Well, I'm happy VR-700 owner. But when I saw advertisement of VR-09 I like it and immediately started to think is it worth to make a change.
There were few discussions already about VR-700, and Anotherscott highlighted most 'issues' quickly in one of the post above. I'd like to compare them from my perspective with new VR-09 (which I had no chances to touch yet in Europe of course).
So, some words about VR-700.
I'm not a professional player, I'm not earning the money on it (ok, sometimes..) To be honest some advanced modelling features I have in VR-700 are not what I really take care about. I bough it as one universal board, focused on good organ sim and wide set of other sounds. I quickly recognize the organs/piano and some basic GM sounds (however good or not they are) is not only what I need. The part which is missing completely is VA synth section, live effects edition (there are some effects predefined per voice only), and there is no possibility at all to add any new voice/sample (like in Nord boards). I'm using quite intensively splitting and layering - main reason I didn't go for NE3 that time. I'm also using a lot my presets, but... I need to have my notebook about it, because there is almost no way to check what exactly I set up before. This is definitely disadvantage, event comparing with older VR-760. Small display, showing drawbar settings, or - alternatively - some PC/Apple application, like we have to VR-09 - that's definitely missing. From that perspective, this board is also not such intuitive for programming, I have my manual with descriptions always with me. Forget to change something quickly in the fly (like rotary speaker type, or speed of low rotary , etc...) Of course the reason is also because I'm not doing it everyday., but mainly because it is not visualized correctly. Again, older VR-760 had set of knobs and buttons, and you could saw current setting of most of the parameters (and change them in fly easy) + small LCD with drawbar settings. I don't believe they will have application for pc/apple for VR- 700, however it shoudn't be that difficult to implement it via cable connection. I'll ask Roland about it (together with some list of question about VR_09 functions which I cannot find with demos), but simply don't believe they will do that.
Size and weight is a little bit annoying, but I manage it. If it will be lighter and shorter, can be fine, but I don't see it really critical. At least it is stable on the stage.
So, comparing new VR-09 with it:
There is synth section, there are live effects, which can be use on the top of any voice I like, there is display and apps for tuning sounds up during the performance. Looper also looks very promising and useful.
There is still layering and splitting, good organ module with drawbars (which I assume is a little bit simplified version of what I have in VR-700, but good enough for my level of ambition). Not sure about piano sounds, however VR-700 was also not amazing about it, so I assume pianos are comparable, and playable as background instrument.
Weight is advantage of course, however - again - don't see it very critical in that case.
Main cons I see - keyboard action - cannot really tell how worst it is, as this instrument is not available yet. I can see it as the issue, especially for piano play. However what piano can I play with 61 keys? 76key would be definitely better option. It means VR-09 is again not only board I need in my rig, as it cannot directly replace all VR-700 functions.
Even worst - for now VR-700 is doing mainly organs and pianos for me, with some layering sounds, and in addition I have some VA board/module (brand doesn't matter), which is small (4 octaves), which is naturally located on higher level of stand, etc. Cannot keep this setup for VR-09, long Piano board will go as lower lever, but in that case all organ play I need to do on upper level. See some issues about ergonomics here. So again - VR should have 76 keys!
I'm not sure about uploading samples/sounds into VR-09, it is not presented with demos, so I carefully assume it is still not available, but I can be wrong about it. If it is available, there is still question about memory space - known issue of NE3, which has not enough memory to upload high quality Piano sound...
Battery - I don't care, unless power supply has 2kg , like in my Alienware ;-). However I could use it eventually, in opposite to V-link which I have in VR-700...
BTW - announced price for VR-09 is 888EUR in one of the known internet shop in Europe, so it is much cheaper than VR-700 (about 1300EUR now, originally about 1600 EUR). I still have some time to think about it and decide to change from VR_700 to VR-09 on not. What I'd like to avoid is the Roland is releasing VR-09+ with 76 keys very soon. Then I definitely will wait for it.
Regards from Poland
BrunoJ
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