Music Tech review

16 Aug 2007, 18:15

Music Tech gave the V-Synth GT 10 stars as well as Music Tech Excellence and Music Tech Innovation awards. It's pretty much a glowing review with the only negative being the suggestion of a 76 key version.

They do seem to address this as if they had never seen or used a V-Synth (classic) and as a result the review does little to help someone already owning a V-Synth or XT decide if it's a worthwhile upgrade. No specs are given, but those are not difficult to find on line.

One source of confusion for me was the statement: "Of particular interest is the ability to punch in AP-Synthesis for any particular sound and experiment with the nuances of a live instrument's behaviour on an otherwise electronic patch."
Artemio, maybe you can shed light on this. Is it possible to apply AP-Synthesis to user samples or analog modelled sounds as well as preset samples? I was under the impression this was not possible.

I'm happy for the positive review. I just would have liked to see some comparisons and more detail. The GT is on my short list of things to pick up and I know it will sound great. How Ap-Synthesis is able to be applied will certainly determine it's usefullness to me.

Re: Music Tech review

16 Aug 2007, 21:48

I read that same review just before buying my GT and it didn't play a major part in my buying decision

It was less of a review and more of a description of the V-Synth GT. A lot of the text just seemed to be about the physical layout of the machine.

Is it possible to apply AP-Synthesis to user samples or analog modelled sounds as well as preset samples?

You can't apply AP-Synthesis to anything per se. It runs in parallel with the normal V-Synth engine and both their outputs are mixed at effects section or, in the case of structure type 4, the output of AP can be fed into a Mod/COSM/TVA chain along with the output of OSC1. Structure 4 is definitely the one to go for if you want to do something more exotic like run the AP through COSM effects or ring modulate it with the output of OSC1. So, you can apply other bits of the GT to AP-Synthesis, but not vice versa.

AP-Synthesis has a fixed set of 38 samples/waveforms that it works with and for each of those you can choose which phrase model (Erhu, Violin, Sax etc.) you want to use with the sample. Each of the provided samples work with only certain phrase models or in some cases just one model.

This is my first experience with the V-Synth, so I don't really have a view on whether it's a good upgrade if you already have one of the previous variants. It's definitely an upgrade from not having a V-Synth, that I can say for certain

Re: Music Tech review

17 Aug 2007, 05:23

Thanks for your reply. My hope was that you wouldn't be limited to certain waveforms for AP-Synthesis. It's much more fun to use things like this in unconventional ways to come up with unique sounds.As an example, using the violin phrase model but with a spoken word or maybe drum loop as the sample.

It looks like there is a chance of some manipulation using structure 4, where AP-Synthesis can share in the mod section with another oscillator. I hope there is a chance that Roland will eventually find a way to allow user samples to work with the phrase models.

I had kind of hoped to see different things on a new V-Synth, such as new cosm models, new structures, new mod possibilities or more control of the provided mods, new effects. Most of these things could actually be provided to older versions also, through an update.

The combination of 2 V-Synth engines with the vocal designer and AP-Synthesis is certainly a lot of stuff in one keyboard and I thnik Roland's price is pretty reasonable. I already plan to budget for this. I'm just disappointed that there aren't any real advancements to either the Variphrase portion, effects, or even the analog modelling.

Thanks for your specific explanation.