V-SYNTH XT: New Wine in Old Bottles :) - WHY XT OVER GT
29 Nov 2011, 09:45Hi,
My post explains why I bought a second-hand V-SYNTH XT in lieu of a GT when money is no object.
Being an owner of Kyma Capybara, Pacarana and a ton of other extremely high-end studio gear, I spent a lot of time researching the V-SYNTH before, yesterday, buying one on eBay with a BIN price (about $1500). Yeah, I saw a GT for $1800.00 and based on my research, and the gear I have (Lexicon 480L, Eventide H8000) in the studio, I chose the V-Synth XT. This machine in the right hands can make anyone a star: just write good music with it and use a good DAW. I am totally blown away by a piece of gear that is several years old.
My Reasons:
1) The KYMA is the only system that can do what Roland calls "VariPhrase", but, having this in a single package that is multi-timbral and allows key-zones is really, very, very powerful for creative music synthesis and, most of all, new compositional approaches to creating music. The fact that the GT has two engines is immaterial - just buy two XT's and you're better off. The KYMA is great, powerful, but steep learning curve. The V-Synth XT gets you to the core value of re-synthesis instantly with little learning curve and most of the similar results. The KYMA, however, is the most amazing for high-end (multiple spectral morphing). You can mimic this with XT using multi-timbrality.
2) The Vocal Designer card is replicated by the algorithms on KYMA and Eventide H8000, but, when you use a V-Synth XT, those much more expensive boxes are freed up for harder algorithms: by the time you get a VC-2 card vocal through a good reverb, it sounds much, much, much better than the GT with built-in processing and you can use *internal* waveforms to the VC2 as either or both carrier and modulator opening up the possibilities several times larger for sound creation and beat-oriented chord comping than on the V-Synth GT.
3) Roland's management team have head-rot and have lost their way - like so many large companies, managers are usually not musicians and they ruin pretty much everything that a fine R&D department creates with sub-standard and often arrogant, lowest-common-denominator thinking: it is a real shame that the GT version design has been compromised on so many levels. The V-Synth XT, for example, integrates the D50 and even though that is not a really big deal, the fact that it is unavailable in the GT which is supposed to be a superior machine is just beyond me (yeah, I heard all about that the design of the hardware is different - but, that design was clearly driven by managers, not musicians or the R&D team).
4) I predict that that the biggest dud for Roland will be their worse selling keyboard of all time: The new so-called "Jupiter" ... what a disappointment: nuff said on that. After I saw the new Jupiter, I rushed to get the XT --- their prices will go up and these machines will be harder and harder to find. XT has nice separate outputs on the back so you can use your favorite outboard: I use the Lexicon 480L and Eventide H8000 --- these complement the great effects on the main channels of the V-Synth, but I use them on the other assignable outputs on the back.
5) The playability of vocals and other sounds with the XT is staggering: just as a keyboard for post-production of musically useful vocal-track building, nothing I know of is as good. Okay, the GT but, you don't get the multi-timbral and hence, for *real* control of multiple voice cuts, in a percussion kit sense, the XT can't be beat. I stand to be corrected but that's currently how I am seeing it.
6) It fits in a RACK in the studio and I can use much better controllers than stock keyboards (I use the Haken Continuum fingerboard, with X-Y-Z motion and poly-pressure, Kurzweil MIDIBOARD).
7) D50 is a great synth and provides a good palette that is in fact different to the COSM - not a nostalgia piece but a really useful piece of kit.
8) As studio space in homes and elsewhere becomes more important, Roland will need to think about RACK based gear as a lot of folks need to conserve space --- Also, it appears that they don't realize that a lot of *stage* performers do not want a stack of keyboards for roadies to carry but want a great controller on stage, perhaps with poly-aftertouch, and superb control response (like the VAX77 keyboards) manipulating a computer and a rack.
Cheers!
My post explains why I bought a second-hand V-SYNTH XT in lieu of a GT when money is no object.
Being an owner of Kyma Capybara, Pacarana and a ton of other extremely high-end studio gear, I spent a lot of time researching the V-SYNTH before, yesterday, buying one on eBay with a BIN price (about $1500). Yeah, I saw a GT for $1800.00 and based on my research, and the gear I have (Lexicon 480L, Eventide H8000) in the studio, I chose the V-Synth XT. This machine in the right hands can make anyone a star: just write good music with it and use a good DAW. I am totally blown away by a piece of gear that is several years old.
My Reasons:
1) The KYMA is the only system that can do what Roland calls "VariPhrase", but, having this in a single package that is multi-timbral and allows key-zones is really, very, very powerful for creative music synthesis and, most of all, new compositional approaches to creating music. The fact that the GT has two engines is immaterial - just buy two XT's and you're better off. The KYMA is great, powerful, but steep learning curve. The V-Synth XT gets you to the core value of re-synthesis instantly with little learning curve and most of the similar results. The KYMA, however, is the most amazing for high-end (multiple spectral morphing). You can mimic this with XT using multi-timbrality.
2) The Vocal Designer card is replicated by the algorithms on KYMA and Eventide H8000, but, when you use a V-Synth XT, those much more expensive boxes are freed up for harder algorithms: by the time you get a VC-2 card vocal through a good reverb, it sounds much, much, much better than the GT with built-in processing and you can use *internal* waveforms to the VC2 as either or both carrier and modulator opening up the possibilities several times larger for sound creation and beat-oriented chord comping than on the V-Synth GT.
3) Roland's management team have head-rot and have lost their way - like so many large companies, managers are usually not musicians and they ruin pretty much everything that a fine R&D department creates with sub-standard and often arrogant, lowest-common-denominator thinking: it is a real shame that the GT version design has been compromised on so many levels. The V-Synth XT, for example, integrates the D50 and even though that is not a really big deal, the fact that it is unavailable in the GT which is supposed to be a superior machine is just beyond me (yeah, I heard all about that the design of the hardware is different - but, that design was clearly driven by managers, not musicians or the R&D team).
4) I predict that that the biggest dud for Roland will be their worse selling keyboard of all time: The new so-called "Jupiter" ... what a disappointment: nuff said on that. After I saw the new Jupiter, I rushed to get the XT --- their prices will go up and these machines will be harder and harder to find. XT has nice separate outputs on the back so you can use your favorite outboard: I use the Lexicon 480L and Eventide H8000 --- these complement the great effects on the main channels of the V-Synth, but I use them on the other assignable outputs on the back.
5) The playability of vocals and other sounds with the XT is staggering: just as a keyboard for post-production of musically useful vocal-track building, nothing I know of is as good. Okay, the GT but, you don't get the multi-timbral and hence, for *real* control of multiple voice cuts, in a percussion kit sense, the XT can't be beat. I stand to be corrected but that's currently how I am seeing it.
6) It fits in a RACK in the studio and I can use much better controllers than stock keyboards (I use the Haken Continuum fingerboard, with X-Y-Z motion and poly-pressure, Kurzweil MIDIBOARD).
7) D50 is a great synth and provides a good palette that is in fact different to the COSM - not a nostalgia piece but a really useful piece of kit.
8) As studio space in homes and elsewhere becomes more important, Roland will need to think about RACK based gear as a lot of folks need to conserve space --- Also, it appears that they don't realize that a lot of *stage* performers do not want a stack of keyboards for roadies to carry but want a great controller on stage, perhaps with poly-aftertouch, and superb control response (like the VAX77 keyboards) manipulating a computer and a rack.
Cheers!