Hi Deane,

Sorry I have not been around for a few days. I am also sorry to hear you are dissapointed with your current results. I use an A800-Pro in the shop to demo the BK7m. I must say that I have not experienced any of the problems you are talking about with respect of the action and how it sounds. I wish there was more I could do to help you.

Today, I was in the store, and I demoed the BK7m to a customer using the A800. He ordered one immediately. He already owns a Tyros 2 and a PSR-S900. His comment was that the sounds were far superior to the T2 and S900. I would obviously agree that the sounds of the T4 are superior to both those earlier Yamaha instruments, but he saw the BK7m as a good way to enhance what he has, getting completely new styles to him, and completely fresh sounds. I have to agree with him that the sound of the BK7m is completely different to all the Tyros models, and so this would give him 'new' sounds to play with and of course new styles. This is where I see it being of most benefit to keyboard players who already have a keyboard they like. Upgrading to the newer model in the same range often means you get a lot of the same styles again, and many of the same sounds. Obviously as it is an upgrade you get new stuff too. However the BK7m adds completely different things (unless you already are a Roland owner) without the loss of anything on your existing keyboard. Its kind of the best of both worlds.

As my advice has been from the start, I would suggest strongly that you introduce the BK7m to your set slowly. Use it with your T4. I imaging you are still happy with it's sound(T4)? Look upon the BK7m as adding to the pallette of sounds and styles you have at your disposal. There will be some I am sure that you will enjoy, and of course you may blend them with anything your T4 has to offer. My own experience of my customers tells me hat sometimes it is better to be the turtle rather than the hare here. You have admirably put a lot of hours into getting what you want, but aren't getting there. At the moment, your local support has not been great so I can see you are constantly banging your head off that same brick wall all the time. I am sure this will improve over time as your technical expert gets to grips with the BK7m himself.

In my situation, the BK7m has been a complete change for my aging HX1. I am happy with it, and am getting what I consider to be great results. However, I have worked with Roland keyboards to a great extent over the past few years, so I think I knew exactly what to expect from the module. Having said that, feed back any ideas for imnprovements you have to your Rep. The OTS write facility was not available on G70 or E80 at launch, but were added through software updates - responding to consumer requests. I'd thoroughly recommend you put your requests to Roland.

Are you coming to any of the festivals in the UK anytime this year? If so, I'd love the opertunity to sit down with you and go over the BK7m and A800, and how you can use them. I think I may be able to show you a few things that may help, as it's always much easier with the rig in front of us both. Like I say, I really wish I could help you more.

I wish you the best of luck whatever you decide though!

John