KVR Audio

bill45 · Post by **bill45** » Sat Jan 03, 2015 7:43 pm

The integra 7 sounds fantastic. I've also been researching the motif rack xs and
some of the older roland modules(JV1080/2080, u220,XV5080)I love the sound of the
orchestral stuff in these, but, many of the sounds have too much vibrato. How are the sustain
sounds in the integra 7.I see there is an ipad editor for the integra 7 but no mention of a desk top editor.
Anyone have any experience with the firewire card for the motif xs? Is it easy to install?I use cubase, looking forward to to intigrating the xs with cubase.Some synth and organ tones i've heard in the integra 7 are awesome, along with the jazz guitar, which may be the best clean guitar sound I've heard,again,
how are the sustain articulations?
Looks like Sweatwater and guitar center are dropping the price to $1499 The motif rack xs is$1299
plus $149 for the firewire card.
Thanks Bill,
P.S. sorry for the long post. Let the discussion begin!

BBFG# · Post by **BBFG#** » Sat Jan 03, 2015 8:04 pm

I have a couple of Motif racks (XS & ES). The XS has the FW input and it constantly has transmission errors. Very hit and miss, so I wouldn't recommend going that route just for it. Otherwise, the Motifs are sonically solid and are the basis of comparison for many of the ITB samples I look for. Roland, I think is usually best in module form as I found their key beds don't stand the test of time with me like other boards. I did play an Integra at the last NAMM and I wasn't as impressed as I have been with other Roland products of the past. But I think it had more to do with the setting of where and when I was testing it. (Roland had a drum presentation going on behind me and they had the smallest room I've ever seen Roland squeezed into for NAMM.) I honestly don't think Roland competes any longer against the current software available and it seems what I do have from Roland is collecting more dust now (Although I still use the APS engine in my V-S-GT - which is half of the machine.)
I am hoping again that Yamaha will release a rack Motif XF this year.
But I think I might be replacing my ES with HALion this year.
As always, YMMV.

edit/add: You can usually get a better deal on the Motif through UniqueSquared or NovaMusik than you can from Sweetwater. Although if it's the keyboard, Sweetwater has a 'package' they add to it that justifies it a little more.

bill45 · Post by **bill45** » Sun Jan 04, 2015 8:37 am

Thanks, How many versions of the motif rack are there?Rogue music has one for $325,
But, it doesn't have es in the listing.I've seen XS rack go for About $850.I just activated my
Halion sonic trial. Some great sounds in there, and it has a awesome synth engine. Halion has even more.
Nice funk demo at the end of this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWQsPyiWvUg
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 50B239056C
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jQYOHZ ... 7AACFA5F59

BBFG# · Post by **BBFG#** » Sun Jan 04, 2015 9:42 am

AFAIK, there are three rack Motifs; the first has no extension, the second is the ES and the third is the XS. You can add (2) PL cards to the ES and I had the DX and AN in mine, but when they got hard to find in the market, I decided I wasn't using them really and sold them for a very nice profit (don't hurt me, the profit will counter the fact the module is worth two-thirds of its original price). Each one's most notable difference is more ROM though. Otherwise, sound quality is same). One of my favorite organs is in the XS and not the others though (Yamaha YC-45D). $850.00 without the FW seems about right for the XS, but this is the kind of HW I would wait until after NAMM since it's so close and dealers have a tendency to dump them around this time if they get some word of something that might backlog their inventory. For some reason, I haven't seen Integra in any of our 'local' stores. Or even Jupiter for that matter. Mainly just the FA boards are being pushed. So they probably think its just too high end and specialized for our demographic. I would have to make a drive to LA to probably see them and I really try to stay away from there now. Closest I get is Ontario and the Sam Ash there carries very little of the current higher end products now.

bill45 · Post by **bill45** » Sun Jan 04, 2015 11:03 pm

I have nothing against profit.I'm liking this organ sound in the integra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVPGLQ9 ... 9&index=14

I wonder if the integra7 is being discontinued?

Mr Arkadin · Post by **Mr Arkadin** » Mon Jan 05, 2015 2:10 am

bill45 wrote: I wonder if the integra7 is being discontinued?

What makes you say that?

JCJR · Post by **JCJR** » Mon Jan 05, 2015 4:34 am

I would have bought an integra 7 on first release, but it is just too dang expensive. It needs to be about half that price afore I'd buy one.

bill45 · Post by **bill45** » Mon Jan 05, 2015 5:59 am

What makes you say that?[/quote]
Sweetwater and guitar center just dropped the price Fromm $1999 to $1499.
Here is a good sos integra 7 review, the author points out some Cons, He prefers the
XV 5080or Fantom. http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb13/a ... egra-7.htm

bill45 · Post by **bill45** » Mon Jan 05, 2015 6:23 am

Yamaha motif rack xs review
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct08/a ... rackxs.htm

bill45 · Post by **bill45** » Mon Jan 05, 2015 6:57 am

Roland XV5080 review http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov00/a ... xv5080.htm

JCJR · Post by **JCJR** » Mon Jan 05, 2015 7:47 am

bill45 wrote:What makes you say that?
Sweetwater and guitar center just dropped the price Fromm $1999 to $1499.
Here is a good sos integra 7 review, the author points out some Cons, He prefers the
XV 5080or Fantom. http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb13/a ... egra-7.htm

No particular reason. Each person has his own valuation of utility. I've got lots of old synths. If I had an integra-7, in a few years it would just be one of the other old synths in the collection.

In addition, I'm an old fossil who hasn't got used to multiple decades of constant inflation. Am too long-conditioned to thinking of a dollar being equal to as much as a half-hour's labor, as opposed to a dollar nowadays only being equal to 1 or 2 minutes' labor.

I'd pay $700 or $800 for one, maybe. I haven't died yet, for lack of owning an Integra, though they do look like nice rompler boxes.

I did fork over about $1200 or whatever for an FA-06, and like it OK. No serious buyer's remorse. The FA has a big subset of integra inside, plus a keyboard, plus a much nicer editing user interface, plus a not too shabby sequencer, yadda-yadda. FA-06 seems fairly close to a reasonable price for what you get. Though cheaper would be fine as well.

Mr Arkadin · Post by **Mr Arkadin** » Mon Jan 05, 2015 4:18 pm

If I was going to get another rack, it would be the XV-5080. I already have a JD-800 and JD-990 along with an SC-880. I fancy a U-220 for kicks, but the XV-5080 would be the obvious choice if you don't have any Roland racks.

Had the original Motif keyboard in the past and it was good, but somehow I just seem to prefer Roland to Yamaha on the rompler front. Haven't tried any of their later offerings though, or any Korg stuff which might also be worth considering, like the TR-Rack perhaps.

zerocrossing · Post by **zerocrossing** » Mon Jan 05, 2015 4:51 pm

bill45 wrote:I just activated my
Halion sonic trial. Some great sounds in there, and it has a awesome synth engine. Halion has even more.

Honestly, you're probably better off just using software for the world of ROMplers. Don't get me wrong, I think the Motifs and Roland ROMplers are good, but for realistic sounds you're better off with Kontakt and some good libraries and for synth sounds... well there's a ton to choose from.

I wish Roland would do an Integra 8 that combined the Supernatural sound engine with the Airia engine. Now that might be a machine worth getting.

Elysium.NZ · Post by **Elysium.NZ** » Mon Jan 05, 2015 5:55 pm

I've considered a Integra 7 many many times over the last year or so. I think it's a beautiful machine but I already have a lot of bases covered in other Roland h/w. I think I have something like 31 JV-80 cards and 11 SRX physical cards. It would seem silly for me to buy the Integra 7 but I don't have anything that has a SuperNatural engine.

When I was looking at the Integra 7 there wasn't an official Windows editor for the unit but there was an one available (for free) from an independent developer on RolandClan forums. This situation may have changed now, I don't know, when I had a look at Roland's website a couple of days ago it appears there may now be an official Roland editor for Windows as well.

One thing to note is that all the virtual JV and SRX cards in the Integra 7 are not available all the time, there are only 4 virtual slots that can be used. I do know this decision got slammed in reviews and forums a bit as memory is cheap and had they wanted to Roland probably could have relaxed that restriction. I'm also a bit irritated by the Apple integration, I'm not an Apple guy so why not release something for Windows tablets as well (same with Spectrasonics).

Anyway, $1499 is a good price, I may be talking to my dealer about the Integra 7 again, can't help myself

Then again, why the price drop? It could suggest a new rack unit is due to be announced.

BBFG# · Post by **BBFG#** » Mon Jan 05, 2015 8:45 pm

zerocrossing wrote:
bill45 wrote:I just activated my
Halion sonic trial. Some great sounds in there, and it has a awesome synth engine. Halion has even more.
Honestly, you're probably better off just using software for the world of ROMplers. Don't get me wrong, I think the Motifs and Roland ROMplers are good, but for realistic sounds you're better off with Kontakt and some good libraries and for synth sounds... well there's a ton to choose from.

I mostly agree here. I finally took the leap of getting HALion 5 (and getting okay with eLicenser). Much of sound in it is what I get out of my Motifs (but not all). Enough so though, I might be putting up the Motif ES rack on the market soon. But I plan on keeping the XS-rack for now.
I found the Integra review very helpful BTW. The omission of the APS engine makes it a non-sequitur for my uses or even to replace my V-S-GT. What Roland offers otherwise is better done ITB by others IMO.

Roland integra 7 and other sound modules I want (pros/cons) discussion