Roland XP-30

The presence of many big buttons makes the synth very easy to use overall to do the main function. The editing in depth is very hard if you use only the insufficient display(2x40). To choose the sounds is necessary to press too button. Very interesting is the software to manage the sounds and the performances but it is a little difficult. The manual is too simple: it doesn't go in depth.

The polyphony is 64 notes but every sound can have four tones that reduce the polyphony. The keyboard action is very good and has channel aftertouch. The synth has three built in effects: one for reverbs, one for chorus, one for dsp they are insufficient (look at trinity or alesis qs and yamaha) but the quality is very high. The sounds are more then 1400 and you have 128 user sounds in addition. The performances are 32 + 32; they are few but you can buy the memory card to have some other space. The sample memory is 32MB of compressed samples and you can add two other expansion board (they are very expensive). there isn't a sequencer.

The general quality is very high and you can make many interesting sounds using the big synthesis capabilities. Many sounds have different level. To make better sounds you must use the dsp effect processor. Pianos: nice piano very good (not acoustic) it plays a little bright, The session piano isn't good; you can have some enhancement using the editing(sessione piano is good on the upper frequencies). Too few. Organs: poor Flute: very good Pads: wonderful Brass: poor (an exception is the super tenor) guitar: nylon good in the middle, str guitar very poor(has somebody a k2500 Slo type Guitar for xp30?) electric and distorted are good. all orchestral: wonderful synth: very good bass: very good ethnic: good but too few.
ps if you use very well the effects and the editing you can make many acoustic sounds interesting and make many new sounds. For me too drum sample

I'd buy it again but I'd look the Generalmusic Equinox. I love it but i'd have liked some other sample of piano and acoustic guitar and overall a bigger display. The overall quality is very high. I'll look the country board for guitar.

The preset patches are incredible! Most keyboards will have some not so useful patches, but this one has very usefull prsets! This Synth is amazingly easy to edit patches to create your own variations of sounds! I've already made a couple of them. The manual was difficult to completely understand at first(especially the section on how to make your own patches) but it gets much easier when you actually start trying it yourself!

It has 64-voice polyphony. I love the weighed keys because it gives it a much more realistic "feel" to it. It has 40 effects that can be applied to the patches. I was amazed that it had so many sounds! It has the full JV1080/JV2080 Sound set plus 3 of Roland's more popular Expansion boards(Session, Orchestral, and Techno) and there's still room for 2 more expansion boards! The lack of a sequencer is easily made up by the expansion boards and price of course.(Since you can still sequence with a PC and MIDI software like Cakewalk)

The sounds are trully impressive! Especially the Orchestral sounds. One of the reasons I purchased this synth was because of the realism of these sounds! Since I compose mostly scores, the Orchestral expansion alone was worth getting this synth. Everything is fully customizable(The effects, velocity, aftertouch,etc.)with the assignable sliders! The effects were very natural as well. I also like how the sounds are "true to life" depending on the velocity.When the velocity is very high or low, you can hear the changes in the sound.(unlike other synths that will just increase or lower the volume of the same sound)

I would definently depend on this synth. It has a very durable body which can be trusted to take anywhere. I would take this and a laptop to a gig, without any other backups. (If anything was to go wrong, it most likely wouldn't be the synth's fault)

I haven't needed to use it yet. (hopfully I won't have to)

If it was to be stolen, I would definently get it again! I've used it for a couple of months now and I've aleady made several songs and scores with it! This is by far the best damn package you can get for a synth at this price range! I definently would never get rid of it! (If I ever get new gear, this synth will always remain in my gear list)

This is an update to my previous review - At the time, I said that I loved the machine except for some significant grunge - IM distortion, and a grungy static near the end of slow decays.
The grunge has been resolved - it was a problem in the otput circuitry, and not a design flaw.

The sounds are impressive, but I dislike the method of selection - requires a confirming press of the Enter key to actually change the patch. I suppose this can also be useful, you set up the patch number as you have the time, and then one keypress switches, but this is not the best performance option.

Generally good sample set - saxes suck, of course, but the ALL do - it's not a good instrument to sample, there aare too many ways to produce the same note. This is best left to modeling-style instruments.
I have a minor issue: many of the decaying-type sounds (guitars, pianos, etc.) have what appears to be a short loop-very 'static' sustained tone-and a tendency toward an unnaturally long decay time. This is. Of course, easily correctable, but a bit of a pain.

Roland's Customer Support desk was initially not helpful - the tech could not hear the problem over the phone (may be true, but it was really obvious to me, and to a friend who heard it on the phone.) But in the end, this was not an issue.

The grunge in my XP-30 was not a system-level problem, the output stage was defective. My service tech replaced a couple of parts and the problem went away! Curiously, this was the second XP-30 exhibiting the problem (the first I returned to the store) but the main point is - it sounds great!
I think it's a great cost-per-feature machine, and now that the grunge has been resolved, I wholeheartedly recommend it!

I am a professional musician, but a first time synth owner and MIDI enthusiast, and I found all the basic functions of the XP-30 to be very intuitive for a beginner/ intermediate. You can pretty much figure out all the basic stuff just by spending 10 minutes with it in the music store without even looking at the manual! When you get into the guts of it though, this board is an incredibly versatile machine, if you can figure out what everything does. I figure it will take me about six months to really understand and be able to use this synth. Unfortunately, the manual is a weak link. It is a pretty dry read, and if you aren't experienced with synths or MIDI, you may find yourself lost once your past the "Getting Started" section. Hopefully, Roland will put out a more comprehensive manual, and maybe a video in the near future.

You can read all about the specs on the Roland website until you're blue in the face, so I won't go into them here. In my opinion, however, this board has everything I need to put together a powerful MIDI workstation. I don't gig on keys, but my guess is that it has everything you will need for performance, unless your maybe Rick Wakeman, or want to be him.

I think the patches on this board are outstanding, and very useful. There seem to be a lot of useless sounds out there, but Roland has pretty much weeded them out of this thing. Being an acoustic instrumentalist myself, I am picky about my acoustic patches, and I found them to range from pretty good to the absolute real deal. The synth sounds were all killing too. With some 1400 sounds onboard, and the ability to expand, I know I will have no problem finding any sound to fit my music. The overall feel of the board is pretty good - it's no piano, but then again if I wanted a piano, I'd buy that instead of a synth.

No problems so far, and from my experience and other musician's experiences, I don't anticipate any.

I try not to call (and haven't called) customer support. I don't care for muzak.

I think this synth is the best buy out there right now. I spent a lot of time researching synths, and this came away as the winner, hands down. It is pretty complex, a little too complex for me right now, but better to have room to expand then to dumb down you're gear just because you're inexperienced. If this were stolen, I'd tell the insurance company that I had two, but if that didn't work, I would definately buy another. Quite honestly, it has opened up a whole new world of musical possibilities for me. Any instrument that does that is worth it's weight in gold.

I seem to have stirred up a bitof contraversy with my review of the XP-30 by stating there was observable digital grunge in the samples. Several readers and XP-30 owners took issue with my statements, so I feel a more detailed update is in order. I haven't had time to complete my investigation, so here's what I plan to do - I'll create some WAV files of the offending patches and post them on my Web site for your perusal and rebuttal (I really hope there is something amiss with my synth, or my eras, but this is the second one to have the symptoms!) The peculiar sound around G1 has been traced, and I'm embarassed to admit was a resonance from a jar of writing implements! But the grunge factor is still a problem for me. It appears at this writing to be a form of IM distortion, or harmonic interaction. I'll keep you posted.
David Kempton davidk@thesoundsmith.com

Presets are great, most of them are usable, depending on specific music style. As far as it includes three popular expansion sets - "Session", "Orchestral" and "Techno" - the synthesizer is quite universal. Editing patches and setting parameters for performances aren't great problems - it's a question of patience and time, until you get into the way. I'm using Cakewalk Pro Audio 8.0 as a sequencer, and for selecting performance parts and adjusting reverb/chorus parameters. The XP-30 package includes CD with "Sound Diver" for editing performances etc., which is a monster software, 'cause it requires, it seems, 21'' monitor at least, and has very unusual interface. The manual of XP-30 is chaotic, it seemed that Rolands were in hurry a bit before winter NAMM... But for beginners it is just one way out to understand XP-30 . I wish it would be rather lika reference book, a-la dictionary.

61 keys; Poly - 64; parts - 16; standard 1080's 8 reverbs, 1 chorus, 40 EFXs; 1406 patches and 26 rythm sets onboard, 2 extra slots for SR-JV80*, 1 slot for memory card (4Mb max); assignable sliders (C1...C4), standard pitch bend/modulator. Preset-E, arpeggiator (43 styles), phrase preview and patch category features was taken from JV-2080. XP-30 has only one mix out, and two pedal inputs (one switch and one CC assignable). Noise level: moving Volume slider from "down" to "up", noise gains at "mix" to ~5dB max. Keyboard action is great, most parameters are adjustable, channel aftertouch is perfect and smooth. XP-30 has no onboard sequencer, but this fact is not the matter for me, because I use Cakewalk to MIDI all my gear. I knew what I bought - lot of Roland sounds and nice controller - 2 in 1.

The sounds are pure and clear. I'm just immersing into them everytime I touch keyboard ! No decay noise problem, noticed on some Roland models: no even noise or distortion, the patches sound the way they should. Great Guitars, useful Brasses, realistic Strings ! Most of Organs are great. Pianos, IMHO, are 50/50. Beautiful synthetic sounds - pads, rhodes etc. Solo Violins aren't great - it's understood. Unfortunately, Ethnic and SFX sets are very short, however, most of existing patches sounds very nice, exept Bagpipes, which are, kinda wildbird croak. In short, 90% of sounds are really good and useful for any type of music creativity.

I purchased it 2 weeks ago - nothing to comment yet.

Never consulted with Rolands. Seems strange, that they don't advertise their e-mail address, isn't it ?

I'm sure to state that I would buy it again if something happens (I wouldn't wish troubles neither for myself nor for everyone). 1406 patches, 26 drum sets, effects and perfect controller - absolutely worth the money! But I wish there would be a second pair of outputs or second effects processor. And, may be, more intuitive software for editing. I'm just learning to operate it, but couple of tracks are already finished, so, I should say, I help XP-30 to make sounds and XP-30 really helps me to make music !

The XP-30 is probably the greatest sounding box out there right now for the money if you plan to take it live, but there is a significant amount of digital grunge in many of the samples, like they compressed them a little too far. Some of the sounds exhibit no trace of this, while others are really quite annoying, especially around G1.
Editing is as straightforward as any Roland product (about average for the current generation)

64-voice polyphony is used quickly in multitimbral performances, so set your voice reserves carefully. The effects are very good in general. The two expansion slots took cards from my XP-80 with no problem. Aftertouch is good (and adjustable). The slider assignment capabilities are really useful if you are controlling external modules. Eachslider can accept a system-wide assignment (not patch-by-patch, but what do you expect for under a grand street price?)

Great nylon guitar, double-reed, bones, string sections, ambient and tek sounds. Very good electric guitars, church organs, cellos/bass. Adequate flute, pianos, electric pianos, clavs. The Hammonds suck. Onboard fx help a lot. Good response and feel.

Dependability with Roland is generally very good, I've only had this a short time so can't be objective. WOuld I use it on a gig without a backup? Of course, I'm not Herbie Hancock! I can't afford 2 of everything...

I have about a dozen other keyboards and modules, have been playing a long while. I buy my keyboards as system components, not stand-alone units. I got this to act as a live adjunct to an acoustic piano gig with drummer/vocalist and sequencer. I wanted better quality sounds than we currently get (he uses an SC-88 and the sounds, to me, are cheesy.) This is a significant upgrade to the sound quality.
I wish it were as clean as my XP-80; as soon as I have time, I intend to check out another unit at a music store to see if this is endemic, or if I got a noisy one (but I don't think I did...) Generally, it's a fine machine for its price point.
If anyone who owns one listens closely in a studio (or really quiet) context and can tell me there's no trailing grunge on any patches, I'd love to hear fropm you while I'm still under warranty.

I think the XP-30 is about the best keyboard on the markket in its price range. The sound set is pulled from the JV-2080. I replaced my XP-50 with this keyboard, so I already knew what I was getting, sound wise. I was planning on buying the "Session" expansion board for my XP-50 when I heard about the XP-30, which has the "session" "Techno" and "Orchestral" built it. I don't need onboard sequencing, so the XP-30 is perfect. I am so pleased with the excellent range of the presets, so many sound great and are really useful. I do a lot of music for low budget film and TV, and the XP-30 is packed with appropriate sounds that I do not have to edit. Another great feature is the new switch design. Switches that have on "on" or "off" state have large, easy to see LEDs, unlike the tiny LEDS on the other XP keyboards. The switches here are more of the quality found in Roland's stand alone controllers, like the A-90. It makes it very easy to see what you are doing. In general, these are the best switches I have seen on a keyboard. Very tactile. When you consider the sound search feature, the built in, multi-function control sliders, and the compact size of the keyboard, I think it sets a new standard for price and feature. The manual is also clearly written, the useful examples! Key functions like syncing internal LFO's to incoming MIDI clock. Very cool.

I have nothing but praise for the XP-30. Instead of a floppy disk drive, or costly RAM card, it has a Smart Media slot. I purchased a tiny, wafer like card for $26 that holds 4 MB of patch data. I big improvement over the old technology. My only complaint is the mod wheel/pitch bend level. On the XP-50, there was true movement on the "Y" axis (up and down), but on this keyboard, it's more like a pressure controller. I have to push quite a bit to get the same effect. This is the place where I believe they cut corners. Also, they included the Sound Diver software, which I was excited about, and I used it to transfer my old XP-50 library to my Mac, then later to my XP-30. Or so I thought I did. I later discovered that while I did load my sounds into the Mac, "Save" did not mean that I saved my patches ( I had to first create a "library"), so I spent two hours doing nothing and lost all my patches when I sold my XP-50. Sound Diver is cool, but not very intuitive. Also, the XP-30 does have a computer port built in, so you canb plug it directly to a mac or pc with no MIDI interface required. Like its predecessors, a "shift" key is required to access banks of sounds, except for the expansion boards, which have dedicated switches (nice).

The sounds are versatile, excellent sounding, and worth every penny.One new feature is the ability to easily modify filter, resonance, attack and decay using simple MIDI continuous controllers. I created a console in Digital Performer to do this, and if I do need to tweak a sound, I can do so entirely from the Mac, and be confident I will get my sound back the next time I play the sequence.

I do not kow yet.

I called Roland twice with questions, and I got tech support right away, and they knew the answers.

This keyboard rules. I use it for my occassional live gig, which is just for fun, and for my music composition, which is how I earn my living. I would like to have a better Mod wheel design, and it would be nice is the control sliders were close to the Mod wheel, but its not a big point with me. For this price point, I think Roland got everything right.

Well, here it is - the first review of the XP30. I've only had it for a couple days but I've been asked by many to post a preliminary review.
It's pretty easy to use. There's only a two line display but there are lots of buttons to quickly access all the functions. The interface is fairly intuitive.

64 note polyphony, comes with 64 MB of ROM standard and includes the equivalent of the techno, session, and orchestraI board plus two more expansion slots. No sequencer and only one set of outs but that only makes it more affordable.
Has the patchfinder and phrase preview functions of the JV2080 which is cool.

This is the reason why I went to Roland. It has the most unbelievably realistic patches compared to all the other synths I've tried in this price range. Many patches respond to velocity and aftertouch extremely well and allows you to get some really natural sounding tracks - morso than Yamaha's physical modelling technology. I also noticed increased sound quality and crispness compared to the XP50 - probably due to the borrowed clean synth engine of the2080.
Another reason why I bought the unit is because of its ability to do classical pieces. The best unit for this type of work IMHO. I couldn't care less for the techo stuff.

Have had it for 2 days ... no problems yet.

I'm not too fond of Rolands site and haven't had to deal with them yet. There's no email address for inquiries (that I know of) but I'm sure there's a 1-800 number available.

I absolutely love this thing. It's the best bang for the buck if you're into natural sounds (orchestral instruments for example). It comes with the equivalent of 3 expansion boards and is still cheaper than all the other expandable XPs so it's definately worth the money. I have the unit maxed out with the Orchestral II and SFX boards - 96 MB is nothing to complain about!
I'm extremely pleased.