Roland Workstation GW-8 User manual

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Quick Guidebook
2008©Copyright Roland Corporation

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Table of Contents
Page
1. Introduction 3
2. Let’s Play the GW-84
Selecting Tones –How to select Tones for Upper and Lower 5
Favorite Function –Register your favorite Tones 8
Numeric Buttons –Select Tones and Music Styles quickly 9
Keyboard Mode –Choose Single, Split or Dual mode 10
Key Touch –Adjust the keyboard sensitivity 11
Key Scale –Select Arabian and other scales 12
Octave Shift –How to change octaves 13
Transpose –How to change the key 14
3. Playing with Music Styles 15
The Backing Typesof the GW-816
Try the Music Styles 17
Variations of One Music Style 18
Sync Start/Stop 19
One Touch 20
Lock 21
Inside the Music Styles 22
Part View 23
Style Converter and User Style 24
4. Real-time Playability 26
Playback with Audio/MIDI Files –Play with your favorite MP3 songs 22
Center Cancel –Transform your GW-8 into a karaoke machine 24
Creating Your Playlist -Play your audio/midi files in order 25
Playing Your Playlist on GW-8 28
Performance –Saving your favorite settings 30
Analog Modify Knobs –Use the GW-8 like an analog synthesizer 31
DBeam –Move your hands! 32
Melody Intelligence –Play harmony with just one finger 33
5. FAQs 34

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1. Introduction
The keyboard market has two very different categories: synthesizers and arrangers. Roland was the first
company to develop a keyboard joining both worlds, the GW-7. With the sound engine of their
entry-level synthesizer JUNO-D and the basic architecture of an arranger keyboard, GW-7 was a great
success around the world.
The GW-8 has other incredible features, like an audio player with Center Cancel, controller knobs to
manipulate the sound in real-time, Performances to save your settings and much more. In this Quick
Guidebook, you will see most of the main features with explanations, pictures and screenshots. With this
book, you can quickly start playing the GW-8 when you read this guidebook entirely, but it’s very
important to read the Owner’s Manual for complete and detailed information about the equipment.

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2. Let’s Play the GW-8
Features: Page
Selecting Tones –How to select Tones for Upper and Lower 5
Favorite Function –Register your favorite Tones 8
Numeric Buttons –Select Tones and Music Styles quickly 9
Keyboard Mode –Choose Single, Split or Dual mode 10
Key Touch –Adjust the keyboard sensitivity 11
Key Scale –Select Arabian and other scales 12
Octave Shift –How to change octaves 13
Transpose –How to change the key 14

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Selecting Tones –How to select Tones for Upper and Lower
The GW-8 has 896 Basic (default) sounds, 256 GM2 sounds plus World Bank (localized) sounds
(excluding drum kit sounds). All the Basic sounds are divided into 7 banks (0 to 6). To select a tone,
press the bank sound and turn VALUE dial to choose the tone.
Let’s try some of them:
PIANO BANK (Acoustic and Electric Piano)
0001 Rich Grand: Very rich grand piano sound, with a sweet ambience. Play softly
for mellow sound and hard for bright sound.
0034 SC Pure EP: Amazing Electric Piano with classic Reverb. Play softly and hard to
listen to the variations in the sound.
KBD/ORGAN BANK (Clavinet, Harpsichord, Bell, Mallet, Organ, Accordion and
Harmonica)
0135 VKHold4Speed: Great Hammond sound with Leslie speaker. Connect a
damper pedal (DP series) to the Hold jack to change the Leslie speed: holding the
damper, you accelerate the speed of Leslie speaker. Without the damper, you have
slow speed.
GUITARS/BASS BANK (Acoustic and Electric Guitar, Acoustic, Electric and Synth
Bass)
0162 SC Brt Nylon: Very real nylon acoustic guitar. Play hard to listen to the “slide”
on the strings.
0188 Searing COSM: Electric Guitar with wild distortion. Good sound to show the
power of GW-8’s DSP effects.
Value Dial
Tone Banks

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STRINGS/SCAT BANK (Strings, His, Pad and Voice)
0304 SonicStrings: Rich Strings sound, with all sections (violins, violas, cellos, and
basses). Play staccato with this sound.
0778 JP Strings 1: Classic Roland sound from the vintage Roland synth.
SAX/BRASS BANK (Wind, Sax, Acoustic and Synth Brass)
0381 SC BrsSect 2: Powerful Acoustic Brass with a mix of trumpet, trombone and
sax.
SYNTH BANK (Hard and Soft Lead, Techno Synth, Pulsating and Other Synth)
0434 DC Triangle: Solo Lead with Delay.
0432 Juno Lead: Classic lead from JUNO series.
PERC/SFX BANK (Percussion, Beat&Groove, Plucked, Ethnic and Sound FX)
0893 80s Combo: Loop with arpeggios. Play the loop with left keys and solo synth
with right keys.
0867 Skydiver: A kind of harp and koto, with tap pan delay. Good for lounge music.
RHYTHM BANK (Drum Kits)
All drum kits of GW-8, including the GM2 sets.
WORLD BANK
The GW-8 has its own WORLD BANK, with localized tones.

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TIPS: Press the bank button and press [ENTER] button to see the list of sounds and the sound
categories from this bank. Some banks have two or more categories. To choose it, use

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Favorite Function-Register your favorite Tones
The Favorite Function allows you to register your favorite tones on each bank. With this feature, you can
load your favorite sounds very quickly.
See how to register your favorite sounds:
1) Select the tone you desire
2) Hold down the button FAVORITE [ON/OFF] and press one of [0]-[9] buttons to register the
sound
You can register up to ten sounds, one for each bank [0] to [9].
See how to select your favorite sounds:
1) Press FAVORITE [ON/OFF] so the button is lit
2) Press one of [0]-[9] in which you registered your sound

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Numeric buttons
For greater speed, you can use the numeric buttons of GW-8 to select Tones, Music Styles and
Performances.
See how to use the numeric buttons:
1) Use the CURSOR buttons up to the numerical value of the TONE
2) Press the button [NUMERIC]. All of the TONE SELECT buttonswill light
3) Use the TONE SELECT/NUMERIC buttons to enter the desired digit 0 (zero), 0 (zero), 1 (one)
and press [ENTER]
TIPS: This saves time choosing your desired tone when you already know the Tone number. Please
refer to the numbers in the Tone List written in the Owner’s manual.

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Keyboard Mode-Choose Single, Split or Dual mode
The GW-8 has three modes to play:
(1) SINGLE: Plays just one sound at time
(2) SPLIT: Plays one sound at the right side (Upper) and other sound at the left side (Lower)
(3) DUAL: Plays two sounds at the same time (simultaneously)
When the lights in both of [SPLIT] and [DUAL] buttons are turned off, you are in SINGLE mode.
TIPS: To select Piano Mode, press SPLIT and DUAL buttons at the same time.