Roland Now Shipping G-70 Arranger Keyboard

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Roland has introduced the G-70, a music workstation that incorporates technologies from across the entire Roland product range. The G-70's sound engine uses the largest internal WAV ROM in Roland keyboard history, and boasts the best sounds from the famous Roland library. It also offers the latest and most expressive piano sound Roland has ever produced, along with full 128-note polyphony. As an option, new sounds can be added via SRX expansion boards. The G-70's arranger section includes 285 completely new styles with intelligent chord-voicing technology, each containing four variations, four intros, four endings, and six fill-ins.

The keyboard on the G-70 features a weighted, professional action with aftertouch, which has a longer stroke and a more natural, responsive feel. Its full-color touch screen display is also a standout, along with the icon-based operating system that enables friendly navigation, allowing users to see and manipulate a wide variety of musical and sound-control information -- such as 3D representations of virtual drawbars, 4-stave musical scores, chord charts, and lyrics. Chord and lyric data can be viewed on an external TV screen using the video output.

Organ players can tap into the expressive power of the G-70 thanks to its Virtual ToneWheel technology, which has been ported from Roland's VK organ range. Nine front-panel sliders correspond to the 3D Virtual Harmonic Bars on the G-70's full-color LCD.

There are seven independent effects sections on the G-70, including dedicated sections for the Harmonic Bars, Harmonist, and the External Audio Input. Mastering tools derived from Roland's VS digital recording line are also included for creating polished, professional mixes. The Vocal Harmonist on the G-70 has over 90 different settings, including many additional effects and features such as Auto Pitch Correct and Vocoder.

The G-70 is equipped with a 16-track sequencer and internal style composer that can be edited in precise detail using the Microscope edit functions. For those who appreciate some technological assistance, the G-70 is loaded with features such as the Music Assistant database, which automatically selects musically correct sounds, Styles, tempos, and effects for the hundreds of onboard songs.