Stefan Langolf brings you a comparison between:

Roland E-80
Yamaha Genos
Korg Pa5x
Ketron Event


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wuPm3OgaHk


He plays an Electric Piano voice on each followed by a Blues style.

As expected the Yamaha Genos voices have lots of reverb and effects that makes them instantly euphonic. This is the classic feeling of listening to a studio mastered CD which many love.

The Korg Pa5x voices on the other hand sound relatively dry allowing each instrument to be clearly identified in their own space. This sounds more like a live band.

The Ketron EVENT surprised me with the realistic guitar parts. Stefan soloed each Guitar to demonstrate the realism.

The Roland E-80 was released in 2007. It shows its age, although it still holds up well to the competition. I have seen used ones being sold for $800 at Guitar Center which makes it a bargain buy.

Stefan is an Arranger fanatic.

He has more comparison videos on his YouTube Channel.


https://www.youtube.com/@arranger-world2022/videos


It is great for the customer to have so many choices at so many price points to satisfy your individual needs and tastes.

I am disappointed that he doesn’t attempt to dial the effects so they are closer. I think that’s one of the main things to take away from these comparisons… do a little editing and you can get them so close it’s pretty moot with the basic meat and potatoes sounds.

And, to be quite honest, even the mid-line arrangers will be close to indistinguishable too..!

What sets the TOTL arrangers apart is all the stuff he’s NOT using, Yamaha’s Ensemble voicing modes, Korg’s two styles running simultaneously, Ketron’s clip launching, things like that.

But, as with his previous comparison (posted here a few weeks ago) my opinion still stands. If this is as good as you can play, and if this is as complex as you want to use an arranger, why pay $4-5K for a modern one when a used E80 (or G70) will sound VERY close, and can be found for well under $1,000?

I suspect he demonstrates what the majority of the players will do. Not much more than playing those styles and sounds... I am looking at an E-80 right now, for about 500 dollars. Yes, 20 years old, but who's getting any younger?

LE: Indeed, I was looking for a BK-9, but they are very rare it seems, none available in my region... Such a shame Roland left the market, I had hoped for some Go Keys 7 or something at NAMM, but no signs.

Ceau Adi

Since Roland East Europe LTD. in Budapest was a major distributor for Hungary and Romania back in the days, I would keep an eye on the instrument advertisements that appear in Hungary because they sold plenty of them over there, therefor every once in a while a BK-9 would pop up.

Here is a link that has a potential in coming across a BK-9 or any other Roland product:
https://www.jofogas.hu/magyarorszag?q=roland

Here is an E-80 for 650 USD:
https://www.jofogas.hu/veszprem/Roland_E_80_Szintetizator_152801957.htm


Here is a G-70 for sale approx. 725 USD:
https://www.jofogas.hu/fejer/Roland_G_70_szintetizator_megkimelt_allapotban_elado_152612922.htm


Your next bet would be Poland or Germany.

Hey Dengizich, thanks, indeed I remember Roland was huge in Hungary back in the years, Romanians always prefered Korg Much appreciated your input, I might turn to that for shopping, I'll see how it goes.

All the best to you!!!

Adi

Well said ! Words of Wisdom

The Roland E-80 is doing pretty good with those other keys.

Would you like to hear a keyboard that is showing its age? My first arranger was a Roland E-68 that I bought in 1996. I still own it to this day, and it works mint. A very simple machine, with 28 voice polyphony, SMF player (GM GS) , 241 sounds, 64 styles, digital effects 8 reverb - 8 chorus, floppy disk drive and 64 performance memories.


Here is a link, if you are curious how the E-68 sounds like:
https://youtu.be/TZTcebhLyLU?feature=shared


It wasn't that popular in the US, it was mostly sold in Europe. Although the ones that were sold in the US had a "US" designation next to the Roland logo, and the letters were in blue instead of the orange like the European models had.

Adi, you're welcome and thank you!

Yes, the preferred brand was Korg and Yamaha.

Sanatate!

Given a choice between an E80 and a G70, I’d pick the G70 every day! 76 notes is a lot friendlier to play full piano parts on (and that action is to die for!) and the G70 had a 64MB main piano sound (that was a lot of RAM for one piano back in the day!) that was changed for the E80. I did a LOT of session work using the G70’s piano sound backin the day and it held up VERY well in a pro mix.

It’s one of the reasons I still keep one. Wonderful sound!

G70 is a bit lighter despite being a 76 (no speakers) and only had one SRX slot (E80 had 2), but unless you play no two handed stuff at all, I think it’s the better of the two.

Diki, I got a G-70 too, actually, you were the one who told me to buy the SRX-07 Ultimate Keys expansion board when I got it. The piano sounds are phenomenal on that exp. board. Color touch screen, nice key bed, vocoder, harmonizer.