VR Editors

Software editors/controllers available for Roland VR09, VR09B and VR730:

 

There are software editors for VR for iOS (official Roland app), Windows, Mac, Linux (and spartanic for Android)

(A) Windows, OSX, Linux:     CTRLR V-Combo EDITOR (free)

  • V-Combo EDITOR is a graphical user interface controller for VR09 and VR730 running on Windows, Mac and Linux to access:
      – ‘VR factory features’ like VR sounds, organ parameters, Virtual-Analog Synthesizer, etc
      – ‘VR hidden features’: hidden sounds, multi-zones/timbrality, GM2(ca. 2000 GM2 sounds), VR registration ‘organiser’, etc

    For details and installation go to V-Combo EDITOR main website

    Connection type:  usb-cable (standard printer cable USB-A)
    Hardware: EDITOR runs even on low spec (or old) PCs, Laptops or tablets with Windows or OSX (MacOS).

    EDITOR is reactive (and optimized) for touch displays – which is a big plus ‘on stage’ but also at home
    Until today Apple doesn’t offer MacBooks with touch display – Windows is the only option for ‘touch’
    For ‘touch’ use Windows 10/11 which is more ‘touch friendly’ than old versions (upgrade from Win 7/8 is still free)
    A 10 inch display is recommended as minimum size for comfortable operation. If you also want to display note-sheets, bigger is better (13″ or more):
    – Windows tablets: e.g. Microsoft Surface, Chuwi, Huawei, Dell, etc. BT or usb keyboards/mouse for ‘better typing’
    – Windows ‘2-1’: laptops with detachable displays that work as standalone tablets:
       Compact low cost (slow but ok for EDITOR): HP-X2-10, Lenovo Miix 310.
       Bigger: Surface-Book 13.5″
       Very Big (for 2-sided piano sheets): 15″ Surface-Book; 15.4″ Medion S6212T/S6214T (2nd hand 100 €)

    organ control
    multi-voice sound control
    Virtual Analog Sound Designer
    CTRLR EDITOR running on 15″ Tablet Medion S6214T

 

(B) IOS (iPad):     Roland VR09 EDITOR (free)

  • Features:  controller for VA synthesiser and organ
    Download:   ROLAND Website
    Connection type:
    – usb-cable (iPads with lightning socket need the ‘Apple camera connection kit’)
    – WLAN  (requires an usb-wlan-transmitter for VR, e.g. ‘Netgear WNA 1100’)
    Hardware: any iPad does the job

    organ control
    VA synth control

 

(C) Android:     Midi Commander by Boldero (free)

  • Features: customisable controller app. Has a  ‘organ drawbar panel’, e.g. for controlling VR drawbars.
    Download: Google playstore (free)
    Connection type:  usb-cable (standard printer cable USB-A. Devices with USB-C: use an USB-C to -A adapter. Devices with pre USB-C: use an ‘OTG’ adapter)

    Note: MC can send midi system exclusive messages including Roland checksum which makes it capable of communicating with VR.

    A preset-file for MC for controlling VR upper/lower drawbars, organ parameters, filter/envelope, Global Tranpose can be downloaded here (more details see text file in the zip-file): MC-VCombo.zip

 

Editor comparison table:

 

features VR ‘keyboard only’ VR + Roland VR EDITOR VR + V-COMBO CTRLR EDITOR
Operating System: – IOS (iPad, iPhone) Windows (XP – W11), OSX (MacOS), Linux
voices 2 voices (layer or split) + organ like ‘VR only’ 9 voices (in different layers/zones) + organ [R]
split zones 2 split zones like ‘VR only’ 4 split zones (upper, lower, solo, bass) [R]
voices/layers (multi-timbral) 2 like ‘VR only’ up to 4 layers in upper, 4 layers in lower and 2 layers in bass [R]
organ drawbar control upper OR lower upper AND lower upper AND lower, 2 drawbarsets A/B, 5 organ presets/manual [L]
organ + leslie controls knobs + VR-menu all controls on the panel all controls on the panel  [R] [L]
envelope/filter controls for upper manual – for all zones/manuals [R]
Virtual Analog synthesizer – full control panel [1]

full control panel with additional parameters [R] [1]
VA Sound Designer
ATELIER sounds – – full control for all ATELIER sounds (ca. 500) [R]
GM sounds + control – – access and control of GM2, GS and Roland SoundCanvas sounds (ca. 2000), channels and effects  [L] [2]
additional sounds – –

full control of ca. 200 ‘hidden’ sounds including JP80 ‘Synth Legend Tones’ [R]
additional effects – – Sustain (bass, manuals), Chord/Harmony-Intelligence, additional reverb-types, additional effects for D-Beam, rhythm break/fill [R]
additional controls – – master-tune, refined controls for damper assign and key-velocity [R]
VR registration organizer – – UPG-Editor to re-order, copy, merge registrations via VR-registration-set files on USB drive
diverse – – L-R-panning,  Midi-Mapper (Translator), program launcher, V-Piano enhancer, rhythm-controls, editor patch register (for deep-synthesized sounds), editor patch register for GM sounds [L]

VR+CTRLR EDITOR notes:
[R]: features + changes can be saved to VR regisrations and be used without CTRLR EDITOR
[L]: features require live (STAGE) usage of CTRLR EDITOR
[1]:  see limitations when saving VA-modded sounds to VR registrations
[2]: GM sounds cannot be saved to VR registrations but there are many ways to use them live though

 

CTRLR V-Combo Editor: additional ‘hidden’ VR09/730 features:

 
Any setup that makes use of those features is entirely savable to VR registrations – in other words: it is possible to programm (by V-Combo Editor) VR registrations with 4 keybed zones, 9 voices, ‘hidden’ sounds etc

++ additional ‘zones’:
      VR09/730 ‘keyboard’: 2 zones (upper and lower manual)
      Hidden: plus 2 zones = total 4 zones: upper, lower, solo, bass. The zones can be splitted or overlapped in various ways

 some examples of VR09 zones:

upper (zone 1)
solo (zone 2)
lower (zone 3)
bass (zone 4)

++ additional ‘voices’:
      VR09/730 ‘keyboard’: 2 voice (‘DUAL’ or SPLIT mode) + organ
      Hidden: plus 7 multitimbral voices = total 9 voices
            3 voices in upper manual
            1 voices in solo manual
            3 voices in lower manual (can be increased with 1 voice from solo)
            2 voices in bass manual
            organ (upper/lower)

++ additional ‘sounds’:
      ‘Hidden’ sounds of the VR09/730:
      ca. 700 additional sounds (including sound set of Roland ATELIER organs and Synth Legend Tones),
      additional keyboard drum sets, etc
      GM2: more than 2000 sounds and drumsets of Roland GM2, GS and an entire SoundCanvas soundset

++ additional controls:
      key touch setting for lower manual
      chord intelligence, harmony intelligence off/on and harmony intelligence type
      pitchbend/Mod lever: assign to UPPER/LOWER/BASS
      drum octave shift
      sustain (on/off + mode) for upper, lower or/and bass manual
      dual solo top/last
      D-Beam: SuperNatural ‘N.1 and N.2’: assign to upper/lower/solo/bass/all

++ additional options for existing keyboard controls:
      Damper pedal mode : assign to ‘solo’ voice
      D-BEAM : filter (cutoff), pitch up, volume, rhythm fill-in/break
      Reverb: Hall2, Hall3, Small Church, Delay

++ additional controls in for builtin VA-Synth (compared to iPad app):
      Portamento: normal/legato
      Mono: staccato/legato
      Analog feel
      OSC: pulsewidth-shift for pulse-wave
      OSC: PCM wave gain
      FILTER: HPF cutoff
      FILTER: Velocity sensitivity
      AMP: key follow
      LFO panpot
      LFO keytrigger
      LFO-Modulation panpot