Hi Ted,

I bought the EA7 when it first came out from Alto Music on line. Like Sweetwater they give a 30 day trial and you can return it if you don’t like it. (I can give you a contact there if you need it). I had the BK7M sound module, so it was an easy decision to buy it without seeing it. As Don and others have shared, you get a lot of bang for the buck and it sounds great.

Down the road if you want to expand it you can also hook it up to an Roland Integra 7 sound module which has the Roland supernatural drums (used in their electronic drum gear) and all of their other acoustic and non acoustic drums. That takes it to whole different level in sound. You can also buy 3rd party drum samples as well. Hope that helps.

Mike

Johnathan,

I just bought an S1 last week (I sold my PA4x a couple of weeks ago and I guess the money was burning a hole in my pocket!). I also live in PA (in Kennett Square) so if you’d like to see it out just send me a note and I’d be happy to let you check it out.

I purchased it for the same reason- to play at my church each week. I currently use an Roland EA7 which is a gem, but not same feel/dynamics as playing piano. I have an RD2000 which is outstanding but too much weight to schlep it every week.

The other reason I decided to buy the S1 is it is a great lower board for the Genos (or other arranger) and complements it well. There aren’t many/any pro boards that small and without knobs that easily fit below an arranger like the S1, and that have flexible midi settings. The S1 (and other Dexibell boards) has 3 user midi templates which each can have up to 4 zones, and can be stored in a user program. So with Genos or other arranger on top at the touch of a button you can play Genos left (to recognize chords), right 2 and right 3 on the S1 while right 1 is active on Genos, easily playing any voice you want to play without touching a button on Genos. At the touch of a button, you can then switch to play up to 3 voices on the S1 while still sending chord info to the Genos/arranger. I know that is a simple basic midi setup, but until now I haven’t found a keyboard capable of do that simply when playing live, with the keybeds almost as close as an organ.

The keyboard and keybed is pro quality and solid. The keybed feels a lot like the PA4x quality (with closed piano key fronts) but it plays heavier IMO than when playing piano on the PA4x. Over the last few days I’ve been trying to land on a key setting (I’ve been playing with the entire range of heavy to light settings) as well as a velocity setting for the voices- there is a wide range of settings to get the best “feel” and sound. While it is clearly a quality board, some people will probably say the keybed is not as good as other digital pianos regarding feel. While it doesn’t match the feel of my RD2000, I will be still be quite comfortable playing it and enjoying it, and without carrying a 50 pound digital piano. It does not feel “cheap” at all.

For me the piano sounds seem to have a higher amount of resonance, also making them seem quite real. Some digital pianos sound deeper, but my guess is perhaps a little different than the real thing. After adjusting the velocity and eq, you can pretty much get them to sound and behave the way you want. The added bonus for me is that I tried hooking it up to a yamaha sound bar (for tv), and it sounds pretty darn close to the real thing without hooking it up to my Bose system.

I also find the EPs to be very good- you can also adjust “bell” and “growl” (as well as other parameters) on the Rhodes which is nice, different and useful. The organs are very useable too. So all in all, a useful addition for playing alone or as a powerful midi keyboard for use with an arranger where someone is looking for a ‘dual manual’....all in a nice small 19 pound package. A keeper for me.

Hope that helps!

Mike