The E-86 was quite a nice arranger and would still be pretty competitive against much newer instruments.

I used it's predecessor, the E-70, but the E-86 borrowed some of it's sounds from the JV-80 synthesizer and also had a disk drive....a much improved instrument.

On-board effects were great, and would still stand up, even today.

Ian

Yes the the E line was certainly a classic....great memories.

I went through a bunch of them back then...Roland really knocked the socks off everybody else when they introduced the E-20...Yamaha had nothing to compare at that time, and neither did Korg.

I remember playing the E-20 and being wowed by the quality of the styles and sounds.

I sold a lot of Pro-E's back then when I was doing some sales work...and the E-70/E-86 were also class acts, to be sure, as well as the RA-series modules, quite something at the time...great chord recognition features.

Yamaha really caught up with the introduction of the PSR-8000, in my opinion, but before that, Roland had the edge.

Ian

Oh baby!!!!.., those demos really take you back. Simple easy arrangements not overdone with fluff..., and in 2008 those still sound good Demo 2 had that classic Roland harmonica that screamed of Stevie Wonder (who loved that sound). The sax in demo 3 could easily be used today and be able to pull off a very good solo with it.

I remember that 2nd demo with the harmonica... remember my drooling to be exact.

Sadly the E-86 was way out of my budget at that time.

I didn't jump in until the G 800. Then there was no looking back.

Joe

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Songman55
Joe Ayala

I used an E-86 for damn near ten years. Gigged it to hell and back. A superb instrument. There was nothing to beat it as a live arranger for years. I even went back to it for a while after a brief but unconvincing stint with a Tyros.

Ian is right, from the moment the E-20 launched in '88, all the other manufacturers were in catch-up. Some would argue they still are.

Around that time, another keyboard ahead of the curve, was the Technics SX KN-1000. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvVHqzHO4D8

Over the years, the biggest improvements in arranger keyboards, are the sequencer, display, and storage. Other than that, it's more of the same, including some styles that may never be eliminated. One thing that will never be missed is the ol' floppy disk.

BTW...In 1994, the KN-1000 sold new for $4,000

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Larry
The NEW SynthZone Map

Larry ... yes the kn1000 was a GREAT board ... but $4000 ????? ... in 1992 I paid $1500 for a VERY slightly used one ... if I didn't KNOW otherwise I would have sworn it was brand new ...
the only problem the kn1000 had was that it was not gm compatible ...

t.