Currently I 'm using the Fantom-S. I did OWN The Rs-5/XP30/E500or/E40or/E36. played with an EM-2000(band's keyboard) for a long time too.

Hey alex,
No I don't work for roland however I did used to work for a company that particpated in three keyboards with sounds and styles. E-40OR and E-500OR and the recently EM-55OR.

Vic,

I was just kidding. I did not really think you work for Roland, despite your defence of their product.

Let's hope that Roland will return to its old glory soon.

Regards,
Alex

Since arranger Kb's are for the most part played and owned by more of an adult crowd....
I would think 40-80 age group...I hope as time goes on and more YOUNGER people lean toward "OTHER" means to "make music"... manufacturers won't put the effort into a dwindling market and forget about us!....lets hope not!

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 09-11-2003).]

Ok - my final thoughts on Roland for what little they are worth:

I wish I had a dollar for every Roland piece I've owned - I can't even list them all. But they've stumbled and bumbled products over and over in the past ten years and after a while you've got to ask yourself how many more of their mistakes you're willing to finance or suffer with. I swore off Roland after I mistakenly bought the infamous "Roland Studio Pack" recording system and Roland proved to me first-hand how ignorant and user-unfriendly a company can be. I then sold every piece of Roland gear I had and y'know what - I feel better now.

If you've followed my thread about my experiences of late with Yamaha, you know that they aren't perfect either. But at least they stuck with me on a difficult problem I had and saw it through until it was solved, and my concerns went all the way to the keyboard design engineers in Japan and back again. It took some time and some talking, but this would be unimaginable with Roland.

There is no reason to remain loyal to a company if it can no longer keep up with the times. Roland isn't the same company as it used to be and it shows in everything they do, or don't do as the case seems to be with things like arrangers. Wishing and "wake-up calls" won't change that. So RIP Roland... time to move on.