2. About a month
3. I say a 9.5. The 5080 is also a sample-playback machine. I'll make it a 10 if they've included a built-in CDROM drive in it, instead of attaching an external SCSI CDROM.
4. Things I like about it:
The SOUND quality! Including 128 polyphony. Can handle 32 channels of MIDI, 2 Midi inputs. 1280 usable patches!
8 Analog outs.
SPDIF.
SCSI
Built-in 64MB of RAM.
Expandable by another 128MB of user added SIMMS, plus 128MB on your SmartMedia card.
Accepts 4 SRX expansion card (64MB x 4) and 4 JV cards (16MB x 4).
Can playback Akai S1000/3000, Roland, AIFF, WAV sample files, CDROM, etc.
Did I mention the sound quality??? Even at Performance mode (i.e. Sequence mode of the Triton), the quality of the patches are still great. Of course, in SOLO mode, they're super.
The strings, acoustic instruments, piano, orchestra, brass, drums, wind, they're all very good.
The Concert Piano expansion card is WOW!.. 64Mb fully devoted to this one European Grand piano. Only 50 patches in the SRX02 card.
The XV-5080 Editor. You can control all aspects of your XV from your computer! Nice job Roland! In fact, I recommend this rather than pushing buttons and dialing on the front panel of the XV.
Big LCD screen. Easy to read even at small type, bright.
Includes the Roland SRV3030 effects engine.
The XV-5080 is Roland's flagship product!
The arrangement of the Roland banks and patches are "logical" unlike Triton's patch/bank arrangement which is like randomized.
5. Things you don't like about it.
No numeric keyboard. (unlike the Tritons) Everything has to be dialed in. But the XV Editor more than makes up for this missing feature. Face it, if you'll be tweaking your patches, you'd want to do it in a computer, not on the front panel of the unit itself.
No appregios and real-time tweaks (unlike the Tritons).
No built-in CDROM drive.
Lack of good Documentation. Compared to the Tritons which gives you everything you want to know but the schematic, the documentation of the Roland can be improved much further.
6.Tips and other info:
Compared to my Triton LE, the sound of the Roland Xv-5080 is very good and very pleasant. It fits well with anything, whether as a background, or as the center of attention. Unlike the Tritons which seems to always want to take center-stage.
I find the XV-5080 sounds are warmer and more pleasant... thick and full. Some of the Triton sounds (especially the acoustic instruments) are thin, and harsh on the ear. But the Rolands are not.
I haven't dived deeply into the more advanced aspect of this synth, the constant dialing of parameters is tiring. But like what I said, if you'll be tweaking your hearts out, use the XV-5080 PC editor. The PC software makes experimentation so easy and fun. And you can do a File > Save to save your settings or banks to your PC hard drive too.
It has 2 midi ins, 1 midi out, 1 midi thru. I've setup MIDI1 IN/OUT to go to my 2x2 USB Midi interface. Then used an old Yamaha DX7 Midi out to go to the 2nd MIDI IN.
In Sonar, if I want to use the sound engine of the Roland, I just change a software setting and play the keys on my Triton, but hear the sound output of the Roland.
If I'm just playing around and not doing any MIDI recording, I put the 2x2 Midi interface to "Through", play the Triton and the DX7 (controlling the Roland XV-5080) at the same time.
Roland is beginning to bundle multiple related JV samples into one SRX expansion card. The new SRX card is tweaked more to take advantage of the XV-5080 engine. You save money by getting the SRX card instead of getting multiple JV cards. Each SRX card caters to a particular genre. The SRX cards have 64MB capacity compared to 16MB for the JV cards.
I never regretted purchasing the Roland XV-5080. It complements my Triton LE sounds. The weaknesses of the Tritons are Roland's strengths and the strengths of the Tritons are Roland's excellence!
I'm finding that I'm using my XV more and more than my Tritons for patch selections.
