Roland G-1000

This is my 7th keyboard, but it is by far the most difficult to use - the poorly organized miniscule screen requires extensive paging to check even the basic settings. The 8-button sets for tone/performance and style selection multiplex the group and individual selection (e.g. selecting A64 requires pressing 6 and 4. If you double-click by accident, you are in trouble, as the extra click will be interpreted as the next group selection, which does not time out, so that next time you press the button (to select the group) it will be interpreted as the individual selection.

The number of pages of parameters is tremendous, and editing performance memories is quite hard, especially if you want to have slight changes.

On the plus side, the 4 lock buttons are very useful in locking in styles, tones, keyboard mode, and transpose.

The tones are organized very poorly, with the various instruments interspersed as "variations" of unrelated other instruments. Tone selection requires various numbers of key presses - Bank, Group, Individual, then scroll to the desired variation. This is unusable in live performance, though OK for studio use.

The polyphony is 64 notes. The keyboard action is great, though aftertouch requires a bit much pressure. The tone map is not expandable, though you can use an external GS sound editor and save modified sounds as parts of performance memories; however, when you invoke a performance memory, it will also bring in a bunch of other changes in the instrument setup.

This instrument is intended for playing auto-accompaniment styles, and as such it is very good. The ZIP drive allows storing a large number of user styles; however, it would have been more functional with a larger screen.

The rotary knobs are useless - I wish they simply had up and down buttons. Another useless (IMHO) function is the automatic lookup, where you have to program a portion of a song into the music database, and then if you start playing the programmed portion of the song, the midi file gets loaded and starts playing automatically. It is impossible to play back the portion of the song precisely enough to have the instrument recognize it reliably.

I like the sound a lot. The saxes are my favorite, and the brasses and strings are also great. I would have liked to configure aftertouch for slide of the trombones, but that is wishful thinking. The pianos sound fine to my ear, though some purists might be disappointed.

Of course, the trick is to be able to find the sounds you want amid the myriad of other tones (see my comment above).

I used to think I could depend on this instrument. Then one time (during a rehearsal, thankfully), the styles stopped loading from the ZIP disk. There was no cause for it (such as moving the instrument, removing or mishandling the disks). The backup disk was equally faulty. Luckily, I had my style database on the PC, so I could re-create the styles on a brand-new ZIP disk, and since that time the problem has not reoccurred. However, as I have no explanation for the cause of this problem, I am now afraid not knowing if or when it will happen again. Hence, I am not sure if I can rely on this instrument.

If you are trying to get any technical info from Roland, which is not in the manual, you are pretty much out of luck. A number of users have tried to find out certain file structures from Roland, in order to develop a PC-based application for managing the performance memories. There is no official contact point for Roland (in the US or most other countries). I am still hopeful that the unofficial Roland contact will fulfill his promise and provide the necessary info; however, it has been a long time, and the info is still not out.

When my ZIP problem (above) has occured, I tried to contact the Roland authorized service center near me. They told me to bring the keyboard in, so that they could look at it, although they were positive that it would not be for at least two weeks, because the tech is busy. If I needed parts, the shop time would be correspondingly extended. This is unreasonable and stupid. I suggested that they put my name in the queue, and give me a call a day before the tech would have time to look at my keyboard - No, I was told, they don't do that. I find this outrageous. I should not be forsed to give up my instrument for weeks just to keep the spot in the repair shop.

However, Roland publishes a "users' group magazine" where they tell us, the users, how to use our instruments. Why don't they spend the same money and LISTEN to the users to find out what we want in an instrument instead?

This instrument is an example of how Roland gives with one hand, and takes away with the other. I also own an older Roland keyboard (E-70), which has a small screen, a shorter keyboard, a third of the polyphony, one tenth of the sounds and quarter of the styles, and no floppy drive. However, it is much easier to use, and half the time I take it to the gig instead of the G1000.

I love the sounds of this instrument, and the styles sound great. However, I find it extremely inflexible, not being able to easily change either the sounds or styles. It is this lack of ergonomics, which makes it difficult for me to enjoy the positive aspects of this instrument.

I know that there is no perfect instrument, and many of the professinal players lover their G-1000s. However, if I had to decide to purchase it again, I would probably get something else.