Roland INTEGRA-7: Jupiter for the Rack with 12 SRX-Boards

CharlesFerraro · Post by **CharlesFerraro** » Fri Aug 31, 2012 9:57 am

Just found out about this and drooled when I read about the Motional Surround engine as my home studio is build around discreet channel surround sound.

I think Roland made this surprise announcement preemptively to maybe try and beat Korg to the punch for their Tuesday announcement. No doubt that Korg is going to release a long awaited flagship virtual synthesizer. What do you guys think?

Crystalmsc · Post by **Crystalmsc** » Fri Aug 31, 2012 10:19 am

CharlesFerraro wrote:No doubt that Korg is going to release a long awaited flagship virtual synthesizer. What do you guys think?

I prefer the Maxitribe

Kevin Nolan · Post by **Kevin Nolan** » Fri Aug 31, 2012 5:08 pm

CharlesFerraro wrote:Just found out about this and drooled when I read about the Motional Surround engine as my home studio is build around discreet channel surround sound.

I think Roland made this surprise announcement preemptively to maybe try and beat Korg to the punch for their Tuesday announcement. No doubt that Korg is going to release a long awaited flagship virtual synthesizer. What do you guys think?

I'm very excited about this. I use the XV5080 with orchestral, vocal and Asia expansion cards and they make a powerful, potent 'beast' of a module. Indeed the XV5080 is inherently a monster of a synth engine - it can sound more like a CS80 that any other synth I own (other than my CS80!) - it really has got exquisite sampled sawtooth waves, excellent 'organic' filters and truly wondrous effects that bring the instrument to another level.

So the prospect of having all of that, plus all 12 expansion sets, plus the Supernatural engines of a Jupiter 80, as well as new supernatural ethnic sounds, supernatural drums, 3D panning and wireless iPad editing and management, all in a 2-U rack, is truly staggering to me.

I happen to be rebuilding one of the rooms of my project studio now and this is the perfect release for it - I had been scouring eBay for an XV5080 and cards for this second room, but this will work wonderfully.

I have a few issues already however:

1. 128 Voices sounds a little lean these days

2. Availability of just 4 sound engines/slots at any one moment is a little sparse too - I think Roland have some sort of weird thing going on where they feel they can't give total transparency of DSP power under the hood, and feel compelled to under power their otherwise stunning basic designs, making it all the more difficult to use (and even leading to product failures in the past, IMO). Another example along these lines is their continual restriction of only being able to store one backup file per USB-Flash drive, where in the case of the V-Synth GT, GAIA and even Jupiter 80, you end up saving one file perhaps a Meg in size taking up a whole 1 Gig USB-Flash drive. Surely they have the ability to offer a simple little File-system per device. In like fashion, why could they not have double the DSP power in this module and added $100 onto the price?

3. While I hope not the case, I fear that the only way of harnessing fully this new Motion 3D surround feature is to link up 6 1/4-inch outputs to your computer interface - making it ridiculous hog of computer inputs for something that will arguable be only used on occasion. Rather, I hope they provide 6-channel (the required 5.1) streaming over USB but I feat that's not available. So yet again Roland will provide a stunning feature which, if only available over 6 analogue inputs, will probably never get used because most people to not have that spare capacity of inputs into their computer these days. As said, I hope I'm wrong and that one can stream over 6 virtual channels into a DAW over USB - but I fear not because Roland did not advertise it but did mention using the 6 analogue outputs.

So overall - a true and serious piece of kit I can't wait to get my hands on (and will take precedence over acquiring a Kronos unless a rack version of it is released); but I fear that Roland have underpowered it and perhaps made access to the Motion 3D a practical problem in most project studios.

Kevin

Post by **Sharp** » Sat Sep 01, 2012 11:03 am

€1,500 Here in Europe.
That's a lot of sounds for a fair price.

Regards
Sharp.

javaj · Post by **javaj** » Sat Sep 01, 2012 1:59 pm

Read from Dan the Roland guy at rolandclan that the 4 slot limit is because the waves from the slots are loaded into ram - allowing interaction with the new engine and effects.

BobTheDog · Post by **BobTheDog** » Sat Sep 01, 2012 2:04 pm

So im a little confused about the slots.

Does it mean you have 4 slots of supernatural like the jp50, or 4 slots of PCM libs, or can one slot of supernatural can have multiple voices?

I'm a bit confused!

conundrum · Post by **conundrum** » Sat Sep 01, 2012 11:20 pm

4 slots apply to SRX, the extra SN, and the PCM.

davids · Post by **davids** » Sun Sep 02, 2012 10:32 pm

javaj wrote:Read from Dan the Roland guy at rolandclan that the 4 slot limit is because the waves from the slots are loaded into ram - allowing interaction with the new engine and effects.

Interesting. This could mean that, to keep costs down, they are re-using an existing architecture (possibly from the Fantom series or JP-50/80) that could have a ~512MB limit on how much memory the CPU can access.

If the SRX boards sound as good as they do in the Fantom series, this one is going on my list too. For the most part, the acoustic sounds on the SRX boards, are still quite a bit better overall than the Fantom G, Kronos, and Motif XF (IMO the exceptions include the Kronos' acoustic and electric pianos, and possibly organs).

Aside from the strange memory limitations of this module, the other things that I'm curious about are:

1) PCM synthesis capabilities - mention of this seems conspicuously absent in Roland's marketing materials, which seem to imply that this is a souped-up tone playback module and not a proper synthesizer. Does this instrument have the same basic synth capabilities as the XV-5080/Fantom?

2) Polyphony - 128 voices seems too low for an all-in-one box that has thousands of sounds with multiple partials. Many stereo SRX sounds use 8 partials at once, for 16 note effective polyphony. The Supernatural sounds could use even more.

3) Effects structure - there can't really only be 1 insert effect per MIDI part, can there? Also, where is the global mastering processor from the Fantom X/G?

In theory, this module and the Kronos could be an incredible combination.

javaj · Post by **javaj** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 4:54 pm

Just listened to more single sound demos online. Man, nothing exciting or new in my opinion. I would say it would be a great addition for someone that doesn't have a Fantom or Sonic Cell to add to their collection. But then again, for the price, you would expect a lot more. I really would have a hard time justifying the purchase when you could get a MacBook Air plus Komplete and Spectrasonics stuff for near the same price (OK, maybe one or the other). The surround stuff is gimmicky and not obviously useable in most music settings (at least the 2 speaker models). 5.1 is definately cool and likely more useable in specific situations versus existing toneware (like gallery/science center settins).

Having the Sonic Cell with World and Vintage cards- I can't say that it was totally awesome (having the SV-1 reminds me of that). Most sounds were very 90's. I am, of course, spoiled with softsynths- but that is the world it is competing with.

Should be interesting to see how people feel about it when they pick it up.

chilly7 · Post by **chilly7** » Sat Sep 08, 2012 5:14 am

Year again Roland plays thr stupid game and again they artificaly limited so many features instid of puting the full fetures.

Lets them face their mistake, because nobody will buy this rack ,because awrybody wants a full featured rack but not a striped down version of a keyboard.

Slovenec · Post by **Slovenec** » Mon Sep 10, 2012 2:48 am

I'm sure we all remember the Yamaha EX5 workstation from the late 90s. It was supposed to be their 'Trinity/Triton killer' but unfortuntely for Yamaha, it was quite a big flop because of the stupid way that DSP resources had to be shared between the various synthesis engines and effects! Whilst the sounds were excellent, the instrument was a dog to use with a truly crappy sampler that took forever to load sounds and those DSP cards for flash ROM were stupidly overpriced. So in short, Yamaha created a truly awesome sounding workstation with absolutely ludicrous limitations on how the true power of the machine could be used (or in this case COULD NOT be used!). The EX5 originally retailed for about $5KAUD but within 18 months, you could pick one up new for under $2KAUD!!!!!!

Perhaps Roland might have shot themselves in the foot with the theoretically ludicrous way, they've allowed DSP resources to be used with their new instrument??????? Only time will tell and there's little point in even speculating until it's actually released and put to use in real world studio and live situations.

I'm surprised that Roland have gone down the rackmount route.... I was expecting a replacement to the new very ageing Fantom G series (instruments that also had some great features with some truly pointless limitations...... I didn't buy one for this very reason!!!!).

Slovenec · Post by **Slovenec** » Mon Sep 10, 2012 3:53 am

I'm sure we all remember the Yamaha EX5 workstation from the late 90s. It was supposed to be their 'Trinity/Triton killer' but unfortuntely for Yamaha, it was quite a big flop because of the stupid way that DSP resources had to be shared between the various synthesis engines and effects! Whilst the sounds were excellent, the instrument was a dog to use with a truly crappy sampler that took forever to load sounds and those DSP cards for flash ROM were stupidly overpriced. So in short, Yamaha created a truly awesome sounding workstation with absolutely ludicrous limitations on how the true power of the machine could be used (or in this case COULD NOT be used!). The EX5 originally retailed for about $5KAUD but within 18 months, you could pick one up new for under $2KAUD!!!!!!

Perhaps Roland might have shot themselves in the foot with the theoretically ludicrous way, they've allowed DSP resources to be used with their new instrument??????? Only time will tell and there's little point in even speculating until it's actually released and put to use in real world studio and live situations.

I'm surprised that Roland have gone down the rackmount route.... I was expecting a replacement to the new very ageing Fantom G series (instruments that also had some great features with some truly pointless limitations...... I didn't buy one for this very reason!!!!).

chilly7 · Post by **chilly7** » Mon Sep 10, 2012 9:58 pm

Hi Slovenec

I think a new Fantom G might be coming soon, but the rack is just an extra product in their line up, but yes i totaly agree that Roland artificaly limited features in this rack so it might turn off many potential custumers from this rack. I do not know, maby Roland can quickly disontinue this rack and put all features back to it? While this rack might look interesting but 4voice slots and limited routing for effects? That should be a joke

Bart S. · Post by **Bart S.** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 8:24 pm

New first look videos online: http://www.keyboardmag.com/article/rola ... ook/149455

Rob Sherratt · Post by **Rob Sherratt** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 8:46 pm

Here's some additional videos from Roland themselves:

http://www.roland.com/support/article/? ... =INTEGRA-7

The very colorful product guide book:

http://cms.rolandus.com/assets/media/pd ... debook.pdf

Important features IMO:

The Integra 7 generates full Dolby 5.1 surround sound mixes, absolutely great for video and film producers, and this is one of its most compelling features. It comes with a VSTi surround sound mixer plug-in for use in most sequencers and of course Sonar. You can position up to 17 different instrument sound parts anywhere in the 3D "sound space". By "3D" I mean Front/Back and Left/Right panning for any track, as opposed to the more usual "2D" mixing in other products that limit us to stereo placement only. You can also set up sounds so they "walk the floor" with a programmed path. The sort of thing the Herb Miller Orchestra do when performing live.

The iPad based editor and user interface is really great, and all those functions are available from MIDI music production platforms like Sonar using a full range of MIDI and SysEx messages that are fully documented in the MIDI specification for the unit. The "3D" sound placement is also supported via a VSTi plug-in which integrates well with Dolby 5.1 music production systems such as Sonar.

Based on the fully documented SysEx feature set, it will be easy for 3rd party developers to build other PC and Mac based editors and sound librarians and VSTi plug-ins for use with the Integra 7.

User manuals; MIDI manual; Sound list etc:

http://www.roland.com/support/article/? ... =INTEGRA-7

The 6000 or so sounds in the library are broken down as follows:

Preset Sounds (always available)

SuperNATURAL Acoustic - 256 sounds
SuperNATURAL Synth - 1109 sounds
SuperNatural Drum KIts - 26 drumkits
PCM Synth - 896 sounds
PCM Drum Kits - 14 drumkits
GM2 Synth - 256 sounds
GM2 Drum Kits - 9 drumkits

Expansion Sound sets (up to 4 sets can be loaded at any one time)

ExSN1 SuperNATURAL Ethnic - 17 sounds
ExSN2 SuperNATURAL Wood Wind - 17 sounds
EXSN3 SuperNATURAL Electric Guitar - 50 sounds
EXSN4 SuperNATURAL Acoustic Guitar - 12 sounds
EXSN5 SuperNATURAL Brass - 12 sounds
EXSN6 SuperNATURAL SFX - 7 drumkits
SRX-01 Dyunamic Drumkits - 41 sounds + 79 drumkits
SRX-02 Concert Pianos - 50 sounds
SRX-03 Studio SRX - 128 sounds + 12 drumkits
SRX-04 Symphonique Strings - 128 sounds
SRX-05 Supreme Dance - 312 sounds + 34 drumkits
SRX-06 Complete Orchestra - 449 sounds + 5 drumkits
SRX-07 Ultimate Keys - 475 sounds + 11 drumkits
SRX-08 Platinum Trax - 448 sounds + 21 drumkits
SRX-09 World Collection - 414 sounds + 12 drum kits
SRX-10 Big Brass Ensemble - 100 sounds
SRX-11 Complete Piano - 42 sounds
SRX-12 Classic EPs - 50 sounds
ExPCM High Quality GM2 & PCM sound - 768 + 26 drumkits

The main selling points IMO:

1. Dolby 5.1 surround sound capability via independent outputs.
2. All top of the range Roland sound libraries included.
3. Every sound has its own independent Effect assignment, no sharing.
4. Behavioral modelling of instruments based on note on duration and gaps between notes.
5. iPad editor and librarian.
6. Wireless LAN support for connection to iPAD.
7. Excellent MIDI and SysEx implementation.

The main drawbacks IMO:

1. Sounds from just four of the 19 expansion libraries can be used in any performance/ composition.
2. No capability for sampling / importing user sampled sounds.
3. The VSTi "plug in" has very limited capability compared with the iPad editor.
4. The USB audio link is stereo only, no Dolby 5.1 multichannel mode.
5. A separate DAW audio interface / mixer is required to record all Dolby 5.1 channels when mixing.