Experience with Roland EP-77

Advantages: modifiability, portable
Disadvantages: need of electricity

...I have been playing the piano for several years, each week going to a class, hard training all the time, concerts, and once, I got for Christmas this new invention. --- Advantages --- I didn't know at all what to expect. Before, I occasionally played for fun on keyboard. So I thought that it is comparable to such quality = not having a real size of a usual wooden piano. The other thing is that the number of keys, the low bass and high tones are usually missing on such a digital piano. But as I saw it then packed out, I starred on it with an open mouth because the keys had the usual size of a USUAL piano. What I really started to like on Roland EP-77 it was the fact that it is portable. - Several times it happened to me that I couldn't play the big piano at certain occasions because I cannot just put this instrument into my pocket...

Lirybka 31.12.2007 (30.12.2007) · Read review
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Review of Roland EP-77

Roland GR-20 Guitar Synthesizer

Advantages: Some very realistic synthetic sounds at an affordable price.
Disadvantages: Requires a lot of fine tuning.

...Background: I bought this pedal in Japan for £290. The Roland GR-20 is renowned for it's value for money. For this price you get: The GR-20 Synthesizer GK-3 Dedicated Pickup + Cable (to connect the GK-3 to GR-20) Power Supply Unit Short Guitar Lead Instruction Manuals Warranty Screws, tapes etc... to attach GK-3 to your guitar The pedal is very versatile and also comes with an in-built tuner. Installation: The GK-3 needs to be installed on your guitar before you can use the pedal. Ideally the GK-3 should be around 1mm away from your strings and should not be installed further than 1cm away from the bridge. The GK-3 has two main parts. The main body, which has the up/down buttons (to scroll through the patches) and a volume knob, and the pickup itself. The pickup can either be installed using screws...

Darkhodge 29.10.2005 · Read review
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Review of Roland GR-20

ROLAND FR-3S PIANO ACCORDION

Advantages: TOO MANY TO LIST!!!
Disadvantages: BELLOWS CAN BE A BIT STIFF WHEN NEW.

...The Roland fr-3s is the little brother to the fr-7 V-accordion, yet it is no small fry having a full 120 bass section, with seven registers and keyboard of 37 treble keys with ten registers and a dazzling array of features and sounds, it is lightweight and fully portable due to the built-in speakers and battery option. (It takes ten AA size battery's if you would want to use this function, and lasts up to two and a half hours depending on the batteries used.) Although I do generally plug mine into the mains. The electronic wizardry in this instrument means you can select from ten different accordion types, each with its own associated registers and to the ear is indistinguishable from its acoustic cousins, and as if that was not enough, it boasts several orchestral sounds including violin, steel guitar and choir. The fr-3s also has...

oakleigh 19.03.2007 · Read review
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Review of Roland FR-3s V Accordion

Roland Drums... my pride and joy!

Advantages: Great authentic sounds, feels like playing real drums
Disadvantages: knowing that if you had £5000 you could get a much better one

...I brought my Roland V Drums about a year and a half ago. I love them to bits. At the time, i couldnt afford them at all. However I played on a kit in a music shop and fell in love with them. I immediately promised myself to get a job and save up to get one. So, eventually I did. I still struggle now to understand the technology. You're hitting rubber and plastic pads, and real drum sounds come out... its increadible. Although the TD8 is not the most advanced kit in the series, it still does SO much. It registers how hard you hit the drums, where you hit the drums and they are really responsive. One of the major benefits of this piece of equipment is that you can play music into it to play along to. This can be very useful for practicing and picking up new things while listening to your favourite tunes! Also, its a great...

priesty8899 20.01.2007 · Read review
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Review of Roland V Drums TD 8

Roland EG-101

Advantages: Quality, sounds, grooveability
Disadvantages: Lacklustre preset patterns, clumsy OS

...I am into making dance music, and I previously had a Yamaha DJX. I would say the EG-101 is pretty similar in its features, but it isn't as immediately accessible, then again it is a much higher quality product. This is a nice looking keyboard. It has a vintage look, analogue style knobs and some nice backlit buttons. There is only a tiny LED display, however - adequate, just. The keyboard has 448 voices, some of which are just percussion sounds and not much use, but there are some seriously usable sounds here. The quality of sound production is truly excellent. The onboard speakers are also remarkably powerful. Roland's way of selecting sounds, voices etc. isn't intuitive or obvious. You have to work at it! This isn't a toy by any means, but I know they could have made the thing easier to use. There is an arpeggiator, which I...

sparkyonline 03.05.2001 · Read review
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Review of Roland EG-101

Roland XP10

Advantages: versatile keyboard useful for both studio and live work,
Disadvantages: User / Preset switching manual not auto

......

davethemerlin 20.10.2002 · Read review
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Review of Roland XP-10

roland td3 electric drumset

Advantages: Quite a realistic kit, Good value for money, built in drum tutor, dual trigger pads for rims/bells
Disadvantages: pads wear eventually, price from roland- but im being picky, a very good kit

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sean1234567890 18.03.2009 · Read review
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Review of Roland TD-3KW V-Drums

Rahsaan Roland Kirk - man of mysteries!

Advantages: Roland Kirk is a fantastic Saxophonist, flautist and clarinettist, playing good conventional solos, as well as playing up to three saxophones at a time on some recordings and playing the flute through his nose while singing!!
Disadvantages: Some people may find his music slightly gimmiky - why have one person playing 3 saxes when you can have three people doing it?

...Rahsaan Roland Kirk was not only a great saxophonist, flautist and clarinettist, but he also modified his own saxophones and had the ability to play up to three at the same time (stritch - like a straight alto, manzello - looks like an alto, but sounds like a soprano, and he also used a normal tenor sax)! What's more, Roland was also blinded soon after birth! While Roland Kirk had the ability to play great solo's on a single sax, he also had the ability to play utterly astonishing sections on three saxes, sometimes soloing on one while accompanying himself with the others - one of my favourite recordings like this is on the CD Bright Moments, in the second track, Pedal up, when about 10 minutes through the piece the rest of the band stops, while Roland breaks into Satin Doll on his three saxophones in harmony before preceding to solo...

poooookie 22.06.2004 · Read review
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Review of Rahsaan Roland Kirk

Roland JV1080

Advantages: quality & quantity of sounds
Disadvantages: bit tricky to programme

...the roland jv1080 i own is not used to its full capacity. It has great high quality sounds and an effects section but using it has been a bit of a chore. I tend to stick to preset sounds of which there are around 664, then theres performance mode and the rhythm sets. There are 40 effects but its a bit tricky assigning them. I tend to do everything I need withing Cakewalk Pro Audio rather than touch the JV panel! The outputs are a bit limited. I would have liked an output for each midi channel. The owner manual is a bit mind blowing as well, with little diagrams of how the sounds are made up, ring modulators and other things you dont really need to know. Im a musician and just wanted to get some sounds out of it. At the time I bought the jv1080 it was £700, this has probably dropped dramatically by now. Overall it has been a useful sound...

billi65 23.01.2001 · Read review
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Review of Roland JV-1010 64-Voice Synthesizer Module

Pi-a pi-a pi-ano!

Advantages: Not too bulky, can use headphones, weighted keys
Disadvantages: control button under the piano

...Some of you will know that I am a professional musician and instrumental teacher. You might also know that I got married last year to a fellow opinionator and moved to Devon, which is where he lived. For the first year I still had to "commute" to Hampshire to teach a couple of days a week. This meant that I had to leave my beautiful Bechstein upright piano behind. This meant that I needed an instrument to practise on in Devon but it had to be something on which I could teach for eighteen months whilst separated from my "real" piano. John, not long after we became engaged bought me a lovely present. It was a Roland HP 137R digital piano. Obviously any electric, digital piano is not going to compare to a really good upright or grand acoustic piano but there are times when it isn't possible to have a "real" piano and these can be...

water-witch 29.09.2004 · Read review
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Review of Roland HP-137