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)
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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’, etcFor 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)
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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 joborgan control VA synth control
(C) Android: Midi Commander by Boldero (free)
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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 |
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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] |
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)
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++ 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