I just received my Roland Juno Stage 76..this afternoon....I have my first 8 hours under my belt now..

After I unpacked the board and set it up..First thing I noticed..it feels great..the keys are full size and have the Roland style metal weights under the keys..nice and solid..

The next thing I checked out was the acoustic piano...I liked it a lot (after reading Keyboard mag slam the pianos..I know they are out to lunch)..

The EP pianos are also great..
There aren't any bad sounds on board at all..

My main interest..was next..I had to test out the Song Player..especially after my disappointment with the Sonic Cell...It was refreshing and rewarding..Easy to set up..and easy to use...One problem I ran into..You can not exceed 32 letters in the song title...The Playlist editor will ignore them...So I had to go thru my MP'3/wave files and rename them (not many)..that resided on my hard drive..

I made several Playlist...a playlist can hold 999 songs and you can have 999 playlist''

BTW: I used an 8 gig thumb drive..And the compartment lid closes with the USB thumb drive in place..You can leave it in safe and secure..They even supply a security cover (anti theft)..

I made the first playlist with 330 of our trio MP'3/waves...These are backing tracks that I recorded....They worked perfectly...I select a song and it stops after playing..

The next playlist had 150 break songs..I set these up to play continuously..one after the other...I just select the starting location on the song list..and next break ..select another starting position..works great..

Next up..Another play list of SMF's that I use, and other SMF's that I use when I work a duo with Kath...again works and sounds great..I even found you can make edits on the SMF and it can save in the playlist...Remember there is no sequencer on the Juno Stage..

The Presets patches and performances are interesting..And the Stage covers the "modern" music too..The drum kits are great and the factory drum patterns are good..The Arpeggios are decent too..If you b need a bass-line that follows your chords, or a guitar, Piano comp...this will do the job...If you are lazy..it has the chord memory too..All have presets and user areas..

There is a favorite single button push for your favorite sounds..A piano mode button..and also a USB midi mode at a push of a button..

The stereo audio input is cool too..I even used it to patch the E-50 thru the Stage..and control the mix from the Juno Stage..

The handy EQ is always functional...when you need to EQ thru out the gig..

The Mic and effects are also great..


I will have a follow up a little later...Let me get back to my toys...