NAMM 2013 Rumours - new Roland Workstation?

[Leh173]

Long live the fantom G! And its good friend my laptop!

[alpha_C]

Again nothing interesting from Roland. It's a shame Roland !

[Leh173]

I think the VR-09 looks interesting. Could be a goodcomplement to the G. 5.5kgs, looks to have the supernatural synth.

http://www.rolandus.com/products/details/1269

This could be OK studio capture interface
http://www.rolandus.com/products/details/1268

Otherwise pretty underwhelming.

Fantom G lives on!

[BEATmakerCOPE]

Sooooo uhhh... Hmmm... ttyl

[Quinnx.]

And rolands recycle machine is up aaandd running :)
with no new workstation...

What a Surprise

NOT! :-D

Roland is dead
LONG LIVE THE G :)

[MarkOneMusic]

my whelm is completely undered.

[blytzz]

We showed up too late at the "Going out of business sale", all the good stuff is looooong gone. Bye Roland, ill be a Kawai or Korg customer form here forward.

[Jan_nl]

Unfortunately it's the usual anti-climax for those expecting a grandiose new synth or a next generation workstation.

The Vr-09 seems to be a good practical solution for gigging musicians looking for an all-in-one keyboard which does not weigh much (it has the drawbars which were lacking on the JP!), and the studio capture 16x10 could be interesting for those looking for a soundcard with premium mic pre-amps, depending on the price of course.

I think for the next workstation you have to wait until Frankfurt or perhaps even late summer.
I know these are tough times, but with the current offerings it's going to be a lot tougher for Roland.
It should be obvious that, if Roland wants to continue in the keyboard market, they have to come up with something a lot more spectular, because I highly doubt if the new 64-note piano or the vr-09 will generate the necessary sales to start making profit again.

[blytzz]

I keep hearing people say the these are "tough times" yet the stock market is almost as high as its ever been! Companies are just sitting on their butts and hoarding money, the funny thing is...its costing them money to do this. They arent spending the money on innovation to put something out that people will buy. You need to spend money to make money right? All this stuff they put out cost them money to make and yet the markets they will be appealing to have got to be tiny, whereas put all your good sounds in a good weighted action keyboard and we all know it would be a best seller. Im just so disappointed, I asked for nothing on Christmas and have been saving up in hopes that Roland had something good up their sleeve, unfortunately my pockets are on fire and as much as Id love to give this to Roland its going to another company.

[JavaJ]

and yet people still hold out for a new workstation/synth at the next gear festival. How many times do you have to get dissapointed before you give up on them completely.

[keysme]

More middle-of-the-road offerings from Roland and company I see. It seems to confirm our suspicion that Roland has decided to abandon the workstation segment altogether. Reality has hit home and the fact of the matter is Roland has been losing money 'hand over fist' in the last few years. So I guess they don't have the resources to invest heavily in R&D. The result is middle-of-the-road products that are obviously targeted toward people who don't make a lot of money and who don't necessarily make pristine sounds or high-end features a top priority when choosing a keyboard or some other musical product.

We are witnessing a company that is losing ground to the competition and may soon become irrelevant in an otherwise sea of change. Other companies are breaking new ground with new technologies and integrating greater sound realism. Roland, on the other hand, seems quite content with a 'business as usual' strategy and recycled sounds. I guess Roland doesn't mind eating the dust of their competitors because that's what's happening in my opinion. Losing direction, losing vision, losing money and losing out to the competition. What kind of strategy is that?? A losing strategy unfortunately. By choosing to release a slew of mediocre products, Roland has once again demonstrated a lack of vision and they will continue to lose ground to the competition if they keep going in the same direction.

The VR-09 seems to be the only somewhat bright spot in an otherwise dim showing of products by Roland at NAMM. Although I have to say the sounds included in the VR-09 demo sounded very familiar. So I'm guessing it will have rehashed sounds and probably nothing new in the way of groundbreaking features either. And a dinky LCD screen to boot. I will reserve final judgment until after playing one. But the demo was unimpressive if you ask me. We keep getting our hopes dashed and I think Roland might even take pleasure in it. A sadistic keyboard company? That would be a first. :D LOL

We'll have to wait to see what shows up at Musikmesse and/or summer NAMM. Another let down most likely. Sorry for being so negative. But this is becoming a routine occurrence. It's like watching a boxing match where your favorite boxer keeps getting KO'd in the first round. After a while it becomes too sickening to even watch, knowing that your guy (company) keeps getting pummeled by the competition. :(

Hopefully there will be brighter days ahead for Roland and company. As it stands now Roland seems to be in a time warp... stuck in the past... and down on their luck. Which is not hard to understand when you see all the mediocre products rolling off their assembly lines over the last few years. :(

By the way, sorry for the lengthy post. I had a lot of venting to do. :) I feel a little better now. Which is of little consolation after seeing Roland's meager showing at NAMM. Oh well. I'll get over it eventually. Keep those prayers coming. :D

[atarens]

No new workstation or new arx card for fantom g! Roland, why?
Fantom G is very very good machine, roland please acoustic superntural arx card and synth supernatural arx card and new os for G!

[G-Man]

Leh, Quinxx... Be careful with that "long live Fantom G" stuff...
Looks like Roland tooked it seriously :) they are probably thinking you really mean that :)

[Quinnx.]

No new workstation or new arx card for fantom g! Roland, why?

Simple...
There is just no room in their product line for a new workstation which I have been predicting for quite some time now..
I think its also mistake to discontinue the G on any level too as it has so much potential as both a workstation/synth and controller too..

[kday]

The next Workstation is delayed because Roland had to go back to the drawing board to compete with Korg, and Yamaha. They knew they couldn't continue releasing that 15y/o technology over and over again. The FG was the last straw, and it was a near total failure. It takes time to start from scratch, But they're gonna release their next generation synthesizer with more groove products if not at musimesse than at next Namm or in September before next Namm. Roland won't stay dead forever, otherwise they know we got our shovels ready to dig the burial plot for them