I love the Joel style, but when the sax lead came, I just had to laugh - pitiful. It still reminds me of the e-09 series. 'Cmon Roland, get serious. Put some muscle in your boards.

In fairness, I have heard few 'live' SA2 sax demos that came even CLOSE to the factory demos, which are sequenced (but use style play as the jumping off point).

The timing and phrasing is MUCH more critical once your sax sound actually CAN do legato and staccato tonguing. And few arranger players I have seen play live have the requisite skills to pull this off.

Rumors for a May 21st, 2013 release date to buy BK-9 in stores.

Some confusion about bad saxes on Roland KB's?..Here's a BK 7m Sax Ballad......

No confusion, Donny. I, personally, didn't think the sax sounded good at all. Maybe it was because I was listening to the song with my Yamaha YST MS50 sound system plugged into the PC.

Gary

99% of whether a sax sound is good is the playing. Phrasing, evenness of touch (horn players, unless going for the effect deliberately, do not jump in volume from note to note, but keyboard players have a hard time hitting every note almost the exact same velocity), ability to make phrase ends quieter than phrase starts (horn players run out of breath!), all of these make a radical impact on whether a solo is believable...

I must confess, I'm not too enthused about that Wham! solo. For starters, it sounded like he was playing an alto sax down in a tenor sax's range. Then you have to take into account that this is a BK-7m. Not a BK-9. No switch enabled up glisses like the SA saxes have. But the BK-9 is supposed to have some of this kind of stuff.

For now, I'd be waiting patiently for them to hit the stores, and for Roland to release their usual top quality demos. We have seen neither, yet...

Realism is obviously lacking in my opinion. The Tenor Sax was okay, albeit, far from perfect. The others sounded very unnatural. The distortion guitar was a big disappointment too if you ask me. On the other hand the acoustic guitar was very good and the accordion was excellent. The muted trumpet was okay but some of the solo trumpet notes didn't sound right. The acoustic grand(s) lack authenticity in my humble opinion. The organs he played were just so so. I tell it like I hear it and my ears are telling me the BK-9 doesn't have that wow factor. The styles seemed pretty good but the bass was over-compensated, drowning out the other instruments. The drums were pretty decent in some cases but nothing to write home about. There seems to be a significant amount of "aliasing" in the high end which degrades the realism of the instruments. All in all I'm not very impressed.

It seems to me Roland is stuck in rut and if you ask me they should go back to the drawing board to create a completely new (and hopefully breathtaking) sound set from the ground up. Many of the sounds are rehashed and a big letdown in my estimation. The BK-9 is a high-end priced keyboard that has MOTL sounds in many cases. Although online demos can be somewhat deceiving. But in this case I think what you hear is what you'll get when it arrives in stores. I would like to be proven wrong about that of course.

Once it arrives at GC I'll get give a good workout and make a final analysis. I still can't see myself buying one presently because of the low resolution LCD's and the lack of speakers and also the lack of a harmonizer and obviously the less than stellar sounds I've heard thus far. Too bad. I had high hopes but so far it's somewhat of a disappointment.

To each his own. Donny and Fran are probably ecstatic which is fine and dandy. Somebody needs to keep Roland afloat financially and it's nice to know some people like it. If they happen to sell a boatload I'll be very surprised though I must admit. Although stranger things have happened. 2,500 smackaroos is a lot of money but if you purchase one from a reputable source they'll likely have a 30 day money back guarantee. Which is good to know because you might need to take advantage of it.

All the best, Mike

ok guys it has been brought to my attention by good sources that the Bk-9 for the most part will have the bk-5 sound set with a few super natural sounds as I hear the Demos being a BK-5 owner I can hear it and it not just a bad player the sax sounds is bad horn sounds are not good maybe the tone wheel stuff will be good for organ sounds pianos are nice on BK-5 as for pad and strings very nice as well but it is what it is it will not have the thickness we want that is upsetting to me Roland has the abilty to put much better sounds in those areas the integra and G series synths have much better sounds pianos and el pianos, organs, strings good but the other stuff not good my Tyros 4 will fill in where the Bk-5 -9 falls short SAX sounds for sure I was hopeful Roland would of put a much full sound set in like there top of the line sound set and not the past BK sound set bad move for them . sadly this will make it a MOTL unit 76 keys will make me want one but for the price they are asking better sound set should of been added so the demos are what you hear BK- 5 type of sounds because that is what it is

Mike, if I don't like something..even from Roland I will pass on it, and comment why I don't like it

The BK series sounds great and the drums are near the best (Audyia ?)..There is no reason to think the BK9 is going to sound any less quality....

Recently I posted a Roland sax that most (even Tyros owners) claimed was the best they heard from current models..one of the guys was a great sax player to boot..

Personally..I like new keyboards...I like to put them thru their paces...and if they don't fit my needs..I move on...Yes I may try the BK9 and not keep it...although I doubt it.I do like the concept of 76 keys with mic input and 21 pounds..

But keep in mind I already have what I am happy with..G70 and my laptop..unbeatable combination..period.
If I were doing 2 or 3 senior gigs a day like some folks...maybe I would need a light keyboard..even at a compromise...but I don't and would only do one a day..I can still handle 46 pounds..

I can assure you, despite Roland themselves not knowing how to pick and tune the best voices for styles, you CAN get some scarily good electric guitars out of the BK series. Their amp simulators have improved drastically since the G/E series. Check out my two BK-7m/KX-5 keytar demos.

And, although I give the G70 GrandX a slight nod, the pianos in the BK-7 still shine. Once again, I believe that it boils down to the controller... It's hard to modulate your playing strength on an action as light as the BK5/9. Mind you, they are still a bit stiffer than the PSR series. If you want to get the most dynamics out of a keyboard, setting the touch strength to it's minimum (the most force needed to get fff) is usually the best bet, but most arrangers set middle strength as default, and most early demonstrators tend to not fiddle with the factory defaults.

Saxes are still a toss up for me. The BEST SA2 demos make the Yamaha's saxes sound wonderful, but again, it's rare to find a user demo that comes even close. Roland is just in its infancy with SA style voices, and overall, I'd give them a slight nod. But it is still 99% the player that is going to make the difference. In the hands of a good horn player emulator, I think you would find the Roland adequate, at least.

Again, as I still class the BK9 as a MOTL arranger, not the 'flagship' that comparison with a T4 or PA3x would expect, it has much that other MOTL offerings don't have. 76 notes, key triggered audio loops (little buzz so far about this quite handy feature), a Chord Sequencer of some sort, ultra light weight, etc..

Roland at least can't be accused of having a 'me too' arranger here!