I agree. The EM55 internal speakers are terrible which is why u wont get a true reflection of this board if u are playing it at a store using the internal speakers...Hook it up to some powerful speakers and you'll be the most popular guy in your street

Now this I can understand... When are makers going to realize that the quality of the speakers can be the determining factor when buying the keyboard... It's like that with my PSR-550... The internal speakers are terrible.. Even my old DJX (original) had way better speakers.. Through the internal speakers the keyboard is so so, but when I run it through my Roland Monitors BAM! the sound pops at you...

Squeak

Having played a VA-7 and various Yamaha PSR's and now owning the Tyros, I found Rolands keyboards were great for clean cut modern synthy pop and dance styles, but a bit brash for other genres. I found many of the orchestral patches on Roland rather cold, though the strings and synth patches are always the creme a la creme. The drum sounds are plentiful though, but the style arranger section is severely limited. With only 2 variations and intro/ending, simple fills it didn't inspire me. I have never looked to see if its possible to actually create styles on a Roland EM series, I guess probably not but they do sound kinda different than yamaha's well orchestrated backings. If anything yamaha's styles can sometimes be too musical, whilst rolands are a bit more plain and easy to fit into.
Rolands internal speakers are rather poor though and a good audition should be done either on cans or a decent set of monitors. I agree that the 64 note poly is a big plus, but I also suggest this person looks at the PSR2000 - there's not much difference now in prices and you get a whole lot more!

Regards
Simon



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Simon G.K. Williams
simon@svpworld.com
Creative Music & Multimedia
http://www.svpworld.com
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Squeak,
This is OT but, what is the model number of your monitors? KC's?
Starkeeper

Starkeeper,
I have the Roland MA-8BK Micor Monitors... They are small desk top monitors, but these are ones you have to check out at a local store... The air they push is amazing! Here's a link for them.. They are also very affordable, and have several differnt hookups, and controls for treble and bass...
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/sid=021031082527209211103134147022/search/g=home?q=roland+ma-8bk


Squeak

Thanks Squeak.
Starkeeper

I've played with an Em-55 week a ago. the internal speakers do sound crap.but ti sounds way rich with the peaveys that it was connected to.more rich and live. I find the to be very good too. I think I will (as always) go for the Em-55OR when I find who is selling it!.

Simon, if I may, I like to correct part of your comment on the Roland arrangers[G1000,EM2000 and VA series]They have 4 variations ,2 intros and 2 endings...You have Basic and Advanced combined with original and variation, This yields the above numbers. Throw in the 4 drum variations and you now have 16 different variations.Fran

[This message has been edited by Fran Carango (edited 10-31-2002).]

Ok here it is.....I bought the PSR 1000 as well as a used Roland JX305 $300.00 US and a Roland SH32 $200.00US both in perfect shape. I really like the PSR I did compare it to both the Casio and Roland EM55. To my personal taste I like the Yamaha much more than the other two. I grabbed the other two pieces just because of the deal I got and plus I've been looking for a JX305 for a while....I'll post a more detailed review in a day or two once I get a chance to put it through a good work out....Thanks again to you all....

There was one instrument that I love called
"VOICE DAHS" .Fran will probably know this one.... anyway I played that instrument on a G1000 and EM2000 and it sounded perfect...On the EM55 the exact same instrument sounded terrible....I guess it would sound best on the VA7 because of the 48 mb PCM in the sounds.....If Roland had put 48 MB in the EM55 and added extra editing features to the 16 track sequencer it would have been just
perfect for me...I think I'm gonna save and get a VA 7.... The EM 55 costs $1100 here in South Africa and the VA7 is $2000.