Just picked up my Kronos 61!

[Rosen Sound]

I have used and played workstations from Korg, Yamaha, Kurzweil, and Roland, and most of their parts are very similar in quality.

I disagree. In terms of parts quality, Yamaha = Roland > Korg > Kurzweil. I've owned a bunch of keys and modules from each of them, except Kurz. I've owned a K2000S and a PC1X, both of which failed within 6 months. I'm done with Kurz.

Oh holy crap, no way. Roland absolutely is the worst of the bunch. I've bought more Korg keyboards than Roland keyboards yet EVERY Roland keyboard or controller I've ever bought has been a miserable piece of fail. My Korgs have all been extremely reliable and solid as long as American Musical Supply didn't touch it first.

In my experience (repairing this stuff)

Roland has
- THE flimsiest PCB boards. Most rolands in are for the PCB board under the keys. They actually crack!!!!!!
- buttons that wear out worse then the triton. Tritons can be bad sometimes. but man oh man...
- the worst knobs, one spec of dust and its toast
- worst interior design. I wont go to into this, but rest assured roland has the kind of interior where after seeing it you say "gotta make sure this thing never gets bumped the wrong way..." THis includes some wire ports UPSIDE DOWN.
- worst sounds if you ask me.... Seriously, i s**t myself when i heard a JV 1080, i thought it was the GREATEST thing roland has ever made! then i found out everything i heard was from SRX - complete orchestra.. made by SPECTRASONICS! I mean its not ALL bad... the strings suck.. it has cool bells.... terrible terrible brass though... the fantom X aint all bad either, i like the rack version better then the keyboard version, and the fantom g.... much less stupid.

SOmetimes when people call me to check out there rolands, i sometimes have to ask them if they really wanna pay good money to fix them.. is it really worth it? then they play my triton when they come, and say theyre gonna get one of those.. and pay me for the advice. At this point, ive turned probably 15 roland guys into korg guys just showing the triton.

I also hate that they have so many f*ck*ng models of one board..

HERES THE ROLAND XS! THEN HERES THE XS-250, ONT FORGET THE XS-250A! OH YES AND PICK UP A XS-EXPANDED TOO!

the parts never are inter-changeable! and roland never has them! dammit!

Seriously though, I play korg cause i can trust that its built wel if you get a good model... (this means that the M50, X50, and triton LE were yes, sorta built kinda bad... you get whatcha pay for!)

Ill never touch a roland ever. yammy is good i will say.. kurzweil clearly doesnt follow any standards... those are a weird bunch..

also, please make sure you take your keyboards to GOOD repairmen! I thought this was kinda funy.. this girl brought me here LE and after i opened up we discovered that the last guy she brought it to replaced the keys with the wwrong ones!

[synthguy]

While that all may be true, I'm never going without some Roland in my arsenal. You'll have to pry them out of my cold dead fingers.

(he says before spending some quality time with a Kronos...)

[Rosen Sound]

While that all may be true, I'm never going without some Roland in my arsenal. You'll have to pry them out of my cold dead fingers.

(he says before spending some quality time with a Kronos...)

your loss good sir. As i said, it isnt ALL bad. the SRX orchestra was way ahead of its time.

Luckily, i have all of that sampled into my triton extreme already
if i got a roland, it would have to be the fantom XR module, that thing is worth it. And the roland failure rate doesnt exist as much since its a module.

[Broadwave]

your loss good sir. As i said, it isnt ALL bad. the SRX orchestra was way ahead of its time.

I love my Fantom X, I also have the Orch, Brass and Ultimate Keys SRX's installed, but the aftertouch has virtually gone - I don't want to break my fingers, so it has to go... but NOT before my Kronos arrives

[Rosen Sound]

your loss good sir. As i said, it isnt ALL bad. the SRX orchestra was way ahead of its time.

I love my Fantom X, I also have the Orch, Brass and Ultimate Keys SRX's installed, but the aftertouch has virtually gone - I don't want to break my fingers, so it has to go... but NOT before my Kronos arrives

How do u like the brass expansion?

[ScoobyDoo555]

Got to add to this really - I've got a fwe Roland bits of kit in my system.

The A80 (aside from the whistling LCD - "they all do that, Sir"), is built like a tank.
My XP30 has been gigged to death: the only problem being a broken key, of which I called Roland UK, and they sent it out next day.
This has most of my Roland sounds now.
My other toy is the V-SynthXT - with the D50 card, sorted!
That's enough for my Roland sound palette.

My Yamaha experience has been great too - SY77, KX88 & DX7s: all built again, like tanks. The SY suffered from the plastic end cheeks cracking (BIG design fault imho).
The DX has had a battery change at my fair hands. When opened up, it looked fantastic considering its 25 years old or so.

My K2000v3..... well, build quality wasn't in the brief when they designed it!!!
Fragile, screws fall out of it (both inside and out of the case - sounds like a maracas!)
By far my most expensive purchase (with all the bolt-ons) and my last Kurz: they produce fantastic machines, but they're (still) too much of a wild-card in terms of reliability.

[Broadwave]

How do u like the brass expansion?

Pop Brass is just about ok, but for Orchestral Brass think John Barry

[BillW]

Got to add to this really - I've got a fwe Roland bits of kit in my system.
My XP30 has been gigged to death: the only problem being a broken key, of which I called Roland UK, and they sent it out next day.

I have been gigging mainly Roland gear for 30 years and have never had anything go wrong. Reports of it being junk and poorly built seem greatly exaggerated.

Speaking of the XP-30, I had one several years ago and left it standing against the door leading into our garage. I forgot it was there and came into the house through that door a few hours later, sending the XP-30 crashing face first onto the tile floor in the laundry room. There wasn't even a scratch on it and the damn thing powered up and worked for another 2 years before I finally sold it.

[EXer]

Got to add to this really - I've got a fwe Roland bits of kit in my system.
My XP30 has been gigged to death: the only problem being a broken key, of which I called Roland UK, and they sent it out next day.

I have been gigging mainly Roland gear for 30 years and have never had anything go wrong. Reports of it being junk and poorly built seem greatly exaggerated.

+1

I've been using an XP-30 and a pair of KC-500s for over 10 years. They are still in perfect working order.

[jahrome]

I have a Roland A-90. In my opinion, companies just don't make them like they use to.

[McHale]

Then you must not have bought any of their newer stuff. I bought one of their newest 61 key keyboard controllers and out of the box, the encoder was bad. I exchanged it and the 2nd had something different wrong with it - out of the box.

My D-20 was used very little since purchase (but always covered or in a case). It never sat for long periods of time. 3 switches went bad in the first 3 years of owning it.

And just disregard the guy that actually repairs the stuff... jeesh.

-Mc

[ScoobyDoo555]

Bit touchy McHale??!!

Not disregarding anybody, but ONE repairer out of the world (with all due respect to him), doesn't make a standard.

I've also used a great many of the newer models, and I do actually agree that some of the stuff, the build quality, well, leaves a lot to be desired.

But the older stuff (and I can only vouch for the professional use I gave them - World Tour for one) does tend to be a little bit more sturdy.

The only things I had to get replaced were Octapads - forever going wrong, but the percussionist would hit them so hard, I could actually hear them whimper!!

[ozy]

I have a Roland A-90. In my opinion, companies just don't make them like they use to.

Amen. One of the best instruments I ever played. Straightforward, sturdy and user-friendly.

I add my two cents to this discussion:

TRUE, Roland can build s**t, and did.

I hated the Gaia the moment I saw it, and when I tested the Junos they gave me cold sweat,

BUT:

* most of past Roland instruments were VERY good quality. I have been using the A70, A90, A50, A80 for years, and they were excellent.

The jp8080 was sturdy.

Last year I intensively used the fantom xr + srx 12, and its EPs where very good. Ditto for the xv-5080.

I liked them both for sound quality and for build quality.

* I will thoroughly test the jupiter80. It looks like a serious machine, worth evaluating.

troll-oriented disclaimer: did I say "I'll immediately buy three of them"? No I didn't. Did I say "it's better than the kronos"? No I didn't.

I just said that Roland can still produce professional tools, and that it produced them for decades.

One Gaia doesn't legitimize considering everything Roland like s**t, just like the mikrostation (UNFORGIVABLE) or the M50 [awful] or the m3 [average or less] don't bring discredit on the Kronos.

As a consumer (different from "fanboy") I hope in healthy competition between the 3 bigs and the two smaller competitors.

I need plurality of offers and I support unprejudiced choice.

Loyalty is better spent on musical choices, than on hardware suppliers.

[McHale]

Bit touchy McHale??!!

no. I just absolutely hate Roland products BECAUSE of how unreliable they are. I love Roland's older stuff (D-50 and before) but everything since then is SUPER thin sounding and made with junk parts. And to say they are more reliable and/or built better than Korg makes me want to cry it's so ridiculous.

[Devnor]

I just absolutely hate Roland products BECAUSE of how unreliable they are. I love Roland's older stuff (D-50 and before) but everything since then is SUPER thin sounding and made with junk parts. And to say they are more reliable and/or built better than Korg makes me want to cry it's so ridiculous.

Maybe your old roland gear had black market chips?