Roland EM-15

This keyboard is set up for beginning keyboardists, so, of course it's very easy to use. Editing patches, although extremely limited, is easy to do. The piano sound is pretty good, the organ sound, even through its numerous variations (8 altogether I believe), is not so hot. There is a 60's draw organ sound that is somewhat tinny, especially in the upper registers and another draw organ sound that doesn't have much vibrato in it, thus making any simblance to an authentic rotor organ sound is impossible.

the keyboard has very little aftertouch and is very, very sensitive. There is no chance to improve anything without an external roland module, which hooks up with relative ease. But you'll have to get a good module to make it worth your while.

The sounds are pretty realistic for a keyboard of similar cost and simplicity. The piano sound is the best in my opinion, the electric piano sounds are somewhat tinny, but usable in the right context I suppose. The pipe organ sound is pretty good, but the effects I wanted with rotor organ (and I wasn't really looking for truly authentic sound) is very limited. I don't use many other sounds other than the clav, which is decent plus.

Very dependable. I've used it on a couple of gigs and it hasn't caused any problems thus far. My experience with Roland has always been solid though.

N/A

I'm not sure I would buy this again, but I do dig it for what I do with it. It's a decent machine for it's money. The only problem I've really encountered is that the volume of the piano is much softer than the volume of the organs. The volume control is composed of 2 buttons, so adjusting can be a real pain in the ass in the middle of a tune. That's really been my only major complaint.

The keyboard action is probably one of the worst I have tried in many years. Not to mention the keys simply not sounding or giving me full volume when not expected. I must say I have been a true Roland fan for many years but I think I reached the point where I will hesitate next time I buy and think of a brand. Yes, I know the price is very low but still, you would think they would have at least some minimun requirements before putting it out on the market.

Definitly not! I used it on gigs when my main keyboard was out for repairment and needed a quick and temporary replacement. I think it was the first time I have been embarrased on stage in many years...

Perhaps it was not roland's fault but when I went to the store a month after buying it, I was told I had to pay for all transportation to the technical service. Heck, it was going to cost me half the price it cost me brand new. I thought I would just avoid the keys that were being faulty, even though they started to add up as the season got heavier.

I would only buy it for a kid wanting to learn at home. Never to use on stage or in a studio.

Roland EM-15, released 2001, is a typical home keyboard with easy use but rather limited functions. The preset sounds are good, thanks to newer technology, I think. Editing tones or patches are not allowed. But the selection of tones, styles, styles morphing, etc are all easy. Volume knob is rather difficult. Maybe it is better using sliding or rotary type.
Manual is satisfactory, concise and easy.

Around 24 polyphony (so bad).. Keyboard action is good. Touch feeling is okay for anyone, amateur or pro. Built in effects is limited. Expansion cards impossible.

MIDI, this is the only expansion possibility. But this is a strong point. This keyboard support GM and GS. This Roland GM/GS setting are all known and standard in music softwares (eq Cakewalk). In fact, Roland is a standard in MIDI industry. And for such a low price, you can have a good MIDI compatibility.

Touch feel are fine in my finger, but pressure sensitivity should be better. Onboard sequencer only two tracks.

The strength of this keyboard lies in its sounds. In general they are usable, for example pianos, electric pianos, guitar (except distortion guitar), brass, ensembles, and effects. Flute is bad. Clav also bad. Pads are good. In average, this is typical Roland's sounds: crisp, clear and outstanding. Again, for its price class, you should never hope any better.
Styles are 64, with 12 variations each style. Varied and easy to choose.
Velocity supported, but should be more.
No Aftertouch.

Good appearance, but I would not take it to heavy gigging outside. EM-15 is very light in weight.

Good, the seller (a dealer) is helpful in giving information about keyboard in the market. He said, this was the best within the price range. No other type and brandname can defeat its sound. Being a musician for a long time, I believed, and I bought it without much question. Everything worked well until now.

Maybe I would buy it again or in the higher EM series. It is worth I pay.
I have been playing for 15 years. I have been using synth Roland D-70, workstation G-800, synth Korg 01/WFD (my favorite for live in band), i3, Yamaha DX7 and PSR260.
I love EM-15 sounds and MIDI. I hate its too limited sound tweaking.

In average, Roland has built a great home keyboard, with additional ability to play in church or outdoor family activities. The sounds and styles are almost perfect for its price.

My suggestion is:
- Provide tap tempo knob.
- Provide better volume knob
- Provide more sound tweaking, maybe more DSP setting.
- Fill in, only one knob, and this is a transition bertween original and variation. How if I would repeat only a variation section of a song via fill?

But I believe this is the lowest type, and the next and higher versions will contain all that. Roland is truly great in medium to upper segment. This type, however, show that Roland can make a great keyboard for low price market... a big threat to PSR and Casio's. Is it because of technological advance? I guess that...

Easy to play, display easy to see. Editing patches not allowed. I don't know, is it possible to edit patches in this keyboard using computer? The presets are good. Sound technology from year 2001. Pianos are excellent (but can be better if more level of touch sensitive). Styles are excellent for its price. I have compared it to PSR and Casio (I think both are competing at the same level), but definitely Roland has better sound. PSR 640 or 740 have really high sound quality, but once again, Roland's pianos are better.
Manual is good.

polyphony 24. insufficient for advanced use.
Keyboard action is good. Built in effects are very limited, no extensive DSP editing ability. I reminded myself that Roland has built its sounds as they are, high quality presets, and this is not workstation. I think this is intended to be home keyboard. Expansion impossible, except you use MIDI machine or computer. MIDI capabilities are suitable for that. On board sequencer only 2-tracks! Flexible and easy, but so limited.

Sound plus price plus basic MIDI capability are why I choose this keyboard. Pianos are realistic. Drums ok. Organ, not so expressive, but realistic enough. Brass ok. Bass medium-average. Distortion and overdrive guitar are bad, dull and lacks power. Some saxes and horns are very realistic, some not. No modulation or bend. No aftertouch. I don't like its Volume button. But I love its styles, varied and include large range of music, from ethnic to classic to pop, techno and house. There are 8 x 8 (64) styles, and each has 12 variations! And this is a home keyboard!

Reliable, but definitely this is not for heavy gigging. This is best for house and for special and informal occasion. Not heavy and not too strong built.

Not yet. But the seller is very informative (and fanatic) about this keyboard. But he is mostly true.

At first I did not think that EM-15 was very intuitive (maybe partly because I am used to Yamaha instruments) but after reading the short manual the user interface started to make more sense and it turned out to be quite easy and logical to use after all.

I hate the volume buttons, I would have rather had a volume knob. Especially because EM-15 does not remember the volume level you have set after you turn it off; the volume level returns to almost full after turning it on. Not fun if you are using headphones and do not remember to turn volume down before starting to play.

The previous reviewer already listed the features, so I won't repeat them. I'd just like to comment that the velocity sensitivity does not seem to work well, there are maybe three different velocity levels that EM-15 recognizes.

I mean that if I played ppp, pp or p I got a light sound; if I played mp, mf or f I got a medium volume sound; and at ff I got a loud sound. The velocity response curve did not feel smooth. Too bad since otherwise the keys felt pretty good.

Here is the major problem (at least for me). The headphone output is VERY noisy and it gets even noisier when you play something (or start the metronome or an accompaniment). The noise is also very noticeable when using the on-board speakers. I did not try EM-15 with an external PA system, though.

The sounds don't fade out too smoothly either, for example in piano sounds there is a nasty distorted sound at the end, if you listen carefully. Too bad since otherwise most of the sounds are actually quite ok. Some sounds have been looped quite badly, though but at least pianos and drums could have been usable without the noise and the distortion.

I don't actually own it and haven't used it very extensively.

My girlfriend wanted to buy a cheap keyboard with a good piano sound and we were impressed by EM-15's sounds in the store. We did not try it with headphones and since the store was a quite noisy environment, we did not notice the noise. We actually bought it, took it home, noticed the noise, could not stand the noise, returned it three days later and got our money back.

If only the output wasn't so noisy, EM-15 would be a good buy. Now I would not recommend it but instead suggest to save a little more and buy a real synth or take a listen to cheap Yamaha PSRs (they did not sound _so_ noisy though not exactly hi-fi either).

Last but not least, I must say that maybe I am a little spoiled since I'm used to the virtually noiseless outputs of my Yamahas CS2x and QY100 but of course they are in a completely different price range than EM-15.

It's a piece of cake. The general layout of the board is user-friendly. Some menus are fairly deep it may take a little reading to get to know them. Overall, settings are easy to access. There is no editing capability. Manual is good and simple.

24-voice polyphony. 16-note multi-timbral. It is good enough for what the board was designed to do: providing good sounds on a semi-portable platform. Keys have good feel -- with velocity but no aftertouch. Features include: DSP effects - Reverb (8 settings) and Chorus (8 settings); 2-track sequencer (good for about 5 minutes); 8 user programs (save panel and parameter settings); Midi (GM&GS) I/O ports; style; orchestrator, harmony/layer, bass inversion. Other miscellaneous goodies are: 2 headphone (1 does double duty as line out) outputs; keys transpose; metronome; musical games (good for students.) The board has internal battery back up program memory (haven't any need to replace them but I hope they are user-replaceable, that would make it more pleasant.) but cannot be operated on battery power which is odd since the home market is where this portable board fits in.
Graphic display is big enough but way too dim, I'm afraid it just may quit someday; Roland should make it totally back-lit so it can be easily viewed in a totally dark room. No expansion capability whatsoever. Stereo sound system is pretty useless (3Wx2) unless you have no alternative. An external PA system of some sort is definitely a must if you want to get serious sound.

On board are 226 presets and 87 styles. The factory patches are 50/50 (thank goodness since there is no modelling capability.) The pianos are really excellent for an arranger board even if they do lack some low end definition. I think musically they are more impressive than a lot of other arrangers of similar price point, or even some pro performance synth. Nylon/Jazz guitars are good. Strings are OK. Synth pads/leads are good. Organs are fine and Brass/Winds are also decent. I like most presets except the excruciatingly bad electric guitars and silly ambience effects. Roland could have done better by giving us more instrument sounds instead.
You can play around with 2 arranger banks (Style Morphing & Orchestrator) to set up the styles to your taste. Although they are not very flexible you can change from basic drums track to full (almost) band settings. Intermediate players would want to use only the drums track and provide their own accompaniment for their melody; otherwise they'd risk sounding like cheesy TV commercials. The sounds are good for home use but may not be enough for live gig or recording, though in the hands of a qualified player, anything will sound good.
If you are starting out or on a small budget, you could do a lot worse than this board. It has a lot of useable sounds -- both natural and synthesis. They make up for the odd effects that most companies feel compelled to put on their arrangers.

I've only had this board for 2 months so it's too early to tell. The only other Roland gear I have used extensively is the Jet Phaser (late 70s model) which went out on me once, but I gigged for a number of years with that one. Just keep an eye on the little hamster inside the board and you'll be fine. If you plan to take it out on gigs, definitely get a hard case.

Never contact Roland. A friend fixed the Jet Phaser for me which was latter permanently misplaced. I miss that box

It is a little odd to see rows of PSRs and CTKs but only two EM-15 at my local GC. Roland's marketing people need to do better in pushing these. The EM-15 is made for students and whoever needs a keyboard to use at home without any setup. The 2-track sequencer is anemic at best, but use it to write down a riff. If you need to compose a song, use a software sequencer for crying outloud. Not having to switch on tons of gears just to play (plus the great pianos) is what sold me on the EM-15. Plug it in your stereo, however, or invest in a pair of decent active speakers, and you will like yourself a lot better.
Would I gig with it? Sure, I also wouldn't hesitate to gig with a $99 Squier Strat, so together they would make a fine pair. Seriously though, the pianos and nylon guitar presets can be used on stage without apology. Same with pads, but leads will not cut through the mix. Piano 2 and piano 3, however, have a nice metallic edge which is good for 80s stuff if you're in a cover band. The board velocity interacts with these patches to emulate fortissimo very well. If you're a DJ, don't use the EM-15 at all because there are no presets workable for dance. Its weakness clearly shows in live gigs. No midi through so it will have to be last in the chain. If your main board is a modern synth, and you need peace of mind then bring the EM-15 along for backup. Who knows what is going on in the digital brain of a modern synth? (come to think of it the old hamster isn't any more comforting either.) Just don't be surprise if your guitar player shows up for next gig with a Squier and try to steal the spotlight.
The buttons are a little flimsy, I don't think they will last very long for road use. The wall wart has got to go. I don't like the silver color though. It seems everyone who is anyone in the board business has gone this route. I like all my equipments black. This is a home board, not a performance synth. On second thought, I would not use this board in a live setting because, not being Herbie Hancock, I need all the help I could get from my rig. I use it at home to develop ideas. As such, it is a good equipment to have around.