Roland XP-30

Latest edition software, I don't even know if Roland ever upgrades their romplers. Editing patches very easy, but the manual sucks.

Polyphony is 64 voice and you can expand with 2 Jv expansion cards. This would bring the total patches to about 2000 patches(give or take). The effects are just ok, nothing to spectacular. O.K. as a controller. No onboard sequencer, but easy to use with computer or akai. T

patches are ok but to do serious electronic arrangements you must edit and use external effects. It would be good for generic pop arrangements, very good. The effects are O.K. but only 1 and its global. Very good with velocity and aftertouch.

Very reliable, no probs here.

Probably no need with this keyboard, except for the patch editor. I don't have to go into that.

If it were lost, and I sold it, would not buy again. However, If your doing straight pop arrangements, or rap, very good buy. I have had an XP-60(better effects & has a sequencer), Nova(better sound and efx), Mpcs, electribes, E-MU sound modules(thinner sound),Triton(I personally don't like the sound), Yamaha's Ex5 and Anx-1(best sound of any romplers period, and Anx is heavenly)

No idea on version.
Presets are surprisingly solid for a board under 1k.
Patch editing is easy, duplo, fun, except their part/parameter split thing gets a little confusing at times.
The manual blows.

Polyphony is dangerous when used as a standalone board programming anything layered. If you want to do techno/trance, and not some weak 1991 BS, you will have problems if this is the only board you are trying to use. Action of keyboard is not weighted, and thats all that matters to me, I use it as a controller. The EFX are pretty crappy, but then again, I'm used to working mostly on the ASR-10. The non-pan delay seems useless, the reverbs are a little tinny, and I found the routing structure to be a little confusing. I have expanded it with drums and bass, w0rd to Marcus Miller. Trying to use this expansion board for actual rock seems dumb, but these patches are fun for tooling around with the sounds like you would on a sampler, ala Koxbox. The DnB card has some decent cymbals to replace the poopy stocks. The fact that it didn't waste developmental cost or retail price on a sequencer was one of the reasons I bought it.

Some are great, some are mad stupid. For instance, the guitars suck, but I guess it takes balls to even put guitars on there since they are probably always gonna suck. But the point is, there are TONS of sounds. You get well over 1 patch per dollar, probably better than any other board. And this is also valuable, if for no other reason than the fact that you can do concentrated composition on one single board (provided you dont hork the polyphony) and then just re-route your tracks (from say Cubase) to another board with more solid sounds. They are definitely compressed, sometimes too much. I was very annoyed by the fact that the drums can't use the filters, without assigning them to another part. I like the bandpass and peaking filters as a whole.

I've dropped it a few times cuz I'm like that and it has fux0red up a little bit here and there...one time it just froze up and had to be rebooted, another time it took a few reboots. W0rd to the panic button, I use that like every 3 seconds. I would most definitely use it on a gig without backup because almost all of my stuff is on DAT. AHSDH jk

I don't even want to know, I have never called them, and their suck is apparently legendary. Suffice to say they dont even have support info in the manual I believe? Or no email address, I cant remember.

I would buy it again because its a great "miscellaneous filler" board. I made the mistake of relying on its sampled basses and synths for a brief experimental period, don't do that, you'll end up sounding dumb. The strings and all that are probably the best I have heard on a board that actually sported decent drums. I have been playing for 20 years. I have an ASR-10, a VirusKB, a Juno 106, an An1x, and too much other aux BS. I love its interface, catalogging, intuitiveness. I hate the polyphony limit. I wish it was USB or digital. It has been very helpful to me. Also, one time I ate an entire box of Cinnamon Altoids in one sitting.

Great for a gig kbd

Great

Great for an all perpouse synth

This is my main point of my review, and also as a reply to the reviewer named N.S. ,in my oppinion i think, with all due respect, you should REALY learn the difference between metal and plastic, the top and lower bodies of the xp-30 ARE made of METAL (aluminium), so if you still dont belive me and that other reviewer that stated the same, i sugest you open yours and look at the inside of the top pannel,or if that doesent convince you pick a key or something metalic and knock on the top panel and listen to the metalic sound,and theh knock on the side panels and listen to the plastic sound, and if you are not convinced yet try putting your hand on top of the top pannel (preferably in a cold day) and then in the side pannels and you will notice that the top panel is alwaays colder than the side panels, thats becouse the top panel IS MADE OF METAL!!!!!!
This synth DOES'T feel cheep to me at all, thind you could use it as a bat to play baseball and still be working!

I would buy it again

Works great with Logic Audio... Go here for the environment patches http://www.lilchips.com/roland/synths/jvxp/patches/30fact.asp. I think the presets sound awesome.... and most everyone who records electronic music uses the JV1080 and it's sounds are included. I haven't tried to edit the sounds and like most everyone else, I couldn't get SoundDriver to work with my Mac... probably and extension conflict though. I thought the manual was okay, but I upgraded to the XP-30 from the XP-10 so I'm not a real good judge... the XP-10 manual is a bad joke.

I haven't heard any drop-outs due to polyphony and I've made some songs with lots of pads and drums, but I don't have the keenest ear. If you use a sequencer, you can get around poly issues by mixing down your different parts to audio files, etc. I love the keyboard action. Much better than the XP-10. I really don't want true piano feel. I write techno music. Love the built in effects. I use the effects as they are... pre-programmed by Roland, although you can edit to your hearts content I believe. You get the Session, Orchestral and Techno and two left for whatever you want. The cards are too pricy though. Aftertouch is pretty cool (never had it before). The sliders for filter's etc are really cool and work great with Logic Audio (your can record your moves to midi). The arp is cool and it also dumps to midi.

I'm not the best judge for audio fidelity, but the instruments sound good to me-- I think the onboard effects really thicken up most sounds-- there are a hell of a lot of sounds to choose from. Some sounds just will never sound like the real instruments I guess. I believe the velocity and aftertouch are adjustable, but I haven't messed with that yet.

I haven't had any problems yet. I'm not a musician so I don't do live shows.

Haven't needed to call them. Hopefully never will.

I'd totally get another one if it were lost or stolen. I think it's worth every penny I paid for it. I don't know that much about other synths, but this one has everything that I need. I have only been playing for about 6 months (I'm not a musician), and don't own much other gear. I will say that if you're thinking about getting a synth for the first time and you want pro quality with and enormous sound set, this is the thing to seriously think about. The XP-10 doesn't really compare to the XP-30. For $500 more (a lot- believe me I know) you get over 1000 more sounds (I think).... no question the better deal. If you want to hear what the XP-30 sounds like, listen to my song "homage" here: http://www.mp3.com/omegaman . I made this song with Logic Audio Silver and the XP-30 & nothing else. Hope my review helps!

Cheers and enjoy!

The version of my XP-30 is 1.0 I think.
There are good and bad presets. There are really tons (too many) strings sounds like violin ensembles etc.
In a general way, I find the acoustic sounds really great. The organs are medium, and there are only few and bad pipe organs sounds.
The synth is very easy to use, thanks to the large buttons. It is easy to modify sounds, even several parts at a time. However, programming the controllers (aftertouch, sliders etc) is very unconvenient, you really have to read the doc to do that.
The manual is good if you are already familiar with synths programming. It does not give too many details on the effect of each parameter on the sound.

Polyphony 64 but in practice I would say 18 as most patches use more than 2 tones.
I like the keyboard action, the keys are long enough. A bad point is that I have a hard time controlling the aftertouch.
Between 0% and 100% aftertouch, there is very little difference in the pressure of the keys so it is hard to master it.
This keyboard has really tons of sounds and you should have enough with the 1040 patches available there !
The effects are good and quite versatile I think.
The MIDI capability is great, although you still have to compute the checksum at the end of SYS-EX that you may want to write yourself.
Otherwize the midi implementation is well documented, although they don't provide all the information about how the synth dumps patches and performances.
The arpeggiator is good but it's a pain in the ass to change its parameters. You can change some of them directly by holding the "arpeggio". But to access the most interesting ones (style), you need to go through menus and submenus.

I am not a real piano player but I like the pianos (especially the Concert Piano on the Session board).
The acoustic sounds are great, but there are not enough oboes, clarinets, and organs (reed and pipe).
The synth does not even enough wave form to create them. They wasted the ROM. Sometimes you have waveforms that you can hardly differenciate, and which difference is only in the filtering, but you could do it yourself with the filter !
I think the synth sounds are bad. You can hardly use the "structures" to combine tones because the ring modulator is really really bad. Do not expect to be able to make things like on a D-serie synth.
Also the synth waves sound like plastic. Hopefully, with the "analog feel" parameter you can try to give them some charm but it is still very limited.
The XP-30 is very unsucessfull in creating fat and metallic sounds (except if you use distortion effects or the "booster").
Actually, it is sample based and the only it does well is sampled instruments.
Forget about the fat synths. Even on the Techno board there are really few of them.
I rate it 6 as I use use synth sounds (not techno) and the XP-30 is not good at this.

I have 5 or 6 Roland devices, some of them from 1987 (D and U expanders), never had a single reliability problem with them.
I blindly trust Roland for that. And the XP-30 case is made of hard plastic. It looks
robust, although it's not heavy.

Never had to deal with them.

I am not gonna sell it because it's a good workhorse for acoustic sounds.
I've beeing owning it since April 2000. I've been playing for 17 years.
The drums are not very powerful although realistic. It lacks a "infinite time" drum roll.
I own a D-50, D-110, U-220, R-5 drum machine.
I owned a E-15 (first keyb) and a CS1x Yamaha (which I sold for because I didn't like the plastic synth sounds)
I love the ease of use of the XP-30. The sounds are sorted by category and it's really easy to find what you're looking for.
I compared it to the Yamaha CS1x. The drums are worse but the acoustic sounds are much better.
Also the CS6x. I did not like the sound of this synth at all (but it looks very pretty). If you consider buying a XP-30, give a try to the Yamaha S-30, it might be worse trying this one as it is very similar to the XP-30.

I have no idea how to determine the software version on the XP-30 so I'm afraid I can't comment on this. . .I've had my XP-30 since July 1999 though if it helps any.

The presets pretty much run from average to superb--that is there are *no* bad sounds (with the exception of the GM bagpipe sound). There are a few mediocre sounds (the guitars are kind of thin and reedy)but overall the (acoustic) sounds compare VERY well with every other machine except for the Kurzweil K2x00 series, but those cost two arms and two legs.

The OS on the XP-30 is absolutely stellar IMHO. There are some 1400 patches on this synth, which can be very overwhelming at times, but the way they are organized by bank, and then by expansion board, with the CATEGORY sorting function is first-rate. As far as editing sounds go, it's very easy to do exactly what you want to do to the sound, and it's very easy to find the specific parameter(s) you're look for. Even by today's standards this is a deep instrument, and it really says a lot that's it's so easy to use.

The manual is better than most Roland manuals I've used, which isn't saying much. The XP-30 comes bundled with an OEM version of SoundDiver, the PC version of which is worthless IMHO.

-64 note polyphony, 64MB ROM (compressed to 32)
-multimode resonant filters (lowpass, highpass, bandpass, and peaking)
-the keyboard (velo and channel aftertouch sensitive) action is of the semi-weighted variety, and is very good; it's solid enough to be confidence-inspiring but not so heavy that it impedes your playing I think
-the pitch-bend/modulation joystick sucks though because the joystick can only travel about 1/4" in the Y axis, which can be troublesome. It's a shame Roland decided to use this joystick instead of the one in the XP-60 and XP-80.
-2 outputs: this is the biggest shortcoming by far and is inexcusable. People may argue that that would increase the cost too much, but the XP-30 is based completely on previously existing products. It's obvious the absence of an extra output pair is intended to prevent cannibalization of the XP-60/80 (most pro users are unlikely to use the 60/80's onboard sequencer, and would want to have the 3 expansion boards, but would be turned off by the 2 outputs, and then fork over the extra $400 for the bigger machine).
-the effects are mediocre overall, but the funny thing is that the people who programmed the presets obviously knew they aren't that good. You don't really run into many sounds drenched with reverb and delay like you do with the Alesis QS series (I used to have a QS6), and the effects parameters are carefully adjusted for each sound.

-You get separate global reverb and chorus processors (the GM style controllers 91 and 93 to adjust effects depth per part), and an EFX. The reverb is kind of grainy and metallic, but doesn't get muddy at all the way the dreadful Alesis QS series do. Roland's always nailed chorus effects and the excellent chorus on the XP/JV is no exception. The EFX offers 40 algorithms from EQs and compression to up to 2 chained effects (like distortion and delay). The delay effects are great, and the chorus and flangers are equally good. Some of the effects like auto-wah, and particularly distortion and overdrive are dull and lifeless and are in desperate need of some balls. It would certainly be nice to have more EFX options though on this synth.

-2x expansion via SRJV-80 series PCM expansion boards
-no onboard sequencer (the XP50/60/80 have sequencers however)

-well obviously the session piano sounds' realism is kind of controversial so I'll leave that to you; I like it personally and use it all the time in songs or to play Chopin or whatever.
-the acoustic sounds on the session and orchestral board are what really make the sounds on the XP-30; the string ensembles on the Orch board are absolutely beautiful (esp. #39 Full Strings, and #84 Big Marc! The solo strings sound good in a mix but are not realistic enough to be by themselves. The brass sounds are pretty good overall; choir sounds are superb (Session #23--Dream Voices, Orch #228--Choir 2), especially if you make a patch that layers these sounds together; the woodwinds are flat-out outstanding as a group. The electric pianos are kind of thin, as it seems obvious that Roland wants you to fork $200 over for the sounds on the Keyboards of the 60s and 70s expansion board. The guitars and basses are average, with a few standouts on the session board. As for electronic sounds, the pads are very Roland-like-->very clean and smooth but precise and digital. The synth leads and basses are good overall, but they're lacking in the "balls" factor--they're kind of thin and it's obvious they've been compressed. This is where your synth programming skills come in: get 2 or 3 tones working in a patch, detune them, add a noise waveform to the other tones to fatten them up.
-the filters are pretty good for a sample playback synth--no real stepping artifacts; the bandpass filter is particularly good
-the acoustic snares and kick drums *SUCK* and are not at all realistic, though the toms fare much better, as do the various percussive instruments e.g. congas, timbale . . .The electronic drum sounds are good, and there are a *lot* of drum sounds on the techno board. That said, you can never please Roland TR drum machine gurus/addicts/whatever with samples, so be prepared if that's your bag.

-a lot of people comment on how the sounds lose their effectiveness/character/whatever in multitimbral mode and though I agree to some extent, this phenomenon is *nowhere* near as bad as it is on synths from other manufacturers (especially Alesis and Korg products except for the Trinity and Triton). Other companies' synth programmers rely too heavily on effects to get the patch's "sound" so when you use them in multi mode, they fall flat, but I've found Roland's presets are carefully designed to prevent this becoming an overriding issue.
-As for the notorious "static decay" problem, it *does* exist but it is nowhere near as bad as some people describe. The first time I noticed it was when I put an XP-30 synth lead through one of my compressors, which (with a 4:1 ratio or so and 6 or 7 dB of output gain) boosted the level of the decay portion of the waveform. . .

The XP-30 is quite well built for something in its price range. The top, bottom, and back panels appear to be made of aluminum, while the sides are made of a sturdy plastic. Still compared to a Juno or Jupiter, it's pretty fragile and would probably not survive in the hands of a careless owner (or roadie) for long. Roland has an excellent reputation for reliability though.

I've had some major problems with Roland in the past, and was so pissed off with my encounter (in 1995), and the utter arrogance that was de-facto at Roland U.S. that I vowed I would never buy Roland equipment again. Based on what I've learned on the net it hasn't improved much if at all. I couldn't resist the XP-30, because there's really nothing else within a $500 range that has better sounds.

If this thing were lost or stolen I might think about getting an XV-3080 or 5080 b/c I have another good 61-key keyboard controller. Still, I really like to play it by itself late at night so I don't have to turn on all my other equipment so this says something. I've been playing since about 1995, seriously since 1997 or so.

This synth has a ton of good sounds that fit well in a mix, is well-designed, is easy to program, and has some nice synthesis feaures (ring mod/booster, frequency cross-modulation, 2 independent midi syncable LFOs). This is my all-purpose machine that I use for song/idea sketches before I start to seriously work on a new project, for specific instrument sounds, and as a basis for resampling (for example sometimes I'll put the XP-30 through my Wavestation A/D's inputs, run it through some more effects, and then sample away). It has a great GM bank, which I use every once in a while. . .On a typical song, I use 4 or 5 channels in multi mode, so I rarely have a problem with polyphony, but if this were my only synth I would have trouble for sure.

The 2 output limitation is frustrating, but fortunately I have enough other gear to compensate; if you don't you might not like the XP-30 as much. Nevertheless there's really NOTHING that unequivicabllybeats the XP-30 for several hundred dollars more and that's quite an accomplishment. Everyone else who has reviewed the XP-30 mentions the Alesis keyboards--they honestly can't hold a candle to the XP-30 as far as sound quality or synthesis power. I owned a QS6 for 2 1/2 years and quickly ditched it as soon as the XP-30 came out and I've not looked back since.

We don't have to buy MIDI interface.. because it is including a built-in it

Everything was OK.. but I don't know why my computer doesn't detect it... I mean, auto-detect..

I used Korg X5D before. I think, xp-30 is better than that.. except
piano and drum sounds.

the first time that i bought xp-30, there was something wrong with my expensions. I called them, and they fixed it easily.

if it was lost or stolen, then i'm gonna buy it again.^^

The Presets sound good though they go a little flat in Multitimbral mode. Some aspects of the interface are very easy to use (like patch selection, turning on and off instruments in layered sounds(programs). But, trying to figure out MIDI assignments in multitimbral mode is way too hard and the manual is useless.

The action feels pretty good to me. I play acoustic as well as synth and it doesn't get in the way, which is good. The XP-30 is expandable, though I can't imagine navigating more sounds. It is a bit overwhelming even with the category buttons. Has a lot of features, no sequencer.

Have to agree with what has been said before. The Piano sound are awful. I like the Alesis Piano sounds better if that is any reflection. I didn't get this for piano sounds though and the rest sound good. Maybe the brass is a little weak

Haven't had it long enough to have a opinion

Didn't see a toll free number on the website nor an obvious tech support e-mail. Going to have to look again.

Don't know yet whether I'd replace if lost or stolen.
I've been doing the MIDI thing for 4 years now and feel pretty competent. My old Yamaha V-50 had much better navigation through sound parameters, midi assignment, etc. i have to say that the manual is awful, awful, awful. It is unfortunate cause a well written one would make this instrument so much nicer to use.

I found the XP-30 easy to use, if you wnat to use it life on stage, however, at home I use it with other syths and modules, like MU100R and technics KN1500, and ASR10. ALL completely different machines that has their own characteristics. Using this synth between the others can cause errors. Also using it as a multitimbral soundmodule, is not that easy.(or is it me?) I use it mostly with the old atari Qbase, and find it very difficult to set up the keyboard aswell as the soundmodule, so I can use both seperate (this function is possible according the manual (YES I read the manual)) It gives and gave me some brainbrakers to set it up right.

Looking to all the features this keyboard has a lot of them(if you really goin to use them is a second question). Sound expansionboards are nice, but looking to the price and see if you really need ALL the sounds on the expensionboard is more me a big question. The effects are very nice, but one insertion(40) is now a days not TOO much. looking to my MU100r wich has 2, with more effects inside (60) and also tripple effects. looking to the MIDI possibillities, I think you can do a lot with it, but me, user of Yamaha mostly, find it very difficult to set it all up the right way.(Is it ME again?)
No sequenser build in, wich is good, (who needs a sequenser inside when you have a computer that can do it all).

Goin thru all the banks multi and pathes, I find the sounds very progressive. (else I never would have bought this synth in the first place). I play a lot of jazz and funk, but at home I make a lot of different musicstyles. the most sounds were okee, but listening to the piano, I Have to be hounest, is too much attack sound, wich the keyboard is too much responding to my playing. Also the aftertouch is nice, but would have liked that you can really feel it in your fingers when pressing the key(s). Also I noticed, that the aftertouch seems not to be polyfonic, but maybe I'm wrong here, and have just to figure out how to set this option. keyboard is very smouth to play on, I have to say, wich gives me the feeling that I wnat to use it also as a masterboard.

I think the xp-30 is a reliable synth, to use it on stage, how ever, using it at home with other synths, I found a lot of problems, that I still did not found a solution for.(midi settings for instance, or putting the synth to multitimbral, to use all the patches over 16 channels.

I called with the helpdesk in belgium, and also emailed the same person, but stil did not get any answers yet. This was obut one week ago. caling the helpdesk in the UK gave me the feeling that the number does not even exists there, or the line must have been really busy. giving it an advantage of doubt I I hope to get a reaction soon from them.

If it was to be stolen, I would have been very sad, because its not insured at all, anyway, I think I would buy the sameone, or mayby I would buy the JV2080 instead. When I bought it, there was also a QS6.1 wich people seems to compare wich the XP-30. I dont think that the QS6.1 is worth a compare to this one. However, QS6.1 and for example the Yamaha sinths in the same price were also very nice with the sounds, but really not so beautifull as the sounds off the xp-30.
I would have liked the synth to have also GS and in the general midi a possibility to use more sounds then just the 128 that you have normally.

Very easy to use right out of the box.I did have a little trouble figuring out how to get phrase loops from my expansion cards to sync with my sequencer, but I finaly got it (no thanks to the manual). The manual can be a little confusing at times.

64 voice polyphony is plenty for me, and I have some very textured sequences. I never had a problem with note cut off. The effects are great, and easy to use, but in performance mode, its hard to get the sounds to be as fat as they are in play mode. I still long for a keyboard that can duplicate the effects of each instrument seperately while in a performance mode!!! You can still get them to sound great, but not all of the sounds will be as good as the original sounds in play mode. So far I just have the Hip-Hop expansion. At about $230, they are a bit pricey, but I am totally satisfied with this card. Its a lot of fun, and very useful while sequencing. Live I run the XP-30, a Juno-106, and a Korg M1. All my sequences come from a Kawai Q80-EX, and the XP-30 has given me no problems. The action is good. The only thing that I can complain about is pushing the joy stick up for LFO and other effects is very stiff. It feels like I have to push alot harder than I should!!

The sounds are mostly excellent. The only complaint I have here is the piano's and brass! I'm sorry Roland, but Korg has it all over you as far as these sounds are concerened!! Everything else is fantastic. My band plays cover tunes from oldies to techno, rap, classic rock, alternative, and lots of dance. The XP-30 is usefull for all of it.

I use it live 2 to 4 times a week, and it hasnt let me down yet. My sequences depend on it to work and I'm not worried.

Havent had the displeasure of finding out!

I would buy this unit again in a heart beat! For the price you cant compare anything else to it!! I've been playing proffesionaly for about 13 years (since I was fifteen). I started out with a JX-3P and a Wurlitzer electric piano that I traded in for the Juno-106 (stupid, stupid, stupid!!!). I got a Korg M1 about 6 years ago, and the XP-30 about 1 year ago. If it had Better Piano's and brass, it would be perfect.