.
The videos feature product specialist Ed Diaz, and cover the keyboards organ, synth, piano and percussion features, along with editing and customization.
Here’s a look at the Roland V-Combo VR-09 organ section:
In the following video, Diaz looks at the VR-09 synth section:
The next video dives into piano editing on the VR-09:
Next up, Diaz digs into creating splits and layers on the Roland V-Combo VR-09:
The final video looks at the VR-09 Drums and Audio Looper:
For more info on the VR-09, see the Roland site.
this looks pretty sick. I like the look of the organ fadars
Roland should clone Diaz – he makes everything sound awesome. He was demoing at Gearfest and blew me away. Really nice guy, too.
I’d still like to see Rokamd deliver some awesome x0x throwbacks, though.
The usual promo videos Roland puts out are too slick, but these are excellent. More of this sort of thing, Roland, and a new analog Jupiter!
For all the flack Roland has been getting lately, this actually looks pretty awesome.
I think we just have to accept that Roland no longer makes synths and look at the good things they are producing in other markets.
I wish I could get a slimmed-down version of this, with just the organ and piano sections. A couple of the synth pads would be nice but I’d go to a synth for most of the bass and lead sounds, and I don’t think I would ever use the drum/loop section…
I love hybrid keyboards like this. The VR has received a few gripes that sound as if people wanted flagship versions of everything in a $1k box and AS USUAL, the keyboard needs to be hardier for the tasks at hand, especially when you are switching between piano and organ.
That said, this and the RD-64 piano are just plain smart. The keyboards are too short for some players, but that leaves plenty of us who aren’t (or are simply no longer) full piano or B-3 types. The basic sound on this thing is pretty sweet and ideal for the job at hand: to give synth or casuals players access to a good Swiss Army knife. Its easy to imagine this as part of a stack, just as many have a Nord piano on the bottom and a synth on top. While I can see a few places where it could be polished, I can also see Vangelis having had two of these in his rig if they’d existed then. Each synth had a basic, assigned role like an orchestra member. The VR could clearly act as one of 4 of them. That makes it memorable and useful.
There’s still a lot to be said for CONCEPTUALIZING your rig as a big prog stack. Despite the moaning about the lack of innovation in keyboards, what we sometimes really want is quicker and more enjoyable access to the goods. I’d pay $1300-1500 for one of these with a tougher build, because its a great design.
Ugh. Who cares. Another digital synth. Great. Roland really has lost their way. I used to buy and get excited about their products but they lost me 15 years ago.
Kind of looks like a budget Nord Electro to me.
People should only comment on here, IF THEY HAVE ACTUALLY PLAYED ON THE THING!!
I have, and for the money its really really really good. Organ is fantastic, pianos are very nice, synth section is good, but will be better once its editable with a PC, only ipad at present.
Best thing about it is 7 effects all at your fingertips which makes it really expressive, you can quicky get to your own sound and its does wacky , distorted stuff well as well as clean, shimmering pads and brass stabs etc. Excellent value for money….. can layer two sounds, organ and synth, piano and synth, etc it can get pretty BIG sounds out of this…..
PLAY IT FIRST, then comment. Sure the keys suck a bit, but for £700, I’m buying mine TODAY!!
>>>> Sure the keys suck a bit, but for £700, I’m buying mine TODAY!!
The keys should not suck at all. I don’t expect the same keybed you’d get on a $4k instrument, but when I demo’d a Juno-G, it was like playing stingy little planks. For that kind of money, the keyboard action should be at least half as good as the flagship, because $#@! it all, I’m going to be playing them with the same goals. Its a terrible insult to encounter that on an otherwise great tool.
>>> Ugh. Who cares. Another digital synth. Great. Roland really has lost their way. I used to buy and get excited about their products but they lost me 15 years ago.
So what should they offer that isn’t generally there to be had already, aside from their 80s modular? What kind of instrument are you really looking for? When a synth of serious depth like the V-Synth appears, it barely makes a blip when it should be seen as a monster. Its poor incentive to keep developing an expensive idea. So if the market embraces digital pianos and simple synths while mostly rejecting real innovation, who (and what) is to blame for keeping boutique synths in the boutique?