Roland Latest Follow up to Legends like JV1080, JV2080 and XV5080; The Integra 7

Posted in Goals, iPad & iOS, My Journey, Software, Synths & MIDI

Opening note: I cannot believe I’ve missed the product launch of this amazing Roland synthesizer sound module almost a year ago now, but it’s definitely still NEWS to me

Let’s first have a quick flashback though why and what I’m so hyped up about …

Roland Legends: JV1080, JV2080 and XV5080

Must be a decade ago already … I think I owned most of Roland’s famous ‘sound libraries’, or as Yamaha likes to call them ‘Sound Generators’, while they are actually just ROMplers.

I think I owned most of them. In the order I can remember of owning these Roland legends:

Roland JV1010 module | twice, tried to live without it once
Roland JV1080 module | was slightly disappointed about this one, but already had the JV1010 at the time
Roland JV2080 module | expansion power house. Owned it for a few weeks before trading it
Roland XP-30 synth | loved it! Excepted it was lacking a 88-key hammered key action

What I liked most were the default strings sounds, Piano’s, as well as Piano’s of the Session Board expansion (I had in both in the JV1010 module and XP-30).

Overtime I sold them all in favor of using more ‘spacy’ sounds of the Korg Triton and Karma. Although — back then — I sometimes wished having the cash to buy a XV3080, XV5080 or their JV-1010 equivalent XV2020, but by then was also hooked onto (less legal) software synthesis already.

Spectrasonics and NativeInstruments have their perks, but hardware ROMplers are still faster to setup, no latency, no configuration … just hook up a masterkeyboard and play!

Roland Integra-7

Imagine having all the fore-mentioned Roland sound engines and boards into 1 single module. And by all of them, I mean ALL the PCM and ALL 12 SRX expansion boards (that once costs €300 each), how much would that be worth to you? And gosh, how much would that cost?! As much as a Korg Oasys for example? Nope … €1499. And if that would be it? Then it would be worth every euro of your money, but there’s soooo much more to this awesome module.

Specification Overview

Roland Integra-7, Synth Soundmodul, 128 Notes Polyphony, SuperNATURAL Synthesizer Sound Engine, 16 Parts, more than 6000 Sounds, GM2 thomann compatible, virtual Expansion Slots, all 12 SRX-Expansion-Boards build-in, Multi-Effects, 17-Part Motional Surround Ambience Function for Stereo-, Headphone- and 5.1-Out, LCD-Display, Connections: 4x Line In 1/4″ Jack (L/R), 8x Line Out 1/4″ Jack TRS, 2x Line Out XLR, USB, Digial In- and Out S/PDIF thomann coax, MIDI In/Out/Thru, Headphone-Out, USB-Input for Storage, Software Editor for iPad and Motional Surround VSTi Editor for Sonar, Housing: 19″ 2HE, Dimensions: 481 x 89 x 262 mm (WxHxD), Weight: 3.9 kg

Source: Thomann.de & check the Integra 7 details at the Roland site: here. Looks similar to most sound modules right? Wrong! Let’s watch & listen some YouTube video’s instead: