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

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 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

...), MIDI (IN, OUT/THRU) Power Supply = AC Adaptor (DC 9V) Current Draw =600 mA Accessories = AC Adaptor (ACI/ACB Series), Screws(M5 x12) x4 ------------------- The brain is great, and is the main part of any V-drums, as the drum pads themselves can be swapped around, added to and upgraded if so desired. I found this very useful because Roland are forever making improvments and if you have the money, you can make your drums even more responsive. Unfortunatly the TD-8 is now discontinued, as it is one of the 'in the middle' drum kits in the V drums range that has similar kits available. Other than the TD 8, a recomendable kit would be the TD 3 for a starter kit, as its brilliant and expandable. But for a real pro, the TD20 is probavly thebest kit in the business. Maybe better than the real thing? Over all... i...

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

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 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

20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth: Bittersweet.

Advantages: Realistic, enjoyable, bittersweet.
Disadvantages: Too short, some undeveloped characters, culture differences.

...Written by Xiaolu Guo. 204 pages in paperback. Written in first person. Young Adult + Can be bought new and used for £3+ on ebay.co.uk and new for £4.99 at amazon.co.uk. After finding a copy of A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers in a nearby bookshop and being told it was a good read by others I decided to buy it, and then I discovered I'd left my wallet in my other coat. A few months later after forgetting to come back to that bookshop and buying that book I discovered 20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth in my local library, naturally I picked it up so I could finally see how good of an author Xiaolu Guo was and see whether or not I should go look for the other books she has written. I can tell you now that I am planning on looking for a copy of her other works, she's brilliant. Fenfang has left the slow and boring...

Mistybrook 16.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of 20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth - Xiaolu Guo

Samsung NC20 Black

Advantages: Battery life, size and weight
Disadvantages: None so far!

...I have just purchased a Samsung NC20 from Amazon. I originally planned on getting the NC10 after reading lots of fantastic reviews, but I was apprehensive about the size, being approx 10" screen. Anyway I heard about the NC20, and after seeing a HP notebook of the same size, I decided to wait for that instead... Amazon have had the white version in stock for a few weeks, but the Black one only came in this week. Customer service was excellent, I ordered on Wed evening, but due to a problem with my card, the order only went through at 6.30pm on Thursday...it was then delivered at 8.30am on Friday!!! That's what I call express service! The cost was about £375, so it's not the cheapest on the market, but the reviews of the NC10 swayed me in spending a little extra. Anyway I've been pretty much glued to it ever since...

VSeaman 10.05.2009 · Read review
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Review of Samsung NC20