Roland A-90EX

This machine give me REAL control over ALL other things!

I like the Start/Stop seq function a lot.
Is there any software for PC connectivety?

I can only take this one in my car and than its full!!!

never been there!!!!

Great machine, but i couldnt buy it twice

I have operated and owned the "A" series now for some 10 years. I had the A-80 and now I have the A-90EX - TREMENDOUS. It gives me instantaneous control over the modules I utilise and it's so easy to use.

Difficult to access all the sounds on the JV 1010 - don't seem to be able to access all the soundbanks

Feels beautiful to use. Igrew up as a "classical" pianist but have been using synthesizers for some 20 years now.

Yes - totally

I have been playing piano for 48 years, the last 20 on electronic keyboards, on local TV and overseas gigs. The A-90EX is just beautiful, although lacks in the accessing of mulitple soundbank modules.

I purchased my A-90EX 1 year ago. I'm a very part-time musician and have not spent a lot of time getting to know my equipment very well. I have however found my A-90EX to be user-friendly. It is easy to edit the sounds and I've been able to troubleshoot any problems that I've come across (mostly user error!) easily. The manuals are of practically no assistance. I've had to figure things out by searching the internet, and just problem-solving with friends' assistance.

The 4 midi in/out on the A-90EX has been invaluable, especially when I've worked on some home-recording projects with other players. I really quite like the internal sounds. Particularly those on the expansion card. I even regularly use the organ sounds, with some editing they're not too bad. As a classically trained pianist, one of the main reasons I bought the A-90 was because of the key action. It is like no other keyboard I've tried. The ability to layer sounds and edit them so easily on the spot has been invaluable to me. I use my Roland JV-880 sound module in conjunction regularly for gigs. I can easily access the sounds on my sound module from the A-90 during my performances easily. I can even read the patch names of my JV-880 on the A-90 display. Cool! I haven't used the performance section too much. But when I have, the temporary performance has been useful for the gigs I do. The only thing I've found dissappointing is I haven't been able to figure out how to control the volume of my sound module through the keyboard. Although, I have yet to explore fully the controllers. There are a number that you can assign functions to. But as I already indicated the manuals are USELESS and I need more time to figure out how I might use that part of the keyboard more fully.

Overall I have found it easy to use

I use the piano sounds regularly and don't mind them as well as the organ sounds. But have used an external effects on the organ which improved them. I use it mostly for rock. A lot of church use, and also secular. In conjunction with other sound modules it is ideal. I often which there was the ability to add another expansion card.

I take my A-90EX out with me approximately once per week. I have it in a soft gig-bag with two handles and can carry it myself (I'm a 5'2" female), but usually to be on the safe side, I get assistance or delegate. It fits in my car with the front seat down and I've never had a problem in the year I've owned it. I usually always have a grand or some sort of an acoustic at our gigs, and have never thought twice about playing places where I don't have a back-up. It's been extremely reliable.

Have never called.

If this were stolen, I definitely would replace it. It has been worth every penny for me. I have been playing for over 30 years, but with electronic equipment for approximately 13-15 years. I also own a Yamaha Clavinova PF100 which I used to lug around so I don't complain about the A-90 being heavy. I love the flexibility to layer sounds and I hate that I don't have more time to discover all of its capabilities.

I love playing my A-90EX and I did not realize when I bought it what a wonderful piece of equipment I had.

This is an update to an earlier review I did when I didn't know how to properly use my midi setup and partially blamed it on the A90EX. I was wrong. It was the way I had my midi interface programmed. Now that it is programmed correctly, it works flawlessly and easily.

The VE-RD1 board that converts the A90 to an A90EX is overrated and expensive (about $350). After using it for several months, I think I would have been better off buying a really good sample CD for my Akai S2000 sampler. The orchestral I and II boards in my JV-1080 sound better, were cheaper, and have more patches to work with. (You could even buy a Roland JV-1010 for just a little more and get a lot more for your money).About the only reason I am really glad I bought the internal sounds on the A90 is that I get to use some of the envelope parameters available in the A90. It would make sense to get the board if you are going to "gig" with this keyboard, but since I don't, it wasn't really worth it.

No problems after almost a year. But I don't move it around at all.

I couldn't afford to buy it again, but I am sure I would cry. I have gone back into the music stores looking around to see if I'd have buyers remorse when I played stuff that has come out since I bought it. Nothing compares to the feel. And all the cool new features in the world don't mean alot if the playability of your main controller isn't as good as it gets.

Editing controllers is a snap. All you have to do is hit edit then press whatever controller you want to edit. The piano sounds are okay, but need some eq'n. The manual sucks as usual, when will Roland get the point and decide to have the manual writers FIRED!!!

This was my first keyboard and I love the action on it. I think it has the best action. I think the PC-88 feels a little week, N1 and P-150 feels even weeker, however Yamaha improved on the P-200, the action is much better. Some will differ about the action between the PC-88 and the A-90, but I guess they have a right to be wrong. It's just a matter of preference.
The effects are okay. You can install it with a VE-RD1, VE-GS1, VE-JV1, or the new VE-GSPRO (1,117 patches). A very powerful controller. It has 20 assignable controllers. No on-board sequencer.

The sounds are okay, just basic acoustic piano and some electric pianos. Some ambient pads. Effects are okay. Aftertouch is heavy, but I like it better that way, so I don't accidently activate.

It's built like a rock. I would depend on it on a gig.

I called their number, they were actually really helpful to me. They were very curteous to me.

If it were stolen I'd get it again (given that I had another 2 G's. It's definitely worth it. It's a very powerful controller. I love the action, the piano is really good, but not the best. I wish it had more sounds to play with. I chose this board because I wanted a piano with powerful controller features. I want to get a XP-30 and XP-80 next, and maybe a TR-rack. Overall I think it's a 9

8 out of 10. The keyboard itself is easy to use, the sounds easy to access, and the midi control parameters and connections easy to set up. In fact, its the easiest device to comprehend that I have ever used. I only gave it an 8, though, and this almost goes without saying, but because the manuals that came with it are sparse and typical Roland garbage. There is a lot more to this device than the manual might lead you to believe, and I have only had it for a couple of days. For example, I originally bought it as an A-90, but then a few days later bought the expansion board because reviewers like me had said the sounds were so good. I accessed the sounds, loved them and had no regrets. The manual that came with the expansion board explained the simple installation procedure and had a patchlist of sounds, but said nothing about how you convert the operating system to provide all the preset performances. This wouldn't have been so stupid if the expansion board could be used on a variety of devices, but it can't. By dumb luck I found a reinitialization procedure at the back of one of the owner's manual that allowed the A-90 to magically transform its operating system to recognize the new board and act like it had been an A-90EX all along.

Polyphony is 64, 88 key weighted "hammer action", lots of control features, up to 8 zones, bunch of midi ports, pedal ports, and three sound out ports, one expansion board, but that's no big deal, its a controller not whizbang workstation sampler with 8 kinds of synthesis engines (think Yamaha Ex5 and you have the picture of what the A-90 is not intended to be). I bought this board strictly as a controller for the keyboard action. I didn't care about the sounds (I have several sound modules including a JV-1080), didn't really care that much about the controller features, and didn't care about any synthesizing features. I compared it to the Alesis QS8, Kurzweil PC88, Fatar Studiologic 880, and Korg N1. The action is sooooo much better, smoother, realistic and pleasant than all the others (I mean by an order of magnitude). The same action (called "PA4" by Roland) can be found on the Roland RD-600 stage piano. The problem is that the RD-600 doesn't have alot of the controller features of the A-90 and I don't need to have a stage piano so don't care if the A-90 is heavier (I don't have any Billy Joel type intentions). I've given it a 10 because of the action, and because it has a lot of cool other stuff that came with the action. I really believe I would have been disappointed if this keyboard did not exist and I had been forced to buy a lesser weighted action board. One feature that bothers me, but may be due to my own ignorance is that I cannot use the control features in conjunction to a midi setup using an Opcode Studio 64x midi interface. Evertime I send a midi message out of the out port connected to the 64x (except note on and off), the 64X freezes and all my other midi devices are overloaded. I don't know what to do, but I've written an email to Opcode (Roland has none as far as I can tell). Now that I have the expansion board, I may not send any midi messages out other than note on and off and just use the A-90 as a sound souce and keyboard controller (but what about the zones and sliders and control parameters that can be fed independently to any one of the four midi out ports--they're so fun and cool).

Very good, but haven't had it long enough to compare to other sound modules.

I have only a vague and smoky sense of what a gig is, wouldn't want to lift this thing without a dolly, but it hasn't created a depression in the floor so I don't much care. It will stay put except when I rewire stuff here. Its very heavy (it must be expensive). It seems solid, and I cannot believe it won't last for a decade or three.

Manuals SUCK, but are readable. They're just so sparse it seems they were an afterthought for Roland, and now that's just what they are for me--WHICH SUCKS. Does anyone know how to contact Roland by email after spending 2 grand for one of their pretty neat machines. I need to talk to them about midi compatibility issues with Opcode stuff.

If I can figure out midi compatibility issues (no problems with the devices connected directly to the A-90 but big problems looping in the Opcode Studio 64X--what if I really want to record some midi events in the $300 sequencer program I bought for my PowerMac called Cubase--then I will be humming at work thinking about a date with my A-90 (even when I am dating someone). Nothing Roland makes will ever get an overall rating of 10 from me until they actually read just three of these reviews and fire all the people that write the manuals for some of the coolest midi stuff in the world--so much cool engineering, and such little attention to helping us CUSTOMERS.

Manuals are decent, and show the basics how to get it running, but lack info on how to really tap the potential of the instrument. However patch editing/adding effects is brain-dead simple, and easy to do. But I have yet to find a SysEx editor for it I can put on the computer. =(

Keys are nice and heavy, allowing you to really get a good feel and express yourself. It has touch and aftertouch abilities, that you can link to onboard effects as well. I would suggest buying the RAM Expansion card when you get it, because it's a heartbreak to wipe out any of the preconfigured sounds. No on board sequencer, which makes it great for those that sequence via computer. Additionally, a sequencer can be start/stopped via the A90. 4 MIDI Ins / 4 MIDI out (or more? I forget..) make it really configurable to serve as the "mother station" for a live setup. My only rant is that it is incompatible with any of Rolands sound modules except the VE-RD1.

Very very very nice piano, and capable of some really loooow bass tones. (I once broke someone's video camera in the audience - shattered the mirror inside it, from the bass freq's.. hehe!) On board effects are good, with good amount of params to tweak.

Haven't dropped it or spilled anything on it yet, but i have moved it around quite a bit. Seems solid.. sure as hell is heavy enough. Takes two people to handle it safely. (one person can lift it though).

I love it. It probably has the most realistic sounds out of any studio piece I own so far. I would highly recommend it for a great MIDI controller, and a great keyboard for those who don't require a sequencer.

The stereo pinao sound on the Roland is Great. Only other better piano sounds are from the Korg. The manual is terrible as with most Roland manuals.

Polyphony is 64. Built in effects are adequate. Expansion is limited to a memory card. The expansion slot holds only one card at a time. As a controler its great. the screen however is very small. Aftertouch is good but requires a lot of force. No on board sequencer.

Excellent piano sounds. Good for classical. The heavy keys make it feel sluggish.

Never traveled with it so far. So cannt comment on ruggedness.

As with most English speaking tech support the people are rude, ignorant and impatient. Dont bother calling them. They would rather be at home watching their average 4.5 hours of TV then helping a customer.

I would recommend this product to a classical pianist. I love the sliders on the A-90. Makes entering values easy. I wish that the A-90 at least had a 4 meg GM Bank. As with most Roland products sold in the US the support is aweful. Either learn Japanese or ur on ur own.

VE-RD1 Sound Expansion, the presets are great. Usually the MOD wheel, aftertouch, sustenato, hold, velocity, etc. controllers are assigned to make every sound do many interesting things. Editing a patch is much simplified over normal synthesis, as this is a stage piano, and not a synthesizer. You can change attack, sustain, release, and decay rates in most sounds. There is really very little beyond that for editing a patch. No LFOs or oscillators to play with. The manual is horrid, with a lot of incomplete sentences and repeated sections for similar functions. No matter, if you use it as a reference, you can get the general idea. The board is very easy to use, though. After using synthesizers and MIDI workstations, the stage piano controller is a walk in the park. The LCD display has so few characters, however, that sometimes it's not obvious what screen you're in or what the particular function is that you're about to perform. For that reason, I detract points from the "ease of use" category.

64-note polyphonic. The keyboard action is beautiful, but 'deep.' What I mean is, after playing on a (admittedly cheap) piano for some time, the key travel from unpressed to fully pressed is a good 3 or 4 millimetres further than a normal piano. It's also pretty heavy. The built-in effects are three: Reverb/Delay, Chorus, and EQ. They're very easy to use. The expansion is basically NIL as far as I can tell. You can stick a memory card in to save performances, but as for adding memory/sounds/sequencer whatever, it looks like you'd have to REPLACE the VE-RD1 expansion board. The board is $500, so I get the feeling you won't want to do that. The MIDI capability is good. The aftertouch is fairly heavy. I do pushups on my fingertips, and I have a difficult time getting aftertouch to activate fully. You'd better have hefty fingers to get your channel aftertouch going on this. As a controller MIDI board, this thing is pretty nifty. A lot of ways to route MIDI signals. No on-board sequencer, but it DOES have on-board sequencer controls, so that you can control the external sequencer which may be across the room from you. I give this a lesser rating for features, which should actually be considered a good thing, since this isn't a music workstation, but a master controller with stage piano sounds.

The factory sounds are very expressive. I'd guess this would be a great board for Jazz, Rock, Classical, and maybe dance if you have a good drum sound source, although the percussive noises aren't many in this board, so stick with trance. On-board effects are very professional sounding. No chintzy reverb here, which could be bad if you're looking for that sort've sound. I've noticed that it is very reactive to my playing. There are a few different velocity settings, and they range from "I gotta pound this board to hear anything" to "Better tread lightly on these keys or watch your ears bleed." Whoah. One problem I have is that the factory presets don't use the various samples to their fullest extent in factory presets to get super expressive sounds. For example, there are about 30 grand piano samples, and a lot are obviously "forte" or "pianissimo." Yet they never layer these together with different velocity settings to get a super-expressive piano sound. I did such a layering, and it was fairly effective, but the way to set up the velocity curves/values for the various samples wasn't the most intuitive, so it took some time.

Unfortunately, I've got this hooked up in my little 'studio-like' music room. I will probably not take it on a gig for years, because I'm not gigging presently. It seems quite solid, but I've never drop- ped it, so I guess I shouldn't talk.

Never done anything with customer support. But judging from the manual, you'll probably get a non-English speaking person for the first 15 minutes of your call.

Overall? Great board. I got an incredible deal on it. I guess the seller was desperate for cash. I'd have paid the full $2500 from a store here in Sacramento without even thinking about it, though. Basically, the pros are: Awesome professional sounds and effects. Simple MIDI layout with (apparently) very powerful MIDI functions. Awesome keyboard action with some pretty nice 'bounceback' for quick trills or percussive hits. Cons are: You gotta have gargantuan fingers to get the aftertouch going. I compared this thing against the Kurzweil PC88, the Ensoniq KT88, the Korg Trinity stuff, and other 88-/76-key weighted controllers from Alesis and some other makers??? I chose this one because it had the most awesome sounds, the most 'complex' and 'rich' feel when you hit the keys, and the obviously professional layout of the whole piece of equipment. The only other board I'd suggest in the price range really is the Kurzweil PC88mx, which is slightly cheaper, but appears to have the same basic featureset, and the key action is a little less heavy. If I was still in the market for 88-key weighted, it'd be a tossup between these two boards for me.