Tungsten

I have had this before I even knew I had a passion for music. It's kind of sad how its time with me started out as assisting me with my piano lessons I didn't care for at the time (a pity really). Now, I've had my portable grand for eight years and it is still fully functioning (MIDI support, speakers, display, battery). Though I never quite figured out how or *if* the sustain pedal can sound in standalone. However, it does function when detected by my digital audio workstation and it does sound when I use a virtual instrument that supports MIDI CC.

I decided that I should play with this for a bit (hadn't used this since last year) just to check if my opinion changed over time and I have to admit it sounds even better than I remember: The pianos (of course) sound great as I messed around with the Legacy Collection presets: *70s Stage EP*, *EP Pad*, and *Filter Clav*; for over thirty minutes and it was really inspiring (i had a rough day today). What really surprised me though was the more unconventional patches and soundscapes (Crystal Code being a new favorite!). I don't think I ever messed with these before and that's a shame as I've come to realize that these sounds can give really unique tones (especially in chords--that's the real magic right there). I then spent some time with the brass (brassofpower, spirit brass, and brasssectn are highlights) as it really stuck out to me since they had dark and warm low ranges that complemented their brighter (and more popular) higher ranges. The choir/vox seem to be a much more niche in usage (especially the leads) but they sound really unique when stacked (especially with midi cc) and *can* make an interesting leads. I didn't have time to play with every program in one setting but I can't help but appreciate that this software synth release includes ALL these expansion cards giving everyone access to M1's **complete** legacy. If you're a fan of the sounds of that time it really doesn't get any better than that.

I got this several years back for more sounds of the Sound Canvas series and I used to use this a lot (as it sounded better than most of the soundfonts I had). I still find some usage in VA for certain patches (ensemble hits), the Roland GS aesthetic, and it works well in combination with Hyper Canvas (as it too is Virtual Sound Canvas). My biggest gripe with this plugin is that many sounds don't mix well with anything outside of virtual sound canvas (unlike Hyper Canvas) and external FX ironically make it sound worse, so I can't really recommend this to anyone outside of Roland Cloud, but if you are dying to have sound canvas in your virtual studio this works. I won't take that away from it.