I bought my GAIA when they first came out and have used it as my top 3rd keyboard for my live rig for the last 5 years. Just retiring it now, reluctantly. The factory sounds really suck, but I could program about anything into it, mainly due to the dedicated filter for each oscillator. It's got that plastic design, but I've never had a problem with it, and it's lived on through hundreds of gigs and set up by the road crew and then staying in the band truck under extreme temps. It's gotten a bad rap over the years, but was always great for me. I'm actually excited about having in my arsenal at home now.

That really ticked me off when I bought my Gaia...I really fought to get my copy of the software. I wished they'd either have it as a download now if they no longer want to sell the discs, or post it online as "unsupported" like Nord did with the Modular software if it's an OS issue, because people can always have an older computer lying about if that's the reason.

They spent the money on creating it, why not keep selling it, if only as a download?

It's pretty obnoxious to do that, especially for a board that's still being sold for $600.

And mystifying too - Novation came out with the Ultranova at the same time, and they're still supporting it with their plugin/editor. (Of course, Novation decided to make it more of a platform and now the Mininova can swap patches with the Ultranova, so it's more important for them to continues support.)

I know two people who got sick of the ignored status Roland has given the Gaia, and they got rid of theirs. One went to the Studiologic Sledge 2.0 because of the same one-knob-one-control philosophy that made him go for the Gaia. He got it on sale for $800ish and says the sounds are much better than Gaia, and easier to get good sounds. (I haven't had an opportunity to play with it myself.)

As I said in this thread 3.5 years ago(!) if Roland came out with a multitimbral SuperGaia that had a screen, aftertouch and more/better user presets I'd take a very serious look at it. But it looks like they decided not to build on the Gaia but to go lower in price (JD-Xi, System 1) with different design philosophies (minikeys, plug-outs, loop-building pattern sequencers).

Is the JD-XA too pricey? Does not have many presets but otherwise it's a "SuperGaia"

I was talking about improving the Gaia, not making some board that costs almost as much as four Gaias. Seems to me that after five years production an improved Gaia could easily have come in at $799 with aftertouch, a more powerful engine and a screen. Instead Roland went downmarket with a groovebox/keyboard and then supercharged that concept for the JD-XA, while leaving the Gaia - and its concept and support for it - in the dustbin.

Also, if at some point I were to even begin to consider spending $2,200 on a new synth the JD-XA would simply not be on the top of my list. At that price range there are so many interesting, powerful choices out there.