From schwartz.adan@epa.gov Fri Mar 29 11:56:44 2002
Subject:VK-8 audition -- with manual in hand!

OK, so after reading a couple reviews here from headscratching
clonesters wondering what's up with the new VK-8, I happened upon the
first one to come into my local store. I got my hands on the manual
and dug in for about an hour.

First off, this keyboard is much deeper than you'd suspect given the
lack of an LCD screen (and given Roland's rather minimalist advance
press). Its not quite as flexible and programmable as the 7, but
almost. Editing involves a serious of button pushes -- some
intuitive, most not -- that for most of us would probably require
keeping the manual in hand for, oh, the first 3 weeks of ownership
until you can begin to remember your way around the invisible menus.
Its complicated, and its kind of weird to be using the V/C knob to
change values. The VK-8 is definitely not editor-friendly, but I
guess that's the compromise they made to get the price down.

The manual mispells the word "organ" a number of times. What's up
with that? Further proof that Roland doesn't see the importance of
hiring good tech writers. That said, the manual was fairly easy to
follow.

There are a number of things you can program on the VK-7 that you
can't on the 8. But the 8 also have features lacking on the 7. I
suspect this is going to make some people favor one over the other,
and that's going to be a very individual thing. One thing that
seemed lacking on the 8 is a way to shift octaves for the lower
manual in a split. Maybe I just didn't find that hidden function.
Can make do I guess by changing the registers used in the lower
manual.

The 8 does have some cool new features, such as being able to ramp
up/down the rotary speed with an expression pedal, a la the Motion
Sound gas pedal. I didn't spend too much time with the fancy new
effects. Some people might like the D-Beam, especially for changing
rotary speeds with a hand wave. I don't know whether I'd ever use it
much.

The action is really nice -- one of the best features in my opinion.
Its a somewhat "hot" action. Organ sounds get triggered while the
key is on the way down. Not as quick as the CX-3, but quicker than
most other keyboards. I really like the action. Its too bad the
black keys aren't oversized like on the CX-3. The action works
nicely with the non-organ sounds -- you can get some expressiveness
out of it, and it seemed to me the triggering was happening more
conventionally while playing non-organ tones.

As for the non-organ tones, I think with the VK-8 Roland was trying
to move in the direction of the Nord Electro concept, i.e., tailor it
to what the blues/rock musician would tend to want, rather than jack
of all trades. So, piano, rhodes, and wurli patches are there and
they are all useable, though I think I would mostly want to use them
in a supporting role, not out front. Then there's the cheesy synth,
brass, choir, jazzscat. A nice clav would have been a better choice
than any of those. No glockenspiel!

It sounds great. Definitely a step up from the VK-7 (which also
sounds great to my ear). The V/C is vastly improved, as is the
leslie, and the key click is much more realistic than onthe 7.
Distortion and percussion (which can be adjusted, as can leslie
speeds) sounds better to my ear, but then again I wasn't A/B'ing them.

So it should be an interesting choice for someone on the market right
now. Some might want the flexibility of the 7. Others might not
need that, and go for the better sound and action on the 8. I tend
to think the 7 would have the advantage as a midi controller. The
lack of an LCD is a real shame, if only so you could remind yourself
what the presets are.

Adan