An open letter to Roland Management...

[happyrat1]

I posted this on Rolandclan Forums tonight in a sequencer thread.

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I wish someone would write an open letter to Roland Management that could explain how their nickel and dime pricing attitude have ruined a perfectly functional MIDI Workstation and crippled both the MIDI and Sequencing abilities of what could have been an instant classic bedroom workstation.

The inability to export MIDI from the step sequencer is a slap in the face of any home studio enthusiast as well as any professional song writers who might have picked one up to work with.

I've bought and owned plenty of gear over the years, lots from Roland too, but I let my guts tell me when I've bought a beautiful ice carving swan with a huge turd in the middle.

What is it with Roland and crippling their equipment with oddball MIDI configurations. I owned a JD-Xi once. Sold it within a year because every MIDI channel in the thing was fixed to a single engine and COULD NOT BE CHANGED!

What REALLY burns me up is that this could be fixed with a simple Firmware upgrade.

I may not bother sticking around waiting for it though. I may just take my chances with trading up from the Juno DS88 to a Korg Nautilus.

Too bad you missed the boat Roland...

Your customers have LOOOOONG memories.

Gary

 

[Biggles]

Gary
If you are a Facebook user can I suggest you seek out the Roland Groups there and specifically the one on the FA.

Post it there and it will be seen by Ed Diaz who being the training face of Roland then Ed will have direct access to those who control their products.

As for a Korg should you go down this route do ensure that whatever you may buy has the functionality you want now. Korg are very slow with updates, the Kross 2 that I had received an update 18 months after a upgraded limited edition version was released. The PA4X has not had any significant OS updated for two years, and the 700 & 1000 were both released in mid 2017 and not had any significant upgrade.

Good luck in your quest.

 

[delaware dave]

Many Roland products still use NRPN rather than CC# output messages making it difficult to use their instrument as a MIDI controller. Real PIA.

 

[happyrat1]

Col >>> I don't do Facetwit

Dave >>> Like I said, the Juno is not the first time I've encountered wonky MIDI with Roland products.

Gary

 

[happyrat1]

BTW, I've been looking around and it looks like I could more easily buy a used Kronos 288 than a new Nautilus. The price difference, once you factor in taxes, is negligible and there seem to be a lot of Kronos models up for sale these days.

Gary

 

[Biggles]

Steve McNally’s vids will get you going

 

[Biggles]

And the Video Manual series for the Nautilus start here

 

[happyrat1]

There's a pristine Kronos 2 88 up for sale right now in my neighbourhood right now but seriously the guy is asking $1000 more than it's worth. Essentially, I could buy a brand new Nautilus 88 or a used Kronos 88 for about the same money.

I have some research to do before my beloved Juno sells.

Thanks for the links Col

Gary

 

[happyrat1]

I've pulled my Juno ad from the classifieds.

Upon reconsideration I've come to realize that the only people who are willing to come to your home during a pandemic are low life bottom feeders hoping to pick it up for a bargain and then flip it for a higher price later on.

I'm also reconsidering replacing it with a Nautilus. Upon rereading the specs I am not all that thrilled with the resistive touch screen nor the weight of the monsters from Korg.

If I do end up selling the Juno I think my next purchase would be a Kurzweil PC4. I'm already familiar with the operating system and it sells for about half the price of a Kronos or 50% less than a Nautilus.

Realistically, I prefer something that has physical buttons to push and doesn't require special drivers to send MIDI over USB.

Anyway, I'm in no rush. I'll wait til the pandemic blows over and then go ahead with the plan

And honestly, I would probably miss the Juno as well. It does have some sweet synth voices.

Gary