Good luck Donny. Roland has a great sound and I especially like the live and crisp drum sounds.

Donny
Keep us posted on your progress on the EA7. If it had a solid full size keyboard I would be more than interested. Also if you do decide on an outboard VH .. Good Luck.

While I liked the size of the EA7, I felt that the sound was a bit too "boxy". I think the speaker chambers need to be larger, or deeper. There's plenty of power, but it doesn't show off the fullness of the sounds. Doesn't fill much of the space in front of the player. If you listen through a good system, it's much improved, but as I've said many times ... the internal speakers are an important monitor source for me, and if I don't like the sound in my face, it won't matter what it sounds like in the PA.
I've also become very comfortable with a larger touchscreen, and I see the dual, tiny screens as a step backwards.
Some navigational features are functional, and some are intuitive, and I think, without a lot of time spent on it, most of the other arranger products are easier to "drive" than the EA. I'm just weighing in with my thoughts after spending a day with it (Fran and I swapped when I had the EK-50), and it's purely subjective, as are all of our opinions. If I had to rate it, I'd give the sounds, and rhythms a solid A, but the screens, and button layout drop it down to a C+ for me.

Funny, I have so much Roland stuff in my studio (LOVE their amps, and effects) but the keys have been Korg, and Yamaha for the last 20 years. The last Roland arranger I had was the VA-7 ... I loved the sound, but hated the navigation.
Chocolate and Vanilla?
Perhaps.
Now, to enjoy my day off that the EAGLES have graciously provided me with.

Dave
Onboard speakers are never going to give you a real evaluation of what the audience is hearing and was my reluctance to even using old style wedge monitors for years. I briefly used one of the ones with s 4' speaker on a mic stand but didn't like what I was missing. And personally IMHO I think they make a keyboard look less professional )
I keep one of my Eon Ones off to the side of me and with its dispersion I can hear everything perfectly. It has made singing so much easier with its clarity. Put your Bose behind you and off to the side and it should give you everything you need to hear.

Bill, I couldn't agree more. I want to hear exactly what my audiences hear. I ALWAYS blocked the onboard sound system and relied strictly on the Bose for monitoring purposes. Worked for me!

Gary

[quote=Dnj

What didn't you like or expect from the bk5? [/quote]

The physical navigation and layout was biggest. The wheel was too sensitive and caused you to skip over desired selections and have to go back. And when reaching for the wheel, I often struck the large tone(sound) buttons with the underside of my wrist/hand. Didn't like that wheel the more I used it. Would have preferred buttons for those functions. When I tried it in the store, I was standing. Should have spent more in store time with it. Sitting at home made reaching the controls different.
And not enough variations of traditional styles I used.

Good points for you guys, but not for me. Monitors are essential, because I often have to lower the room level, without lowering MY level. I tune a room to my ears counting my acoustic tone, the kb sounds, and the sound reinforcement. These 3 need to blend together to create the total sound that the audience hears.

Dave, The customers are paying the bill, it is important that they like what they hear. Amen! They are hearing one thing, you another?????

I am not in any why saying your system is wrong, I just want to know the benefit of lowering a PA and not the keyboard and voice. I ask your opinion because there may be something I can learn.

Thanks, John C.

.

I discovered the drawback of using the keyboard's onboard sound system as a monitor many years ago while playing a large senior center in Bel Air, Maryland. I was using the Bose L1 PAS system at the time, fired up the keyboard, activated my setup registration, then tinkled a few piano notes which sounded fine. The venue held about 300 ppl and there were about 250 in attendance. The crowd noise was somewhat loud and the acoustics were just awful, almost like playing in a gymnasium, hard tile walls, hardwood floors, lots of high, glass windows. This was one of the few times I did not fire up a midi file and do a walk around sound check.

The very first song I performed was Swinging Doors A Jukebox And A Bar Stool. This was a died in the wool country music audience and this song always went over well with them in the past. After the second song, with absolutely no audience response, a lady in the front row came up to me and asked if I could turn up the volume. So I cranked up the main on the keyboard, and she indicated that she still could not hear me. Then I looked down at the Bose L1 PAS, which is a real powerhouse of a PA system and noticed the power indicator light was not on - I had forgot to plug in the power cord. I could hear myself just fine, but the audience, obviously, could not. That never happened again, and I immediately inserted the dead head plug into the headphone jack on the keyboard and the audience came alive for the next two hours.

I'm not sure if anyone else made the same, stupid mistake I did that day, but I seriously doubt that I'm the Lone Ranger in this instance.

Like I stated earlier, I want to hear exactly what my audiences hear. If I don't like what I'm hearing, I'm sure they won't like it as well. As for the keyboard contributing to the overall sound quality with the onboard speakers, I seriously doubt that is the case. Granted, it contributes to what the player hears, but beyond that, I don't think the audiences hear anything other than what is emitted from the PA system at distances greater than 10 to 15 feet, even if the keyboard's volume was cranked up to max.

JMO,

Gary