The GW8 has the sound set from the sonic cell, is similar to the juno G and a subset of the fantom x and fantom G.. phenomenal at this price. Piano's, keyboards, strings and acoustic guitars are excellent, the synths obviously so. The sax's seem to lack a little air, but in context of the sub $1k market this cannot be beat... The synth sounds also include a set of pulsating patches, for techno & dance, as well as an awesome "blast from the past" set of sci-fi sounds.. I heard many sound fx from past sci-fi classics.. not really useful unless you are creating a film score, but a great party piece and break from practice.

Keyboard action: The keyboard has an excellent action, with well formed keys.. compared to similarly priced Korg and Yam this is far superior. Arranger: The arranger section has up to 6 accompanying instruments in addition to bass and drums, each of which can be solo'd, muted and vol. balanced. Add 4 intro's, 4 variatons and 4 endings and there is plenty of possibilities. Note that the D'beam or pedals (x2) can be used to supplement switching/fading/fill actions while playing. When learning a new song, I usually use on the GW7 the "bass + drums" feature.. THis is now missing, necessitating a minute to mute the other accompanying instruments.. I guess really its a minor niggle as it is easy and simple to save your song settings as a performance for later use. Sequencer: Greatly improved from the GW7, record, overdub, punch-in edit by individual track/measure is now supported. Note that the sequencer is really intended for song performance creation and editing using the arranger styles, not really intended for raw composition.. a key missing feature here is the lack of a loop capability.. but if you want to focus on composition, get the juno G.. I/O: Midi and USB midi, creat your own styles and download them, download midi tracks,mute a channel and playalong, plug in a USB flash drive with midi, MP3 or WAV and play along.. use the Gw8 as a sonic cell.. tremendous possibilities. This has everything you would need to play songs, and if the GW8 had a "bass +drums" button and an arpeggiator this would be a 10

Relatively straightforward to get going... and this is what sets an arranger apart from a synthesiser workstation.

came in a box..was shiny, new and worked..lol

never called..

If you want to compose on a keyboard workstation or create a home recording studio then its a little vague...mebbe a 6 or a 7. I mean, you CAN do this with the GW8, but you will need to use the computer for sequencer and mixer functions. Assuming you want to play songs, then this is a great board... Pull out your sheet music, stab in a style and you are off.. what takes 2mins for a good player to produce would take anyone 3 hours on the fantom. Thats the beauty of the arranger styles. The ease of use of an arranger, plus real workstation features of sequencing, recording and editing, plus the I/O make this a allaround great board.

bleh.. Black is just "ok"..The silver of the GW7 was nicer..

This is a great board. Whatever your skill level, if your focus is on learning & playing songs, as opposed to composing or recording with & on the keyboard then this is the board for you. If you want to compose using the keyboard (Vs a computer) or do home analog recording.. then get the juno G at $950.. It has NO arranger, but a better sequencer and analog mixer. Beginners should NOT be put off by this board... It has less buttons than your typical

Everybody knows the GW-7 is one of the best sound synthesizer, this GW-8 is even BETTER than its little brother GW-7.

It has all the features of an expensive highgraded synthesizer workstation should have PULS a build-in song player.

Everybody is talking about how bad the Roland manual was written. I don't think we need any GW-8 manual. Open the box, plug it in and you can play it without reading the manual.

I used to be the Yamaha keyboard fans. Within the last 2 months I had returned 2 Yamaha because of their recently bad quality. This GW-8 is not like a toy, the quality is the same old Roland best quality.

So far.. I don't need any customers support from the Roland and I don't think I'll need any.

To be honest.. it worth more than its selling price.

I don't give it 10 points because I'm still thinking the keyboard of my other Roland is better although its good enough.