Roland Discover 5

Join Roland Discover 5 group to get and share files, demos, tips ect

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/roland5/

Really easy to use , the buttons are in easy to follow sections and there's nothing too complicated about it. Anything you will need to know is in the great manual, which is actually in english. I've been gigging with the discover 5 fir 18 months now and i dont know how i coped without it. A piece of art.

features, whoa, I could go on all night, The harmoniser is great, Just watch the bubbling if too much input. the vocoda is a great vocal effect if you like Cher.reverbs and echoes for vocals are as good as anything ive ever heard, The sound bank is fantastic. The cover function lets you change the feel of a song on the fly, from pop to dance and lots more choices

A - Z listing of songs entered onto the smart media card. easy to add lyrics to files. program memories allow you to set up song, sounds, effects all in one easy step.

This is a great piece of kit for a professioal entertainer but be warned.its not for the home user really as it is only a midi file player with keys, it does NOT include drumbeats and typical Yamaha backings.

The sounds are just great.Effects and stuff very effective. I midi it through a Yamaha PSR 2000, so with the roland sounds together with the yammy sounds, its just fantastic. It may lack just a little by itself but for the money, you wont go wrong

its been reliable for me over the last 18 months. but be gentle. The casing is not too strong and can easily get damaged as i found out when the end snapped off. which caused lots of problems of which i still dont understand. like the display went and the keyboard put itself 1/4 tone out of tune, very odd. Got the panel fixed and it was fine but it did take over 12 months to get the replacement.

This part disapointed me with Roland. as i said over 12 months to get a part and the telephone staff didnt even believe me that the thing went out of tune, Sorry Roland, I expect better support.

If I lost this keyboard I'd be upset, its a great piece of kit but i wouldn't replace it due to its weak body. I would however get the module version which is the same keyboard without keys Discover 5M is its name.

Very easy to use k-board with great features. You get the point of most operations with a very short time, but after a year of using it it can still surprice you with new thigs. Just found a better reverb-chorus setting a day ago and the overall sounding became even better.

I'm a bar-restaurant singer playing covers of songs from 60- 80'ies. As I mostly perform alone,the vocal harmonizer is a great feature. Well - sometimes it makes people to think,that i do not sing for real - it just sound so natural :-)
When writing own song, some people may miss the sequencer, but hey - it's always more comfortable to use a PC or Mac sequencer like Cakewalk pro to make your own songs :-)

At first I wasn't so happy with the sounds of Discover 5. After couple of days I was totally surpirced - it sound better than other k-borads with same price range. Better than even more expeencive k-boards. I used to have a Yamaha Tyros, after buying a Discover 5 I just sold it... Discover 5 doesn't have useless stuff that a pro or semi pro user needs.
Like those backing tracks and auto harmoies, that all sound the same - these are more for toys.
The output signal of Discover 5 could be better (line out is very good for pluging Discover to amp or mixer, but I miss the extra output for straight recording to MD or tracker, that has equalized sound)

As discover 5 has no hard-disc, but a SmartMedia card, there is no word like FULL, you just insert the new card and voila ! I don't have to surf between floppys to search the right song, I just use the alfabetic list on the screen, select the title and - PLAY :-)
As I travel around a lot I have no fear that the hard-dick may crash on the road (as happened to my old k-board). So far Discover 5 hasn't let me down.

Very intuitive. One of the easiest Roland products to use that I have seen. Manuals are also very good.

Touch Screen display. 64 Voice Polyphony with 1422 patches from 20 mb's of PCM Samples. Has a composite video output for displying lyrics. Vocal Harmonizer with pitch correction. Floppy Disk drive and Smartmedia slot for loading Midi files. The "Playback" features of the sequencer are the absolute BEST I have ever seen. You can transpose the pitch of a sequence by pressing a button. The mixing features allow you to change instrumentation, volume, effects, and all on the fly. No expansion capabilities but with over 1400 patches who cares. All of the vocal harmonizer settings can be imbedded in SMF's. This is NOT a true synthesizer and you can NOT tweak and store user presets.

The BEST GM sounds out of the box that I've heard. I also owned a Yamaha PSR9000 and the Discover's sounds are as good if not better. I play in a cover band (60's-90's) and also play at weddings with just a female vocalist and guitarist. I use a Voce V5 for B3 sounds. The Discover cuts through the mix very well. I have had very good comments from listeners about the Brass, Sax, Flute, and Harmonica sounds. The vocal harmonizer has a lot of features but is not on the same par as TC-Helicon.

Been traveling with it every weekend for the last 6 months and have had no problems.

Better than most Roland products. In fact, the Discover 5 has its own support website : www.discover5.com

For my use I could not be happier. I'm surprised to see it sell on Ebay for far less than the MAP price. I don't think Roland has done a good job of marketing this product. If you are looking for a keyboard with a fantastic GM capability it's worth comparing to the higher to the higher end Yamaha PSR and Tyros boars