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Okay All,

I am in the market for a workstation that will also double as a good life performance keyboard (ie good portability, easy to maneuver on the fly) with very realistic pianos, EPs, organs, sound expansion capabililies (ie ability to add memory/sounds, great keybed feel and a good sequencing platform. I have demo'd both (except for the sequencing capability) and like both. I actually think that I prefer the feel of the Yamaha and the pianos in the Yamaha. I am curious to hear comments from others who have demo'd these boards. Any thoughts/comments are appreciated.

Thanks!
BKD

Even if you don't mention it, have you tried Korg Krome 88? The sounds are better than Yamaha in my opinion, especially the piano (German Steinway, almost 3GB just for the piano) and it's great value for money.
You can find a demo here (check at 5:30 for the piano)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvgLIGpSXVE
And you have a comparison with Yamaha here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8XTU3OalGs

You already prefer the pianos in the Yamaha, but with the flash option, you can put some other high quality pianos and EPs into it as well, increasing its advantage there. OTOH, tonewheel (Hammond style) organ is where the Roland will have the edge, as it has an actual "clonewheel" organ engine in it, Yamaha has nothing comparable, only some rompler-style organ patches.

Got me the FA ; must say it's in incredible amount of stuff you get for the money (they always say Roland is expensive , but the FA series ticks many boxes on my wish list for a competitive price). And considering the still expanding sounds and samples you can download from the axial site, I think it will be a valid products for a while. For a relatively lightweight gigging board with tons of usable sounds and many nice add-ons it's a board that will provide lot's of playing fun. You can tweak sounds that are not entirely to your liking - enough parameters and settings to do that.

What I miss ? We'll aftertouch of course, but none of the boards in this price range provide that. And perhaps faders for drawbars, but if you can't live without , there are boxes that will fill that void , like DB1. Ok it's not a beauty, but neither is the MOX series and plastic has it's function for low weight.

Very nice board - personally I would take it over the MOXF because of the SN engine , pads, sampler and many other nice, thought through, live and scratch pad features.

Cherio, J

@JFP

How do you like the the FA08's Ivory Feel-G Keyboard with Escapement compared to the MOXF8's Graded Hammer Standard?

Actually it's quite good for it's weight and size. Pretty stiff. Better than on the A-88 or RN300NX in my opinion, although I haven't touched those for a while (just recall from memory I didn't particularly like them).

There are however only three touch curves and neither one fits me. Would like to have it somewhere in between medium and light. Or (better!) be able to create your own, like on the Casio's, StudioLogic and Kawai. I hope they tweak or extend the touch curves a little for a next firmware upgrade. I now use medium and turn the velocity offset to -10, but then I loose control in the ppp range and silently pressing a key is no longer possible. Bummer ! Hope Roland is listening. This is the only thing that really bothers me. Key / sound connection out of the box is not so great, although both the sound engine and keys are pretty good. They could be better matched with a delicate touch curve.

I have some other things that could easily make this machine from good to great - like the way the controls work. They seem to lack a 'catch' feature, meaning they start right away at the position they are currently in when you touch them, causing sudden jumps in sound. They should be able pick up the control signal from the point where the setting is when you're turning the knob and then go from there. Kurzweil and others have this option. I miss it in the FA08 so far.

Overall the FA08 is a great value for money and relatively compact (despite it's length) and easy to carry. I have only just begun to explore the instrument, but have no regrets (yet ;-). This machine can do an awful lot and has plenty connections and routing capabilities. It's no beauty , but it works and at ~ 16kg , who cares.

Could have bought the MP7 for much less, but considering the amount of sounds , extra features AND light weight I thought I'd give the FA a shot for more all-round use. For a pure piano stage I would still consider the RD800 or MP7.

I'll post some more thoughts and potential ideas for firmware updates. No biggies , but small, practical improvements or things that may have been overlooked by the engineers (struggling to meet deadlines).

Cherio, J

Rectification: Catch function for the control knobs seems to be there according to the manual. When going through presets I didn't notice it, but it may have been turned off in the system settings (global), or not active for the specific patch.

My little complaint about touch curve remains. Would like to have more choices there , or better control to alter them. As said the velocity offset just shifts the whole curve , which is not the same as making the pp or ff range harder or easier to play. Now you loose the silent key playing style when you set a negative value. Not good (enough). I hope Roland can extend that in a future update, cause it's such an outstanding instrument , but key to sound connection is very important to feel 'in touch' with a board. That's why the PHA-IV Rolands are so great - or e.g. the adjustable VPC1 controller. They have a great connection, which I miss sort of on the Ivory-G. Not because it can't do it (medium + -10 velocity offset already shows what could be), but because you can't adjust it to get it right. Fingers crossed...

All-in-all I like the FA08

I played the FA-08 at GC in NYC and was quite impressed with especially the action and the B3 sounds. Don't get me wrong- the pianos and ePs were fantastic as well but I kept going back to the B3.
I thought they were better than the VR-09's, despite the missing drawbars.

I would consider it an upgrade of the Juno Gi I have, the only thing that bothered me was they did not keep the digital recorder with the mic pre amps.

However, it does have a sequencer that can integrate with a DAW.

I am not as familiar with the MOXF8 but the roland action is more realistic than GHS

+1, I have had both actions at home for 1,5 years and Ivory feels G is miles away from GHS, at least for piano

Bit OT, but does anyone know if the Roland CB-88 RL keyboard bag is big enough for the FA-08. I know length and depth are ok, but hight is exactly 142 mm , which is the same as the FA-08. It's a just fit , or just NOT fit scenario. So anyone who know's if it will fit ; please let me know. Thanks.

It will be very tight. Very tight. But it will fit. Biggest consideration is not giving the top of the board a knock.

Jay

THNKX, if it fits, it fits. Fine with me. Hope it leaves enough space in the length to put my DP10 or an expression pedal. My EV-7 won't make it into the bag I'm afraid.

Any ideas for a good gooseneck Mic with jack connector for the FA by the way ? Nice for vocal / vocoding stuff if it could be directly attached to the keyboard (look at the included mics on some of the Korg boards).

P.s. still love the touch and sound of the RD800 I played, but simply to big and heavy for me in the current situation. FA08 is a good compromise and has a lot more to offer in some other respects. Hope more Axial SRX sets will follow. A set with some of the missing SN sounds would be ultimately WOW (some brass / el-guitar stuff...), but small chance I guess...

Your DP-10 and EV-7 might fit in the outer pouch with your power supply.

Jay