Roland E-500

I use no software yet

Verry good sound, lot of DSP effects, easy to use, cool sound to create

YEAH, verry realistic sounds built in, verry nice

i always use my keyboard without backup, PERFECT, every week i play with the band on gigs!

never in such situation yet

it's a real good keyboard, the sounds are great!
i'm proud having a ROLAND E-500

Very easy to use and the lay out is very logical.

You can not get the MIDI out from the arranger for recording purposes.
Big problem and very irritating. The main reason I ghave it 4
The balance between the idfferent drum patterns is not consistant.
The drum patterns however are very usable especially for arabic music.
It's one of the best for that. Better than the GEMS and Sulton in my opinion.
Also going from one drum pattern to another is not very friendly, although it can be done. There are usually a few of pattern changes in arabic

The sounds for arabic music are really good and very usualble .
The Quanoon,Mizmar and NAy are some of the best patches that I've heard. The drum sound are also some of the best for arabic music.
You can layer sounds ontop of each other, byt you can not create your own sounds ( Another major bommer )

Never had a problem. I rely on it for most of my gigs and I feel confident about that

Very good reliable arranger keyboard for live arabic music. And the basic sounds you need are all there.

Usless in the studio because of the midi lock and the sounds while very good for your basic kind of sound are limited

i dont know what version of software..
who gives a crappola.. i have a pc and digital orchestra..download all the midi files i need. creative music u like.
load the diskette. install it in e500.away we go to music heaven, i am 60 year old love music..i use to play sax.i play guitar..
i started off with cheapie casios,,never like yamaha..had a e28. no comparison.
i love this machine. improvements are to be made., well, wait and see, if they make another e 500 , that has cd recorderers with built in usb ports.or conversions to mp3 files.
lol asking too much right? right.

i dont know what this means..dont matter to me.
great and versitle.

realistic yes..
too bad no tenor sax r bartione selections
i use to play tenor sax.
blow sax is close..but why a blow have a option.

yes. definitely will be used on gigs..recordings on cd thru computer input.

flunked

i would buy e 500 update
i am looking into the phantom s88..i dont know yet..
tempted to have three keyboards.,have the best of all roland .

On E500 i have software version 1.02, but i think the software support for this keyboard is very bad.

I have E500 for a long period of time and i think is very good 64 voice polyphonic intelligent keyboard. Bad thing: E500 can't recording from midi and can't send sequencer data thru midi port. Very difficult to find informatin about midi implementation and system exclusive

In past haved problem with software version 1.00 because when i play the arranger is stoping in middle of the song. Then i flash E500 with software version 1.02 downloaded from internet, but now i have new problem: In sequencer section is impossible to add the DSP effect in 9th channel! I don't know what to do now. If someone know where to find the better version of software for E500, please tell me.

I have the E-500OR and it's on Version 1.7 .the sounds are very good and the "OR" sounds are very good for me. the E-500OR built in Effects with 32 Effect and they are so easy to find and fast to do. the Manual is not that good because their is alot to learn about the Keyboard that are not in the manual.

it have 64 polyPohnic and teh Keyboard action is very good.it is built in Effects (32 types) and they are easy to use.it is not expandable but it doesn't need it because I still think that the sounds are very good on it. it's built in 16 TRACK composer and it's very good with 30,000 notes IT'S VERY enought for meand very easy in use.

the sounds are for Arabic "OR" and for rock and classical and Dance if you know the Keyboard and knew how to use it. the effects are good. it does bring out of me alot and I love the piano better than my Korg's Triton AND karma.it have diffrent levels in velocity.

I do depend on it but not alone. I have to have a secound keyboard with it because you can only select infont of you 128 sounds the other sounds are in the Utiliti which is not good it have 308 sounds.

Roland is Awful and they are not helpful in fixing it .it have some small things to be fixed but they got the Keyboard out of the market. to bad if they did fix it, it would kill the X1OR and the GEM keyboardstoo.

I would go buy the X1OR if Roland will not make any new oriental Keyboards or fix the E-500OR

The roland E-500 keyboard. Has a 16-Track composer,on-board DSP,280 sounds,11 drums kits/sfx,GM,ES,Midi,3.5" floppy drive,Music styles(Expandable),2 way speaker system(10x2 Watts,Bass reflex)It also has a microphone input,Headphone out,Left and Right Outs,Midi in and thur,3 damper pedal imputs(light,Mid,Damp),Demo mode,Touch Sensitive.
The sounds on this keyboard is really impressive. This keyboard is really more composer users than synth users, But E-500 carries vintage saws,buzzes,and Synths. And it also has the vintage 108 dance drumkit. You cannot edit the patches on this keyboard. This is made for composer, the keyboard is more like a digital piano board with some extras. The sounds can not be expandable. But you really don't need to. yes there is a manual, it is very clear and understanding. But if you want any E series keyboard, check out the new line of ES series.

The polyphony is 64, the action of this board is really good. It does have built in effects, they are really easy to use. The expanion capabilities are only the music style only. You can link with about anything. Yes it does has an on board sequencer, it is 16 track and very easy and flexible.

The sounds to sound real on this keyboard. This keyboard works really good for more pop or classical. The on-board effect sound really good and brings real good dept. it does react to your playing,as how hard you press the keys.

Well, when it comes to up-grading, it is not reliable. but the sounds for composing really don't need up-grading. I would use a back up if in a gig. i played in a band. And some certains sound are not in the preset patches. I have had it for 3 years and it still beats the crap out of other keyboards.