And yet anotheranother BK-9 Demo

Roland BK-9 szintetizátor bemutató

Nice link thank you.
I have seen many times Ralph demoing Roland products...always has a happy smile and nice to talk to.

Wow, what a great player! I have to admit, I'm starting to warm up to this KB. The CS is such a great feature which allows total LH freedom.

Anyways here's a few question some of you may know:

1. Is there a break button ?

2. I know there is no VH ( bummer) but are there any vocal effect like reverb?

3. Are the keys the same as the BK5?

As to your second question the XLR mic input does have a dedicated reverb effect.

The key action on the BK-9 will likely be much better than the BK-5. The BK-9 costs $1,500 more than the BK-5 and is considered a high-end arranger. I don't think Roland would risk putting in the same keybed as the BK-5. If they did so there could be a backlash from customers. People expect better quality when they purchase "high-end" products. Time will tell.

I don't see a dedicated "break" button from the pictures I've seen. There is no mention of a break button on the Roland website either. Perhaps the break is engaged when you press the variation button itself and might also be controlled with the use of a foot pedal. The BK-9 should start arriving in stores within the next 30 days. Once they arrive word will get out and hopefully all our questions will be answered.

All the best, Mike

Roland has never had a break button. Big downfall. You can address a Stop/break via midi, but it is just that, total silence for a measure.
Of course there are workarounds if you like to program your own and save it in an intro or ending location.
DonM

Hi...
The BK-9 has four buttons near the pitch bender and any one of them can be used as a break.

That will be great if it really has a break/fill as all the other brands do. A bar of silence is not a great substitute. I'm hoping they finally addressed it!
DonM

Unfortunately it is not a break/fill ...
you can only assign a break... in other words
it is just a bar of silence.

You can also assign a break to the FC-7. There's also a cool trick that works as a substitute for a proper break/fill. Assign the break command to either a switch or FC-7 switch, and put the ACC ON/OFF button next to it. Hit them both at the same time, then after a short break, hit the fill. You'll now get bass and drums for the pickup, then hit the ACC ON/OFF on the 'one' and the band comes back in. No, it's not a full, proper break/fill, but it's close, and unlike the break/fill, you DO have the option of a full bar break if you want one.

The thing I noticed with the rock guitar demo was the lack of aftertouch kills the realism if you are playing a tune with changes. It's all well and good to take your LH off the keyboard and work the wammy bar if you don't have to play the chords (I'm surprised he didn't use the CS to help him out here) but live arranger play seldom affords you the time to do this. A non-vibrato'd guitar simply doesn't exist! The lack of aftertouch on Roland's current TOTL arranger is a cut I don't think they should have made.

I have to admit, the tempo synced loops finally make arrangers nearly as 'hip' as workstations... when Ralph brings in the breakbeat loops over the bossa track, it was like 'Welcome to the 21st century!'. I know that Ketron have had this feature for a while, but Roland have brought it down to a new price point, and made it fairly easy to use and edit. For smooth jazz, and as a way to add mash-up and contemporary dance flava to what we currently do, it's a game changer. Yamaha need to pull the finger out, and add looping capabilities to the multipad audio wav's on the S950. This is just too cool!