Opinions on Roland VSynth?

Anyone here own or have owned a VSynth? What was your take on it? Did you like it? Did you hate it? Is it a mainstay in your studio?

Just curious.

its the best machine for mangling samples in realtime.

Really easy to turn any innocent sample into a bizarre soundscape.

Love the intuitive realtime control possibilities of the TT Pad and the D-Beams.

D-50 and Vocal card rule too.

Virtual analog part is nice but not as exciting as the samplemangling IMO.

Definetly one of the true landmark synth from Roland.

I have the VSynth GT. It's... OK. It's built nicely, the keys feel nice, the knobs feel solid. It sounds nice, but in this day of fancy VSTs and digital mayhem from all comers, I don't find anything in it to be earth-shattering.

The GT has a touch-sensitive color LCD display, I don't know about the original VSynth. The UI on the display is a bit crowded, so poking at the screen requires just a tad more concentration than just reaching out and twisting a knob. Having said that, usually the parameters on any page on the display are mapped to one of 8 soft knobs just below it.

The GT has a built in "Vocal designer", which I guess is a fancy vocoder and pitch shifting thingy. I've only messed with it once and didn't find it useful for my kind of playing, but others might find it fascinating.

Sampling: I haven't really tried using the sampling capabilities, I've mainly used its synthesis features using the built-in waves. I'm told that if you really want to mangle samples, then the VSynth is the thing to do it with. I wouldn't know.

My executive summary: If you're a sound designer, you'll probably love it. If you tend to be a player more than a programmer, than you'll probably want something else.

My $0.02.

I want one. Very much.

I have the VSynth GT. It's... OK. It's built nicely, the keys feel nice, the knobs feel solid. It sounds nice, but in this day of fancy VSTs and digital mayhem from all comers, I don't find anything in it to be earth-shattering. The GT has a touch-sensitive color LCD display, I don't know about the original VSynth. The UI on the display is a bit crowded, so poking at the screen requires just a tad more concentration than just reaching out and twisting a knob. Having said that, usually the parameters on any page on the display are mapped to one of 8 soft knobs just below it. The GT has a built in "Vocal designer", which I guess is a fancy vocoder and pitch shifting thingy. I've only messed with it once and didn't find it useful for my kind of playing, but others might find it fascinating. Sampling: I haven't really tried using the sampling capabilities, I've mainly used its synthesis features using the built-in waves. I'm told that if you really want to mangle samples, then the VSynth is the thing to do it with. I wouldn't know. My executive summary: If you're a sound designer, you'll probably love it. If you tend to be a player more than a programmer, than you'll probably want something else. My $0.02.

Dare I ask, what made you buy it and do you have any regrets... If any regrets what do you wish you bought instead?

I got this on trade for a PolyEvolver keyboard, because I was bored with it. I don't know that I have any real regrets about making that trade, but I find that I'm just not any more excited with the VSynth than I was with the PEK.

That's a 'slippery slope' you're on. Before you know it, you'll be going soft.

I could see the day where the only hardware synths I'll have are analog modular, and everything else is soft.

personally i {censored}ing LOVE the v-synth and seriously regret having to sell mine a few years back

a couple high points for me personally: i took a sample of a stream (babbling brook noises) and ran it through the sideband filter (which removes inharmonic content from the sound), and then had the d-beam modulate the time-trip (iirc).. {censored} was CRAZY, like this wierd metallic sparkling pad sound, with the harmonic bits controlled by waving your hand around in the air - and it was precise too.. you could get variations on the sound just by wiggling your fingers a bit.. hard to explain but it blew me away

also, i sampled a nice long pluck from a Sarod, and just used the d-beam for pitch bending.. vastly better than the pitch wheel for that kind of thing

i made a demo track with the v-synth, only using patches i made myself .. all parts come from the keyboard, overdubbed.. no external processing or plugins used

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=2622197

I used to own a VSynth. Didn't much care for it. I thought the VA engine was sub-par and for sampling, I simply preferred the Triton/M3 or Akai type sampling.

It just wasn't my cup of tea and I didn't keep it for long. Replaced its' usefulness with a Kaoss Pad.

Really love my V-Synth XT, which has the great vocal designer card as well as D-50 ...

Recently sold my V-Synth 2.0 ... Terrrific board with great quality ... but a bit redundant with XT ... I would have kept it ... but just never really got on with the physical controls and the parameters mapped to them that Roland felt was important (they're not assignable) ... so I do a lot of touch screen editing ... which I can do on XT ... (I do miss the twin D-Beams, though ... Great fun with the time trip pad ... )

Unlike some, I really like the VA and get terrific results from it ...

Part of the other reason I got rid of the V-Synth 2.0, though, is that I may end up with a GT once they start to get more reasonable on the used market ...

I don't like swimming in keyboard instruments ... and in fact, have only three at the moment ...

I picked up a v-synth version 2 a few days ago (after just failing to buy Diametro's, but being left with the pure GAS). I must say that I'm very impressed thus far....Just learning it slowly (have a bunch of other new stuff) - but the key to it isn't (imo) the sound quality (not special), or what it can do with samples (certainly there is software that can do more, and there are things that totally blow it away - kyma, mxp, etc) - but what's great about it is the package. I don't much like the va - quality isn't bad, but there is nothing distinctive about it - but I don't think that most people buy this for the va. If I were going for that, I'd have just picked up a Q. I owned one of these before, and I have a dislike of roland gear, but my opinion right now is that there is something very right about this synth.

the only software that can do similiar things with samples is Kontakt but as you said its the package that makes the V-synth superior. Being able to scroll thru a sample in any direction using the TTP and freezing it at any point by simply keeping the finger in one place is powerful stuff.

I also dig the fact that while sustaining a note the D-beams allow you to call up any value in a scale without having to go thru all the values before or after that by simply breaking the beam at any height with your hand. Something that is simply impossible to do using regular knobs or faders.

+1

Easily the center of what I do music-wise. First thing I did was dump all the presets and preset samples and start clean.

Owned a V-synth a while back, loved it a lot but needed the cash at the time.. esp as the GT had come out...

Then when I finally got the GT I found out the UI was very cryptic although the sounds are noticeably better I think.... esp the vocoder.. and integration with synth!

But the UI of the original was much better.... it really made you want to experiment... and the knob layout with controls for filter, envelopes was much better... now I daren't touch it for messing up sounds that used shared tones... yep the dreaded tone share is the real culprit and a real pain... although there is a workaround if you dig deep and are willing to read the manual, I have to say I don't have the time these days and I have too many easier options here....

My 2c, get an original V-Synth if you want to experiment without worries. Get a GT if you want a lot of sounds all integrated (i.e. vocoder + lead sounds) but don't care too much about the experimentation side...

Hi ya

Did I not read somewhere that the tone sharing gripe on the GT was fixed in Version 2 release.

IIRC the price jumped up after this. I was thinking of getting a GT and that was the show stopper for me and when V2 came the price screamed up to silly money.

It costs over 5 times more than a GAIA today for example.

I just got mine too. I've been thinking about getting one for years, and just last week this one popped up on my local CL. Paid $610 for it.

The first thing I learned on it was how to initialize a patch. Then the next thing I did was overwrite that horrible Patch 001 - Da Vinci Code or something like that.

I'm gradually putting all my favorite analog sounds in it - all assembled from scratch. This is a terrific VA. I don't know why people knock it as such. I'm an old analog guy and have several vintage synths around.

I think the most impressive thing about it is how natural it sounds. As you work with it, things just balance out from the bottom of the keyboard to the top, and the parameter settings themselves are very forgiving - just like real analog. It is a much different experience than programming my Fantom for example.

I couldn't disagree more with this statement. I am primarily a player and this (unlike most VAs) has a great feeling five octave keyboard with aftertouch. It is an absolute joy to play. There isn't a knob for every function for live performance, but there are so many things that you can assign functions to (X/Y axis on the time trip pad, two assignable knobs, twin D-Beams, and *ahem* aftertouch), that I'm not going to knock it for that.

Likes:

It's a Roland (like their Interface, build etc usually although having read some reviews I would double check before purchase as each variant has had it's interface issues)

You get a D50, Vocoder and a VA all in one (on the GT)

I have heard some really nice VA stuff on some Japanese demo's

Dislikes:

Sample mangling (on any make) can be a little unmusical. Awakened_Yeti proves me wrong though, I like some of that. It's just that often I hear a characteristic that seems to come through in the sound. I don't know if they can ever improve on it, if not it may just be the physics of bending and stretching sound. Maybe better algorithms could be made to make it sound sweeter. On the V synth it may also be demo's using too much of one COSM effect...

The GT added stuff that I suspect many did not want.. That effort could have been spent making the VA and interface better

Hopes/Future:

I willing to wait for the third generation. If a XT came up that was affordable I may be tempted in the mean time.

I have some good sample mangling on my SP sampler which I can record and load into my MV for playing across a keyboard. It may sound long winded but I bet it is not that straight forward on the V synth if you layed out both processes side by side. I think I can do most of the stuff that would interest me with my current set up...

Still great synths (mk1, XT and GT)

To each their own. I don't like The V in any of its' models and nobody I'm acquainted with within the industry likes it except The Audacity Works.

I'm sure what it's capable of can be amazing but I don't feel that Roland hit it on the nail with that tech yet.

As far as programming goes, I've been able to immediately work up patches from scratch. I've been helped maybe by knowing how Roland likes to do things (like on my XPs and Fantom) and how subtractive analog synthesis works, but it would be pretty easy for just about anyone with in interest in programming to figure things out.

There are so many nice touches to getting things without pulling your hair out. Here's an example: if you try different COSM blocks out, the V-Synth will not only remember the settings on them all, but will even remember which parameter the value dial was set to. If you are bouncing back and forth between a 24 dB lowpass and a TB filter for instance, it will remember where you had them both set so you can choose which one by flipping back and forth while playing.

I wish that there were dedicated envelope amount knobs underneath filter cutoff and resonance knobs (and there's a spot for them too) but the value knob will remember it's place there if you go to another page on the display so it's not fatal.

I like all the LFO knobs very much and would miss them terribly if I ever got a GT. For some reason they took them all off on the newer model.

This is my new toy so I'm really excited about it. But I can already tell that I'm going to be using it for years.

The purpose of that patch is not necessary to use in your music but to demonstrate how a pitched sample -- in this case vocal -- can be played on the keyboard polyphonically and seamlessly at any point withoutout restarting the sample ... one of VariPhrase's unqiue features ...

I think it's cool ... though of course I'd never use THAT patch in a track ... (Although I might on a throwaway for poops and giggles ... It's fairly iconic imo ... )

The GT doesn't have the D-50 engine built in and unfortunately, there's no way to add the card.

And the D-50 card *is* a D-50. And by "is", I don't mean it emulates

It's the XT that can boot D50 and the MK1 that can take a D50 card...

That's why my brain is sat triggered to buy an XT if one comes up at a reasonable price...

I always thought it was an interesting beast. They screwed the pooch when they dropped the D50 Card in the GT IMO. At that point I lost all interest. Now it's getting a little long in the tooth and fighting to stay relevant IMO.

They need to COMBINE the V-Synth and VP-770 and bring back the D50 card IMO. Alas, Roland thinks I want a ROOM full of their keyboards and has space for them all. Oh well......

What does the VP-770 do that VC-2 doesn't? Rebooting to get into VC-2 is a pain though. The real screw the pooch product in the line was the varios.