The Roland E-80 is now up on the Roland US website.

Squeak

The E-50/60 are there too, but there's no real good information on either yet--or demos.

[This message has been edited by squeak_D (edited 07-14-2006).]

Ooops.. Here's the link
http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?ObjectId=825&ParentId=72

Thanks squeak for the Link.There are a few new demos also.....sounds very LIVE. I think the G70 was the middle step for E80. At the time of release the G70 wasn't ready.[imo].
Finally i decided to buy a psr 1500, for me is a major upgrade from my psr 2500(1989,17 years ago....) and an entry keyb in the semi-pro level, in affordable price too....
Lucky me beacuse in the future i'll have the oppotunity to save money for TYROS 3

What is the Weight of the E80 with speakers?

Weight

22.5 kg

49 lbs. 10 oz.

Width 1,176 mm 46-5/16 inches
Depth 489 mm 19-1/4 inches
Height 198 mm 7-13/16 inches

Roland Canada



















[This message has been edited by Stephenm52 (edited 07-14-2006).]

Not too bad including good speakers good enough for small gigs......I'd love to try one when they ever come to market/stores.
Thanx Steve for the Info.

Four ounces more than the Yamaha PSR 9000. Remember that beast?

Honestly, I cannot fathom why Roland made a 61 key high-end Arranger this heavy. Although in thinking about it maybe they were just too lazy to produce one that was significantly lighter. >> Hey George! hand me that transformer over there will ya? << Which one?.. the high quality and extremely efficient light one or the cumbersome heavy one? >> Give me the heavy one George.. it will give the customer the impression that this beast is rock solid. And boy do I mean ROCK SOLID!

PS: If they would have used the lightest possible composites (especially in the speakers) they could have made the E-80 a lot lighter. Like 10 to 15 lbs. lighter in my opinion.

I like the E-80 the more I listen to it and see it's cutting edge features, etc. But at only 61 keys and the obvious disadvantage of it being so heavy, I for one would never consider the E-80 as a viable option - especially for gigging.

I think Roland is marketing this Board for the home user and especially for those residing in Europe where most high-end Arrangers are bought and used for pleasure rather than as a means of personal income.

Best regards,
Mike

--------------------------------------------
I think Roland is marketing this Board for the home user and especially for those residing in Europe where most high-end Arrangers are bought and used for pleasure rather than as a means of personal income.
--------------------------------------------

There ya go! Here in the US we represent a small portion of their arranger sales. The design and portability issue priority is to the overseas countries--focusing on their needs and wants first--we get the pass me down hand-outs

Squeak

Hi,
Where are the new demos you talk about?
Many thanks!

There's a small button that says "audio" click on that

Squeak

Is it on the Roland US site you mean?
I cant seem to find that with my screen reader. I'm visually impaired. Is it a Macromedia Flash movie?

Yes it's on the Roland US website. Right under the (changing pic) of the E-80 there are three small icons. One's titled Images, the other Audio, and the last one is Video.

Squeak

If you don't mind my asking what is your visual impairment, and to what degree. I'm not trying to pry, but I too have a serious vision problem (that was genetic). All my offspring will suffer from it (as it is present in my 4 year old)--She was placed in glasses at 16 months old!

Squeak

Listening to the demos, the drums and guitars sound better then at the Blackpool Festival, but overall it still sounds like a PSR 3000, so I am still not impressed. (To my ears the Tyros 2 and particularly the Korg PA1X easily put the E80 in the shade)
However that is just my opinion.

Bill

Hello,
No problems. I am totally blind so i am using both speech and braille.
No, I cant find that button! Have even used my screen readers more advanced functions in navigating, but that flash object isn't accessible.
Is it possible to have a direct URL to it or are they MP3s which someone might give the direct URL to? many thanks!

Boy, I can't see a way to directly post the demos link. If you right click on the demo--the option to copy it isn't available.

Squeak

Sounds good - just listended to it. (Audio/Video) comparable to the PA1x? - or better, perhaps?

Totally agree Abacus, they had time to make some changes since Blackpool and looks like they haven't. I'm surprised since it didn't make that much of an impression there anyway. At least it saves me having to go and see one. Still sounds no better than a G70.

It does ay *1GIG* wave memory in the spec sheet is this corerct? - or 1 Gbit (not bye, but "bit"

[This message has been edited by Jupitar5 (edited 07-14-2006).]

Hello Christian
The Demos are in Macromedia format, I have downloaded the files, encoded them to MP3, and uploaded them to Rapidshare as a Zip file, and here is the link. http://rapidshare.de/files/25858863/E_80.zip.html
Hope you enjoy.

Bill

Hello Bill,
Many thanks for your help!
Unfortunatly the Rapidshare prompts me for an access code which seem to be displaied as an image which my screen reader can't see! So maybe if you could email it to me? Many thanks!

1 Giga'bit' is 128 Mega'bytes'. So the E-80 has 128MB of Wave Memory. As an example the Tyros2 has 300MB of linear .wav rom but consequently since it is 'compressed' it is more around 160MB (more or less), depending on how much compression Yamaha used. The Tyros on the other hand has 96MB of .wav rom but the Manual or spec sheet does not say whether it has been compressed (from a larger amount originally), so it is possible that the Tyros' .wav rom is 'uncompressed'. Uncompressed .wav rom is the best kind since compression takes away from the sound quality of any audio format.

In theory the Roland E-80 could possibly have uncompressed .wav rom but that info is not available from Roland's web site or in the Manual that I'm aware of so there is no way of knowing for sure until if or when Roland decides to release that data.

PS: I agree that the sounds on the E-80 aren't necessarily stellar in quality; at least from the demos we've heard so far anyway. The sounds on the video demo were pretty good on some of the voices they used.

The neat thing is you can add up to two SRX expansion cards that will most likely dramatically increase the E-80's sound palette and also sound quality. The downside is because Roland didn't put in excellent preset voices (maybe there are some in the presets but we may have not heard them yet from the current line of demos), we have to shell out mucho dinero (much money) for the SRX cards to get the sounds we may want. So Roland gets you coming and going. A high priced Board made even higher because of low quality presets forcing the user to buy expensive SRX expansion cards. >> Hopefully Roland will put up some better demos in the near future that showcase better sounding preset voices. If their bag is empty and they aren't able to do that then be prepared to have deep pockets to get the E-80 to sound to your liking by way of SRX cards at $250.00 or more a pop.

Best regards,
Mike

Hi ,
just wondering where you read this, I can't seem to find it in the specs??

I'm trying to work out the difference between gigabits & gigabytes also,
found the following, still as clear as mud to me
http://www.pcwebopedia.com/TERM/g/gigabyte.html http://www.pcwebopedia.com/TERM/g/gigabit.html


best wishes
Rikki

50 lbs ! and for only 61 notes?!

Scott

If the tyros 2 has 300 MB compressed memory, then doesnt that mean it actually has more than 300?

so after compression it has a total of 300 mb...

Frailty?....

If the tyros 2 has 300 MB compressed memory, then doesnt that mean it actually has more than 300?

so after compression it has a total of 300 mb...

[/B][/QUOTE]


Although I do read and pay attention to them, in the end, I pretty much do what my ears tell me and leave the specs for someone else. A perfect example of this ... NI's Bandstand with approximately 2 GB of wave samples vs a free soundfont ( SGM180 ) ... in an A / B demonstration. I did this with another musician and we both came to the conclusion that the soundfont sounded better. I'm glad I was able to have a listen before I shelled out the bucks for Bandstand.

AJ

The Tyros2 has 300MB of 'linear' .wav rom as stated by Yamaha representatives. Linear PCM 'Pulse Code Modulation' - the method to change analog recordings into digital bits of information and used by Yamaha and Korg, etc. to produce their voice samples is done 'without' "companding" or in layman's terms - 'compression'. So when it says (by Yamaha's own words) 300MB of 'linear' .wav rom it is the "uncompressed" amount. Since it is already a known fact that Yamaha compressed the Tyros2 .wav rom, the 300MB 'linear' amount is not the true amount since compression was used. So in actuality the Tyros2 .wav rom is more in the neighborhood of 160MB of .wav rom depending like I said on how much compression Yamaha used.

Best regards,
Mike