Log in
Log in

or
Create an account

or
< All Roland XV-88 reviews
Add this product to
  • My former gear
  • My current gear
  • My wishlist
Roland XV-88
Images
1/205
Roland XV-88
Price engine
Classified Ads
Forums
FP User FP User
Published on 10/31/08 at 16:00
It has almost everything. But if I must : a sequencer. I don´t really miss one since I use cubase, but for a price like that, you would expect the roland people to include some kind of sequencer. Other than that I would have loved to have just a few knobs, assignable if possible. Now you only got 4 sliders. Assignable, yes, but still... Also, the typical roland handicap in my eyes : that stupid pitch/modulation bend. Give us a pitch wheel, a modulation wheel and an extra assignable wheel (or make the modulation wheel assignable), but get rid of that stupid pitchbend !!!

2500 euro´s

UTILIZATION

Roland engineers, I´ll never understand them. Another menu-driven synth. Most of them very well hidden. I bought a yamaha cs1x synth for 160 euro´s recently on ebay, and boy, if you compare the interface... Or played a Nord Lead once... roland´s interfaces suck big time (unless you buy one of their stupid grooveboxes). The manual is an encyclopedia. Very unclear and an internal structure that has no logic to it. Be prepared to waste many many hours only to gain very little extra info. If the synth´s full of hidden menu´s, the manual´s the same : full of hidden info that is very hard to find.

Is it robust enough ? The thing weighs 27 kilo´s. I´d say it´s a good synth to take on the road, if you got wheels and a nice flightcase. It must be, no ? It´s an 88 hammerweighted performance synth. I´ve seen my personal piano-hero Joe Jackson use one in his live performance recently. That´s enough for me ;)

SOUNDS

I give the sounds a 10. You got 1024 basic patches, and four expansion slots. 2 for JV-cards, 2 for srx-cards. If you see the wide variety of all rolands expansion boards in the jv and srx-series, you must be hard to please if you´re still complaining. I have analog synths as well, and most of these digital patches can stand right next to them without any shame. Hell, I even heard realistic electric guitarpatches for the first time on a synth. It´s patches are breathtaking, it´s basses pretty good, it´s drums all you need (hey, it´s a modern state-of-the-art roland, so it includes all the vintage roland sounds), and those EP/Rhodes´s just make me wanna drool.

OVERALL OPINION

I use it for what I bought it : playing !! I´ve played piano for over 15 years now, and although I still love the original instrument, this plays better than any piano I´ve ever played (including the big steinway wings). Its keys simply invite you to solo forever. Ok, it´s a roland, so hard to program because of all the menu´s, but if you´re looking for a good 88 hammerweighted controller, with tons of great sounds, I´d strongly suggest you look into this performance synth.

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
Posted by: Unknown (January 1-, 2003)