Kudos to Roland Customer Support

[sine@zerocrossing.net]

While we're thanking people (btw, Kim this is an amazing resource to the
world of music in general, not just looping), I'd like to step up and thank
Roland Musical Instruments.

Last night I had an issue installing a new OS for my MC-307.  To make a 
long
story short, it was not Roland's fault at all, it was an issue with Digital
Performer.  Anyway, I totally expected today to be the beginning of a
prolonged conflict with a non existent technical service department.

Nothing could be further from the truth!  I got through right away, with
only a little phone menu surfing.  It was actually pretty simple to get to
the person I needed to get to.... and they picked up the phone after only a
few rings!  AMAZING.  When he realized I needed more specific support for 
my
product, he quickly transferred me to the right person who also picked up
right away.  The tech support guy was really nice and didn't treat me like 
a
moron at all, even though I found that Roland hadn't posted the upgrade due
to the complexity of the install.  He quickly explained how I needed to
install the software, gave me a new copy, in case the one I had was 
corrupt,
and pointed me to a better utility to do the install.  I was off the phone
in under 10 minutes.

OK, Roland manuals aren't the best.  Their web site generally sucks ass
(almost no decent tech support at all via the web) but they totally pick up
the slack with real people that actually know their stuff.

Anyway, I've heard others on this list critical of Roland's "Groove
Approved" products.  Yeah, it's a bunch of marketing yada yada, but let me
tell you, if you're looking for a drum machine/sequencer that's got tons of
features and great sounds for the price, I'd definitely recommend Roland
products.  They're not perfect, but for the money you actually have some
tech support.  That's pretty rare in our world.

Mark Sottilaro