SRX Boards Worth It?

[awfulgrace]

I've recently purchased a used Roland XV-5050 off of eBay for live use with my band (I currently play through my laptop and needed a back-up).

Thusfar I'm liking most of the synth presets and am looking forward to dive into creating some new patches (once I get the XV Editor to work) - but I'm not really in love any of the Rhodes or Wurli patches at all.

My question is - does anyone know if the pianos (electric & acoustic) within the Ultimate Keys SRX card (SRX-07) are a noticable step up from what's bundled with the 5050?

I've heard the demos on Roland's site, and they sound pretty good, but I don't fully trust demo songs and am looking for user feedback from anyone that uses the card.

I know that I probably won't be able to get up to the quality of the Scarbee libraries or B4 that I'm playing through now, but I'm only willing to drop another $250 on the SRX-07 if it will present a *noticable* step-up from the Rhodes/Wurli/Organ patches in 5050.

Does anyone have this card or had any experience with it? Do music stores let you try out expansion cards before buying?
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[awfulgrace]

anyone have SRX-07 or can speak to the worthiness of SRX cards in general?

[owel]

I have the SRX02 piano card and I really like it. But I only use one patch in it... patch 18 I think (New Age Piano). Works great for my instrumental pieces.

From my experience, the SRX02 piano is an upgrade from the stock XV 5080 sounds of my synth. But I also know some people hate it. It really depends on the type of music you do. Some sounds fit perfectly well, others don't.

[Jeff_FLG]

I have the Ultimate Keys card, and while it's got a lot of great patches, if you're just looking at the pianos, IMO it's not necessarily worth the extra cost.

While the patch realism is variable (as with any set of samples), the SRX cards in general have some great sounds -- the Complete Orchestra card is excellent.

[jsepeta]

I had the SRX01 and SRX02 and sold them because they saw little use. i currently run the SRX05 SRX06 SRX07 SRX09 to give my FantomS a very large library of stock patches. I do not often use the organ sounds on the SRX07, but i find myself going back to the rhodes, wurlies, mellotron and occassional nylon guitar when i'm in the mood.

patch list here:
http://www.silverw.co.uk/Files/rawpatch ... _Patch.ini

[awfulgrace]

Thanks for all the feedback.

With the plethora of patches on the SRX-07, I have a feeling that there's going to be a lot of dead weight.

I guess my next step is to cruise to a couple of music stores to see if any of them will drop the card in a board or module for me to try.

Thanks again for the very helpful feedback.

[Proteus9]

I actually think they are worth it. Most of the SRX boards combine several of the old JV cards. They have an orchestra card that combines the orchestra I, II and vocal cards from the JV series. Thats quite a value and if you had an older JV / XP board you wouldnt be able to fit them all into it or let alone find them on ebay for as much as or less than you could by one of the SRX cards for.

[granted]

My SRXii in my Fantom XR:
**** SRX-03-Studio
**** SRX-05-Supreme Dance
**** SRX-06-Complete Orchesta
***** SRX-07-Ultimate Keys
***** SRX-08-Platinum Trax
*** SRX-09- World Collection

***** is "best"
Keep in mind that many people LOVE the SRX-09, not me

Please be aware that I like to create "electronic" music mostly.
Things to consider:
Although expensive they save you a lot of time compared to sampling.
They load up quick! (instantly)
They have excellent resale value. (look on Ebay.)
Buy one, if you don't like it, then return it!