SRX12 - E Pianos - OPINIONS PLEASE

[Cesarsound]

Hi,
I am interested in this expansion board, I like the Rhodes pianos.

I would like to hear the honest opinion from the owners of this board about the sounds, quality and usability of it.

Thanks.

[cgreene]

I have the srx-12. In my opinion, the Rhodes sounds are extremely authentic sounding. with many representations of different models. Touch sensitivity really brings out the variations in the tine sound. There are also a wide variety of Clavinet patches, just about every type you can imagine. The Wurlitzer simulations are OK, but I haven't found one that I really like. If you used to have a Rhodes, and want to recapture that sound, I think this expansion board pretty much nails it.

[cuborg]

some are saying that srx-12 Rhodes are the best in the hardware.
roland EP pianos are really good.

[Jimknopf]

just my two cents: I wrote a SRX-12 review for the German "Keyboards" magazine.

This board is the most important of all modules for my personal use. For me the SRX-12 is the most outstanding board of all, because it convincingly delivers quality instead of quantity.

Agreeing with 'cgreene', two instruments are represented first class:

- The Rhodes simply is the best hardware Rhodes on the whole market. Not even the Korg Oasys offers comparable quality here, and all the standard workstations are just poor jokes concerning an authentic Rhodes sound - for everyone who really knows the original.

This, by the way, counted in no way less for Roland up to the SRX-12. In the past they have been building either *much* too dull EPianos or the type of idiotic sounding "plink" "plonk" EPianos up to the Juno G which only allude to famous sounds without remotely delivering them. Even the "Ultimate keys" SRX 07 offers only sick and trashy Rhodes sounds for my ears. And the original FantomX or the Juno do not even have *one* *single* Rhodes sound worth mentioning.

But the SRX-12 Rhodes really works and shines, and is even much better than the Nord Electro Rhodes.

There are only two better Rhodes sounds out there:
- an original Mk I in excellent condition
- or the Scarbee software libarary which simply sounds 1:1 just as good as the original. It clearly outplaces everything on the market with 12(!) instead of 4 single note velocity layers and an absolutely natural reproduction of the oringinal. Not even the SRX-12 plays in this outstanding class.

Concerning the SRX-12: first of all you have to fine-tune the velocity layers, because the Roland company guys simply failed to do a good job here, and the difference between the layers comes in quite abrupt jumps in the factory settings, instead of smooth crossings.

- The D6 Clavinet is just as great, covering all(!) pickup settings: in sound and feel *extremely* close to the original, just like the Rhodes. You can do simply *any* traditional funk sound or modern r&b with this thing. Overwhelming fingerlicking good!


The blind spot of the SRX-12 is the Wurlitzer, which is a complete failure. This is the only case where the FantomX original sounds are better than the card extension. But since some FantomX Wurly sounds are at least middle-class, together with the SRX-12 you get a super instrument covering all the classic vintage EPianos in good (Wurly) up to excellent (Rhodes and Clavinet) quality. For me these sounds altogether are at the core of all my music making.

Sounds funny, but I bought a Juno-G for the only reason of using the SRX-12 with it, and later I ended buying a Fantom X7 as my main instrument - the SRX-12 again playing a major role in this decision together with nice workstation features.

If someone at Roland would finally wake up and produce an SRX-13 with a high quality B3 they would - together with some of their quite useable Piano sounds - finally cover ~75% of the bread-and-butter-sounds most keryboarders use most of the times.

But as we all know, especially the Japanese management guys, who often show good understanding for technical know how, at the same time show very limited understanding for many musicians' wishes and regularly need much too much time to be up to date here finally. As far as generalisations can be used at all, over the last years their worst general character failure has been their missing ability to make constructive use of critical feedback from European or US users, and this way they pay a high price for wrongly assuming that they know everything conerning the company better than anybody else out there, all by themselves.


So we should be thankful that some of them have been smart enough to deliver the SRX-12 with 2/3 of what it should be.

[Cesarsound]

Hello guys, thanks for your opinions!

Jimknopf, very good review, well done, congrat!

Could you please post some MP3 samples of Rhodes, Wurlitzer and Clav patches ?

Thanks in advance.

[Jimknopf]

just to get a first impression try this:

http://www.rolandus.com/Multimedia/Flas ... _demo.html

I guess this will already be enough for your decision...

[xzandor]

Hi,

thanks for the post!
could anyone tell me if u can edit those velocity layers of the srx-12 card on a Roland VR-760 keyboard?... or is this only possible with a fantom keyboard?

thanks;
-Alex

[groovecake]

I am getting ready to sell my SRX-12 because I don't like how it plays. An earlier poster referred to changing the velocity level settings. Are there any instructions on how to do that effectively or are there any patches that are posted anywhere? As I said, I have already pulled it from my X6 and am getting ready to sell it. Can anyone change my mind?

Thanks!

[GregC]

i like it

GregC

[Jimknopf]

-> groovecake: How much do you want for your SRX-12?

I have one on my Fantom-X7 and if I ever put any SRX-board into my Juno-G it would be the most important one by far.

The SRX-12 simply offers the best Rhodes and D6 sounds on *any* hardware so far: No Yamaha or Korg workstation below Oasys level offers comparable sound quality for Rhodes and Hohner Clavinet sounds, and up to now I even doubt if the Oasys offers comparable quality here. I have played the original instruments quite a while and think I can tell the difference quite well.

But if you want to check Rhodes velocity layers before selling:
Go into patch edit, Pro Edit, TMT, and look for upper/lower velo range. Depending on your playing style you can adjust the four velo layers you have by switching through them with Tone Sw/Sel.

One of the typical layer schemes I use is:
Layer 1: 1-40
Layer 2: 41-90
Layer 3: 91-127
Layer 4: 127-127 plus Velo Fade Lower ~18

This means you use layer 4 only to give hard attack key strokes the typical barking Rhodes kick, and you add lower velo fade to the upper layer to get a smooth overlap between this 'kick sound' and the other layers.

This setting is just an example how to proceed, if you want to avoid hard steps between layers (which sounds quite unnatural).
You have to fine tune it according to sound (a darker Rhodes needs perhaps more velo brillance than a sparkling pure sound etc.).

4 Layers still is a minimum for Rhodes or D6 dynamics. The best software Rhodes (Scarbee) sounds *exactly* like an original instrument with 12 layers. Then you don't notice any velocity steps any more.

But the SRX-12 is the best you can get so far concerning really nice Rhodes and Clavinet hardware sounds, especially if you program variations with different waveforms and effect settings. The SRX-12 Wurlitzer is a total failure, but you can get by with one or two original Fantom Wurlys.

[s.asad]

I dno't own SRX-12 yet.
But here goes a thread with some more demos & discussion, for those who haven't seen it:

http://forums.rolandclan.info/index.php ... d=9&page=1

Card sounds very very good to me, but then again, I like Roland's old sick/dull/trashy EP's too:)

[groovecake]

Thanks Jim. I might try those before I pack up the SRX-12. (Already removed it but I still have it.)

See, I am spoiled by the Scarbee stuff. I use them both live and in the studio and they are the absolute best. With my weighted Studiologic controller, its like playing the real thing...of which I have 4, so I know what the real deal is.

I like the basic sounds in the SRX-12 but the high velocity samples almost sound out of tune to me. And you are right...they jump around too much in the presets. Maybe some tweaking will fix that.

And, I wholeheartedly, 100% agree that the Wurly samples on the SRX-12 are a disaster. Totally worthless. Almost sound like a glitch or a bug, they are so bad. The stock Fantom Wurly is much better. Total disappointment.

Thanks again.

Mitch

[riojazz]

Compared to the many great sounds of the other SRX boards I have, the 03, 07, and 09, I was very disappointed in the 12. There are many fewer total sounds, especially compared to the 09. I found only five patches I thought I would use in the future in the 12. Yes, those sound great, but I feel I paid quite a premium for just a few sounds.

[Jimknopf]

With me it's just the other way round: I would ten times prefer one good Rhodes over the dozens of crappy Rhodes sounds spread over the whole workstations world.
Same for the D6.

From my view these sounds are essential for many serious keyboarders and not just one more useless squeaky little synth sample or one more weak bass or organ sound.

So I would prefer comparable *quality* boards for Hammond B3, Minimoog sounds or whatever anytime over earlier boards like "Studio SRX (03)" which deliver many, but extremely few impressive sounds, and which really disappointed me, just like SRX-07, which I only keep for some halfway useable organ and bass sounds, and not for the other cheap sounds like bad Epianos, Pianos etc.

So SRX-12 is my most important board in my Fantom compared with the others, and if I would ever buy one for the one slot in my Juno G, it would be this board and none of the others.

[groovecake]

Jim,

I finally got around to trying the velocity settings that you posted and they convinced me to hold on to the SRX-12 card. Those adjustments really make the sounds in the card more playable. Add in the fact I am using the Clavinet sounds more also and it makes the SRX-12 worth keeping.

Thanks again!

Mitch