E-60s and G70s were never big sellers, at least in my territory.

Roland RD series...yes...very successful, as well as the FP pianos and their synth and workstations are very popular...just not the arrangers.

Roland Canada distributes arrangers to all Roland dealers, not just certain types as they seem to do in the USA.

Ian



[This message has been edited by ianmcnll (edited 01-15-2008).]

This hardly sounds like they were available to try and purchase widely, Ian...

It is SO hard to sell something if only one dealer in your entire area even had one, once (he still got one?)_ Imagine how poorly the S900 would sell if nobody but one dealer stocked them, and you were not allowed to purchase one online (Roland forbid internet sales by their CK dealers).

Just be grateful that, even though they ARE arrogant and unresponsive to their customers (or potential customers), at least Yamaha aren't complete morons at marketing...!

The E60 has been out for well over a year. And yet here we are, only recently getting much user info, and all of that is positively glowing. If they were total dogs, you might expect to see not much interest past the initial curiosity. But we can see this is not so.

It is simply that so few have seen one in person that they aren't selling...

Diki,

Yep, Roland have done a poor marketing job, to be sure.

Part of my job is educating salespeople on how to demo a Yamaha arranger, from the smallest PSR to the Tyros2, including CVP Clavinova.

I am available to the sales staff on-line as well, and I provide extra styles, and other little perks that help sell the product and/or can be used as after the sale follow-ups ...perhaps to get the customer back in the store and possibly sell them something else.

I even go to some customer's homes and take them through the functions of the Yamaha TOTL and mid range arrangers.

Roland does NONE of that, at least not in my area.

I think they are the "arrogant" ones as they believe the arranger will sell itself...hasn't worked so far.

Dealers don't have much confidence in a product when the company itself has very little enthusiasm for promoting and supporting it.

It's too bad, as Roland arrangers are fine instruments...they deserve better than the little support provided by the company who seem to feel they don't need it.

That's arrogance, my friend.


Ian

Fran,

Can you tell me how good is Guitar mode for live playing?

As far as I understood, it could be only used for live playing and guitar solo only (without backing ie. without playing together with styles). Is that true?

Also, I haven't heard anything but nylon strings guitar demo, and I know there is also electric guitar but don't know how does it sound. Is there possibility to play electric guitar with some effects (fuzzy, distortion, etc.) for music like Pink Floyd (Time, Another brick in the wall...) or Santana (Samba pa ti)?

One more thing, how does the sound of E-60 compares to the sound of other TOTL arrangers, are there sounds that are multi-sampled per velocity, so that You hear different sound depending on how hard You play the keys (from one instruments to whole section of instruments for orchestral sounds like strings and brass, or different breath simulation for brass instruments that resembles actual brass player)? I hope You will understand what I meant. ;-)

Thanks.

I'm interested, Fran...how does the Roland E-60 compare to the Korg PA-800...really?

I know it probably has a better feeling keyboard, and of course, more keys, but what about the sounds?

Better piano? How about the Sax? Guitars? Electric Pianos like the Rhodes?

I know you don't want to offend your friends, Donny and Dave, so go easy, but what is the real skinny between the two instruments?


Ian the Curious

Ian said, I think they are the "arrogant" ones as they believe the arranger will sell itself...hasn't worked so far.

This is totally correct, but I'd like to change the word arrogant to "stupid." If a dealer can't sell one online, has to buy a half-dozen to even get the product and doesn't stock or know anything about the product, IT CANNOT SELL. That's stupid, not arrogant. It's as if Roland decided not to sell these arrangers in North America.

Kalimero and Ian, Surely you know I am prejudice towards Roland..

"for me", I think the Roland arrangers sound better than their same class competition does..without any reservations..

The pianos, choirs, strings, basses,etc are no match for the Korg, Yamaha and Ketron boards.. Doesn't mean the others are not great sounds..just the Roland sounds more natural and pleasing.."to me"..

Ian, as how I think the E-60 compares to the PA800..knowing that they are completely different in many ways...

The Korg has the advantage of the mic inputs, audio inputs and a mp3 option...other than that..I would prefer, the E-60 over the PA800, for all of the other reasons and features...Sounds, operation, editing,key feel and range, and construction[built]..
At half the price of the PA800..it is a better value..

Guitar mode has been mentioned on another site to be possible to write in user styles..I can not confirm this, but you do need to learn some playing technique to use it..

Overall the big guy[G70] is still unsurpassed in quality, sounds, harmonizer, etc...for "my Needs"..

First and foremost , If I can't stand the keys..it has to go..Even the best sounds are not enjoyable if it feels like a toy..you can reverse this and even mediocre sounds are better played on a proper weighted , and proper sized keys..

They could be stupidly arrogant?

Whatever the word, or words, dealers who carry the Roland line in my territory know little of the capabilities of the G70 and E-60...the local Roland rep is a guitar player and as far as I know, there has not been an Roland arranger clinic at my local store in years...lots of other types...synths, amps, effects, guitar synths...but no arrangers.

Ah well, they don't seem to listen to their customers any more than Yamaha, which isn't a lot.

Issues with the G70, such as the accompaniment shutting off when you change fingering might still be present in the new G series...

Too bad you can't get an E-60 Cassp...it must be frustrating, to say the least.

Ian








[This message has been edited by ianmcnll (edited 01-16-2008).]

Mmmmm...??

hey Cass here's an idea.....just trade Fran the Psr3k & Hammond straight up for the E60....now that's a good deal......and besides think of all the enjoyment & money your gonna make with the great sound of the E60 without breaking your back carrying it!!

Think about it