Last night since I had to be in the area of the Crab Trap in Somers Point NJ. Fran Carango was gracious enough to come to his gig there early so I could take a look at his new BK5. I was on my way to a band rehersal so I could only spend about 25 minutes with him and even made a list of questions beforehand so as not to forget anything. I am not a techno master like Fran or others here but here's my thoughts.
PROS:
* Very portable and professional looking
* On board speakers sounded fine. I wouldn't gig with them but fine for practice. Bass and Drums were clear and full from the small speakers.
* Very nice clean button layout and nice sized screen. Easy to see even standing up.
* Jacks on back for Hold AND a Control pedal. Important feature to me.
* Seems to be very easy to get around and do edits, choose styles, etc. and being able to save them to as Preformances on a single Thumb Drive. Fran blew me away when he told me how much you could fit on a single drive. I think Roland really did hit the mark in aiming this at "working" musicians.
* As you all know it can play back Mp3s, SMFs UFOs (only kidding) but really everything you would need. Also has center voice cancel and you can change keys of MP3's.
* The sounds, especially the Rhoades that Fran pulled up seemed to respond very well to velocity of the keyboard with a very noticable change in timbre.
* The few styles I heard were very good and sounded very "sharp and tight" if that makes any sense to you, but its the best way I can describe them. Fills and intros are very interesting. Didn't get to really go thruogh all four variations but its nice to have that much choice for a song.
* Keyboard has a nice firm resistance. Not mushy. but see CON below.
CON;
* This is personal opinion but for me I didn't like the keyboard. I'm a big guy and I have big hands. It wasn't the slight narrowness of the keys so much as the shortness. I could probably get used to it in time but that was the only dissapointment in the unit I found. For most players it would probably be fine. Heres MY bottom line. For the money I think its a great unit and would work well for most professionals. I don't think anyone except yourself would know if you were playing a 1K or 4K arranger. I can't wait for Don's apprasial.
Big thanks again to Fran.