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)

  • For details and installation see V-Combo EDITOR main site

    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/layers, GM2-engine with ca. 2000 GM2 sounds (see here)
      – ‘VR registration organiser’, ‘V-Piano’-enhancer, Midi-Mapper etc etc etc

    organ control
    hidden sounds, multi-zones/layers
    Virtual Analog Sound Designer
    • Connection type:  usb-cable (standard ‘printer cable’ USB-A)
    • Hardware: EDITOR runs even on very low spec and/or old-vintage PCs, Laptops or (Windows-)tablets
      CTRLR runs fine on the lowest spec tablet class (usually ‘atom’-type processor, 2GB RAM, 32GB disk) allthough in general these machines are a bit slow
    • Operating system: Windows from XP (SP2) to W10/W11, Apple OSX (MacOS) and Linux
    • Touch Display: EDITOR is reactive (and optimized) to touch displays – which is the ultima ratio for ‘stage usage’

      • Until today Apple doesn’t offer MacBooks with touch display – Windows (or Linux) is the choice
      ‘real laptops’ with touch display require a full sized ‘laptop stand’ – we recommend tablets or ‘convertibles’/’2-1’ instead: a 10″ windows tablet can be put in a tablet holder, bigger tablets can be placed on a music rest (VR09)
      For ‘touch friendlyness’ use at least Windows 7
      Recommended minimum display size for comfortable operation of EDITOR is 10 inch. If you also want to display note-sheets, use VSTs etc, bigger is better (13″ or more).

      Examples:

      • Windows laptops with touch: is it reasonable for stage? Having to add a full sized ‘laptop-stand’ ?
      • Windows tablets: e.g. Microsoft Surface, Chuwi, Huawei, Dell, any cheap noname tablet (combine to a wireless keyboard)
      • Windows ‘convertibles’: laptops where the display can be flipped wo that they hat works as standalone tablet:
      • Windows ‘2-1’: laptops with detachable display that works as standalone tablet:
        Compact low cost (slow but sufficient for EDITOR): HP-X2-10, Lenovo Miix 310 (2nd hand)
        Bigger: Surface-Book 13.5″
        Very Big (for 2-sided piano sheets): 15″ Surface-Book etc. Europeans may look for Medion Akoya S6212T/S6214T “2-1”,
              2nd hand for 100 € on german ebay and ‘kleinanzeigen’ (see picture) with huge 15.4 inch touch ‘display/tablet’

        Medion “2-1″ ‘detached’ 15.4”-display working as Windows-tablet for EDITOR, Note-Sheet app, Audacity, some VSTs

       

      (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:

       
      V-Combo Editor allows to access hundrets of ‘hidden VR features’ (features not available on VR front panel). Many features save with VR registrations (like multi-zones/layers, many hidden sounds), others don’t (like ‘GM2-engine’)

      Any VR setup that makes use of the following 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 ‘factory’: 2 zones (upper and lower manual)
            Hidden: plus 2 zones = total 4 zones: upper, lower, solo, bass. Zones can be splitted or overlapped

      		 some examples of VR09 splitted/layerd zones:

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

      ++ additional ‘voices’ (parts):
            VR09/730 ‘factory’: 2 voices (‘DUAL’ or SPLIT mode) + organ
            Hidden: plus 7 multitimbral voices = total of 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 parameters for builtin VA-Synth (not accessible in 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