Realism is obviously lacking in my opinion. The Tenor Sax was okay, albeit, far from perfect. The others sounded very unnatural. The distortion guitar was a big disappointment too if you ask me. On the other hand the acoustic guitar was very good and the accordion was excellent. The muted trumpet was okay but some of the solo trumpet notes didn't sound right. The acoustic grand(s) lack authenticity in my humble opinion. The organs he played were just so so. I tell it like I hear it and my ears are telling me the BK-9 doesn't have that wow factor. The styles seemed pretty good but the bass was over-compensated, drowning out the other instruments. The drums were pretty decent in some cases but nothing to write home about. There seems to be a significant amount of "aliasing" in the high end which degrades the realism of the instruments. All in all I'm not very impressed.

It seems to me Roland is stuck in rut and if you ask me they should go back to the drawing board to create a completely new (and hopefully breathtaking) sound set from the ground up. Many of the sounds are rehashed and a big letdown in my estimation. The BK-9 is a high-end priced keyboard that has MOTL sounds in many cases. Although online demos can be somewhat deceiving. But in this case I think what you hear is what you'll get when it arrives in stores. I would like to be proven wrong about that of course.

Once it arrives at GC I'll get give a good workout and make a final analysis. I still can't see myself buying one presently because of the low resolution LCD's and the lack of speakers and also the lack of a harmonizer and obviously the less than stellar sounds I've heard thus far. Too bad. I had high hopes but so far it's somewhat of a disappointment.

To each his own. Donny and Fran are probably ecstatic which is fine and dandy. Somebody needs to keep Roland afloat financially and it's nice to know some people like it. If they happen to sell a boatload I'll be very surprised though I must admit. Although stranger things have happened. 2,500 smackaroos is a lot of money but if you purchase one from a reputable source they'll likely have a 30 day money back guarantee. Which is good to know because you might need to take advantage of it.

All the best, Mike