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5. FAQs
1. What is the difference between the GW-8 and GW-7?
There are big differences in the sound quality, Music Style architecture, Audio Player, Display and
Storage.
Sound Quality
The sound quality of GW-8 is derived from the top of line FANTOM-X Workstation. The sound quality of
the GW-7 comes from the entry-level synthesizer JUNO-D. The Wave Memory of the GW-8 is 256MB
against 32MB of the GW-7. This means that the sounds of the GW-8 are much more realistic than the
GW-7. Consequently the Music Styles sound much better too.
Music Styles
The Music Style architecture of the GW-7 is very simple: Intro, Original, Fill-In, Variation and Ending.
The GW-8 has the same architecture as the E-80, Roland’s flagship arranger keyboard: 4 Intros, 4 Mains,
4 Fill-Ins and 4 Endings. With all of these variations, your arrangements will be more realistic.
Audio Player
With the GW-7 you can only play SMF files, not audio. The GW-8 is able to play SMF and the following
audio files: WAV, AIFF and MP3. You can also use the Center Cancel to play along with your favorite
artist’s songs.
Display
The GW-8 comes with a new large LCD Display for easy visualization of Upper/Lower Tone and Music
Styles, Perform, Measures Count, BPM and all the information for editing parameters.
Storage
The GW-7 doesn’t have a floppy disk drive or USB flash memory connection, only internal flash memory
(2MB) to save your files. The GW-8 has a USB flash memory connection to offer more flexibility when
saving and loading files. With the USB flash memory you can load audio files, SMF files, new Music
Styles, Performances and save Songs, Performances, Music Styles, Favorite Tones and System Settings.
