Is that a mixer similar to the PSR/Tyros EQ?

the mixer on the E series is very much like the one on the Yamaha.

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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

i'd add only that if you want to mute/unmute styles tracks while playing, for changing the complexity of playing, that is a little bit hard to do. first, because you have to use the touchscreen, and the buttons are very close to eachother, and second you dont have the tracks name displayed. with some styles, track 3 for instance can be guitar, with another style it can be piano or strings, etc. only the bass and drums are all the time the same.
even the manual says that mute/solo buttons are designed not for "live" action, but rather for preparing the style and listening to the individual tracks while tweaking for preferences.
this is in fact one of the things i am not happy with. roland dropped the full/combo/bass&drums system, which i think was very clever in va and exr series. in fact, with e60, and g70 for that matter, it is not possible to mute/unmute some particular instruments while performing "on-stage", unless you prepared and saved that from before, into a user program. ;(

sorry i didn't see this sooner. have you made a decision yet? if still deciding, let me know and i'll give you my take on the E60 i have been using for a couple of months..

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Miami Mo

Oh sure, keysvocalssax, I'd like very much to hear your comments about the E-60.


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Telmo, I can only tell you what i like and don't about it.

Pro:
-76 keys. yes you can do fine with 61, i always have. and certainly for anything but piano and elec piano 76 is too
great a range for almost any other instrument. but if you
do use piano/elec piano a lot, it's great--and it offers you
flexibility on splits etc that 61 just can't provide. That and
the superior keys to me make it a lock over the E50. and
the paucity of controls on the unit(see cons) is worse on
the E50 because it lacks the D-beam, which is no great
shakes, but at least has one more option for controls.
The keybed is really good-- better than yam, korg imo.
the touch adjustments really give true variety too.

-the sounds are very good, and can easily be tweaked,
and there are numerous effects options. see my sound
tweaks for piano, vibes, organs, guitars at roland-arranger.com. the speakers have excellent sound for
small size and put out a lot of volume.

- the styles are very good as well, but that depends on your needs. i like the fact the full arrangements are not
in-your-face and elaborate, but more subtle, since i play mostly with just bass/drums and add the full arrangement in as i play a tune to build drama. if you're someone who
wants to really sound like a commercial one-man-band,
they may not be to your taste. but you can change them
easily, and the cover feature gives variety. a definite plus.

- it' s only 28.6 pounds, and really slim. very easy to handle, carry around under your arm, lay across your back seat. easier to handle than my korg is-35 which is 61 keys and the same weight, for some reason--good design.

- it has a balance knob which the s900 lacks (need to
go to menu) this is essential to my needs playing live. the
transposer always requires 2 steps, which is a drag, but
it is well displayed and you hit the key you see in the display, no need to count clicks to figure your key like others. the E60 also has some other Roland special features which are very useful, too many to go into detail.

Cons:
-for my needs, it is sadly lacking in live play controls:
It has no mic input. The sus pedal is not programmable,
and i rarely use sustain. The other pedal input gives you
a choice of programmable foot switch or exp pedal. you
can't have both at the same time, nor is there any option
for a multi-control pedal and a midi pedal is not well
adaptable to the os.

-that leaves almost everything to the hands. the good
news-there are lots of big, well-marked, well-lit, well laid-out buttons to use. the bad news: for me, at least
11 of them are a complete waste of time: the 4 easy settings, the 4 one-touch setting, and 3 of the 4 d-beam buttons. you may find some of them useful for you. the
controls in the one d-beam button i can use, and the
v-link button, are mostly poorly designed. the fade-out
is abrupt and steep. and when playing on-the-fly, you
only have those 2 buttons for controls and a foot switch---and if you use the exp ped for organ, no foot switch.
Everything is best controlled through user programs on
Roland products. I don't fin the roland method as useful
as the Korg, say. it's more restrictive. Can't just set up
a bank of favorite user sounds or a bank of favorite user
styles..you need to program every last detail into the upg's
and then use the hold button feature for keeping the same things going when you switch upg's. but you can
get used to doing all this if you need to--i have,

hope this helps






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Miami Mo

Miami Mo

You mentioned, "the superior keys to me make it a lock over the E50"

Are you just referring to the number of keys or is there a different key feel or size between the 2?

I haven't played either, but it HAS been reported that the keybed in the E60 is different to the E50, not just more keys...

the keys on the E60 are longer than the E50..

and they DO have a different feel. better.