My first impression of Roland E-A7...
Well, it is small...it is light...looks like a toy..
and a lot of fun to play..
The keys ..yep , like the BK5, although they feel a bit stiffer..
after you play a while , you get use to them,,they are more playable than my
Edirol PC80 controller..
The operating system became second nature after a couple hours,
playing and editing..
All the buttons are rubberized, feel good and perform perfectly..
The sliders are firm and smooth..
This E-A7 is loaded with goodies, just as many features as the
BIG boys..
Coming from a week with the Korg PA4x, I can tell you the E-A7
competes favorably,,
Same features, and they work just as well as the Korg..
Many of the sounds , edge to Roland, drums strings, E guitars, choir,
scats, EP and Acc piano for starters..
The sound is surprising..I was told they were shorter samples than the BK9 etc..
Others on YouTube state they were as good or better than PA4x and Tyros5..
Styles are plentiful and nicely done,,easy to edit on the fly while
performing..Realtime mixing with the sliders..
The new OS with two displays turned out to be a great idea, they work in
conjunction with each other...and direct tabs on the display border, help navigation..
The six assign buttons for pads, phrases , tones, work great...ande are in sync with
styles and songs..
The 3 upper and one lower tones are easy to access and view..volume level via sliders ..
Favorite tones section, also user tones and styles..UPG section that saves all panel settings..
There is no sequencer, but make up tools do the job we normally do in the sequencer..
The playback for SMF,Kar, MP3 and wav..works great, and feature chain play
tempo change and transpose,,Parts mute also covered, as is center cancel..
Search feature works great for any data , song, styles, Upg etc..
Song play is easier and smoother operation than Korg..one button to play.
SMF play sounds best of any board...
Sampler improved with update 1.10....samples increased from 512 to 2,048...
I will follow up after a few days...but it looks like a keeper..
BTW: It looked like a toy, but anything but.....this is a very capable keyboard...
ready for the stage, and a light traveler..