Meanwhile, outside secret Roland facility...

Oh yeah . . . right . . . We don't need a beak filter; we don't allow Emus period! I forgot about that!

sRa

I still use my ste and falcon. I have one at work and one at home. If the hammer still works why get another one. I also use fanale just to print out the midi files to paper. The printers on the old atari's don't work anymore. I do use the F-G to mix, midi, audio files etc.

I think all this slowing down on the devement of new workstations has to do a little (or more, I don't know) with the costs associated with that R&D. I try to draw a parallel between this and the CPU industry. It used to cost a company ten's of millions of dollars to develop and produce a new generation of CPU's, then hundreds... And now, a new Fab to make the latest technology CPU's cost in the orders of 5-7 billions ... Of course we're talking about giants there, Intel and AMD... but maybe the same thing is happening here too. It is probably becoming very expensive to research new technologies, new processors, new anything.

Maybe that is what holds the development of new gear, I don't know. Maybe they've reached a treshold, or see one in front of them, where they can no longer recoup the R&D invested. Maybe. Couple that with the recent recession ant thing can not go better for now.

In the end dont you think its all down to how much time people are willing to spend with their Gear to do what is needed.
Although the G does have issues and i make no excuses for them..
Just like the X when you take time to really get to know your gear you will find that the G is vast in its possibilities when you finally crack it.
There is very little that cannot be achieved since 1.3 which for me really opened the G.
Yes there are annoyances but when it comes to making sound and music were just so spoiled for choice we want even more.
Sometimes it can take a little longer that expected to do something you need but at least it can be done.
when it comes to sequencing.. either use the one on board or use an external one or both.
making sound..?
Can anyone say they find it impossible to create unique sounds on the G?
Do you really need a new workstation?
Are you really so stuck that you need another firmware to move forward?

I don't see either of these obstacles to get the work done with the G.
The only problem i have is exhausting the many possibilities the G has to offer.