From david.mingay@rubus.com Tue Apr 29 08:55:27 2003
Subject:Roland VK-7's & 8's

As a VK-8 owner and ex-VK-7 owner (due to it being stolen) I feel the Sound
on Sound review is spot on - editing, especially when playing live is a
nightmare. Trying to remember 9 or 10 button combinations is a real pain.

It's very tricky to switch between organ and the other sounds (electric
piano sounds aren't too bad actually though)

Transposing on the fly is difficult too (I know I should be able to do on
the fly myself, but hey, I'm not that good at playing jazz/funk!)

Why did they remove the LCD? How did Roland come to this decision? Surely
they have to be much cheaper nowadays - just check prices of Radio Shack
(US) and Maplins (UK). Imagine the price Roland would get for them! I think
they need to research their target customers more. These things help - even
if they are two line versions.

Comparing to two models, overall, the '8' does loose out on the '7' on the
Leslie front - it's missing something and is a bit weedy.
The basic VK-8 sound is better though, that's why I'm saving up for the
Speakeasy/Motion Sound combination to nullify the need to use the COSM
Leslie!

Now we all no these clones do not come close to a real live B3/C3 and Leslie
(listen to The James Taylor Quartet's - 'Whole Lotta Live'), but the Roland
ones do seem the closest - I wasn't too impressed by the Korg or Hammond
clone. The Nord was great, but it had buttons instead of drawbars - that's
one of the whole points of a B3!

Anyway, if you've got a VK-7 - keep it. Unless of course, you want to swap
it for a new VK-8 with me!

cheers

David Mingay

www.funkforcefive.com