GW-8(ALL) Performance Selection & Import Tones Function

[gsp]

Hi there, happy to find this forum as seems that Roland is difficult hearing the customers... I am roland user from D-20 time and i like roland BUT especially on GW-8 i think there are some serious things to be corrected.

One of them for which i received the answer that is a "mistype" of the manual is on PAGE 39 the performance select procedure.. It says CLEARLY that when using the list method (by pressing enter) you can go through the list by dial knob or cursors find the desired performance and press enter to apply. This doesn't happen and if you leave the cursor some milliseconds on ANY performance it selects directly!!!! I cannot find ANY use of this ESPECIALLY if i am on LIVE - NON STOP performance!!! I can ruin everything with this!!!! Is it SO DIFFICULT?

From the other side, in style selection, this works with the correct way!!

Finally i want to mention (again) the USB Tones import function, which was written on the manual since old version BUT never existed ON the this arranger even if the hardware supports this function!!! Then WHY did the write this???

I hope that Roland takes this and many other stuff that people mention, MORE SERIOUSLY so they WILL publish a new firmware for this model!!

Thanks for your time!

[rshivk]

You are right.

You are referring to the behaviour of
1. Step 4 under Choosing from the Style List on Page 26
2. Step 4 under Choosing from the Performance List on Page 39
of the GW-8 Worstation Owner's Manual.
Step 5. for both is to Press [Enter] to set the Style and Performance respectively.

Behaviour of GW8:
For Setting the new Style, Step 5 is required.
For Setting the new Performance, Step 5 is not required. The new PERFORMANCE gets set at the next measure if the arranger is running. You continue to stay within the PERFORMANCE List Screen. If you choose to perform Step 5, the new PERFORMANCE is selected immediately and you exit to the main screen.

gsp,
I think it is a sort of preview for PERFORMANCEs. Actually if you like a PEFORMANCE you can continue using it without performing Step 5. Will it help you if you keep all your PERFORMANCEs in the same order they will be used?

Definitely,
Behaviour of GW8 for two identical steps given in the manual are different.

Personally, I would have appreciated this mechanism for STYLEs along with TEMPO LOCK for STYLES CHANGES.

   

[gsp]

Thanks for confirmation! I don't think its a kind of preview!! Its supposed that in Live-NonStop (especially here in Greece) performance you have the ability to quick-go through the whole list of performances and select the desired one with CONFIRMATION!!!! If the order is everytime PRE-arranged then i would write the whole program on the sequencer!!! There is no use of using the Performances with the preset order!!!

Think that when we are playing on live its very common to go from one style to another not of the same kind and backwards without any thought! This is the way Korg PA-50,80 etc can work, thats why probably here in Greece NO-ONE prefers Roland than Korg for LIVE!!!!! When i first saw the GW i thought that this would be the NEW KING!!! (for cheap series arrangers)... but these MINOR bugs (for my opinion) lower its quality VERY VERY much!!! I hope they correct them!!

Thanks!

[rshivk]

GW8 faces same fate in India also.

This is what I wrote earlier

Original GW8 was of course BOTL. Having released Version2, Roland should not consider GW8 as BOTL.
The fact is, here GW8A Version2 (with all its wonderful ethnic tones and percussions) is not able to compete even with a Korg PA50, forget about its actual peers PA500 and PSRS710. When I mentioned peers I considered only price tag, in features those two are way ahead. Hence Roland should reconsider the classification of GW8 and load features accordingly maintaining the price tag. Should Roland find it difficult to meet this ... I too feel for Roland.

[gsp]

I am just wondering, after these years of first indroducing GW-8, has anyone of Roland thinked of correcting anything on it? I mean after version 2?

As Diki says this is a place to inform them.. but as it seems its one-way.... no one ever knows IF they read anything...

[Diki]

I can only repeat what I have said before... The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Be persistent. Follow up on your calls. Don't be content with whoever answers the phone. Try to ask for a specialist in the Arranger Division. Try to talk to someone who actually KNOWS something about arrangers!

You have to understand that, in the big picture of things, Roland's Arranger Division is a VERY small part of their sales. It is unsurprising that we are fairly low down on the totem pole... But just 'expecting' things to correct themselves is optimistic at best. All I can tell you, and give you hope, perhaps, is that during the G70's release, we made a VERY organized noise to Roland, made great efforts to make sure we understood the difference between bugs and unwanted (but correct) operation, and then made SURE that Roland, by whatever means we could, were aware of the situation. We got two MAJOR updates and a bunch of bugfixes.

Was everything fixed? No... but a LOT was. Unfortunately, the old G70 Users Club site (which morphed into this site) is now down, so you can't really go back and look at how we did it, and yes, back then, Roland WERE still trying to sell TOTL arrangers, so they cared a bit about what we said, but bottom line is, we were VERY persistent. That's all I can say to help. I don't have any back channels, but by being persistent with my phone calls (but I remained polite, that's important... you can't go in guns blazing and expect people to snap to attention!) i WAS able to talk to a Roland arranger specialist.

That's all we can ever hope for, I feel. If enough of us do it and succeed, then perhaps things will get fixed...

[mrsim82]

so  guys what can i  do  now ? i have roland g800  and i want to buy a new roland like gw-8 ..  but it seems there is many problem like tempo lock :S many others think  shown on this post :S so give me ur opinion ! thanks

[Diki]

Personally, I'd give up on current Roland's if Tempo Lock and other missing features are ESSENTIAL to your workflow. Take a look around for a used E50/60, which has a Tempo Lock, etc..

Mind you, there IS a workaround (albeit clunky) to the Tempo Lock problem. If you are CONSISTENTLY using several styles together at the same tempo (for a medley, or whatever), you can edit the preset tempo using the Makeup Tools, and save as a User Style. Edit them ALL to the same tempo, and also, give them a name like 'Medley1', 'Medley2', 'Medley3' etc., and they will all come up in the list together, easy to select. Now, when you switch between them, they will stay at the same tempo.

Hope this helps (a bit!)

[Geraldo Arnaud Santos]

Hello friend, really exists in the import of sounds defined function in the keyboard itself: usb import - World / Special, then it should funcionar.Função important for improving performance and creating new styles with samples mainly of drum kits. GW8 frustration for users. But let's hope for an improved version GW8. hugs

[Geraldo Arnaud Santos]

so  guys what can i  do  now ? i have roland g800  and i want to buy a new roland like gw-8 ..  but it seems there is many problem like tempo lock :S many others think  shown on this post :S so give me ur opinion ! thanks

Hello friend, what I'm saying is that possso GW8 user and I love this keyboard response to any sound amplification, has problems, has the whole keyboard, but there are several other good points. However have to improve some functions.