GaiaUsers.com

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/sho ... oland-Gaia

If you have all day you can get past the raving loonies and find little bits of interesting discussions

Yeah, some decent types like Bernard and Cresshead on that thread. Lots of Gaia haters, though.

A handy newsgroup to check, as they used to frequently trawl youtube for new Gaia videos. Less so recently.....

I think I posted in there advertising this forum as a place ot get away from all the useless comments about why the Gaia is a toy! I don't understand why people posting in there have so much hatred for an instrument. Especially over things like what material the casing is made out of! To me, an instrument is a tool to help me be creative, rather than a contestant in an authenticity/coolness competition!

I think the whiners in there moan for a few reasons:
- a few of them in there forget the price of the instrument they're moaning about (the endless comparisons with top-end synths costing several £k)
- a few are jealous about the feature set for the price of the instrument and about the fact that Roland have actually made a decent interface that makes it easier to use than a Microkorg or Miniak
- a few geniuinely don't like the sound
- a few others hate Roland so much (combined with the fact that this synth supposedly recycles a lot of the VA technology of recent years), that they'll whinge about any Roland tech.

True, true.

Let me say that I'm not a particular fan of Roland (well, I'm not interested in the new Fantom/Juno/VIMA etc. stuff, though I'd like to try the V-Synth; however I like the D-50 and other similar products).

As Mathlar pointed out, I bought the GAIA because of the low price and the interface. I don't want to spend too much money on a Nord Lead/Wave or even a Virus or Prophet, cuz I have a PC3 with a great synth (VA-1) engine. But on the PC3 the programming is a bit more complicated, so for quick making of sounds the GAIA is far better. And I really like quite a lot of its sounds (especially pads, fx ...), though for more powerful lead and synth sounds the PC3 wins - if you take your time and do everything via display and soft buttons.

Bottom line, I like this instrument very much. Low price, great interface, good effects, overall decent sound.