Yes, George, it seems a nice kb. I played one yesterday, and I liked it. But I see two bad things:

1. A little screen (the same as EM-25), and a few tedious O.S. for selecting styles, sounds, and functions. A lot of functions must be done using "function" button, and, then, pushing + or - many times.

2. No possibility of editing styles. You may only modify (or mute) the volume of drums, bass, and accomp. (all the six accomp. tracks globally, as it was an only track). It is all. You can't modify the voices assigned to each of the six accompaniment tracks, nor mute some of them. I remember EM-55 lets you mute each of these six accomp tracks; EXR-5 can't, you may mute all of them only. At less, styles have 2 + 2 variations, because each variation has two versions: combo and full band (equivalent to "normal" versus "advanced mode" in old roland kbs). So, really there are 4 variations. Of course, there is the cover function, that give more variation; but there is no more the morphing style function. At the end, the bad thing rests: no editing styles possibility.

Finally, two questions:

In your review, you say almost nothing about SOUNDS. What's your opinion about them? Is piano voice really good, better than PSRs (1000, 2000), for example?

In that price range, there is Yamaha PSR550 , but has these Yamaha smaller keys, and its bad key feel. Fortunately, this little Roland has normal key size, and good key feel; the pleasure of playing will be greater. At the end, do you think this new roland is the best buy, and a better kb, globally, than Yamahas or Casios near in price?


Best whishes



[This message has been edited by Artaher (edited 01-30-2004).]