I went to the NAMM show last month for one day only and decided to pass on going to the Roland booth because I didn't think I would be too excited about the BK5 thinking that is was just like the BK7m but with keys and speakers. My rep came into the store this week and he convinced me to try one in the store and see how it does.......
It arrived today and I'm actually very impressed. I was told that just like the BK5m the only way it would display lyrics from standard midi files was by using an external monitor and I thought this was dumb with the larger display on the keyboard. Well, to my surprise Roland added this feature and now I have lyrics showing on the screen and as many of you like from Roland, the chords show up even if they weren't included in the midi file. I'm also quite pleased with the addition of the sound bank buttons and built in speakers. With the ability to plug a vocal mic using a mixer and being able to record an audio file mixed with a style or song and record right on a USB flash drive this is a good value keyboard for under $1,000.00.
I really like Roland Piano voices a lot and have changed my mind now that I've actually played it.

George thanx for the great review and additional info......with the "lyrics/chord readout"..... I guess Fran will run out and buy one now for sure ..lol

Hi George,
How do you turn on/off or change volume of style parts during live playing?
Thanks
Jimmy

Jimmy,
I'll answer that question tomorrow when I arrive at the store.

hi George and thanks for the update....
I'm wondering if the keybed is the same as on the RW8 or the Prelude or something else entirely....

thanks
TM

It's really very easy to edit anything you want within a style or a midifile. Just hit "menu", scroll to "makeup tools". You select "instrument" and now you see everything you can change for the track you've selected. You can change the kind of instrument, volume, eq, effects, even down to cutoff freq and resonance. When done, just hit write and you've created a new style on USB drive. The Roland doesn't offer all the buttons of say a Yamaha for quick editing, but after just 5 minutes with the Roland I found it very easy.
I also plugged a mic into a $59.00 samson mixer and plugged the mixer into the aux input in the back. I chose a standard midi file with lyrics, hit the "audio Record" button, hit "start" and I made a .wav file of me singing to a song which is stored in a "my recording" folder which was automatically created on the usb thumb drive and quickly played it back and although my singing is terrible, the sound quality was great.
I haven't had a GW8 for a long time or a prelude so I can't comment on the key feel difference. I will say that compared to a Yamaha, there is much more resistance on the Roland.
Now that I've had it for a day I really do think that this keyboard is easier for me to navigate than the BK7m module. It's just the way it's laid out and with the addition of more buttons and a better and larger screen. And thanks Roland for adding the lyrics on screen. I was told yesterday that at the NAMM show this feature had not been implemented yet and was added only after they were told how important this feature is on a keyboard.

A good vídeo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wou4z0gG_PA

Torna a Surriento, one of my all time faves. Very nice sounding and played rendition. Thanks for posting.