Integra-7 Review Part 4: These Effects are Quite Special


Before I get into the sounds, a few more words about effects. As mentioned, each part in a Studio Set has its own insert effect (here called “MFX”), which cover everything from tremolos, vibratos, auto wahs, delays, slicers, overdrives, distortions, phasers and flangers to various guitar and keyboard amp and speaker simulators.  While the ability to chain more than one insert effect at a time would have been nice, Roland thoughtfully gives you 22 ‘combination’ MFX that connect the most commonly used effects such as in series, such as overdrive/flanger, chorus/delay and so on. From there, the signal can be routed through a common editable chorus and reverb chain and final EQ path before the audio outputs. You can’t adjust chorus/reverb/EQ individually for each individually part but you can bypass them if you wish. However, the chorus/reverb settings are bypassed when the Integra’s Motional Sound feature is activated.

Motional Sound? What’s that?

One of the main features Roland has been flogging in its marketing hype is the Integra’s new ‘Motional Sound’ feature. Much more than traditional panning, this feature allows you to ‘place’ each instrument in a Studio Set within a virtual 360 degree ‘soundstage.’ For example, you can ‘place’ the drums at rear center, the piano at front right, a guitar at front center, a bass at front left, and the accordion far ‘behind’ you (where it belongs). You can hear the effects of these placements either in a 5.1 channel surround sound setup, in stereo using two designated Motional Sound audio outputs, or through headphones. The front-display and controls make it easy to adjust the positioning for any instrument. What’s also cool about the Motional Sound display is that each ‘part’ flashes when it’s receiving a MIDI signal, which can give you visual confirmation of what you’re listening to (I find it useful for letting me know if my headphones are on correctly). 

Okay--now that we've discussed everything BUT the sounds, we'll take 'em on from this point forward.

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