Roland E-50 Impressions

I went to the nearby store yesterday and they had the E-50 in stock. Spent about 1 hour on the keyboard and here are my first impressions:

The first thing that struck me was the rubbery buttons it has. While it is nice to have the soft indicator light under those buttons, the rubbery feel and toy-like clicks make me wonder if I am really looking at a >US$1,200 instrument.

The sounds are pretty good. The default piano sound (Natural Piano) has a warm and rounded feel. There are other Piano samples like Superior Piano, Upright Piano or Classic Piano offer some variation should you prefer shaper or duller sounds as you please.

The key feel seems typical Roland. But compared to my old but excellent Roland XP-80, the E-50's keys somehow doesn't feel as good - a little more springy and not as crisp. Of course, this keybed beats any Yamaha keybed hands down. This is subjective - so if anyone has tried the E-50/E-60 please share your feedback as well.

I like Roland's user interface, but not the screen. The screen is grayscale and passive-matrix which is famous for its contrast problem. But I figure I would probably have to pay double if they use an active-matrix screen. Screen touch requires a firmer push - a gentle tap would not register.

In general, I think compared to the PSR-3000 (which i also tested), the E-50 is a better keyboard. While I reckon the build of the Yamaha is better, Roland wins on the key feel. Sound-wise, they are similar at least to my ears, but this is speaker and EQ dependent. PSR-3000 has more styles and has harmony capability. E-50 has a guitar mode, which the Yamaha doesn't, but I wonder how much I would use it. E-50's styles are also decent, especially "Live Band" styles, which I like.

[This message has been edited by leeclw (edited 11-02-2006).]

Of course, this keybed beats any Yamaha keybed hands down.
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very skeptical on this one!i'll go look at roland E80 specs and return...ok i'm back..man and "yup" the E80's specs are nifty.Can you go into what the 4 modes of the feature "D-beAM" does??..i miss the days of floppies already.

[This message has been edited by mr9000 (edited 11-02-2006).]

As far as keyBED is concerned, I think Roland's key feel are generally better. This is highly each individual's preference -- as long as the keyboard allows full expression of the player, I think it should be a good keyboard for him. But after I tried Roland (E-09, E-50) and Yamaha synth-style keyboards (PSR's and Tyros), I still prefer Roland's, and to some degree Korg's.

i am glad to see that you had the chance playing the e50 a little bit. as i was saying in another post, in about one month time i should get the e60 i ordered blindly (now many, including myself would say that is a stupid thing to do ) and i am soo anxious playing it!
while i was reading your post, i realize roland was clever introducing two keyboards that differ only on how many keys they have (61/76) but other than that almost identical, because this way they collect also the users that were/are not happy with psr3000.... see my point? and of course i was expecting (at least slightly) better sounds from e50.60 compared with psr3000 even only because is a newer instrument, if not a newer sound generation.....
now i am even more anxious for my new roland....
and consorning the use of guitar mode, i believe is a great tool for writing new styles, especially "live band" type, and not that much something you'd use while performing live.

another thing: i had the impression the buttons were made from translucid plastic, just like exr's series.
is it possible to make them from translucid rubber?! maybe is some kind of silicon...

I think you are right -- the buttons may be translucent plastic or silicon not rubber, but it does feel rubbery. I have not played the EXR keyboards so I can't make a comparison.

I prefer the buttons on the Yamahas and Korgs. They feel more solid and pro.

BTW, I've just tested the Korg PA800. It's a sweet board, and everything is great about it: keyfeel, buttons, features, sounds and build quality. The problem is the price - it is just way over my budget, and it only has 61 keys.

[This message has been edited by leeclw (edited 11-03-2006).]

i dont know about pa800, and i am not sure about pa1x, but i remember when i had the pa50 one of the things i didnt like was the rubber buttons. they were ok, but i didnt appreciate much the feeling, even though their action was correct (except for one of the OTS buttons, but never mind! )

and btw, a funny story: a few years ago i had a kawai fs630 keyboard. quite a good instrument for the time. i left it over night somewhere in a wherehouse, with no bag or cover on it. in the morning, i was very surprised to see the one of the rubber buttons were... eaten by mice! hehe, after that i had only half of button to press...

Last week I played on both the Roland E-50 and E-60.Here is my comment on the difference as regards the keys.The E60 has not only more keys but also a much better keyaction.Also the keys are longer, about one centimeter.Has anyone else noticed this difference?As to the sounds, there was too much noise in the musicstore to hear the quality of them.
The display is touchsensitive.Rather much pressure is needed to make any changes.
D-beam: I never had this on any arranger.
Is it just a gimmick or is it used in practise?

ruben, give us more details.
d-beam can work as a button pretty much. you can assign functions to it, sounds, phrases, effects. i think is quite interesting and usefull feature.

Hmm..ruben that's interesting. The keys in the real photos at rolandkeyboardclub.com appears to be the same size for both e50 and e60. Perhaps in reality e60 has longer keys?

Can you tell us a little more about the different key actions between the e50 and e60?

I have the d-beam feature on my VP-550 and it can be used to control volume, filter, and expression. However, these same functions can be controlled by an expression pedal which feels more "natural" to me (as a former organ player). Plus, any hand goofing around with the d-beam is a hand not playing the keyboard .

chas

Ha ha, that's funny. The PA800, as far as I can tell, does not have any rubber buttons, just firm plastic ones with little LED lights.

Perhaps Korg later found out that their rubber buttons were edible and had to change them!

about the key's size:

definitely, the e60's keys are longer, both the black and white ones, with about a centimeter.
i spent last 20 minutes using photoimpact program to crop, resize, arrange the two images one on top of the other, to make sure, and yes, ruben is right.
that is provided the presentation photos are exactly relevant for the actual product.

It appears then the longer keys are as with the VA76 board having longer keys. If they are the same, they are a winner (IMO).

zuki

From taking a careful look at most of the online pictures of the E60, I do not think it has the same action as the VA76/G70/1000/800/A70. Roland has always limited this action to it's very top of the line arrangers, probably for cost reasons. A shame, really, as IMHO this is the best plastic action of ANY keyboard at any price.....

Can someone please truly confirm that the key action and key size for E60 is better than the E50?

probably a better comparision would be with exr5 / exr7.
also in exr series, the 76 keys instrument had a slightly better action and feel. i don t know about size though. the 61 keys instrument's action was better suited for fast solos, but feeling too much plastic and cheap.
my oppinion....
anyway, to me, e60 is a exr7 type of keyboard (build, keys, etc) but with (hopefully as close as) G70 sounds and functions. so, i'd say not bad for the price!

I think you will find the keys the same with the E50 and E60..The difference is how much of the keys are shielded by the housing..

The E series does not use the G70 keybed.