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Test of Roland's V-PIANO and new PHA-III keyboard.


bmichels

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The standard procedure for pro gear purchasing is 30% off retail. Everything I buy, I always buy at 30% below retail. This is what I was taught by my mentors in the biz once upon a time, and it's what I've been doing ever since, for the last 20 years. It's what all my musician friends do too. Sales folk at the music shop won't be ecstatic over it, yet they will submit in the end - always.


Assuming the V-Piano retail is what I presume it to be, then I'm correct. If the retail is higher, then my figures need to be adjusted.


The retailer Full Compass, which is known for their rock bottom pricing initially published their V-Piano sale price at $4200. Now they've reverted back to $6,000. They prematurely gave away the mark-up durning a time when everyone else is listing at full retail. I'm not sure why they reverted back to full retail, yet my bet is that they jumped on the bandwagon as to what other retailers are doing - trying to keep the cost up to the ignorant consumer that doesn't know better while this instrument is brand new. Now this is conjecture!

 

 

I thought that $5,995 US was the "street"price, with retail being higher. I very much hope that you are correct about this, that the $5,995 is the retail price. However, why then would Sweetwater and other online vendors be offering the V-Piano at this price? Are you suggesting that when it actually becomes available, the price will suddenly drop? That doesn't make much sense to me.

 

Lawrence

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I thought that $5,995 US was the "street"price, with retail being higher. I very much hope that you are correct about this, that the $5,995 is the retail price. However, why then would Sweetwater and other online vendors be offering the V-Piano at this price? Are you suggesting that when it actually becomes available, the price will suddenly drop? That doesn't make much sense to me.


Lawrence

 

 

Yes, that is exactly what will happen.

 

Roland Product Support has confirmed the V-Piano retail as $5995, and the release date sometime this May.

 

Full Compass will be selling it for $4199, but won't advertise this price until the release.

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This does get confusing.

 

Musicians Friend lists the V-Piano at $5,995.00

MSRP: $6,794.00 Savings: 11%

 

Full Compass lists V-Piano as List Price: $5995 Call for price! Not available online.

 

Is there a difference between MSRP and list price? Which figure is correct?

 

I guess time will tell!

 

Lawrence

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I'm now throughlly confused!

 

Here's what Roland said,

 

$5995 is the factory suggested list price.

 

Roland has no say in the final selling price.

 

That is up to the individual dealer.

 

Maybe MSRP is different than "suggested list price"!?

 

I'll contact Roland and find out, and report back.

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"MSRP" and "List Price" are the same thing:)




Excerpt from the press release of a given synth published at Harmony Central:


72840507.jpg



Same product at zzounds.com:


zzounds.jpg

 

That's what one would presume! Thank you!

 

Well this means that Musician's Friend, is not being much of a "friend" by saying MSRP is $6,794.00 when it is actually $5995.

 

I wonder what happens to the poor folks that buy from Musician's Friend at full retail.

 

Maybe it's just an innocent mistake that they will correct.

 

It looks like $4200 is what we're looking at friends!

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Funny how Roland will make a pro-combo piano, but have abandoned making a truly professional synth or sampler.

As opposed to whom? The V-Synth is by many accounts one of the most professional synths made and the MV-8800 is one of the most professional sampling workstations ever made.

 

Funny how Lamborghini have abandoned making fast cars...

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Yes, that is exactly what will happen.


Roland Product Support has confirmed the V-Piano retail as $5995, and the release date sometime this May.


Full Compass will be selling it for $4199, but won't advertise this price until the release.

 

 

when Full Compass actually sells a V-Piano for $4199 to someone this year, let us know

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GigaSonic has the price as $6,799.00 (which they have crossed out), followed by $5,995.00 Save: 12%


I'm certainly not seeing any 30% reduction in any price!


Lawrence

 

 

from my experience, with the big 3, and their dealer network, you don't see a deep discount(like 30%) right away on an expensive new model

 

I have my doubts that you can get a new in box V Piano at $4199 in 2009.

If that happened, ' street retail ' would be set.

 

Dealers will want to sell them as close to $5995 as possible for most of 2009

There are some folks that are willing to pay that. Not I.

 

Thats my take

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I don't post in just about any Roland thread XD But I do find that Roland needs to work A LOT in user friendliness, and especially features (notably the effects section). Korg has it hands down way better.

Roland is certainly the least consistent, UI-wise.

 

The SH-201 and V-Synth are incredibly well-implemented, so much so that quite a few schools use them to teach synthesis (the SH's signal flow is its layout and paint job).

 

The Fantom-G? Yeah, you're right

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I'm curious to know what you mean?


What about the V-Synth GT or the Fantom?

 

 

I mean:

Roland made the mighty S-770 in 1992, a $8,000 sampler that was in those days cutting edge, powerful, and awesome sounding. Today that sampler is a sub-function in a Fantom XR- a single rack space, with unbalance/i/o and no screen support and only 4 outputs.

 

I own both the V-Synth XT and GT and while I like them just fine, they are hardly "pro". The i/o stage isn't fully balanced, polyphony limited, op- amps are marginal as the sound has a "film" over it, You cant import samples- huge mistake! The COSM, Variphrase, and AP synthesis are all cool features but they are not exploited very far, It doesn't do ploy glide/portamento, the raw wave forms are not very resolute and there's not an over abundance of them. I could go on.

Do I feel the unit is appropriately priced for what it is? YES.

And my happiness on the these units are based on the price I paid, but that doesn't make them "Pro"

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Thats my point -its the same thing

I used to sell gear.

 

 

Do you see the issue that raised the question? Musician's Friend is listing "MSRP" much higher that what Roland says. Yet Roland doesn't use the term "MSRP". They say "factory suggested list price".

 

I assumed too, that they both mean "retail". The question is then - why is Musician's Friend listing it differently?

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I own both the V-Synth XT and GT and while I like them just fine, they are hardly "pro". The i/o stage isn't fully balanced, polyphony limited, op- amps are marginal as the sound has a "film" over it, You cant import samples- huge mistake! The COSM, Variphrase, and AP synthesis are all cool features but they are not exploited very far, It doesn't do ploy glide/portamento, the raw wave forms are not very resolute and there's not an over abundance of them. I could go on.

Do I feel the unit is appropriately priced for what it is? YES.

And my happiness on the these units are based on the price I paid, but that doesn't make them "Pro"

 

 

Very interesting! You sure have a lot of Roland gear too!

 

I've always liked Roland, yet I can't get into the Fantom. I love the ivory feel keyboard, yet otherwise it doesn't do it for me - primarily because I don't like the way it sounds! I still consider it a pro board though.

Thanks for the input.

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Ray Kurzweil is a bloody genius. Thanks for the quote, man.

 

 

I love Ray! His book, which I still haven't finished is one of the most difficult reads I've ever encountered. He really knows what he's talking about.

 

The Omega Point quote was not Ray's, in fact being an atheist, I'm not sure where he would stand on this. It comes from astrophysicists John Barrow and Frank Tipper in the book 'The Anthropic Cosmological Principle'. They go on to discuss versions of the anthropic principle like WAP (weak anthropic principle) SAP (strong anthropic principle), and my favorite - FAP (strong anthropic principle).

 

FAP is the one that involves the "Omega Point". I see it directly tying in to Ray's singularity theory.

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