Was looking for months for a presentation of Roland VR09 but what I've found was mainly just about VR09's piano and synth sections.I'm grateful for this useful organ demonstration, which convinced me to buy a VR09.Thank so much! You're a true organ player! (Highway Star) ...
Every day, I lust more and more for a tonewheel organ. I've been wanting a hammond for nearly four years now, when i was 11 I heard lazy by Deep Purple, and that solidified my love for the hammond IMMEDIATELY. I've recently fallen in love with Emerson, Lake and Palmer, with Keith Emerson's use of the 888 c3 with lots of Drive, I've never wanted to do anything so much IN MY LIFE!
@@Judesmood118 That is what I did recently maybe 6-9 months ago. I plugged in my old Casio CT670 Keyboard that I purchased I believe in 1990 that is still in great shape to create that Second keyboard by MIDI to my VR-09 Roland. It works great like having a Double Keyboard VR-09. Wish I had this set up back with this technology in the mid to late 1960’s. I use to use a Farfisa Combo Compact Organ back then which did the trick with many songs but covering songs by The Young Rascals who used a Hammond B3 just didn’t cut it as far as I was concerned but back then that was all I had to work with for it all. Don’t get me wrong it did what it needed to do as far as Transistorized Organ Sound was concerned.
I feel the same. Was listening since my youth to Emerson, John Lord, Tony Banks so that hammond sound it just entered irrevocably in my head.These days I bought my VR09 and tried to set it up as Mr.Foley did it above.Good luck to you too!! :)
I’m sure everyone would love a Hammond. However, for a gigging musician, the Roland is much easier to lift around. And in a band mix, it would take a great ear to hear the difference. Great video. 👍🏻👍🏻
To me, Hammond XK5 sounds like a live organ and the Roland sounds like a recorded organ. I currently own an XK5 with a Leslie but I wouldn't turn down the Roland if that is what I had to use. I could make it work. The Roland still sounds like the VK8, just like how Korg keeps shoving their old CX-3 engine into current products. Going through a real Leslie hides a lot of crimes.
… again a great video… The Hammond sounds more homogenious to me… The VR comes more (to) sharp… But this difference can also be a chance for a different „Hammond“ Sound with the VR… Anyway, I have two of them and use them with the NeoVentilator or the third internal Rotary, which offers a more rock sound… You should mention the 3 types of RotaryFX in the VR… There is also a great advantage as there is an costfree iPad-App that let you do deeper Organ settings or even full Synth programming… I live this VR-09… Itˋs a great instrument with great sounds for everything (but maybe the acoustic piano🙄)… The keybed is more than okay for organ playing… And as a last hint: you can use the pitchbend to control the rotary speed like with a half moon switch… ☝️
...or the D-Beam and pass your hand over it to swap between rotary speeds. Yeah, the iPad VR-09 Editor app is pretty cool, but on its own, the VR-09's MENU > ORGAN section also allows for fine-tuning additional ORGAN tweaks for Leakage, Click and Gain and ROTARY settings for Type, Acceleration and Speed. The VR-09 also allows usng a second set of keys via MIDI to set up an upper/lower dual keyboard ORGAN split.
A VR09 would more than suffice for my needs in a gig situation with a rock cover band. A bit more audio girth in Hammond XK5, and with my XK3c. Wonderful presentation, as always.
Nick, not sure how they sound in your studio but to me the Roland was clearly cleaner. The Hammond sounded kind of muddled. If i were to place an order based on what i heard in the video it would be the Roland. My setup would be a little bit of reverb and vibrato, overdrive off.
Interesting and thanks. Im not convinced with the HS Leslie so much but then I'm not convinced with any SIMM. the XK-5 is the weapon no doubt about it, but I use it through a Leslie 3300 and thats when it comes on-song!
I have the vr09 as a rehearsal board...the overdrive is really buzzy (in a bad way).the early versions also had the percussion running thru the vibrato...thanks again...I really enjoy your comparisons and reviews.
Hi Nick, thank you so much i have the XK5 and the VR09 love them both and also have a few other clones i wanna share with you, i have the Hammond XB2,Hammond XK1 the XK5,XM1,XM2,XK3c,Roland VR09B ,VK7,VK77,Rare VK7m,VK8 VK8m VK88,Korg CX3 analog Korg BX3 analog,Korg CX3 and BX3 digital,But what kills them all even tbe Hammonds is my Kurzweil PC3 i just purchased and let me tell you Nick it blows them all out of the water man KB3 mode is the best clone out there hands down with .y Neo Vent one na Neo Vent 2 and Hammond Leslie G pedal amazing
Great little series of videos thanks - just as I needed a little supplement to add to my playing rig. I ended up getting the little Yamaha CK 61. Fab weight, good Wurlitzer and Rhodes and quite good Hammond with a little tweaking - but the clincher is it plays well with its three voices and separate levels and fx, with a master keyboard (old Roland FP3 (best weighted hammer action still) just for the electric piano whilst retaining the CK61 local keys for the Organ.
Hammond wins! I do think the Roland VR09 is a surprisingly good keyboard for the price. The pianos are excellent in my opinion. The VR09 has a brighter organ sound, but I did not like the brittle sound of the overdrive. Also, the virtual Leslie was not impressive in the Roland, although perhaps you can adjust the ramp up and down settings. As an organ focused keyboard player, I would not trade my Hammond Skx PRO for the Roland, but I might consider buying one for the pianos. Thanks for another great video, Nick!
Some comparison videos often leave me feeling like there's obvious omitions - Not yours though Nick. Love that! Just watched this in a rather noisy environment - and what i heard was the Roland being much brighter, (but with more 'honk') and the Hammond much warmer. I assume this could be equalized quite easily with eq., but without wanting to be controversial, I wonder whether the brighter sound would be better for live? I just picked up a used VR-760, for peanuts. It's a heavy beast, but lovely keybed! - Running it through a NeoMiniVent sounds pretty good in my opinion. Contemplating adding an OrganGrinder for those JL moments! Any thoughts on this combo?
Sounds great mate! Its all about the Leslie and I think the Vent is still the best show in town there. I love the Organ Grinder @lounsberrypedals7529 Greg is your man for this. The OG also has a nice boost too which is helpful. You might have to put it after the Vent in the chain which is kind of wrong in a way but not so much in the fx world - if you know what I mean?
I once went to a lovely Chinese restaurant where I was served fried🍛rice, crispy🍗🐔 chicken, dumplings and a side order of Dim Sims🥟 & Leslie Sims. The fried🍛 rice, crispy🍗🐔 chicken, dumplings and dim sims🥟 were delicious. 😋 The Leslie Sims made me very very sick. 🤢 Something about them not quite right 🤮 Always watching and enjoying your videos👍
I went to PMT today - I want to get back into (hobbyist) music. I tried the Roland VR-730, RD-2000, Fantom 08 and Fantom 8. I want the Fantom 8! (RD-2000 fairly close 2nd.) I like the Hammond sound, the usual piano, strings, synths/pads, and retro Mellotron and string synth sounds. The Nords are good too - but there weren’t many in stock. And Hammonds (SK Pro) - it’s hard to find a dealer here in Yorkshire!
I can certainly hook you up with Hammond UK if there is anything you need. I am not part of the organisation but I know the staff and I am happy to say that they are super nice and helpful
@@nickfoleyukThanks for your response Nick. Up here in the North it’s quite difficult to find a Hammond dealer. An SK Pro was on my choice list, but after demoing it yesterday, the Roland Fantom 8 really tempted me! As with the VR09 you are getting a quite authentic ‘Hammond’ sound with a reasonable rotary effect - and those other 3,000+ sounds (including Mellotron-like ones)!
I think this amply proves you do not need a HAMMOND. ROLAND have aways made good HAMMOND clones. I currently play a YAHAMA S970 - which also has the tonewheel sounds I like - with good rhythms, panning, reverb and the all important part EQ and MASTER COMPRESSION.
The leslie on both are good enough for a live coverband but not for recording. The Hammond B3x is better. Do you review software apps? Thats kind of a different animal to set up.
No mention of the price difference vs output? One is not only offering a very useable organ sim but tons of epianos, synths, strings, GM sounds, so so but functional pianos, clavinets, brass, bells, leads, basses, drums, a looper, and FX features (verb, delay, chor,flange etc etc) built in and with a UI designed for super easy/quick, on the fly editing and layering of sounds, a single but useful 9 slider db set that also doubles as tone control for other sounds, all of which at a weight of 12lbs!!! The other offers none of the sound variety aside from pipe and farfisa, has 4 db sets, faux wood look, multi contact simulation, weighs WAY more than it should and costs $2200.00 to $2800.00 more. Same goes for Viscount, Crumar, etc. In other words I'm not sure Viscount, crumar, or Hammond-Suzuki are going to like this video much (and I'm not even that much of a Roland fan). Why are we not pointing the above out nor editing the XK5 or VR09 organs to match to make for a real comparison? Isn't this the entire point of a "versus" comparison between each product? Pains me to say it but the one thing this is showing is that the HS, Viscount, Crumar, Mags etc etc of the world are charging WAY too much for their clones in regard to usage, portability, and output. Ouch. And kudos to you Mr. Foley for putting it out there at least.
I think I have this covered in all of the other videos that I have done on the HS range but maybe not? Thanks for pointing it out, maybe I will do an updated review of the XK-5 for balance. Worth checking my back catalogue out here on YT though, the XK3c and XK5 feature highly. Thanks again
Nice comparison. The Roland sounds thinner than the XK-5 but it's a tenth of the price of the Hammond fully configured so does well. Do they only work in the key of F though? 😆
I own the VR-09, I bought it several years ago. Which would you buy now? SKX-Pro, 2 manual, or XK-5, single manual, and use the Roland VR-09 for the second manual (probably lower, but on top like you have it)? SKX-Pro $1000 USD > XK-5 single manual. Thanks, great video!
Have you tried the VR-730? By the way Tone control to left boosts mid freq, whereas to right boosts low and high freq. I think the distortion on my 730 sounds horrendous but it sounds better on your video 😂 Forums suggest turning down the organ volume (red slider) as you add in the distortion but I’m still not convinced :-(
As usual thank you for posting this. I was underwhelmed when I tried the VR-09 when it was launched, too bright sounding, Leslie sim not great IMHO, distortion horrid, although I thought it may have been affected by the studio monitors. I still have a VR-700 which I prefer and I liked the VK8. Of course most of these sound great through a real Leslie, and would be perfectly fine in the mix, so I understand the attraction at the price.
be certain, it weren't the studio monitors - have both (love 09 for its portability and non-organ sounds) but 700 has the better 'organ timbre' in many aspects - and real drawbars. For acoustic Grands and organ, 700 is definitely the better board (and using PC/Mac editor for accessing the 'hidden' Cosm MFX can improve 700 non-organ sounds significantly)
Currently I use the Mojo Desktop on NC2x Studiologic and down have the Roland VR09, comparing on the same registration, is the Crumar better, as you compared to the XK5, would say, the sound is more "thicker" on the Hammond if this is a correct expression, like in my case, I think there are some frequencies missing, but with the Leslie effect almost irrelevant, however on the Hammond is kinda a weak. At the past the VR 09 the test trough.Thanks for the presentation 👍👌
@@nickfoleyuk you know I never try a XK5, but from just hearing,I think the same. Lately I've heard about the Viscount, which is probably so near to the Mojo.....
Roland has no warmth compared to the other. Lots of EQ in the mix needed but it's not as bad as I thought it would be. I am a Roland RD2000 user and it's a great board. I forgot to say I'm not a organ player.
Í have had the VR09 for many years and if it wasn´t for the other sounds than organ Í would have sold it. There is not much warmth, the lesley sim mediocre and the overdrive is quite bad. Percussion and key click nót very good either. But otherwise this is a versitale and well laid-out board with many good sounds. To me my Nord NE6d sounds á lot better
