From eslawson@comcast.net Sun Oct 19 19:48:48 2003
Subject:Roland V-Combo/VR-760 Review

Folks,

Here is my review of the Roland V-Combo/VR-760 after 2 weeks of playing it
fairly often. I have not yet had the time to fully get into edit mode, so
most of this review is based on gig time.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
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I hope I don't have the blinders on, but I find that this board is making me
happier than any other keyboard I've tried. I felt this way about the
Electro at first, but the way I feel about the V-Combo surpasses my initial
Electro lust. I think having the one keyboard opens me up to be more
creative on the fly. Rather than worrying about patch changes, volume
settings and hand position on 2 or 3 keyboards like I've done the past 4-5
years, it is all in front of me on one keyboard. I've had balance problems
getting my RD, Electro and Virus all at the same volume level and this is a
non-issue using the V-Combo. In general, I've not been so happy and
rejuvenated by a gear purchase in a long time. I had a little sticker
shock, but selling off my other gear should pay for it (I'm keeping my RD
until further notice). I'm also keen on trying another SRX board to fully
expand this thing. Keep in mind that I'm a long time Roland user and the
V-Combo is basically a replacement for my RD600 and very likely the Electro
as well, all in the same package.

ORGAN SOUND
----------------------------------------
The organ sound comparison between V-Combo and Electro is a toss-up. The
Electro kicks and I think the Electro chorus sounds better with the Leslie
than the Roland. Also, the Electro has a very thick basic tone that sounds
great "out of the box" with no real tweaking. However, the Roland has so
many tweakable controls (tonewheel, amp choices, reverb, etc.) that I can
dial in an utterly bombastic organ sound just like that, whereas the Electro
remains fairly much the same with minimal tone controls outside of the
drawbars. I've found myself getting a bigger and more alive Hammond sound
from the V-Combo in 2 seconds flat, whereas the Electro had me using the
same old presets I had programmed that were a little on the sterile side.
The percussion on the V-Combo is very pronounced and I liked it quite a bit.
Key-click down and up is fully programmable, much like the Korg CX-3. One
of my earlier gripes about the v1.0 CX3 software was the notorious
"double-bounce" that would occur on quick key flicks. Korg fixed this in
v2.0. I heard rumors that Roland VK organs suffered from the same
flaw/feature/oversight. The V-Combo exhibits this to a slight degree, but I
was happy to see that the hot action for organ can be turned on and off at
will. Having it enabled has not bothered me at this point. The V-Combo
organ is very bright in the high/mid frequencies with less overall bass
content, but it does sit in the mix well. I am acclimating to the somewhat
hyped organ sound (reminds me of the Korg CX-3) and finding that it is very
strong and versatile.

PIANO SOUNDS
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The piano sounds met my expectations, sounding very similar in overall tone
to my RD600, which has been my staple stage piano for 5 years. The V-Combo
pianos have a bit more responsiveness and variety of sample points between
soft and loud, which was welcome to me. There are a number of ways to add
or subtract to the sound using Mic modeling, EQ and onboard FX, right there
on the panel. I was able to derive a piano sound that would work for most
any song. Not of the caliber of Yamaha P series pianos, but passable for my
general business gig. The EP sounds were passable, but I feel like the
Electro sounds have more character and sound a bit fatter to my ears.

I guess one thing about me is I've been a "Roland Guy" and have always been
drawn to the Roland sound, as sterile and generic as it may seem. For about
7 years, my rig was a Hammond XB2 Midi'd to a Roland JV880. That JV piano
sound was what I used (even on some recordings), so the RD and V-Combo
pianos are certainly miles beyond it, but with the same basic character.
It's like my ears have grown so accustomed to the sonic space that Roland
sounds occupy that I'm just very comfortable with them. The pianos are
cutting plenty well for me. In fact, my band cronies were looking over at
me more than ever this past weekend.

SYNTH, DRUM & SRX EXPANSION SOUND
----------------------------------------
Other sounds (strings, vocal/synth pads, leads) were decent and usable, with
the Active Expression feature causing the expression pedal to do different
things to the sound (i.e. the vocal sounds open up from doo to ahh upon
pedal sweep). Pretty neat and musical sounding to my ears.

The SRX07 Ultimate Keys board is a bottomless pit of cool sounds -- there
are a lot of the JV1010 presets in there, which I like. I will confirm that
any of the 40 FX can be used for any SRX sound, with full control of the
parameters. I have been having fun with the built in rhythms. In fact, at
my last rehearsal, our drummer was late, so we used the V-Combo drum machine
for about 45 minutes and it rocked the house!

KEYBOARD ACTION
----------------------------------------
The action is a complete dream. The keyboard action feels very solid and
pummel-worthy. The velocity response is very smooth and fluid, well
connected to the sound. Velocity curves are programmable - light, medium
and heavy. The Electro somewhat pales in comparison and it had been my
favorite waterfall keyboard, second only to the XK2. In comparison to the
V-Combo, the Electro feels stiff, springy and a little noisy. I do still
like the Electro action, but felt that the V-Combo action is a little more
smooth and robust. The Roland keyboard works great for organ, piano and
synth. It has aftertouch, something I've not seen in a long time on any of
my synths (trusty JX8P still being the only other keyboard I have with
aftertouch). Playing the Electro action after getting used to the V-Combo
does not feel as musical or connected to the sounds anymore...it's like I'm
needing to really spank the keys to get velocity response and the Electro
weighting does not feel as well balanced to me now. Having 76 keys on the
V-Combo means that a Low E is available - excellent.

USER INTERFACE
----------------------------------------
Getting back to the gig, I found myself very pleasantly surprised with the
results I got and did not have many uncertain moments with this keyboard.
Everything is labeled very clearly and well-presented on the interface.
This made it easy to navigate "on-the-fly" and did not slow me down much at
all when I was looking to layer strings or pads behind a piano sound, dial
in organ amp settings, tweak resonance or filter cutoff in real time.

I did have a couple of "whoops" moments when I realized that I had
programmed my default "go-to" organ sound a lot hotter than the others. The
V-Combo organ tone is fairly hyped and bright, so I had to work on it a
little bit so it was not as over the top. It certainly has a lot of
character and a lot of different ways to mangle the sound to give it
personality. I felt like the Leslie simulator was fairly acceptable and I
have not even begun to dig into the edit menus for the simulator. I liked
the D-Beam interface for changing Leslie speed. Just pass by the beam with
a hand motion and it switches from slow to fast and vice versa.

Having real drawbars is HUGE! I have the MIDI drawbars for the Electro, but
that's 5 extra pieces of gear and several cable connections (drawbars, 2
midi solution boxes, 2 wall warts, 3 midi cables) just to use them. A lot
of trouble. I love having them integrated right into the V-Combo.

The pitch and modulation stick is also a big plus. Many folks prefer the
wheels, but I can go either way. My first synth was a Roland, so I am very
comfortable with moving that lever left and right to do pitch bends. I do
wish it had a mod wheel, but aftertouch solves that problem, for the most
part.

BUILD QUALITY / RELIABILITY
----------------------------------------
I had numerous QC issues with Electros -- it took 4 units to get one without
some problems. Long term, that makes me a little nervous. Will I start
seeing issues crop up 2 years later? With Roland, I think the answer is a
definitive NO. I've had nothing but great luck with all the Roland gear
I've owned, and it appears that the V-Combo is even more well-constructed
than prior keyboards.

WISH LIST
----------------------------------------
One gripe I have is the +/- buttons for accessing the SRX sounds make it a
MAJOR chore to seek them out on a card with 475 sounds (as in the SRX07
Ultimate Keys board). I wish there was a patch locator, categories or
favorites. The way it is set up, one is forced to scroll through all of the
sounds until you find what you want. They have names, but no actual
numbers, so one is forced to remember the groupings and find the general
section in which you think the good sound resides. Programming SRX sounds
into presets is a solution for this.

On splits/layers, only 2 sounds can be split, although all 3 can be layered
at once. For example, I can have a split with piano on the left and strings
on the right. If I engage organ, it will be layered on top of both sounds
on either side of the split, all the way up and down the keyboard.

Additionally, I wish that the SRX sounds could be layered with one another,
but I get most of what I need layering SRX sounds with the internal
piano/EP/clav/synth sounds.

I was not really crazy about the "one touch" buttons that allow you to go
back to an organ/piano/synth sound at the touch of a button. The problem is
that these are presets that cannot be altered and I don't like the choices
made by Roland. I really wish I could save my favorite "go-to" patches in
the one touch area, but I don't think it's possible. As it stands, I'm
still getting used to patch and data management on this keyboard. I have my
favorite organ and piano sound programmed into spot 7 and 8 in each bank, in
lieu of using the "one touch" buttons.

I will note that it does not seem the V-Combo is a big seller. No one has
them and they've already changed the name. My suspicion is the list price
will drop soon. They just lowered the Fantom-S prices pretty dramatically.
I'll be fairly unhappy if I miss a $500 drop, but I don't want to wait at
this point.

IN CONCLUSION
----------------------------------------
I'm a pretty fickle clone customer, having churned through just about every
available clone. I did not buy the V-Combo as purely a Hammond clone, but
also to provide my other staple sounds in one board. The Electro had been
delivering that functionality in spades with killer organ, EP and clav
sounds. What was missing in the Electro was a good piano and the variety of
synths that I need for my gigs. I have been growing tired of lugging a
complex, multi-keyboard rig (RD600, Electro, Virus Indigo), so the V-Combo
simplifies things quite a bit. As mentioned above, the Electro still shines
in certain categories, but being a Roland fan, I am finding a lot to like
about the V-Combo's sound and interface. It feels very comfortable to me in
feel and tone. I suspect that Roland users would like this keyboard quite a
bit. It does not have the unique character of the Electro, but I'm willing
to make a tradeoff for the convenience of the V-Combo.

Regards,
Eric Lawson
Moderator
CloneWheel Support Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CloneWheel/

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