Roland EM-20

It's easy to use. The manual is very complete (but the lack of another languages, just as Spanish, is a problem for non-french/english/german speakers) and I didn't had any problem with user interface.
Really, I didnt use all the things of the keyboard and I wont use it, I think ;)

The keyboard is simply great! The high range of polyphony is very useful for working with strings effects or synths.
The arranger mode is good. I didnt use it, but it's realistic.
The keys are simply great, harder than other keyboards and they have a quick response. Its has a distortion touch panel and a pitch button, but I would prefer some distortion wheel than it.
The only problem I can see it's not expansible. We can layer sounds, but we cant load new ones.
Finally, both 7.5 W speakers are excellent for playing in home.
In conclusion, I like it a lot :P

Before buy it, I was glad of the sounds, because I wanted a realistic sounds for a little amount of money, but when I tested it, my fears dissapeared.
Pianos, Brass, Strings and Organs are excellent! Better than any Casio or Yamaha I could buy.
I used this keyboard to play 80s rock or metal music and I like it.

I am a home user, so I didnt gig with it. But I knocked it in a few oportunities and any thing passed.
Its plastic, but very hard ;)

I didnt have any problem with Roland, but the other owner changed the motherboard and it worked OK. So I have to think it was excellent.
I asked Roland for a quite questions and they replied me quickey. I'm very satisfied.

In conclusion, If EM-20 was stolen, I probably would another. Now I want a new synth (more professional, like a Yamaha DX7 II or a Korg Karma) but Roland's one was great for the price I paid.
I strongly recommed to but one^^

The presets sounds awsome. The synths are radical.
It has a couple of EP's. The EPianio1v is the closest related to a Rhodes. The inbuild manual drumsection is very realistic. I use it a lot for recording new rythms when the rythms on the keyboard get's annoying.
The manual is very synoptic, it includes a list of all instruments.
Haven't used it for patches.

Polyphony: It has a manipulatable split, upper, and layer part. You can set the layer as a second voice which is accendable with the lower part and the arranger-feature. The chorus can be set separately for the upper and layer.
The Effects: It has a 'touch controller' I use it a LOT. You can use it for a lot of things: modulation, pitch, rythm tempo, arpeggio's, filter which is very good. You can use the filter for Wah's for you Overdriveguitar's, Hohner Clavinet's, Funk Guitars, and also for T-wah's on your Slapbass. It's very easy to use. Other Effects are a few Chorusses and Reverbs which includes a very cool one. it's very useful using a mandoline. I haven't used it yet for midi, but it is capable for it. It's easy to use: you can tell anyone on a jamsession in a few seconds how to get various instruments.

The Velocity: When you hit te key a little bit to fast it looks something like a Wurly and that's very annoying when you play a slow song. However, the action is not annoying me with other instruments. But.. the velocity is not very manipulatable you can set in on HARD and SOFT that's it. The Brightpiano's are very useful with Funk. The synthbrasses are also very useful with Funk. I play a lot of jazz on it fortunately it has a good Jazzguitar which sounds even better if you play it on to octaves at the sametime.

I have gigged a lot with it. It's very solid.
The arranger are very poor compared to a Tyros ofcourse it bores very fast. You'll need a bass-player, but the drums are very good. You can shut off snares, bassdrums & hihats with the Style Manipulator.
You can also mix styles with others styles. For Example: You can use the arranger and the drums of a Acid Jazz and get the basslines of an R&B.

My motherboard was broken. I took it to my local dealer and in 1 week there was installed a new motherboard. I haven't spoke to the Roland-company itself.

No it's older now (I have it for 8 years now) i would try something new.
I've lessons when i was 7 till my 13th. After that I bought a Hammond B-200 with a Leslie 860. I love the Piano's and Organ's (because i don't take my Hammond with me on a gig so the Roland does my organ's now and then.) My mother had bought it for me the salesman said it was a good one. I was too young to deside it was good or not to buy. I use the Roland mostly for drumrythms because I play the bass with my footpanel of my Hammond-organ. It is very useful and i record new drumrythms on it with the drums on the keyboard. The price when i bought it was in Guldens. It is in Euro's now.

Unfortunately Roland has a rather obtuse interface method (and a very small LCD) for first-timers operating on this thing, so changing settings, tones and so forth is not immediately obvious, but once you do get the hang then you can change presets (helpful) quickly and change things to suit.

The on-board reverb and chorus effects suck, pretty much, and the reverbs are also the most noisy I've heard. You're better off with a spring reverb from an old organ or something. It has MIDI In-Out, footswitch, 2 headphones, line out--as you'd expect, really.
There are some useful features--like keyboard split, layering of more than one voice--which can help create some nice effects, and these can make it gig-worthy.
What it also has is an abundance of 'style' features--basically a rhythm section. Now, I never use this, and never intended to, but I believe that this was kind of the idea of the product. There is a 'style morphing' feature which allows you to, for example, cut down the complex kit backing to just the snare and kick, and then change the expression. But, for me, this is just a waste. I don't think you could actually use these accompaniment sections, though.

It's basically a General MIDI keyboard, albeit Roland's 'GS' version, with slightly improved sounds. There are some funky electric pianos, a few good organs, and one or two nice other sounds, but you have to search through all the tones to get to the few decent (i.e. playable) ones. It does have a playable piano sound, which is reassuring.
The key action is solid and much better than other keyboards at this price range--a good reason to get it, I thought--though I feel that it should be slightly more responsive to velocity--there's not much difference between very soft and 'fff'.

Very reliable. Roland tends to make fairly solid stuff these days, and I've never had a problem, despite hammering it quite hard. It helps that it's fairly simple solid-state stuff.

Never needed it. That's the best kind of support, though I'm sure a local dealer will cope with these things. I imagine they'd just replace all the boards.

It was a worthwhile purchase, though one could probably get a nicer job now, because this line-up has been replaced. It was originally just for fun, but is now the main controller keyboard for my home studio setup, so that's something, and if one turns up second hand I'd get it again (though not for more than #50!)
If someone stole it/I lost it (I'd tell the insurance people the former either way) then I wouldn't lose sleep over it--it's just an efficient keyboard.
Oh... I just wish it didn't have all the cheesy rhythm crap. Maybe then it'd be cheaper.

Accessing the sounds and styles takes getting use to the Roland access method, but after the sales clerk explained it, you can catch on rather quickly.

24 note polyphony, never ran out. Nice keyboard action. I compared this unit to Roland em_10, Yamaha PSR280, and a Casio CTK651. The Yamaha has more features; 100 styles - Roland 64, 6 tracks, Roland 2,but the sound on the Roland beats the Yamaha. The EM-20 also has more power; 7 watts/channel versus 3/channel for Yamaha. It has an Upper 1-2 button that you can push to change to a different pre-selected sound, a great feature. You can split the keyboard, touch sensitive, reverb, sustain input, 2 headphone sockets. I haven't played around much with the style morphing/progression effects.

When I heard the organ sounds on this board, I was sold. When I got it home and started playing around, I fell in love with the "Breath" sound which I think is an Alto Sax, I lower the sound 1 octave. Organs are great Rtry Organ sounds like a Hammond connected to a Leslie, great 2nd & 3rd harmonics (Hammond jazz organ sound), pianos, horns, strings, and pan flute are good. SynCall is very good. The flute is a disappointment. I think the sound on the EM-20 is 8 times better than the EM-10. If you want a great sound, pay a little more and get the EM-20. The rythm styles are great: 4-8 part harmony. Rock styles are excellent. Big Band sounds like the Jimmy Dorsey band is backing you're trumpet lead. Piano Night sounds like a jazz trio backing your jazz guitar / percusive organ or trombone lead. If someone out there knows what the abbreviated sound names stand for or web site please email me.

I have only had it 6 months, but no problems with it. One reviewer said that it would start an unxpected rythm if you pressed a button. This has never happened to me, sounds like he pressed the wrong button.

I have gotten quick responses from my emails sent to Roland in Canada.

I would replace it if it were stolen with another. The "breath", organs, pianos, horns, strings, marimba, pan flute, syncall are good. Hey Roland, fix the flute sound please. I wanted a keyboard with at least 4 or 5 decent sounds, it has 20-30 good sounds. The quality of these keyboards has improved dramatically. If you want greatmsound get this one, if you want features get the Yamaha PSR-280