"Yes, here is our fabulous new keyboard ... UH, no it's not available yet." ?!?!?!?!? ......

t.

Its in stores like GC now....we played it last week.

Fran wrote:

"
I forgot to mention..a few days ago I played the new Roland Juno Stage (76 keys)..
The stage has all the goodies from the Juno G, and many goodies of it's own...

First off..the key feel is much better than the Juno G (I hated playing my Juno G)..Roland added metal weights under the keys..reminds me of the older workstations..D-70, JV1000, and XP80...I may as well add the Fantom X....since I owned all of them...

The compact size and 76 keys are a plus..at 21 pounds..

The display is nicer than the Juno G..

The added goodies are the mic with phantom power...MP3/wav/midi player...999 songs, I believe...It did not read my thumb drive folders..only the non folder tunes..unlike the Roland RD700gx..that unit read every folder and sub folder..same with the 300gx..

The Stage makes a decent controller for the studio too..it has a single button push to make it a USB controller...

It is a shame that Roland did not include a USB Audio interface to go with the USB MIDI interface...as the Sonic Cell has...

When I put my E-60 on Ebay ..I was considering the Juno Stage and GW8...after playing the Stage and reading the manuals including the GW...I am thoroughly convinced the E-60 to be superior over both...save the MP3/Wave player..the E-60 is better in every other feature...

Of course the E-60 lacks the mic input too..

key feel and playability is slightly better on the E compared to the Stage..

The E-60 is 7 pounds more with a touch screen and speakers..

The lyric read and make up tools..makes the E-60 much..much more desirable..

And the one feature that I keep going back to the E-60..the drum kits are simply the best...

After I played the Stage...it made me more reluctant to sell the E-60..

Thanks Diki, and Bart..for the reminder.."

Tony,
did you get my letter?

Very nice instrument...great concept.

I had a Juno -60 for a short time before I bought my Jupiter-8....this one sure reminds me of the former.

Loved the piano, and those nice big strings...a bit disappointed the organ sounds weren't demoed.

For a musician in a band or duo, this looks like the one to have.

Ian

I think Roland really nailed it down with this model. It's cool to hear the metal weights were found under the keys..., and yes it's a reminder of some of their previous "well liked" keybeds such as the XP60/80. Fran..., did you by chance see if the weights were "glued" or how they were fitted to the key underside?

Roland addressed a few issues that were complaints on the current Juno-G..., more keys, and a new screen (as there were issues with the old screen).

What I also like is that Roland designed this for the "stage performer" and even though they didn't include the seq from the Juno-G.., they did bundle this unit with a software seq so that you can take this from the stage to your studio and get down to work. It's very cool that keyboard makers are packing these "studio bundles" with their keyboards.

Squeak

Andrea, You've got mail, my friend.
t.

Donny,

Thanks for posting that demo. Those piano's sound awesome. That's a very interesting keyboard with some great sounds. Lot's of bang for the buck; $1395.97 at Sweetwater. I've always looked at the big boys like the Fantom X, Fantom G, Motif XS, but this keyboard looks really nice. Have you actually demoed this in person with Fran?

Al

Hi Al......yes Roland's John Maul does an outstanding job in all his DEMOS.....

Fran & I did try one last week at a major music store & I have to tell you Roland really hit the mark with this unit. It looks great, feels great, built great & if your NOT worried about having so called "styles" like an arranger it has all the goodies you'll need for sure and more. There are some really nice features & I was impressed with the navigational layout for the Gigging musician, 76 weighted keys, XLR mic input, arpeggiator,sequencer, Vocal channel cancel, layer, splits, on deck Mp3/device input, all this stuff and much more is Right On Deck for easy access. I would also assume many of these features and design will be incorporated in the new G70 replacement also in the very near future, Winter NAMM 2009 will tell us for sure. Check one out asap you might really like it.
http://www.roland.com/products/en/JUNO-STAGE/index.html



[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 10-09-2008).]

Donny & Fran

Since you both demoed the Roland Juno Stage, I have just really one question, but before I ask it let me tell you this.

I presently use the PSR3000, a great instrument, but the piano sound really sucks. And since I'm a piano player I feature it allot in my playing. The only time the piano sounds half descent is when it's coming out of it's own speakers on the keyboard. When I do a job, wether it's a small one or a large one with bigger speakers, the so called stereo piano coming out of my little Roland amp sounds thiny and I've tried many third party pianos.
Listening to the Roland Juno Stage being played by John Maul, who does an excellent job, the piano sounds great, but I wonder how it sounds coming out of my Roland amp.
Now to my question.
Does the Roland Stage have any styles?

Playing an arranger keyboard gives me allot of freedom. If I get a request for a rumba or swing or any of the many styles I just press a button as both of you well know and play. If the Roland Stage doesn't have any styles then I would have to rely totally on midi's since I enjoy playing.
I don't now if I could handle that.

I just though of another question.
I know the Roland Stage has a mike input, which is great, but, does it have a harmonizer?

thanks,

Peter

The Stage only has a few drum loops, and an arpeggiator, not styles per se. That is the GW-8 with a 61 keyboard. Nothing to stop you recording your arranger's audio output to MP3 for each song, though, and using the built-in player for backing, or using a drums SMF of the tune's groove you want to do, and do the LH bass thing like he does in the demo (or a bass and drums SMF of the song if you prefer). Plenty of options, but no styles, per se...

The problem you are having with the piano is because you use a mono amp, and the phasing on the Yamaha's main piano is particularly bad (although all stereo piano sounds suffer to one degree or another when collapsed to mono). If you change to a stereo PA, this should go away, IMO...

My G70's piano changes a BIT when played in mono, but not as much as Yamaha's (I'd love to hear how well the new T3 piano collapses to mono... anyone?). It's just the nature of playing true stereo material through a mono amp...

I have a nasty feeling Yamaha exaggerate the width by adjusting the phase of the L & R sides a bit (it's how cheaper effects are made to sound wider than they really are) to make it sound impressive on the built in speakers, but when collapsed to mono it introduces more phasing and the resultant EQ weirdness than leaving the thing alone and having a less dramatic stereo speaker sound. But this is just conjecture on my part...

I must admit, most of what I'd like to see in a simple stage keyboard (rather than an arranger) seems to have been nailed with the Juno Stage. As long as the MIDI is flexible enough to add maybe a Nord for Hammond stuff, this might be almost perfect...

One sad omission, though, is no Mark/Jump capability for SMF's...

God, I wish that EVERYTHING had this ability..! It kind of makes using styles almost moot. If you are playing standards, why tie up your LH playing the same chords over and over again? So you can rearrange the song as needs demand, you say...

And that's exactly what the Mark/Jump buttons do. I often record my arranger's output to an SMF, with an intro, and ending, then two heads, one quiet, and one lively, and a vamp section. Put in Markers for the quiet section, the lively section, the vamp and the ending, and I can play the song any way I want to, any time, including key changes, etc..

Now I have two free hands... perfect

Only thing better is the Chord sequencer, where I used to be able to change variations, fills and even styles while the machine played the chords for me (once I had put them in the first time through)... Sadly, RIP

We need to start to insist this Mark/Jump ability is on ANT SMF player. It is just TOO useful to give up

Diki

What keyboard has this Mark/Jump capability?
Sounds like a good idea.
Can you use it on midi files that I would create?

AFAIK, the current Roland E and G series have this, The Tyros have this (don't know about S900... anyone?) and I think Korg does too (Wersi as well, before Bill chimes in )...

It is easy to add to user content (at least Roland, haven't used the other kinds), but probably not cross-platform (in other words, Markers put in on a Roland probably don't get seen by a Yamaha, etc.)

Yamaha's system has the advantage of a loop as well as hand activated markers. Hit the button twice (or something, I don't remember) and it loops that marker section. Nice idea...