The news from Roland Italy's team demoing the new Discover 5 keyboard was that there would be a new arranger by the June NAMM show. Then, after speaking to a friend of mine who has done styles for the new keyboard, I was told that the new KR17 home digital piano would be what the new portables would be like. I went to the Roland CK booth and tried out the KR17, which is a baby grand size keyboard and tried out some of the new styles and sounds. It sounded very good and has a new user interface still using the touch screen of other Arrangers from Roland. To be honest, I didn't hear it very well because of all the noise and it didn't seem that different to me than the current sounds and styles.
I did see a new 88 key product from Roland which is designed to replace the KF90 (I'm guessing because I never saw my sales rep to ask if the KF90 was discontinued) called the KF-7. This looks like the KF90 cabinet but with a new layout. 128 note polyphony,683 tones, 16 drum sets, 204 styles x 4 types each, Music assistant, programmable styles including a style converter and style composer, floppy disk drive, sequencer, notation on the screen including a new feature called "touch the notes"(touch any note head on the digiscore screen, and the note is played automatically. Drag your fingertip over a phrase or series of notes to highlight them and the sequence is played back immediately), vocal harmonizer. The weight of this product is 66lbs. I don't think it will be much different from the KF90 but with a new look and interface. This was the only new product using arranger features that would be considered portable. All the new KR series features this new look and interface (KR3/5/7)
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California