Hello,

As you all know I have been a Korg player for many years and have stuck to my PA800. In addition I tried several other keyboards, never playing beyond the four walls of my livingroom, and over the last 12 months I briefly owned a Ketron SD5, a Roland E50 and for the last six months a new Yamaha PSR750. On several occasions I have myself promoted this combination here on the forum but whilst some of the sounds of the Yamaha are trully great I keep on having trouble with the clinical quality of the drums and bass, and overall the styles.
As it happens I have come across someone who might be willing to trade his ROLAND E80 with my PSR750, obviously his one having considerably more mileage than mine. In addtion I would want to buy the extension board SRX-11 (acoustic piano)to compliment the E-80. What do you guys reckon ?

regards,
John

Go for it if your not gonna take it out gigging its a heavy KB.... but has many of the great Roland G70 features and a few more...... Roland music editing is top notch ...make up tools, drum editing till your hearts content....good luck John...E80..good choice.

Yeah, it's heavier than even the G70. It does have some of the newer V-Drum kits missing from the G70 that are in the BK series (they are very good!) and it does do barebones MP3 playback (after an update) which the G70 won't.

But you might also want to consider maybe a BK-7m MIDI'd to your PA800. It has all the E80 kits and basses, plus a bunch more. The PA800's MIDI is quite flexible, and you should have minimal head scratching to get them to work nicely together. Be a LOT easier to carry around!

Ultimately, though, if I were you, I'd seriously consider selling the S750, and anything else you use very little, and think about a BK-9. Light as a feather, more kits and basses than even the BK-7m (some of the killer kits from the SRX drum card), a Chord Sequencer, tempo synced audio loops, killer Hammond clone, SuperNatural pianos (even better than that SRX card!), the list goes on and on.

Maybe it would take a bit longer, but the combination of the BK-9 and the PA800 would probably satisfy you, and be more practical in the long run.

But if this is not possible, think strongly about the BK-7m. Its pianos are superb.

John,
I had a Roland E80 and did like it. But, as mentioned above it was to heavy for me to carry around. I also own a Roland BK-7M and can attest to how nice the styles are on it. For a simple, easy to use system I would opt for the E80 if the price is right. With the BK-7M you have to deal with all the midi setups and the module is not exactly easy to control from a controller.

Deane

Thanks so far guys.

Diki I will not consider the BK9 for the simple reason that I do not currently want to spend more cash on equipment. ( the othre day I purchased the KRK RP 5 G2 actieve studio monitors, great nearfield monitors by the way.
And as to carrying stuff, it all remains stationary here in my room. I don't want the intracacies of the BK-7m module and I always want to keybeds to play on. As this would be an exchange of keyboards with no extra money expense involved the only thing therefor is whether I will be better off with the E80 than my current PSR750. I love the acoustic piano on the PSR750, better than the korg pa800 but would expect the E80 to have an even better acoustic piano ,particularly if I purchase the extension board. A month ago I had the E50 for a short while and though not impressed by the factory settings I realized its potential, hence my interest now for the E-80.
Another great feature of the E-80 is of course the Dynamic Arranger which apparently was discarded with the new BK series.
My very first arranger was the Roland E70 and I recall programming a lot of Dynamic Arranger values on that one !!
To the best of my knowledge the E80 has NO Pads which is a minus. And I wonder if the acoustic guitars in the Roland and things like trumpets etc. can match the new PSR750 ????
Anyway the guy interested and I have both agreed to give it a few days'thought before rushing into things. But your further views on all of this will be very welcome.

regards,
John

In that case, John, I'd still consider the BK-7m. You ought to be able to find one of those used for about the same price as your S750 is worth. The bottom line, as some have already said from playing the BK series, is that Roland have done a MUCH better job at balancing and voicing the styles than they did on the G/E series.

That's not to say you can't get close on the E80 with work (especially with a couple of SRX cards in it... I'd recommend the SRX-07, as it has some exceptionally good basses and guitars along with a ton of usable keyboard sounds), but OOTB, the BK's seem set up better.

Don't forget (unless it comes with it) that any SRX cards you add to the E80 are probably going to set you back $100-200 (the SRX-07 seems to keep its value fairly high!) so factor that into your costs.

Not to mention, TBH, the E80 is a dead fish. No more updates, no new styles, WYSIWYG... The BK series is the base for all new Roland style development, and is still being updated and improved. You would be future proofing yourself a bit with that.

That being said... yes, it's a crying shame Roland dropped the Dynamic Arranger. They have an uncanny ability to find obscure but incredibly useful features and axing them. Sometimes I think they troll the forums, and if I like a feature, they go 'We got to get rid of THAT!'...

John,

I would try to sell the PSR s750 for a good price. I quess you can get about 900 Euro for the Yamaha and buy for that money a new BK-7m or BK-5.

John, I would also agree with DIKI on a lot of things that he said,also another thing that you might of not known is that in the US the E80 when it last sold was a BLOWOUT! sale at $1,299 which is 1000 euro today. Maybe go check out a BK series product before you make up your mind? that's if your stuck on ROLAND? I also bought a YAMAHA PSR-OR700 and is kinda hard to figure out but once you do it's also fun. I guess weigh your pro and con's and make your decision, either way, you have a killer arranger that being the PA800.

thanks again.

First and formost I think I already have a killer set up with both the PA800 and PSR75 recently extended with the Rokit5 (KRK) monitors. I appreciate all of you pointing out to me that the E80 is basically an instrument of the past as is the G70 which is greatly appreciated by many,Diki leading the bunch.
I am not seriously considering buying a Roland BK keyboard in addition to my two current keyboards, nor spending any significant amount of money again. That is why this deal with the E80 offered/ofers itself. Apart from it being a very complete arranger with 1Gb of samples on board its attraction are the Dynamic Arranger (gone on the BK boards) its versatality and the possibility to buy the acoustic piano extension card ( see link) which is fabulous but expensive
(over 300 euros)
https://soundcloud.com/search?q=roland%20SRX-11

However at the moment I am leaning again to a status quo. My main two problems with the E80 are the sheer size of it and the fact that it is third-hand. I have no pictures but if you view my rendition of "Field of Gold " on youtube (search under John Smies or matseims) you can see how these two boards fit nicely on top of eachother "snug as a bug in a rug " so to speak whereas the E80 is a real giant and I would have to use it side by side with the PA800.
Still thinking though......................

regards,
John