Product Description for the Roland GW-8 61-Key Workstation/Arranger

The GW8 is the next generation of Roland's unique GW-Series workstations with intelligent backing-track functionality. With its fresh, contemporary sound-set and expressive interactive musical styles from pop to rock, plus authentic ethnic styles and a multi-format USB Memory Player feature, the GW8 will bring a world of music to your fingertips. It's especially well-suited for "one-man-band" performance.

Flagship Sound Engine
With Roland's world-leading sound technology at its core, the GW8 rivals any workstation on the planet with its rich, expressive sound. The GW8 comes loaded with hundreds of the freshest and most essential sounds taken from Roland's top workstations. In addition to its authentic sound set, the GW8 is equipped with many user-friendly controls, such as the expressive D BEAM and the Analog Modify knob, which allows instant adjustments of sounds to suit your taste. The GW8 is perfect for live entertainers who play multiple roles in their performances.

Intelligent Backing Styles
The Roland GW8 is packed with a huge collection of styles representing a broad range of music genres, from contemporary rock, pop, dance, jazz and beyond. In addition to the excellent library of contemporary sounds and styles, the GW8 is equipped with ethnic instrument sounds and authentic regional musical styles, with special focus on Latin American genres. Each backing style has four intros, four main patterns, and four ending progressions for you to craft your own arrangements live.

USB Memory Player
One of Roland's most popular new features is built into the GW8: the multi-format Song Player that allows song data to be played directly from USB Flash memory (accepts MP3, .WAV, AIFF and SMF format). In addition, the GW8's Center Cancel function can minimize main vocals from pre-recorded songs, great for karaoke-style performances or music practice.

Style Converter & Playlist Editor
Bundled with each Roland GW8 is Roland's Style Converter software for PC, which lets you create and convert your own MIDI data into GW8 backing styles and install them via commercially available USB Flash memory devices. Also included is the Playlist Editor for customizing the order of songs. Users can easily create a dedicated Playlist for each gig.