FREE New Sounds From Roland for the GAIA 2 - Why You Should Buy One!

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

Use My Affiliate Link for the Roland GAIA 2: amzn.to/3FcgoYo

[@billfusionenterprise]

2 late, sorry

[@jumpstar9000]

The GAIA 2 is incredible and just keeps getting better the more I use it. Amazing value for money as well right now.

[@funnzie]

I wish Roland allowed overwrite of their factory presets, Roland holds on to those like it's their last dollar. With over 3000 sounds in a Fantom, I would like to erase all of them so I have easy access to just my own patches. But the new Gaia is a great synth, all you have to do is look to the left of the display, all those knobs with the exception of the LFO's are just for the oscillators, and all of them modulatable! Have you ever seen so much physical control of just othe oscillators? My last patch used the new "draw-your-own" modulation, between the motion pad and a whole step free running (no quantize) sequence I had a self evolving pad that lasted 20 seconds before repeating. Amazing.

[@YanivhmTube]

They want to educate you to use their sounds so you'll get use to them 😉

[@Jason75913]

I would rely more on the sequencer for an evolving pad out of this.

[@ipainthouses3084]

Thank you so much for explaining everything , how and where to get those packs. I bought the gaia 2 just a few days ago , its my 1st real synth. Im installing cloud manager now. Big salute from the Netherlands

[@NTayls80]

You’re awesome Scott! I didn’t even know about this synth until today. Seems like a gem

[@babakalki216]

Thanks Scott. It would be a good starting point instrument to get into Synthesizers.

[@billfusionenterprise]

I got one because of seeing how much you can go into customizing the sound. The thing can take creation to a who new level

[@Jason75913]

Thanks for the patch demonstration. I don't care for Essentials, but the other two are awesome.

[@danielthedentist]

Hi Scott Here at Thomann's Cyberdeals, the Gaia 2 is actually 498, - inkl. VAT Dang, hard to resist even if space is becoming a problem.😂 Thanks for all your videos! All the best from Germany, Daniel

[@michaelm1]

Thomann now says "Product not available". Sad. Might have actually gone for the sale. Alas.

[@danielthedentist]

@michaelm1 Ah no... Bummer, I haven't ordered one yet either. So, I think the decision if I should order one was made for me... 😋

[@sonic2000gr]

Thanks for the heads up. Roland has lately been more actively promoting GAIA2. I see plenty of instagram posts with it from the official channel. I also bought mine for around 766 euros, now Thomann has it on offer for 518! There is a lot of things I like on GAIA2. And with a Roland cloud subscription and WC-1 dongle you can actually add the other models which work extremely well too.

[@wren23_bass-synths]

I got one at the 599 price. It's a pretty good synth. It's not my Hydrasynth, but it's a big improvement over the original GAIA. I just wish that you could load all the tones at once instead of one at a time. That's kind of tedious and time consuming. All in all, the GAIA2 is a new addition to my Live setup. That along with my Miniloguexd and SP-404MKII is a perfect setup for live performances.

[@barnabyfontana7528]

I was shocked when I saw the G2 was not a hit. It really delivers, and although not on the "cheap" side, it packs a lot of functionality. Truly good stuff.

[@DjMorningstartrancedj]

Thank you cant wait to download the new sounds

[@scott21113]

I love mine and got it with a WC-1 Thrown in so the Cloud stuff is awesome. Love having the Sh-101, Juno 106, JX-8P and Jupiter 8 in mine as well. The wavetable element is nice too. A little more useful than the NZyme wavetable in my Fantom because of the pad pattern recorder. Sort of like the Kaoss contoller in the ModWave. To me the killer feature for live play is the pattern sequencer. Saw these when I was in my Cloud Manager yesterday! Early holiday present.

[@xray2785]

Thanks so much for this comment, it’s really useful feedback. That’s exactly why I was wondering whether the enzyme engine on the Fantom would overlap too much with the wave table synthesis on the Gaia 2. I’ve got a rolling cloud ultimate subscription so I guess it will be fun having the expansion models inside the Gaia

[@scott21113]

@@xray2785 Nzyme is more powerful with its two wavetables per oscillator, but I like the immediacy of the Gaia wavetable and the motional pad. The Fantom motional pad is super basic. I'm not the sort of musician that chases esoteric wavetables. I dive in, tweak to taste and then build the song.

[@xray2785]

@@scott21113 thanks so much for taking the time to reply. So it seems that you’re saying that even though you have a Fantom you still think that purchasing a Gaia 2 and WC-1 his money well spent? I was considering purchasing a HydraSynth Explorer instead. They are about the same amount of cash for each option.

[@scott21113]

@@xray2785 They serve different purposes for sure and are not substitutes, but I prefer the immediacy of the Gaia 2 and it is much more of a "knob per job" synth than the Fantom. The Explorer looks interesting too and seems very capable as well. If the aftertouch was important to me I'd lean Explorer but for my use case I get alot of mileage out of the Gaia combined with the WC-1 to add the 3 other model expansions beyond the SH-101.

[@xray2785]

@@scott21113 got it, many thanks. Enjoy your videos immensely.

[@azstratus1]

Thanks Scott!! I will go over as you instructed!! Appreciate your content!!

[@payt01]

Seems like a fun little synth. It goes for 625 euros now from my local retailer, which seem slike a much more plausible price. Still I completely ran out of space, and I think that between the System 8 and the Hydrasynth most of this is covered pretty well.

[@bistrobmusic]

Really like Gaia 2, I feel like with the voices it could be bitimbral but not sure if they would ever do it through firmware.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

I think you're probably right - if you play one patch, hold down the keys, then switch patches, you can begin playing the new patch while the old one sustains, so I think the capability is there. But if you made it fully bitimbral, you'd likely lose that functionality.

[@Jason75913]

​@@ScottsSynthStuff That's fine for drones, few folks will care for that in a live performance. Then in a studio, you can just record one sound and play over it with a different patch or whatever. Bi- or tri-timbral was a missed opportunity, given its polyphony. I don't feel that is a serious issue, though. I've got workstations and other VAs already, much like you 🤣🤣

[@diggy-d8w]

I'd imagine that I could take anyone of those keyboard's & spend a lifetime trying to learn all it does.... lol, and you have racks of them in this studio. I'm amazed at how deep these are & I guess there's a lot of people teaching how to use specific keyboards? Even the less expensive have so much involved into using them. Are you in a band nowadays or teaching how to use these? Curious & thanks for sharing all this. Very kool indeed..... peace

[@leftmono1016]

Learn a few synths well and it’s pretty straightforward to transfer that knowledge on to any other synths you play 👍

[@Jason75913]

Subtractive synths are all 70-80% the same thing. So it boils down more to whether 1.) Do you like the flavor? 2.) Do you like the workflow? Workstation keyboards are all samey to a degree, too. Unfortunately, the more you enable any synth to do, the more menus and menu diving you have to add as the front panel cannot be made large enough to maximize immediate controls. Gaia2 is a good-looking compromise between immediacy of sound design controls and depth of features. If you are used to a DAW, a workstation will be all the more familiar to you, if much more limited.

[@diggy-d8w]

@@Jason75913 = I'm limited at this point but what you've added helps me to better understand things.... thank you

[@diggy-d8w]

@@leftmono1016 I appreciate the way you put it here. I need to grab one & learn. peace

[@matthewgaines10]

Just what I don’t need; another synth. Sounds like a reasonable deal.

[@LarryJanca]

thanx for this post. I will be loading them into my gaia 2. I always follow your posts, great, always looking for them. off this subject.....I just ordered montage M6. any advice on where to find knowledge to learn this keyboard. I am a novice when it comes to figuring out how to utilize a synth. thanx in advance.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

I've got quite a few Montage M videos on my channel already!

[@SlaserX]

I'm still trying to figure out how the Gaia 2 isn't just a bad Modwave? Did I miss something? Can you import your own wave tables now?

[@ecclesoul]

Modwave has PCM.

[@Jason75913]

Gaia2 has much better build quality and a far better keybed. It is a basic synth with high-ish polyphony for a VA, but at least it has a gritty character to help distinguish it. Kind of hard to recommend over the Modwave or Hydrasynth, nevertheless. I don't like the Gaia2 oscillators now that I have been spending time with one. Not having dual filters and mod options like my Ultranova are bummers, too. I've been trying out a Hydrasynth desktop unit as well, definitely loving that far, far more. I would probably keep the Gaia2 if I didn't have an Ultranova, Micromonsta2, and the Hydrasynth.

[@marcocaponera]

Thank you!

[@RafaSibajas]

I'm about to buy it from Thomann, they have a great deal right now, but I have read many reviews that says that doesn't sounds good, with comments like the oscillators sound clinical and have a lack of power in the low freq. For me this is a problem. Apart from this would be the perfect synth for me.

[@James-Deep]

I couldn't get along with the Gaia 2 until I turned on the 1st option in the master compressor section. Also, one of the master eq templates, forget which one. Before that, it was just too much sonic information, from highs to lows. Sounds like Scott's synth is maybe still set without any of the compressor or master eq temples on?

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

All the sounds you here are raw and unprocessed, with no compressors or EQ (internal or external to the synth).

[@vaisnava]

I own this synth and have one main issue that Roland said they won’t fix. You cannot assign the LFO to panning.

[@vaisnava]

Because of this I feel like the stereo image of this synth really lacks.

[@billfusionenterprise]

FYI, roland did a bunch of price drops 2 weeks ago, maybe for black friday. I did get a few items including the gaia 2

[@billfusionenterprise]

SH-4d, verselab, jd-08 ,ju-06a jx-08,,, alod some drum sets and other gear

[@presc13nt]

This or the Korg Multi/poly ?

[@Shred_The_Weapon]

I was a bad boy. Entering into 2024, the Gaia 2 was One of the models I considered purchasing. Instead, I was seduced by the keyboard features of the Hydrasynth Explorer. I’ve experimented with trying to duplicate the sound at 22:35 of the Yamaha carillon in the Hydrasynth. It’s an interesting challenge.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

That's a pretty standard FM sound, you can definitely do that in the Hydrasynth using the FM mutator.

[@Shred_The_Weapon]

Thank you, Scott.

[@Robguitarjarvis]

How do you get the actual file onto the stick though !?? Never seen anything so complicated to navigate!!! Agh !! I did it, didn’t realise you had to register and then download the cloud thing first. All is well thanks 🙏🏻

[@jandoedel1012]

Hey Scott. I'm watching your channel for a while now and since u have a proper haircut again I'm subscribing. Rofl.

[@danielcolfer4671]

Roland is the best at providing a ton of sounds…many of which sound almost exactly the same but with different names. Especially in the synth category. Yes you can download more from the cloud etc. and often are charged more for those sounds but rarely are they useful or any different. I’m glad I’m no longer a “Roland guy” because I’m saving my self from buying another synth that will never get used. The legacy Roland’s were great… Jupiter 8, Juno 60, 106, sh 101, jd 800, d 50, super jx 10, etc. but the newer stuff is thin sounding and the new fantom ex is way over priced. Again, I’m glad because it’s saving me money.

[@jamestillman5247]

Would this be worth getting if I already own a jupiter XM?

[@blawless01]

Roland's GAIA 2 release email came out on 9/28/23 and the original price was $899.99 USD. Then a few months later they must have realized that the price was too high, and it went on a 'permanent' price drop down to $749.99. Now it's on sale for $599.99.

[@Mattbuchanan71]

What would you recommend between the Gaia 2, A HydraSynth, or a Behringer Deep Mind 12?

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

If you're a beginner - the GAIA 2. If not...the Hydrasynth.

[@synthsamuraiproductions]

Yo someone mentioned the other day you got some polybrute12 soundsets? True? If so where can i find them. Cheers brother

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

Not me, I don't have a Polybrute!

[@ipainthouses3084]

Can i ask you something ? Im looking around on roland cloud , but if i subscribe to pro or ultimate and i want to get the jx 8p model in my gaia 2 , i assume i have to buy it. But it says if im correct , that expansions for jx 08 for example , if i want to use it in hardware ( gaia 2 ) i need to buy the life time key. So im i not better of with no subscription , if i have to buy everything anyway if i want to use it in my hardware ?

[@xray2785]

Thanks again for this Scott, I forgot to ask you another question if I may please. I own a Roland Fantom 7, which I intend to pay for the EX upgrade which will include Enzyme and some ACB models. Given this, is it still worthwhile me buying the Gaia II, or does the upgraded Fantom 7 EX cover everything the Gaia II can do please. At its current £419 Sterling price, it’s really tempting, just not sure it will give me anything over and above what a Fantom 7 EX does. I’d be grateful for your opinion and that of others who see this please. Many thanks

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

The engine in the GAIA is not like anything that's in the Fantom. I have both, and I don't see a huge amount of crossover (except the Fantom has the SH-101 ACB in it as well).

[@xray2785]

@ thanks so much for taking the time to reply, it’s very much appreciated and reassuring. I was concerned that the wave table engine in the Gaia might be too similar to Enzyme in the Fantom EX. Thanks again.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

@@xray2785 No, the n/zyme engine in the Fantom is a very, very advanced wavetable sequencing engine. The GAIA's wavetable capabilities are far simpler (but still pretty great).

[@REP_rep0]

I’m not entirely sure but I think your memory stick also has to be 32GB or less - at least that seemed to be the case for me.

[@Jason75913]

Knowing Roland, I would expect that.

[@xray2785]

Thanks for this video, very helpful. I have a Roland cloud ultimate subscription, if I buy this synthesiser and if necessary the WC-1 wireless dongle, can I load the Jupiter eight and other models into this free of charge or do I still have to pay THE circa $150 per model to be able to transfer them to this? Thanks in advance for any help, I found it very hard to get a clear answer on this.

[@thomaskolb8785]

No, if you have the WC-1 and a valid subscription, you can load any of the available models into the Gaia and use them. However, every 30 or so reboots, you will have to verify the subscription by letting the dongle call up the Roland Cloud service and check your status. The Gaia will prompt you with a countdown for every reboot. If you let the countdown go down to zero, you will no longer have access to the installed models.

[@xray2785]

@ thanks for getting back to me. I’m not sure I understood correctly. Are you saying that I can transfer the models free of charge because I have the rolling cloud subscription and let’s say I buy the WC-1 but then it will reset every 30 seconds or every 30 minutes? Once I have verified that I have a current subscription will this behaviour stop or will it continue like that? If it is that doesn’t that render it unusable unless you pay the $150 per model? Thanks in advance for your help and clarification sorry to be obtuse.

[@thomaskolb8785]

@ Yes, if you have a Roland Cloud Ultimate subscription, you can use the WC-1 to install the different models, e.g. the Jupiter-8. The Gaia will then check your subscripion every time you start up the synth. If the WC-1 is plugged in, it will call up the Roland Cloud service and if it verifies that it is still valid, no problems. However, if the WC-1 is not plugged in or if you don’t have access to the network, or no longer have a subscription, you can only start up the Gaia 30 times before the additional models become unavailable. You will still be able to use the Gaia as from the factory, but not the installed model expansions.

[@xray2785]

@@thomaskolb8785 great, thank you so much that’s really helpful. That makes the Gaia 2 much more attractive for me so long as I budget for a WC-1. Do you happen to know if the Gaia 2 can hold all the 4 or so models at once, or if I have to overwrite some models when loading another? Thanks again. It sounds like to own a Gaia 2, do you think it’s worthwhile given I own a Fantom 7, soon to be software upgraded to a Fantom 7 EX? Thanks again for sharing your knowledge!

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

The GAIA 2 can have one modelled synth loaded into it at a time.

[@UFO-Ark]

I wish Yamaha would release something new for the mainstream (MODX) market.. I know they have the Montage-m but thats topgun level.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

I'm sure in time a new MODX will emerge that incorporates some or all of the Montage M functionality. Typically the MODX version doesn't come until a few years after the Montage.

[@willveda]

I love mine, and I paid $750. Two weeks later, it' selling for $600. Tis my luck.

[@Jason75913]

$750 and under is more or less fair for what you get. Whether or not you love the Gaia2 is all that matters.

[@DjMorningstartrancedj]

Tried everything file not found when I put the usb to my Gaia

[@REP-bl3lq]

Hi are you still having problems with this? Check the capacity of your USB it needs to be 32GB or less

[@valleyken]

- Cool.

[@1Systems]

the fact that the synth doesn't have matrix mod and the "buy" a presets /synths model, stopped me from getting one. also it lacks low end sound

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

It's a preset mod matrix, you do have the ability to assign modulators to different things, but it's not a true matrix where anything can get assigned to anything. But you're wrong about the low end, this thing has TONS of low end. My studio was SHAKING when I was recording these patch samples!

[@Jason75913]

It would be weird for a digital Roland not to be capable of good low end.

[@jumpstar9000]

Practically speaking, the matrix does 90% of anything anyone actually needs. I rarely feel like I'm running into limitations and I'm used to a PRO3. It would be nice if it had additional envelopes but you can work around that using the motional pad. As far as bass, you wouldn't believe how much it has, it's absolutely crazy!

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

@jumpstar9000 EXACTLY.

[@MarianoPerez]

If it were only multitimbral.

[@user-JM1967]

Apenas mais um sintetizador digital. Nada mais.

[@randy7894]

Yea.... I think the Hydra Synth is more bang for your buck. It does everything the Gaia 2 does and more for cheaper including a great build quality.

[@funnzie]

I plan on owing both, Hydra and Gaia2. I already own the Gaia2, it is simply a lighting fast synth to sound design on, and so enjoyable having that much physical surface control over 20 voices. Big two handed chords the Hydra doesn't have the polyphony for. Both are wonderful!

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

Both are excellent. I have a Hydrasynth Deluxe and you can do infinite sound design on it. The GAIA is faster, but less flexible, mostly in terms of routing and modulation options, whereas the Hydrasynth can practically modulate anything from/to anything. That said, I would pick this over an Explorer personally because I have a really strong dislike of mini-keys - for me, that's the only failing for the Hydrasynth Explorer, and that's a personal preference.

[@RikMaxSpeed]

This synth is a real bargain, it has a better quality keyboard than even the KORG Nautilus, and way more hands-on control. I just wish it had samples like the ModWave.

[@Jason75913]

dood, wtf, better keybed than the Nautilus?!

[@jumpstar9000]

The keybed really is amazing

[@James-Deep]

I payed $899. ouch

[@frankschneider7190]

really?

[@geekmastermind]

Why oh WHY does Roland continue to insist on its bizarre, unintuitive, and and aggravating method of uploading and updating its synths? I'd love to have one, but I just can't go back to that headache.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

This is dead simple compared to the nightmare you have to go through to update the Fantom!!

[@matthewgaines10]

It isn’t as if you have to update it all the time. It’s rather simple to be honest. What would be more “intuitive”.

[@geekmastermind]

@@ScottsSynthStuff That's my own experience. I think seeing the thumb drive triggered a related PTSD response, lol.

[@bulletheadbeatz2296]

@@ScottsSynthStuff You’re dead right about the Fantom’s update process! I have a Hydra Deluxe and it’s not that bad, but my Akai MPC’s have the best update abilities in “my” studio. You have 3 options to update your firmware: usb/sd card, connect it to the computer while in controller mode, or WiFi! When new firmware is released, you get a prompt while in standalone, so to me, WiFi is the best way!😊

[@mudi2000a]

On the MC-707 it’s dead simple. You put the file on the SD card and turn it on while holding a button, that’s it …

[@asdfjkl227]

Roland makes a bunch of complex sounds... That don't sound like synthesizers. I don't know how or why.