Roland A-90EX

Very easy to use. QUite a deep controller keyboard with many levels, but easy for the novice to get started and lots of room to grow.

64 voice. Medium -light hammer action is comfortableand relatively fast. Get the EX pIano card - great piano sounds plus many other essential keyboard and synth patches for demos and live operation.

Full MIDI spec.

Sequencer control.

All sounds ver good.
Great for all styles of music.
Effects are good, but for today, relatively limited.
Very reactive keyboard. Great aftertouch.

Used for many years without problem.

These things get banged on when played and then get transported so there are liable to be problems.

I have broken 3 keys over the life of the unit (still in service!) but they are relatively easy to replace.

Yvery easy to get the parts I needed.

Hard to replace this one! They just don't make them like this anymore.

This is the best MIDI controller ever made by far!!!! If you can find one get it!!!!!! The piano sounds are Excellent probably one of the best samples ever put together the A90 EX is just awesome - sampled a while back ago but still great - I have a JV880 and -s760 sampler and a Casio WZ-3000 - Talk about sounds - controlling the Casio is great!

I bought this used the end of April 2006 - IF it has damaged keys get it anyway and have it repaired - YOU WILL NOT FIND ANOTHER KEYBOARD LIKE THIS EVER!!!!

10 years later this keyboard is going stronger than ever!!!!! Poly is fine - How ever what I love is the obvious controller features - quik fast - great for gigging and studio work..... Find one if you can - And Honestly, I would still pay up to 700.00 for this thing - Talked to a Roland tech recently and he told me that - The techs are encouraging Roland to bring the model back - or something very close to it.... Roland should have made this keyboard forever - with software updates + optional hardware updates... Too bad

The hammer action is Fantastic for its age - (tangent) Yamaha SP08 are just amazing hammer wise...

The sounds are great as mentioned earlier - sampled on 96-99 technology, and yes a little dated, but honestly who cares - recording sounds great samples easy to change if needed on the fly...

Absoulutely, definitely without a backup - It's a Roland A-90 EX what do expect!!!

Pretty good - easy to get tech

IF it were lost or stolen I would need therapy - can't imagine ever having a studio without it - Pretty heavy to gig with, but worth it if you are doing a large set..... Live - it is great.....

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The A-90 is a PRO-oriented 88 keys performance master keyboard with a excellent soft-medium hammer action. The MIDI routing and control features makes the A-90 the MIDI core of any keyboard player on a gig.

Working with a PC and a set of virtual intruments (VSTi, DXi) the A-90 is a excellent tool to control all the virtual instruments on you PC on a live performance without put a hand on the PC to change a sound.

Now the A-90 is discontinued, and miss another master keyboard with the MIDI features, elegance and reliability of the A-90.
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First of all, sorry for my bad english. I'm a 32 years old keyboard player, playing with my own band daily on a 5 star holiday hotel resort on the Canary Islands (a spanish islands placed on the North African Atlantic coast, that belong to Spain). I use here the A-90 there since 2 years and a half.

If you are looking for total MIDI control and a medium hammer keyboard action the A-90 is the real thing. The A-90 appeared on 1997 and has not internal sounds, but the A-90EX incluides the VER-DI card with a bundle of pianos and keyboard sounds. The card was 24 Mb, something impressive on that years. I writte this review on 2004, and now if you are looking for great piano sounds, you should consider to buy a external sound source instead upgrade an A-90 to A-90EX. So we'll forget the internal sounds by now, and later I will recommend you some good sound source for pianos based on PC.

The A-90 gives you control up to 8 layers. You can assign each layer to a MIDI channel and to one or more MIDI outputs. Also with the A-90 you can switch, merge, split, velocity split... and combine these LAYERS on so many ways as you want to imagine.

Lots of MIDI IN-OUT Routing! Using the 2 MIDI INPUTS you can play two external Master Keyboard as a extension of the 88 keys of the A-90, using on them the power of the MIDI filtering of the A-90. Amazing! There is also a lot inputs for pedals and footswithes ready to be assigned to any MIDI control or program changue. These external foot controls can be assigned to one or more layers on as many combination as you want. Total control!

After 2-3 hours of practique and a reading the manual, you will find the way to do this. The A-90 is a perfect tool to control huge sets of MIDI modules, or maybe a computer full of virtual instruments.

The user interface is not for begginers, some menus are long and complex, and some functions are very hidden. But there is a lot of direct access buttons that will help you to edit some basic and also advanced functions on a snap. Practice and all will be easy on the stage!

I love the buttoms!!! Are big and pretty, very confortable, like a JD-800. All the buttoms have a bright orange light (except the numerical buttoms). Even the Panic buttom has a light on it! Don't you love it?

The keyboard action is excelent. I feel like play a real piano!

The A-90 HAS NOT A HARD KEYBOARD. It has hammer action but a little soft. My fingers never get tired like other 88 hammer action keyboards I tried (specially Kurzweil and Fatar were too hard for play 2 hours each day). So remember this ... the keys are little soft, but there's hammer action.

The keys are also really solid. Forget your plastic synth keys, you will feel the key weights. The mechanics is the same than the RD series of Roland Electrical pianos.

There is 8 velocity curves. I always felt happy with the default curve and I need no changes. You can assign a different curve to each layer. There is also aftertouch, but I never used it.

I never used the Sequencer control buttoms, but I use the sliders all the time. There is 6 sliders but only five transmit MIDI. The other is the internal volume of the internal expansion board. There is not build in sequencer. Do you need it?

With the numeric pad you can enter any data or recall any of the 64 memories. I never used a memory, I always work switchin on and off layers. To create piano sounds I make several combinations of layers, mixing the acoustic piano of 'The Grand' with a N.I. FM7 DX glassy piano, or a Rhodes from N.I. Elektrik Piano VSTi. Just combining what I need of the 8 layers to create a sound of my choice, just setting up the volumes of each layer on the sliders. But there is hunders of work with the A-90.

The ver-di expansion board sounds were one of the best pianos ever heard on 1997, 98 and lot of top musicians used the A-90 as main piano. These sounds are not for me. There are inside the classical Roland pianos, and some pads, organs. But I recomend to plug the A-90 to any VSTi or DXi giga piano, like 'The Grand'. I tried the popular 'East-west Bossendorfer 290' with the A-90 with a friend's VST-MIDIfied laptop. Our conclussion was Bosendorfer 290 was perfect as classical piano or smooth jazz style, and 'Steinberg The Grand' was perfect for Rock-Pop. 'The Grand' is a dry piano, and B-290 is a wet piano.

Nothing compares to these two virtual pianos. I also tried several Gigapianos for Gigasampler, or the internal sounds of other electrical pianos as P-80 or RD-700, or even the aclaimed Kawai MP-9500 (the Kawai looks really ugly), but personally the real piano is 'Steinberg The Grand' on a Roland A-90.

I own an second hand A-90.

The keyboard external structure looks solid as a rock. All the keys work perfect after years of daily use. No broken keys, as other people report. No 127 velocity values after a lot of abuse. All works great. All the buttoms and functions work perfect. I use a lot the sliders everyday and all continues working right.

Just I have the same problem than the next review with the pitchbend. Please read it on the next review. If I move the pitchbend it doesn't works but changue a bit down the tone. So I think it's a general fault of all the A-90s. It was broken when I brought the keyboard, so I use the pich and modulation wheels instead the pitchbend.

I also have a led on a buttom that doesn't work. Unluckly is the led of the Switch of the Layer-1. It's a very important light because I can not check when layer 1 is on or off. I was using a lot this buttom so i guess when I use a lot a buttom, maybe the led will get broken. Any report out there with problems on the leds on the A-90?

No alarm, it is just one led after lot of intense crazy sessions. So I think the A-90 is totally reliable, even when doing abuse, but not totally perfect as we can see on the problem on the pitchbend.

I would like to fix on the customer support these little things, but I need the A-90 to work. I'm on Canary Islands and there is no customer support here. Is very expensive to send the A-90 to Spain and return back by air these 27 kg+box , so I'll live with these little faults, since the keyboard is totally operating.

The A-90 is my main playing tool. I use also Yamaha CS2x and a CS1X as master keyboards (not as sound source). Why? Just because the 8 rotatory buttons on the Yamaha's transmit MIDI controller. I assign the Yamaha's to a layer an the A-90 that plays N.I. B4 VSTi on the PC, or another layer that is connected to Steinberg Halion, a virtual sampler on the PC with lots of sounds from the Akai and Gigastudio library (Strings, Brass, Pads, Leads, Classic Synths). I love to control the filters and envelopes on the CS2-x buttoms. And I control all this through the A-90.

I brough the A-90 just because I can not find all these MIDI control features on another master keyboard. But I'll like to replace it, just because I get tired of the same keyboard every night during 2 hours. But I found nothing better as MIDI routing keyboard, so I'll continue waiting until something new appear.

Just a little mention to the Kawai MP-9500. If you are looking real hammer action go to the Kawai. Real hammers! and a solid HARRDD REAL keyboard.

The Kawai also has a good MIDI implementation, sliders and 4 layers, but far of the 8 layers and the vaste MIDI posibilities of the A-90.

I love on the A-90:
- Keyboard Action and key's feeling.
- Excelent MIDI routing and MIDI control
- 4 MIDI OUTS
- Lots of Pedal and footswitch inputs.
- Expands their MIDI layering power to external master keyboards.
- It has the best and prettiest buttoms I never found.
- Solid construction, reliable keyboard and nice design and lines.

I miss on the A-90:
- Some more sliders.
- Lots of buttoms but there is no assignable switch buttoms!!! Just switch the 8 layers, switch the 4 MIDI outs and switch portamento & monophonic.
- Easier menus.
- 8 layers is enough but if there is more layers I'll use it.
- As heavy as all the good hammer action keyboards. (27 kg)

The A-90ex is very easy to use, although one has to learn to do this himself. The manual is not very clear about some isues. Nevertheless, the A-90ex is very easy to use, the piano sound is great!

I've experienced a very strange problem using the A-90ex with Cubase VST. The midi data received by Cubase is not corresponding with the things I've played. Some notes have a length of sometimes more than 300, where I've played is for like 2. When I play a C9-chord (d-e-g-c) with the right hand, combined with a left hand (c-g-c), no MIDI-information is send at all. I've tried to contact Roland for this problem, and so far without any results.
The keyboard of the A-90ex is brilliant. It playes very light, but still feels like an acoustic piano.

The piano sound, as well as the Hammond B-3 (distorted) sound are fabulous! I play all kinds of music with the A-90ex, and it's very usefull for all kinds of stiles.

The midi-information send to Cubase doesn't seem to be right, as I've found out recording in a studio using Cubase. In that way, it's not reliable at all.
Last week, my pitch bender broke down: when I bend up (and the tone is supposed to go up 1 whole note), it works fine, but when I release the bender, the note drops a little more than half a note, which makes the sound (and the entire A-90ex) out of tune! This is a terrible failure, which makes the A-90ex not reliable at all. I've tried to analyze the problem, and it appears to be that the plastic has worn out, which means the entire bend-unit has to be replaced.

I've tried to contact Roland several times now through customer support on their website, and 'till this moment, they haven't responded at all. To me, it's unbelievable that a company as Roland has the guts to call this customer support.......

Lately, the A-90ex isn't reliable anymore. May be this is normal for a midi controller of 10 years old. The worst thing about it, is that Roland doesn't seem to be able to give any kind of customer support.

The hammers broke on me at a gig in the middle of a tune. I couldn't deal with that.
When I opened it up I saw about 15-20 other hard plactic hammers cracked!
I could not trust it after this experience ever again. I fixed it at and auothorized Roland center and sold it -at a lost. Don't buy it!

After talking to Roland they have told me that some of the PA-4 hanmmers made of plastic that has been improved since I've got my model. They have replaced the faulty parts for no charge after the warranty expired by a year. I guess they felt really guilty.
Now they use the PA-5 hammers I hope they are reliable.

The perfect controller gone wrong because of the cheap plastic hammers....
I loved it but could not trust it.

This controller has it all -- good keyboard action, high flexibility with an interface you'll get used to in no time.
I installed firmware upgrade version 2.11 from <http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/plank/A-Series%20Downloads.html> to get additional patch names.
The presets are pretty much useless, as you will replace them with your own. Editing performances can get lengthy, but is not difficult. I would have liked more control over patches, but hey, it's supposed to be a controller, not a synth.
Although the manuals could be improved, they do cover all the features and proved useful many times.

64-voice polyphony is fine, but if you get carried away with the sustain pedal, it shows its limits.
The excellent keyboard action is quite deep and satisfying, although not as light as more recent pianos. It is easy to control pressure and the plastic finish doesn't feel cheap. In fact the problem is elsewhere; the keys make all sorts of little (mechanical) noises when used -- but the previous owner did play outside and in areas with a lot of cigarette smoke...
The included VE-RD1 card is the best match out of the 3 or 4 available expansion boards; it allows for the complete set of A-90 features to be used. Still, it lacks the extra tweaking functionality you would find on a synth or a sampler.
You can insert a M-512E memory card for 64 additional performance settings and other stuff.
As a top-of-the-line MIDI controller, there is nothing much to say against the A-90EX; it supports just about everything you can think of. You have as many programmable wheels (4), sliders (5), buttons (2) and pedals (6) as you will ever want, and you can assign them to any parameter that God created.
Although there is no onboard sequencer, there are dedicated control buttons for an external sequencer, as well as a performance chaining feature.

This is where the VE-RD1 shows its limitations. As far as piano and organ sounds goes (nice B-3's), it can hold its ground, although it can't compare with recent Technics electronic pianos. It does feature a lot of similar sounds, and mostly keeps itself to "sounds from instruments with keyboards".
It goes far enough to be used as a stage piano by itself, but there are many dedicated electonic pianos that sound better (and cost less). If you want total MIDI control however, the A-90/EX is for you. The reaction to the input is excellent, and is limited only by the equipement you control. All I have to say is that the VE-RD1 is not the best equipment you can control.

When I bought it the previous owner, a professional keyboardist, had to repair lots of stuff (stuck key, dead buttons and/or lights, etc.). Since I got it, I did not have any problems. The usual cleaning will prevent the "happening of shit". I would certainly use it without backup, just like I would for every Roland equipement I encountered.

A store I know ordered some obscure A-90 parts (boards, keys, hammers and manuals) from USA and Japan and got them 2 weeks later. Not bad. However, this particular model is discontinued since 2001 and will only get harder and harder to repair. I never directly contacted Roland, but I've heard enough horror stories...

Excellent (best?) MIDI controller. Excellent key action. Average stage piano (by itself, I mean). I recommand it if you can get one for a bargain, but it is getting old. I have yet to find a complete replacement in newer models though...

Not very hard to use.

Great MIDI controller.
Lots of bottons and sliders.
Lots of MIDI out and MIDI in ports.
Currently nothing better out there.

Some very good old synth samples.

Great reliabilty except the hammers for the keys may occassionaly break, but its not hard to fix and all it takes is a philips and glue.

I am not sure.

Great main midi controller.
It is too bad the a90 is discontinued.

Typical learning curve for Roland stuff - slow at first, then easy. This thing has a ton of master controller capabilities - the main reason I got it

Action is the closest to a real piano in my opinion. I have been playing for 25 years with emphasis on classical and jazz, so contrallability and realism were important in my choice. The VE-RD1 expansion has typical Roland stereo chorus and reverb, although the reverb sounds cleaner and has better high-end crispness than I've xperienced with their other units. No onboard sequencer but does have excellent sequencer controls. I've only used it a couple of times to control my computer-based system, and it worked flawlessly once I got the program to pay attention to the messages. I wish they had kept the poly-aftertouch on it like they had on the old A-80. (Maybe a future OS upgrade...)

Definitely has one of the best piano sounds I've found short of using a huge sample in a dedicated sampler. I've used it on several recordings that I contributed to, and many listeners thought it was a real Baldwin 9 footer! The electric pianos are to die for if you want the sound of a real Rhodes or old Wurlitzer. The use of tremolo with the mod wheel completes the package. I have compared the sounds to those in other Roland piano-type keyboards, and this thing is just more open, cleaner, and has more depth to it. I believe the reason for this is the size of the original samples used (less compression) and the quality of the output system on it. Some people have even said that the stero grand sounds on it are too wide, I agree that the first 3 of them are spread really big - great for recording. The semi-concert ones are great for live work, especially if you are going through a mono PA. Strings are OK, not it's strong suit but they are quite usable. The synth sounds are pretty good, creative working of the effects and sound combinations have given me some great ethereal pads. The organs, well, they sound like an afterthought to me, the only one I like is the overdriven 'B' sound, the rest are pretty wimpy (if you want good organ sounds, use something designed for it).

One work - it's a Roland. Every Roland product I have ever owned has been virtually indestructable, doesn't flake out unless I do something to screw it up.

Roland is typical of one of those big companies that is still learning real customer support. Sometimes it's great, sometimes it sucks. Anytime I've needed help and called them, once I get someone they are very helpful.

Stolen - the poor bastard had better get at lest 1000 miles away to keep me from chasing them down andbeating them with it once I catch them. I would definitely buy it again, even with the huge crop of wannabes hitting the market since they introduced the beast. I did some major comparing to other 88-key portables, especially master controller boards, and none of them had everything I was looking for besides the A-90

The sounds are good. Have the VE-RD1 extra. Lot of the same type of sounds. I belive the DynoPiano1 sound is the cleanest, coolest sound on the board. Manual seems to be somewhat informative. Purchased the video manual to see if it explains a little better.

Keyboard action is great. Coming from all acoustic piano's, it has a great feel. Haven't hooked it up to any other keyboards as of yet.

Sounds are pretty close to the real thing. Effects are nice to the ear. Need to hear how it handles to other keyboard sounds before I can make a fair judgement.

Sure. Not a problem yet on taking it to any gig.

N/A

Played for many years. Looking to learn more about it's uses. It will be my main keyboard/controller for whatever sounds I plan on using.

It hasn't taken me long to work out all the features on this controller. It almost seems to easy now. I have upgraded to the latest operating system which gives my more module patch names. I had a few problems upgrading the operating system but it turned out to be program I was using to play the sysex messages.

Polyphony is plenty and I never get lost tones. The keyboard action is the PA-4 used on a few of the 88 note keyboards now and I believe is the best feel to a piano of any other keyboard. It has a sequencer controller which I have managed to get working with Cakewalk. I hope then one day when I get a sequencer in one of my modules, I will be able to control it using this. The reason I brought this keyboard is so I will never have to replace it because I am going to buy modules. At the moment I'm looking at the Yamaha EX5R or the Triton Rack (when it comes out in October). I play mostly live and one thing I love in this controller is the way I can chain a gig worth of presets together so I simply have to hit next song and its sets of both the internal patches and my JV-90 secondary keyboard. Two keyboards completely set up for a particular song at the push of ONE button. I also like the way I have told the A90 I have a JV-90 with a session card and its knows ALL the patch names. There are also user patch lists just in case you buy modules or keyboards that arn't on the list.

I use the internal sounds on this keyboard for pianos, strings, vocals and organs which are all excellent. I use my JV-90 for the remaining sounds such as brass, effects and synth sounds.

Its quite heavy but I believe worth gigging around with for the use of a 88 weighted key. I had a few connection problems with the midi outs but I resoldered them and it was fixed. I also had some problems playing the internal sounds from a external keyboard but turning the local control off. There is a bug in the OS for this but a work around is to simply assign a midi out that your not using (MIDI OUT 4) to that internal zone and then turn on the MIDI OUT. I use to think you needed a cable attached from MIDI OUT 4 to MIDI IN 2 to make this work but this is not the case.

Customer support sucks. I wish Roland would get an email address for us to use. Also the manual completely sucks but thats okay because I've worked it all out now. There are a few bugs in the OS which I hope they may fix one day but it is unlikely

I would defitely get this keyboard again. A 88 note keyboard is something that everyone hopes to get one day but never really buys one because they are just a little bit mote expensive. Its bad for your technique to constantly play on that plastic key crap. This is defiantly the ultimate controller and combined with a sound module that has the fancy sounds, a sequencer, a sampler and an appegiator, you would pretty much have everything at your fingertips.