Roland EM-55

When you know what to do, like when you have scoured the manual for what you want to do, then playing the instrument is a pleasure. That is not exactly a plus for this particular instrument because it is generally a pleasure to play any musical instrument.

What midi capabilities indeed? I have tried everything I can to get midi out of this thing and it still just an idea at this time.

Does Roland have customer support? I never knew that...

I would not get another one if it was lost or stolen, I would most likely look at Korg. I am inclined to do that now anyway. If you are considering buying one of these, you were probably dazzled in the showroom and wooed by the salesman. Once you buy it and take it home, it loses a lot of the showroom shine that had your eyes glazed over. Try to ignore Roland products and look at Korg. If you buy a Roland, let me say right now that I told you so.

Midi? What Midi?

Had this brat hooked up to my computer and a Korg N1R, and the possibilities are not only limited, they are very poor. It appears that only the General Midi sounds can be accessed, though doing so through programs like Acid and Fruity Loops is such a pain that it's not worth the hassle. Where every single sound on the Korg N1R (all 3,000 of them) can be accessed through midi, only a select few can be accessed through the Roland (the standard midi junk instruments).

The manuel is far from intuitive and is a very shoddy piece of instructional literature. Talk about a poor, poor attempt at informing the customer.

If anyone has any ideas on how to access "the over 3,500 instruments" that Roland boasts, through midi, please contact me at inkblot1@insightbb.com.

Midi clock seems slow. Not a very good instrument.

Sounds are tight. If only you could access them through midi.

Nope. There's no way I'd take this thing on a gig.

Tried calling Roland once or twice, but fruitless.

If this thing were lost or stolen, I'd probably laugh about it, considering that I'd feel more sorry for the poor guy who actually got his hands on it and attempted to midi it up.

Most of the buttons on the front panel are clear but most if not all can be held for a sec or two for accessing other functions.... This is not a problem after to have it for a long time and actualy learn all of the hidden fuctions.

I've updated the software in the synth using floppies although roland refuses to tell anyone what the update actualy fixes or add to the keyboard.

The manual seems to leave out a bunch of features that I have found on my own.

This synth is 64 note polyphic, it has synth style no weighted keys but that is ok with me. There are 47 multi-effects that are used to make up many of the presets. Even though no one can verify this the EM-55 does support after touch... I have found a few presets that use it. eg. guitars that strum on release.

As for expansion you have a floppy disk drive for playing back SMF's and Styles. I have never been able to find styles disks for any of my Rolands synths and midi files that sound good are rare.

Attaching this synth to a computer is limitless.

My Big problem with this synth is the usless d-beam presets. You can only select a few intruments to trigger (like a harp) on the d-beam and the keyboard has over 3000. Commn how hard could it be to make this editable in the next update Roland ?

I love pianos and this synth does not have great piano sound untell you tweek the Velosity settings and use an external midi controller to tweek it some more. My old Roland E-66 had a much better piano sound preset also the PMA-5 over this new EM-55.

Other than the piano sounds, most of the other sound are great. I am happy with the piano sounds after I tweek them every time I swich on the unit.

The velocity at med. settings is to much... at hi id be busting the keys to make a full sound.

Seems buggy at times.. The wacky LCD display is not fixed in the update and many other little glitches I've found. Switching off and back on helps. Playback SMF on this synth is not the same as my older GS GM synths... File that played fine on the older synth won't play corectly on the EM-55's GM2 GS standards.

Rolands many site all over the world have no info, details. Help ect.
The main US site has a few articles that take you no where.

I do enjoy playing with the EM-55 but I do think I'm done with Roland synths... This is my 4th Roland and seem there loosing track.

This baby has over 3,500 presets, of course you probably don't need 20 variations of a Trumpet, but hey who knows?
All the buttons on the frontpanel are very clear, and if you bother to read the manual just once there should be no problem.

NOtE: SOme sounds are still really hard to find, so its a 8 for this.)
Try to find the yoddleing sound for example...=)

I'm not sure but I think it has 64 note polyphony! (it is actually a workstation rather than a synth) The effect prosessor is really great, it has 47 effects (some of them paired up like Distortion with Flanger) so theactual number of different effects is about 20.


?The expandability is limited into styles or songs which you can download through the internet and put on a disk, if you like making music alone this is pretty cool.

The EM-55 has touch-sensitive keys, this is really great with some sounds when you can make a completely different sound when adding pressure (e.g. Distorted guitar can make high pinches and Hammonds leslie start to revolve faster) Actually the thing is perhaps a little bit too dependent on it's effects , without them the sounds are really thin)

Don't buy this thing for a sequencer, it works but is really hard to use.

So it's a fair 9 because of the lack of sound editability and expandability

The Hammond sounds are a positive suprise, but the solo strings (violin,viola...not the String sounds) really stink.
Nice collection of lead and pad sounds , you'll find just the thing you're looking for...

Don't use thing for Rock music (unless hammond) cuz it has no good piano sound , but the fantastic Rhodes makes up for it...Dance musicians who already have some analog-modules could try this as a soundbank, the pads are fab! Absolute no to classic musicians....

The machines reliability is a minus, usually it's fine but every now and then it goes crazy without warning the LCD-screen is filled with symbols and it switches into piano-sound.
This happens very rarely and can be fixed by a simple off, and back on operation ,but it can be really stressing to do so in the middle of a gig...

I once broke a key from it and when i brought it to the importer they said it shouldn't break this easily and that is was a manufactory fault, so they repaired it for free... (i had actually dropped a module on it...)

I really love this machine , but if it was stolen I'd probably by a Korg, just for the hell of it...

THe internal speakers are useful cuz u don't have to buy a seperate amplifier...

NOw if it just had some more sound editablility...

over 3,500 sounds
88accomp styles (editable and morphable)
88 drum kits (or more...)
47 effects
8 Accomp. pads (like a strings background)
+ 8 Dj-pads (even more sounds)
Pitch/bend wheel
Transpose -option
2xinternal speakers (10w i think...)
Midi IN/OUT
MONO/STEREO OUT
FOOTPEDAL JACK