Roland XV-88

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)

Warning! The record contains an error. The XV-88 has a much portamento and highly configurable to boot.

Many owners consider it and use it like a workstation, and accuse it a lack of realism.

It's a SYNTHESIZER! with oscillators, filters ... This is done to edit sounds.

It's nice to have a digital synth with 88 keys Mechanical marteaux.Les manufacturers never think enough is that we may very well love the synthesis without sacrificing touch.
Thank you for this Roland keyboard

The 128-note polyphony, it's really great!
The format of the PC connector: strange choice ...

UTILIZATION

Having been a liability Roland, I do not feel too lost on the XV-88 compared to someone who never used Roland, but it must be said, is hardly the most intuitive synths which would exist for the brand.
There are a lot of functionality "submenu" style "shift" (Like the shift from a PC keyboard). Routing capabilities that you would not think of fetching, the obscure features.
The XV-Edit editor available on the website of Roland is essential if we want to easily grasp the power of the synthesis engine.

The manual is indispensable if we want to get into this machine.

The manual is quite clear, but it does scratch the surface of the machine.

Without a manual, it's just suicide. I was starting in summary, the XV is passed through the window in a fit of rage.

Just for the memory management (how to safeguard an area, patch, performance, use in card, in preset, copy, learn from, etc. ...) is hell and we return the manual 4 times in all directions to be sure not to erase its modification; what will happen inevitably at least 3 times at first. : D
You can not save a single patch map. We are obliged to dump all of all banks at once.

Editing the sounds is not super intuitive and easy here.
I never understand why Roland did not keep the interface Revolutionary JD-800. Especially as the basic architecture of a patch remained unchanged.

SOUNDS

Roland digital sound typical.
They do not seek to emulate the analog. It has a digital sound but with a real character. That's why so many love some Roland sounds, many others hate them.

concerning the style, sounds are unbelievable versatility! You want to do:
- Of the atmosphere? It's ok
- From Jazz? It's ok
- From the trance? It's ok
- From progressive metal? It's ok
- From the movie soundtrack? It's ok
etc. ...

Do not ask to have a synth sounds realistic. Otherwise, buy a sampler, or an instrument! : D
Anyway, since it must pass through there, we're still going to talk about:

The pianos have a proper patch but have many defects (a pianist). A very short decay for a piano (One realizes with a sustain pedal)
The strong layer comes too early in the velocity.
The layer has a high fever too aggressive (a bit cartoonish).
For rock, pop ballad, it goes to ease. It's still good.

The electric pianos are very successful but need to be edited to some (Some rhodes overloaded bass).

The strings are obviously not realistic but not really bad.

Honours for some winds, flutes, Oboe ...

I do not like sax (At the same time, I never liked the sax synths)

Acoustic bass are fair. And being a bassist, it's seen it all for me. ^ ^

Low synthetic dementia. HP's attention. It défouraille very naughty!

The pads and vocals ... You remember the series ... JD LOVE!.

Leads are highly expressive, from soft to aggressive. Very expressive and varied. From vintage to modern!
Attention to the way in legato portamento which Bugge on large intervals. The trick is to disable legato. Expressiveness can be done via an expression pedal. And it will be more natural.

Guitars ... Zero on acoustic and electric sound clear.
For saturated, they are typical of the JD-800 and have their strong character for the electro or bizarre stylistic mix.

Now you edit everything, and there is madness!

With the matrix (unfortunately not very intuitive), if you want to make complex sounds, you are served.
Here, there are only your imagination can curb.

A parameter "analog" is used to simulate the instability of the VCO.

And later sounds of drums, very strong. Enough to make rhythmic madness!

The filter resonance can go very far. If you push it, it sounds bad. A pad having a sweep on the cutoff, you put the filter resonance at the bottom, and you burn out all your HP successively, until the tweeter sub.
The expressiveness is truly exceptional.
Between velocity, aftertouch, modulation, d-beam, simulating an analog drift, and the number of feature continuous controller that you can patch from everything and anything, you have something to do ultra-sound living.

The only regret is the inability to synchronize the oscilloscope, and cross-modulation which is very weird on the Roland digital.

As for effects, they can work properly but good effects studios will always be better.
And it remains far behind the effects KDFX Kurzweil

OVERALL OPINION

I tried to touch 88 other models before buying.

- A Korg Triton Extreme 88. Except for the piano sounds, it hardly competes with the XV-88 and is more expensive.
And the little I have read about its synthesis, it does not reach the marvelous possibilities of a XV

- A Fantom G. ok, I can not afford.

I had a JD-800 and wanted an heir: The XV-88 is one (bad for the loss of Supervisors JD).

A Siel Opera 6. Analog, therefore incomparable.

A Korg T1, it is that I intended because I wanted to replace the mechanical hammer, and I've never been a big fan of digital sounds Korg glacialité.

An Access Virus KC. The sound of the virus does not make me vibrate.

I own a Roland Super JX-10. It is an analogue not really comparable.
Highly complementary in anyway. (Take a string sound on the Super JX, and Rhodes on the XV-88. MAMA MIA! That's good!)
And in addition, the XV-88 arpeggiator Trigge outward (I so Trigge the JX with XV ... Yum!)

Having had for 540 €, I think I made a great deal!

With experience and for this budget, it's a choice I would do without hesitation.
With a bigger budget. It would have been a Kurzweil k2600 (And yet, the touch keyboard Kurzweil is too "synth" for my taste)

It would have failed as sampling and a vocoder to make a dream machine.