Hi Bob (and others interested in V-Console),
I've just seen your post and it has prompted me to give an update of my experience with this fantastic piece of add-on equipment/programme to my T5 TRX set up.
I find it has opened up a whole new world of ease of creativity to my playing in terms of being able to utilise, to my advantage, all the voices from the T5 which are loaded into the console when you buy it. All voices have editing facilities like the T5 and edits can be saved within the console's voice map. I also imported my own edited voices from the T5.
I can now set up 8 additional voices of my choice to use on any of my 2 keyboards or bass pedals - on all 3 at once if I want! I can split these 8 voices to sound within any area of keys/pedals, at whatever octave I choose and can easily be turned on or off whilst playing. The only restriction is polyphony but it's not been a big problem for me.
The 8 voices combination settings can be saved to a registration memory on the console, there are 8 memory buttons on each bank and I can create as many banks as I want.
R1,2,3 and left voices on the keyboard can still be used, including the R3 split if I want, and stored in the registration buttons and banks of the keyboard as normal.
Registration buttons from both keyboard and console can be used in conjunction with each other. However, if I want to set up a 'link' for a registration button on the keyboard to automatically select a registration button on the console (or visa versa) the operation works through the left voice of the keyboard and so that sound is then automatically set to 0 so no sound from that - not a problem because I have voices to use from the console to assign to left (or lower).
I will admit that after a couple of weeks I was beginning to find it all a bit frustrating because I had to keep consulting the instruction book (very comprehensive) and found that I needed to write down a few notes of my own because I couldn't remember how to do various things I had done just a few days previously, there was so much I was discovering that I wanted to do with it! I also had to get used to using a touch screen tablet and stop getting confused that my T5 screen is not touch sensitive and also whether I should be pressing save on the keyboard or the tablet!!
With hindsight (hmm) I wish I had spent more time trying out all the features of the V-Console instead of being very specific about how I thought I wanted to use it, but 9 months down the line and that is all in the past. I have discovered the dos and don'ts, made my mistakes (oops that still happens sometimes!), emailed John Beesley a couple of times to put me straight (very helpful) and I now very much enjoy the versatility with voices that it gives me.
Downside? Yep, lots of cables and connections especially as I have 2 keyboards and pedals connected through MIDI too, but it doesn't put me off! I can hide them if I ever get round to it.
Bob, I obviously don't use the V-Console with just the T5 by itself so perhaps somebody else can add that experience to this post. Basically all I can say is that things will work the same as usual but you can add extra voices wherever you want and it will open up a whole new world for you. If you are used to working with the T5 operating system and can follow and understand the instructions and explanations it shouldn't take long to get used to the console too. I find it easy to use now I've explored many options (probably more for me to realise yet!!) and an interesting and enjoyable challenge - I've learned a lot along the way.
I too would be interested in hearing other users views, good or not so good, perhaps we can help each other to realise more of the potential of this 'add on'. What I've written above is quite general in some ways, I'm happy to elaborate if anybody is more interested.
John Beesley has also completed the update compatible with Genos. I have a friend with this combination and it sounds fantastic.
Pam