Roland AX-1 Controller

The AX-1 was fairly easy for me to use. At first I had no idea, it being my first MIDI Controller, and my first instrument that involved MIDI. But after some nerdy know how, I have figured this out. I also did a little research about MIDI and all that jazz.

The Keys are perfect for just one hand I belive. It was very awkward playing it for the first time. The MIDI is good. The only thing I do wish the AX-1 had was more memory. But I use it with a Yamaha QY-70 music sequencer that stores all of my memory.

No sounds.

The effects with the neck are awesome though, once you have sound you can alter it.

I do depend on this amazing instrument!

I play all synth and was so used to the whole wall of keyboards/synths infront of me, but the keytar has changed that. Who ever you play for will be mezmorized at the keytar. It has taken a few hundred falls due to my shows. All are just a few scratches.

Never have had to talk to them. Nor would ever want to.

I love the Roland AX-1. It will help you get what you deserve; Amazing music, amazing shows. I love the whole idea of a Keytar, the reason I bought this thing.

It has helped me with my music in so many ways.


I say if you find it, buy it. It is worth it.

Fairly easy to use. No sounds but only sounds as good as what you plug it in to.. The manual is not too good. It actually makes sense but depending on what you midi it to, i.e., Korg, Roland, Kurzweil etc...........you gotta figure out what numbers correspond to the sound you want to commit to your internal patches. Once you do that you're home free.

I'll try not to review what everyone else has but the effects buts on board are very helpful for me. No matter what its short comings are its FUN FUN FUN to use. No expansions- again depends on what synth you plug it into. The octave butto is killer.

This is a probably a good place to say this but what really makes this baby cook is the WIRELESS MIDI unit I just bought from CLASSIC ORGAN WORKS 2800 John Street Unit #4 , Marklane Ontario, LER 0E2 in Cananda. WWWWWWWOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW. And NO I don't work there. lol. Their unit MIDIJET Pro unit has 500ft line of sight receiving range with nearly zero latency and is dirt cheap-for all you broke musicians like myself- DOWN RIGHT CHEAP. www.organworks.com I belive it was $400 bucks US currency plus, they shipped it free. It came with all the (4) AA batteries, 2 6ft midi cables, the receiver, the transmitter a battery eliminator for the transmitter and all nec documentation. I shouldn't even be telling you'all this but my God, its too good to keep a secret. Do it now- don't wait. Tell em Nick sent you. Luck. their number is 888-812-9717 toll free no less

This is a Rock-n-Roll Tool baby. Unadulterated XXX rated for fun. Can't believe I didn't do this millions of years ago. Plus wireless midi that actually works with zero problems outa the box- do it now!!!!!!!!!!

great instrument so far. I am looking for a back up in the next year or so. Mines BLACK and killer. I'm gonna have it airbrushed by my next door neighbor- he does moter cycle tanks and bikes and his work is scary good only $300 a pop. Note. With this used as a wireless rig and a wireless headset microphone, you're free at last. Limitations as to how good you can play with one hand.

I'd never call Roland for anything since they never know what department to send you too.

If were stolen ---hahaha----which there's no way to do that unless you aren't allergic to lead poisoning- lol......no really!!!!!! I would replace it in a minute. You do need to get a road case for them because they don't fit anything at all and will flop around and break. A case will be less than a repair bill-no whata meeeeeen. Luck you'all somebody sells them on ebay for less than C NOTE

The Presets are good options but, I am having a little trouble changing them.. Maybe a Manual would help !

It is popyphonic and works well with the sound module (Roland SC-55) The keys feel a little larger than normal but it is FUN FUN to play. Ive not tried the onboard sequencer.

The intruments are very good but a few that I would have used different voices.. example regular strings to slow. Works well for any band. Onboard effects are as good as the sound module you use. I am new using it but seems to react well so far.

I think it is very dependable. I would not be afraid to use just it for a gig.

Ive been playing for over 20 years in bands.. I feel like a dog off of his leash and look forward to a wireless midi device to make my leash longer. It will allow me a different means of expression besides sitting on my ass. It will put me more out front as a keyboard player.

After spending a few hours trying to setup the right patch callup for a Korg unit, the navigation on this became much easier. It's also a lot easier to use, I think, than the AX7 despite its memory enhancements. Think I'll stick to the AX1 for now.

As far as playability is concerned, this unit works very nicely. Plays a lot easier than my KX5, and surprisingly has held up without the least failure through the last four years of abuse I've put it through. Got a couple backups just in case, though. I don't like the sustain button where it is.

Every Roland product I own is fantastic except for one or two little frustrating glitches that baffle me inasmuch as to why in the hell Roland would engineer things that way. If you're going to generate an aftertouch effect from a controller, you ought to be able to assign the level (or even an on/off) & then trigger it by pressing down on the keyboard, not by taking your other hand away from the part it's playing & having to use an "expression bar." While I like the idea of the expression bar for something like an LFO, I find it extremely annoying to have to depress the aftertouch bar on this unit to trigger a leslie effect when I can do it with one hand on a KX5, which unfortunately doesn't play as nicely as this unit does. My other hand is usually busy with an XP80 & other toys. In fact, I bought an AX7 after talking to a Roland engineer who was somewhat surprised to find out that you couldn't do this on an AX1. He assured me I'd be able to on an AX7, although I have yet to figure out how. If anyone knows how to accomplish a one-handed pressure-based aftertouch on an AX series without using the sustain button, please let me know.

I was hesitant to use this thing at first after using the KX5. Felt like it was going to come apart in my hands. However, I've never had a problem. Ever. And I put it through hell 4-5 nights a week.

I've had limited contact with Roland. Other than the engineer I spoke with it's been mainly one of the veeps I studied with years ago.

The unit I have is one from the 80s, not the reissue that came out a few years ago. I also picked up an AX1B & an AX7 just for comparison & experimenting. I recently tacked on a wml-50 & samson airline wireless & this seems to work fine, although the wml-50 is a bit heavy for the strap since the plastic unit is so light. Trying to velcro it to the back of the unit (where the midi cord plugs in) reveals how flimsy the case is but works a lot better in terms of balance--you have to be very careful putting it on & off to avoid having the case pieces separate.

Its a pice of cake to program this little beaty

There are good MIDI capabiliies as MIDI controller, but no expansion slot

No sounds - just a MIDI-controller

It has been some problem with it:

The keyboard was dead and I had to fix it (by my self). Then, in a strange way, it worked again

The battery feeding is dead - can only supply it with AC. Have to fix that to

Its to plastic

As always with Roland: pay and be happy

Its a funny little thing to have live.

The Ax1 is quite a straightforward controller. You plug, you play. The manual is an absolute nightmare. It took me two hours to get round it. Once you've sorted the logic of it all, it easy to program patches.

The keys are not the best around but it keeps the price cheap (I paid around #400 for it). It's a plastic toy and surely would only feature in my set as a bonus more than anything else. It feels good on the shoulders and is also okay on a table/stand.

It's a great tool for live performance (the public loves it, the guitarist hates it!) and very good for solos as the left hand has lots of articulations to do with the ribbon and the modulation. Not to mention thumb action for the sustain. Again, I use it at home with a sequencer when I need a lead solo that is recorded live. You can walk (or run) with it, twist your body, basically use the space around you. It comes very handy for that as my kurzweill keyboard is a bit heavy to dance with.

So far, so good. in a gig set-up, I would have other keyboards so no problem in case of a failure (It just would look as visual). The only problem is the wallwart as the cable might be too short. Therefore you use 6 AA batteries that will go down very quickly.

need have to contact them

If lost or stolen, I'd consider buying it again but it not as vital as the rest of my gear. It's just better with it. Think of the Ax-1 as a nice feature but not necessary. if you need a master controller, I would suggest the A-30 or the new A-37.

The manual is not as hard as people as it is. The thing is, just follow the steps and see what happens. You might not know what it is called but you can definitely hear the difference. It's more of trial and error. It took me 2hours to figure how to assign sound patches from my Triton. Don't know how to assign from different banks though eg.Patch 1-BankA12 Patch 2-BankB14. Maybe someone who knows can teach me.
No preset sounds of course so the quality of the sound depends on your module.

This thing feels like a toy. It feels really plastic and the keys feel like they are not assembled well enough. Especially when you do a gliss, you'll find that you'll get stuck halfway and the plastic sound is very loud. I feel the keys are too far apart too. What do I mean? I mean that usually between E and F is around 2mm but for this, it's around 3mm. It might be little but it mattered to my playing. Maybe it's just me, I don't know.

I like the expression bar and pitch bend ribbon. The volume knob is well-placed. I wish Roland would allow for some basic expansion such as volume pedal. Then the original knob can be re-assigned for realtime controls. Took me sometime to memorize the location of my patches too because there ain't anything but LEDs everywhere. On stage, I can't see the tiny words. Back to the keys, I really wish it had the keys of any XP. The keys are really light.

It's plastic so tell me about reliability. But if you want to gig with it(trust me you will want to), there's not really much of a choice of AXEs out there. Of course, you can get another one but it's not really worth the money.

I have half a mind to air-brush it after the warranty ends. The red is kind tacky and poppish. Black is much cooler but in available where I bought from. Anyone tried it before? I'm afraid the plastic will melt.

Dunno

I don't really know about this. On one hand, it's the only AXE controller around since the Yamaha KX5 is discontinued. But my main complains are about the keys. The awful red colour(unless you are backup for Britney). I guess I will just be happy I had fun using it and go back to the hole of the keyboard rigs. With the money, I can get me a RS5.

If only it's not red, keys are semi-weighted like Triton, wireless MIDI is cheap enough for Roland to install it in and there's a really cheap way of having a small backlit LCD on the AX1........then it will be a must-have for any live band keyboardist.

As everyone knows, all Roland manuals are lousy and this one is no exception. If this is the only strap on controller you've ever owned, you'll probably like it. I owned a Yamaha KX-5 and it was a much better designed instrument. I'd buy another one of those but they don't make them anymore and as far as I know the AX-1 is the only strap on available so we're stuck with it. It really is much too complicated for a strap on controller. It's possible to do layers and splits and a lot of complicated internal patch setups but it takes a lot of time and most of it is pretty useless on a strap on controller. It might be all right for home use, but I don't know why you'd want to use it at home. You don't have time on stage to go through all the pushing of buttons it takes to even call up a single patch so you have to spend a lot of time at home programming patch changes into the built in patch locations on the AX-1. I just use the internal patches to change midi channels. That's really all it should have is buttons to change channels and external patch change buttons. The ribbon controller is nice but slightly awkward to use since it's behind the expression bar which makes it a little hard to get to. It also should take a little more pressure to make it work, if you touch it by accident you're bending notes and sounding out of tune. Also it should have an expression wheel, not a bar because you lose the modulation if you let go of the bar. I'm basically comparing it to the KX-5 which had all these things. Roland seems to design things without asking any working musicians how they like them or how they work. I have several pieces of Roland gear and there's some really dumb thing wrong with all of it.

I like the full size keys and the action. It's very playable that way and it looks very good on stage, I have a black one, I thought the red one was too sissy.

No sounds, it's just a controller. It works well for all types of music, leads and chords both, and just about any kind of sound. The velocity control is good and responsive. One wierd thing is the volume is a little louder when I play the AX-1 than when I play my other keyboards.

Reliability seems to be good, I've dropped it a couple of times and it still works fine. The reason I dropped it though is the nut on the strap lock keeps coming loose.

I've dealt with Roland support for several different products with different results, sometimes good, sometimes not so good.

I would buy another one if lost or stolen, but only because there's nothing else available. If I could buy a Yamaha KX-5 I'd buy that instead. Overall, you'll probably like this board, if I'd never owned the Yamaha, I'd probably love it. I do like it, it does the job for me and I'm able to get around it's shortcomings.

I find the roland AX-1 midi-controller pretty simple and straight to use, it gets confusing making patches when you are using it to conroll a non-roland product(i use a korg and clavia)But as with all things it depends on how knowledgeable you are with the type of product. If its your first time operating a midi setup you may want to ask a knowledgeable freind or do some research.
I dont own a manual, as i bought it used. I hear the manual reads like stereo instructions though.

The AX-1 is simply a stylin,portable midi-controller,which means it offers no tone banks of its own. The sweet thing about it is once you have all your synth's you can conroll them with the ax-1. It is compatable with many features,pressure sensitive and aftertouch keys, it has the touch strip (with the glide of a finger you can bend a note) it has an assignable expression bar, a volume knob, octave up and down,and all the buttons are layed out for easy access to your left hand. It cannot be upgraded. It will run on a 9 volt batt. and that eliminates another wire for shows.

Sounds depend on what your hooking it up to.
But the Feel....amazing. I originally wanted it so i could move around and get into my groove, but i now have a special bond with this peice of equipment. The controll is sweet, pitch bend strip is sweet and keys respond nice. Its obviosly not ideal for complex (2 hands playing) but its quite key for synth leads, and perfect for solo's.

I now depend on it, It has found its place in my repertoire.

Not only is it discontinued but the roland site offers barely any information about it.On the other hand, when i bought it there was a broken key, and i sent it out to roland and they fixed it right up for me (for a fee of course)
AND FOR ALL OF YOU THAT NEED A POWER SUPPLY AND CANT FIND ONE, DO WHAT I DID AND GO TO AN ELECTRONICS STORE (LIKE RADIOSHACK OR SOMETHING)

If it were stolen i would get another one, the portability is sweet.
Im sure its not for some people but im in love with this thing. I couldnt get by with just the roland AX-1, (as alot of my performances involve 2 handed playing) but its quite the topping to my collection.

The AX-1 keyboard controller is definitely confusing to use at first - especially if you have little to no knowledge of MIDI. There's no screen, just a front panel with a heap of buttons on it. Sometimes traversing through the AX-1's "menus" can become quite confusing, not to mention the fact that it is difficult to edit patches (at first).

Physically using the keyboard is not as hard as it seems, however, if you are used to traditional / classical piano playing, the setup may definitely seem a little odd, and hence is probably not for you.

The manual is fine. Just push the buttons in order of what it says. Many people have complaints with Roland's manuals - some are set out well and give examples, and others don't. The manual with the AX-1 covers several different languages, which makes it more confusing, however, it does familiarise you with the basic controls.

The actual keyboard keys are your standard plastic, featuring the usual action of most Roland keyboards / synths. They are fairly easy to use (if you're used to playing vertical!). Nothing fancy ? does the job.

The AX-1 does feature several MIDI capabilities (it is a MIDI controller after all). It can sustain notes by pressing a button on the "neck", you can start / stop a sequencer by pressing a button and you can octave shift via two controls on the neck (you can change up / down only 1 octave however). The ribbon controller is a nice feature and can be an excellent tool when it comes to constructing synth lines and playing solos. If used in conjunction with the octave shift buttons you can go up / down 2 octaves rather than 1. Apart from this, it also contains many MIDI settings for setting up your remote instruments and sounds.

The AX-1 features no preset sounds, since it's only a "keyboard controller". This means it can only control other keyboards / patch boxes / synths. Think of it as a controller for a gaming console (it?s no good by itself ? you need the system to go with it). Naturally, the AX-1 only sounds as good as your sound source. I recommend a patch box, or something from the Roland groove series (MC-505, JX-305 etc).

Many people use the AX-1 for playing in a rock / electronic band. It is useful when used to play synths. It is not for playing classical piano, since it is a tad difficult to use two hands. Due to this, the AX-1 has mainly been constructed for leads, but you can play chords easily. If you plan on playing a few classical songs, it would be best to get hold of a standard controller as well.

The velocity sensitivity is good, if you like that kind of thing. As far as I know, velocity cannot be turned off. If you hate velocity, disable velocity on your source's patches / interface.

All in all, for a controller, it plays well.

The AX-1 seems to fall slightly in this department. Although I would use the AX-1 freely without any backup, the actual casing and construction of the unit is a little flimsy. In some ways it actually feels like a toy. It occasionally creaks when you move it. It is still a good controller though (even if it is bit expensive...).

Some people have dropped it and it has gone haywire. I have also seen psycho punk bands with them and they thrash it like there's no tomorrow. It just depends really. I personally think it's completely reliable. The only reason why I rate it slightly low is due to it's flimsy construction, though there is probably little that Roland could have done about it - a metal one would be too heavy.

Repairs are done with a couple of days depending on your location / situation. They are quite good at fixing these things.

What can I say? An AX-1 is for a person who wishes to be seen. If you are confidant at playing and want to take all the attention away from the stupid guitarist, then I think this is for you. If you are a classical piano player, but want to break into the "rebel" area, this is the best place to go. Just don't expect to do any complex double handed playing (though I have seen it done before and it's bloody wild!!)

Once you walk into a band setup with this thing, the guitarist is going to hate you, so your best bet is to hide it until your first gig (heh, heh). It?s red, it?s completely rare (well in Australia anyway) and it?s got a heap of flashy lights on the front which really stand out in the dark. Though flimsy, it really has nothing wrong with it, and put it this way - it's the best damn looking keyboard controller around.

The AX-1 is really a lead machine, and is best suited to electronic music. Rock is fine. For metal it's a tad "poppy", but if you can get your hands on a black one it may be alright.

Music creation is not really helped with it, since it's only a controller, however, many solos that I perform now could not be done with the regular pitch bender controller on an average keyboard. There is more freedom than a standard piano keyboard.

WARNING: Just be prepared to get into constant fights with your guitarist. After all, you're going to take his fame, and soon, his solos, with your wild screeching synth leads..........