Roland XP-50

I own a XP 50 since 1997 and I'm very happy with it. I also own two Kurzweil (PX 1000+ / Pro 2), Emu (Proteus 2 and proteus 3), Jv 880, SC 55, Emax II, JV 2080 and XP 80.

The idea is : You want a sound ? Well in a few seconds, you get it. My XP 50 is expanded with
- Pop, Orchestral, World and Session Boards.

Sound access is very fast usong alpha dial or front panel buttons. Editing is not that much easy until you have understood the logic of menu organization. When you have, it's fast and efficient.
I have UNISYNTH and GALAXY+ to store my banks (many of them).
I don't use them to creat or edit sounds : to slow,...
In fact, when you really know how to tweak, it's really fast to create and emulate sounds.
Manual written in english is ok. In french, it's often wrong and lacks a lot of details.

64 voices polyphony is a dream without the drive. Sorry : make a real good sound and you eat (when playing a 6 voices chord) 24 notes !!!
You really must consider you have a good sounding synth with 16 or sometimes 24 notes polyphony.
Effects sounds good (reverb) but are not professionnal.
I 'v done several CD XP 50 directly plugged in ADAT with mackie and
in mastering studios, engeeners would not believe it's ONLY XP 50 without effects.

Keyboards is bad. Don't expect to solo on that stuff. It lacks speed and precision.

With expansions boards, acoustic sounds are terrific.
I could emulate all my kurzweil acoustic sounds on that machine, asked other pro musicians, eyes closed to say "what sounds what". No one could hear the diffrence. I must say I was a crazy fan of Kurzweil before I baught Roland Stuff. I also comared with a barrowed S 3200 Akai with CD roms. I can tell you I will never pay the price for a that small difference in sounding...

The other day, a friend commes with an... OB 8 oberheim and
PPG wave 2.2 WOAAAH.
I plug these two machines in my mackie and tweak my xp 50 during 2 days.
OK I can't reproduce many sounds that come from these monsters, BUT i programmed a few patches (6), from internal presets : Brass and pads OB and also bell pads PPG : You can't hear the difference !!!

XP 50 / XP 80 / JV 2080 / JV 880.
Many people talk about the sound of these machines.
I directly plugged these machines in my 12/04 VLZ pro mackie and leveled to 8 my ear monitors so :

XP 50 has resident noise (when setting level from 5 to 10 on the synth, without playing a note) but you really can record with it.

JV 2080 has resident noise (when setting level from 5 to 10 on the synth, without playing a note) but Sound is more brillant is much louder than XP 50.I was disapointed some tones go dead after you let the unit sound a few second with sustain pedal on (with sesssion expansion card).

XP 80 has resident noise (when setting level from 5 to 10 on the synth, without playing a note) but Sound is less brillant than JV 2080 but is LARGER than XP 50 and........ JV 2080 (Diffrence is poor but there is one).

JV 880 has almost NO resident noise (when setting level to 10 on the synth, without playing a note). SOUND is fatter than Xp50, XP 80 and JV 2080, but it lacks polyphony, has slow envelopes and when you plug somme expansions cards (session) in it, some tones go dead after you let the unit sound a few second with sustain pedal on.

No problem. It's reliable.

If it were lost or stolen, I buy it again. My main tool to compose is my XP 50 or XP 80. Those units are fantastic. When compared with TRITON or TRINITY, you get a real better dynamic and more brillant sound with Korg, BUT in terms of sound beauty, emulating acoustic sounds, emulating analog synths ot pianos, XP synths are far better than Korg synths. To prvent loss of dynamic, you buy an external effect, and your XP 50 is a killer compared to Korg Synth that only sound louder, but not better...

This is my first synth - I got it this cheap because a friends relative died and it had to be sold but the sale was kinda rushed so neither me or him knew the exact price. I knew it was good but I didn't know how good. I was setting up a computer recording studio so I was planning on buying a MIDI keyboard and use soundfonts but....I agree with what others have said - I'm not dumb and know a lot about sounds (I build guitar pedals) but the manual is really complicated and difficult and has not made it easy for me to get into at all.
I'm not using the sequencer (I've got Cakewalk 9) but it looks complicated - the screens two small and its too complicated - much easier to use a computer monitor! Not touched the editing side yet - only had it a week and I'm still trying to get to grips with the basics of it all. I find it difficult to use but I'm new to synths so people who've had a synth before will probably be more at ease with it than me.

The features are really very good - I don't know how many of them I will be using (e.g not the sequencer) but if that is what you are after well...I can't really comment as I'm still getting used to it but on the surface and looking through the manual it seems to have plenty packed into it - more than enough for what I want anyway.

Sound wise - going from just the presets it is very good - the majority of them are incredible and with the addition of the right effects (reverb etc) and when thrown into the mix will sound just like the real thing. My only criticisms are some of the pianos - I have a real piano which is a lot rounder and warmer. Guitars always sound bad on keyboards - its not the sound the keyboard can't do - its the way its played that makes a guitar recognisable - it is very difficult to reproduce this on a keyboard. Oh and the bagpipes sound nothing like the real thing - but hey - whos going to use bagpipes anyway?!!

I got it second hand - I'd guess its about 1 - 1.5 years old. Its in perfect condition - not a scratch on it anywhere. Its pretty hefty and feels durable. Its staying in my room so its not going anywhere to get broken. Its going to last a long time.

I've dealt with Roland before but mostly with Boss and have always found them polite and helpful. No problems with the customer suppport.

I write a lot of music and my main instrument is the guitar. I got fed up of being in a band where my songs were changed by others as I wanted them to be played my way (that sounds really selfish but my songs are very personnel in that I wrote them to sound like they sound and not to be messed with) so I started recording. Gear wise - a few guitars, pedals, amps, Sony Minidisk 4 track, Alesis SR16, new computer for sequencing and now for audio recording and mastering, the XP-50 and a good monitor system. Works well together. As I got it so cheap I can't say if I would buy it again if something happened - I probably couldn't afford it. Its invaluable in what I do - I will always need it. Just wish the display was bigger to fit more info and it without haven't to start pressing buttons to see whats in a patch. Also - I wish buttons didn't have two functions - I can only just cope with one function per button but thats just sheer laziness on my behalf. Oh, and I wish it would make me coffee cos right now I'm in need of one!

XP-50 with latest software version (1.03)
I've had this board for a week now, and it is a complex instrument with depth...getting comfortable with it is going to take a while. The manual up to date is, as noted in just about every other review, appallingly bad.
The use of a PC-based (WinXP) editor helps a lot for editing patches. The factory presets are OK but need editing; this board can make some beautiful sounds with proper programming.
The onboard sequencer is confusing and unintuitive. It has a lot of features but too many keystrokes are needed for even basic editing functions.

Polyphony is 64; each patch can use up to 4 voices, so real-life polyphony can drop to 16.
Effects are basic, and somewhat limited when using the onboard sequencer. The effects sound good, however.
Expandibiliy is one of the great features: the list of expansion boards is available on Roland's web page, and is quite extensive. The sound quality of some of these boards is very good (Orchestral and Session boards come to mind), and the expansion boards are user-installable (very easy).
Velocity and aftertouch are good; the factory presets do not take advantage of aftertouch too much.

The sonic capabilities of the board seem very good...you only have to download some of the excellent patches available on the web to see how, with some programming, this synth can really pump out some exciting stuff.
I hate ALL piano sounds on EVERY single synth I have ever heard, but this comes from being lucky enough to have a 6 foot grand at my parent's place. The XP series is no exception: the piano sounds are too bright, with lousy sustain and are horribly thin in my ears. The piano sounds are fine for punching through a mix, and as far as synth piano sounds go, they are in all honesty not bad at all.
Acoustic guitars...well...learn to play guitar.
The other acoustic sounds (horns, woodwinds and strings) are fine once edited, although the presets are already not bad.
Pads, analog and FX: wow. Lots and lots of potential here.
The expansion boards give you access to a huge library of some fantastic sounds, as well.

I had my keyboard shipped from California (I live in Canada) and the thing survived the trip in the original cardboard factory box...THE BOX WAS BEATEN TO DEATH, with dents and dings and holes all over, but the keyboard DIDN'T HAVE A SCRATCH, and is in perfect working order.
Must be solid!

No opinion, never had to deal with them.

A wonderful synth, and an absolute steal for the price which I got it for (640$ US). I would buy it again if it was stolen, or upgrade to the XP-60.

Good sounds, Great potential, Lots and lots of fun, and I've only had it for a week. It's hard to learn how to use, but the effort seems to be worth it.

I had some trouble figuring out the different modes at first, but with some help from on-line user pages, its now quite easy. If you want to go into making your patches (which I definitely did), I would advise NOT to use the on-board patch-editor, but instead download a freeware prog. such as Win-XP. Man, once I downloaded that a giant 3-month head-ache subsided.

64-voice polyphony, which I've used up easily. The keyboard action is fine, but I've worked with better (Korg).

You can get a fairly realistic piano and guitar, the organ is good. The string ensemble patches are nice sounding, but a little-too synthy. The solo string patches ... well, they blow. Obviously the person who recorded them didn't know how to play the cello whatsoever (they're all wave-recordings).
I've done all sorts of types of music on the xp-50, I find it particularly good for electronica type stuff. You can make some pretty cool and bizarre noises on it, so its good for the sort of post-industrial stuff NIN is getting into.

Velocity and aftertouch are fine.

Never had a problem with it. If a note sticks (sometimes it does, if you're really messing with it), just press the PANIC button. Whoo. Problem fixed.

Never had to deal with it.

If it were lost or stolen ... hmmmm .... probably get the XP-80 if I had the cash. Then I'd get something else. I've been playing for the last 6 years, and have owned the XP-50 for the last 3 years.

Important Note: Don't try to use the online editor, use an external editor (like on a PC or Mac) for crying out loud! You can manipulate things better and actually I believe you have a higher polyphony. I know this doesn't makes sense, but songs played from a computer and then from the keyboard (same songs, of course) -- certain parts with a lot of voices playing work in the computer, but f*ck up from the keyboard. Go figure. Get Pro Audio or Cubase. Whoo. I wish it was a sampling keyboard, but then, hey - another grand.

Manual is VERY BAD!!!
BEGINNING KEYBOARDISTS WILL HAVE A VERY TOUGH TIME!! It is
very hard edit patches and sequences.
Do not buy this if this will be your first experience in synthesizers.

I LIKE THE SOUND CARD EXPANSION FEATURE. For instance, I bought a VOCAL COLLECTION
Expansion board to enable my XP-50 to play VOCALS (doo, bee, dat, dow)
and it sounds great.

Although advertised as 64 polyphony, effective polyphony is only
about 32. This is because each patch (or sound) uses an average of
2 oscillators. Thus, a KORG synth (e.g. Trinity or O1/w) with 32 polyphony should perform just
about the same as the XP-50.

I bought this keyboard mainly because it has very good piano sounds.
However, brass instruments (trumpet, trombone, french horn, etc.)
are not that great. KORG synthesizers are a lot better.

IF YOU PLAN TO MAKE ORCHESTRAL MUSIC, I would not recommend it's sound quality. Buy a
KORG synth instead.

If YOU PLAN TO MAKE DANCE / NEW WAVE / MODERN MUSIC, then the XP-50 is a
good choice for sounds.

Sure it is reliable.

N/A.

If it were lost or stolen, I will not buy it again. Instead, I might
consider buying the KORG TRITON or a SAMPLER.

I have been using it for 3 years.
I LOVE the piano sounds.
I HATE the brass sounds, difficulty to sequence and edit sounds.

I bought this because it was one of the best(?) at that time.

Some presets are ok, but you quickly get tired of them. Considering when it came out ('95), I guess they are some of the better presets I've seen. Editing is not that fun, but it's not impossible, either. The programming matrix is helpful and the screen is fairly large enough to show you most of the info you need to know in order to get things done. A patch editor would probably be helpful. The manual is a typical Roland manual. It blows goats.

64-note polyphony which can be used up quickly if you are using sounds that contain more than 1 part. Most sounds are created using 4-6 parts. F/X aren't that difficult to modify and sounds good. It is annoying, however, the effect that happens when you switch to a sound using a different f/x from the prior sounds. This results in an audible "boing," "ching," or distortion when moving from sound to sound if any sustain is involved. Expansion is one of this synth's strong points. 4 slots are available. The boards are fairly expensive, but some of them are worth it. Standard MIDI functionality. I don't care for the sequencer. Using the sequencer takes away the f/x from the sounds and is not exactly fun to program. It's much more difficult than using Ensoniq sequencers like I used to.

It's sample-playback, so you can get some realistic textures. It can do everything from the warm pads and strings to atmospheric textures to realistc stuff pretty well. I can get some pretty ballsy basses and leads from it as well. The 2 sliders near the pitch lever really help to add expressiveness to the sounds. You can program them to do everything from filter sweeps, f/x, etc. The Vintage Expansion Board is a must in my opinion. This board could fit the bill for almost any style of music due to its versatile synth engine, especially when you add additional waves from the expansion boards. I like the keyboard action, especially the aftertouch.

One of the most reliable synths I've owned in 14 years. Enough said.

Haven't had to deal with them for this synth. Nice when ordering manuals, though.

If it were lost/stolen I would buy the JV1080 as I already have 2 other keyboard synths. I do like the sounds. I don't feel like this synth is obselete at all. The expansion boards add so many new ways of making sounds that it's worth keeping. I've been playing and programming since I was 13 (14 years ago) and this is one of the best synths I've owned. Blends in well w/ my AN1X, JX-8P, and FS1R. I love the fact that's expandable and I haven't gotten tired of the sounds even though it's a rompler. I hate the sequencer and wish it had a slightly easier programming section. I compared this to a Korg N364 and there was not much of a contest there. I wish it had more expansion slots and an easier sequencer. I've written most parts to songs in the bands/projects I've been involved with the last 2 years on this synth. The technology is far from new, but the sounds are great.

This synth is pretty easy to use, and being that it is my first synth, I'd have to say that I'm more than satisfied. However I did try out some other synths and I'd have to say that this thing can really get on your nerves. How many more times will I get lost in the little red lights while editing patches? Most of the presets are very tight, and I particularly like the wide range of vintage synth sounds. The drums are a bit weak in some cases, but nine out of ten times I have been able to coax out a tremendous kick or snare when I needed it. Very nice. The patch editing is a truly painful ordeal, and sometimes it is hard to get what you want from this machine. But if you know how to program it and what everything does you can get from idea to reality pretty easily. The manual is retarded. Sorry to be childish, but that's the only word suitable. Roland needs to hire some fluent technobabblers to translate it into laymanspeak. After awhile you begin to get used to the jargon, but it takes some patience and dedication.

The polyphony is 64 voices, and sometimes I do use all of it, but if you cut down on unnecessary voices in each patch then you'll use a max of 32. Works for me. The effects are good, but only one processor? I wish I had just one more, but then again the sound can be tweaked out to emulate whatever you want it to so maybe it's not so bad. The expansion option is one I have yet to explore, but I think I'm looking into the Techno and Vintage boards. I've heard that they're nice. I haven't really looked into the MIDI aspect of this synth, because I use it independently, but once I pick up some more gear I'm sure I'll get into it. The sequencer straight up kicks ass. I don't know how it could be made any better. The realtime loop editing, realtime track editing and microscope editing all make the sequencer a very powerful tool. I'd be lost without it.

The sounds are fantastic, and that's before you tweak them out in suitable fashion. When I first got this board, I was blown away by how rich each patch sounded and how surreal some of the pads could be with a little modulation and slider control. This thing is awesome for ambience. And then, once I got into patch editing and the effects, I was blown away by how much control I had over the expressiveness of each patch down to every little parameter. It's wild. This board is especially good for industrial and ambience because of the weird buzzy stuff you can make it do, but I use it for electronica (whatever that is now I just think of Chemical Brothers) and the like. If I could scream especially well I would do industrial with it but I leave that up to bands that I'm not a vocalist in. I like the onboard effects, and there are a lot of them, but again I wish there were more than one processor. Oh well I still think this thing hauls. The velocity and aftertouch are incredible! I can't get any consistency, everything is so varied everytime I play it (not that it's a bad thing). Playing live with this never gets repetitive, because you can change the sound so much just by changing how you play the keyboard itself. Again very good expressiveness and sounds. Roland works too hard at this.

This board is extremely dependable. I have gigged without backup and it pulled through and with flying colors I might add. Then again I'm not quite well off enough for backup (unemployed actually) so I'll stick with this. I think that I am going to pick up some sort of beatbox (Roland MC-x0x or Korg ER-1) just in case or just to add to the sound. But it really doesn't need anything. I have abused it far more than anyone should (dropped down stairs, water spills here and there), but it's still kicking quite hard. I'd be willing to bet that this thing will outlive me! I'll still be playing it when I'm 50 anyway.

I have yet to deal with customer support, but apparently Roland's not too bad about it. My local dealer helped me out very much with trying out and buying the board, so I guess they deserve credit.

If my board were lost or stolen I would probably cry all the way to the store and buy another one, maybe an XP-60 because of the fabled arpeggiator. Who knows? I've been playing for about ten months now with only this synth, but I will soon be purchasing some kind of little module thingy to expand my options. I am still figuring out stuff about this machine, so I expect that it will keep me entertained for a long long time. I think that this machine and a sampler together would create a tremendously powerful studio, so watch out, someday I might actually make some 'real music' with this and little else. I don't really hate anything about this board, except maybe the fact that it doesn't have more cool knobs. A little more realtime control would be nice, but I'll deal with it. I was trying to choose between this and an Alesis QS-7, but it was the Roland hands down because of the great sequencer (as opposed to the nonexsistent sequencer on the Alesis) and the awesome sounds. The only thing I wish it had is a cup holder (how's that for well-rounded), which may seem silly but it just goes to show that it is a pretty complete machine. Then again a ZIP drive would be nice, but a floppy drive is enough for me. It definitely helps me make music. It's a lot easier than getting four musicians together and getting them to cooperate. The difficulty in editing the patches is nothing compared to the difficulty in creating peace and harmony within a normal four-piece band. I like it. You should get an XP.

Latest version (Dec-94)
Presets are good, too many dance-techno whatever you call it.
Needs more drum sets.
Patch editing requires much patience.
Roland manual. Need i say more?
I would have preffered the old staple of number, bank buttons

64 voice, Velocity and after-touch
Reverb and Chourus (standard) there are also 10 or so other unique
effects that are combined and moved around etc., for Roland to exclaim
40 effects (types)
Very expandable ($$$)
MIDI is top notch (in out thru, no sluggishness, lots of parameters)
the Keyboard itself needs more sliders though.
MRC-Pro sequencer (much like the MC-500) 20000 notes, 16 tracks,
Reads SMF (standard midi files)0 and 1, and MRC files.
Ive noticed some bugs in the recording end. (not responding to notes in "wait note" status)
And all this through a little ORANGE display. very ORANGE.

Good ole Roland Sound.
Kind of expressive I guess.
Good effects.

Dependable

They have customer suport?

Good work-horse but not for innovative song writing.
I would get somthing else.
I particularly dont like the patch sounding different in performance,
have to pick an effect that might work with the entire mix, I guess
this will have to do, thing.

Presets are pretty good. Editing patches was the toughest job I've ever loved. It took me about a year to really get good at editing on the board (mainly because I got really frustrated with it). I still haven't gone where no man has before with it, yet. So much that can be done. The matrix section is an added bonus, almost anything can modulate anything. The ring modulator is pretty cool. I hated it at first and now I love it.

64 note polyphony. Action is ok, I like my roland hs-60 better for keyboard action. Efx are good, midi extensive, sequencer is good. What I really like about the sequencer is the realtime phase sequencer section. Able to play your songs/loops with a touch of the key; and you can have 100 of them -COOL!!.

Piano, acoustic guitars with the right amount of velocity is very convincing. Other stuff just needs to tweaked or played like the real thing. Very reactive. Drums are terrible, but programmable. LEARN TO PROGRAM and you will get more than your moneys worth out of this machine -- as well as anything else. I'm still finding tricks it can do. I can get basses that disturb the deaf and rattle the tetonic plates.

yep.

never dealt with them.

I would get the Xp-60 since it has some improvements on the interface.
For the money (they're probably $900 by now) it's a steal. I chose it because it's roland and I had used roland for 10 years now. I own a D-5 and a MMT-8 and got a lot of mileage out of it. People were impressed with some of the sounds I could get out of that thing. So why not the Xp-50. I just bought an Oberheim Ob-8 (want the Xa to), Roland Hs-60, Akai Ax-60, Roland D-5, alesis D-4, and MMT-8.

im using the older ROM version 1.01...the only thing that 1.03 fixed was the "popping" noise that was noticeable when turned on..hmm...doesnt bother me. Im gonna make it short and simple, and add a few of my opinions. this is basically a Jv1080 with keys and a crappy sequencer. Why do i say its crappy? because, for me, i like to have a certain style of beat programing...with this, you program all the beats like you would regular phrase tracks..my Mc50 has a special unique XoX sorta styled sequencing for rhythm which makes it very useable..The presets are great, same as the 1080's..i like the guitars and some of the synth sounds, but my Xp50 is expanded with the Techno and Vintage Cards, which kick very much arse. At this point in time people always whine and complain about how hard it is to edit these cuz you have to "wade" thru all these menus. having knobs and sliders is cool for instant gratification, but im not much for that, when i play live, i program the Xp50's 2 sliders for cutoff and res. no problem at all...but anyway, the Xp50 has a Matrix on it, tells you where everything is located, so being an expert Jv1080 programmer (not too many of us ; ) I was jumping in and creating patches on the first night i had it. Seems like there was no curve to learn..but then again, i remember when i first got my 1080, i was lost for at least a month..but then i discovered its true power..theres a series of Sysex and editors out there called WinXp/JV that are really great when it comes to editing stuff..im really anal about using my computer for anything besides typing papers and goin online, so i use the editor sparsely, only to download banks for my XP. The manual...my god..its much worse then the 1080's and it explains nothing really..my god..learn how to communicate properly Roland..

Polyphony is the standard worksation-ish kind ; 64 notes..i never find myself using all these 64 notes, and i wonder why theres 128 poly WS's out there..hmmm funny...the keyboard action is great..its semi-weighted i believe, and its got a nice feeling too it..i dig..its got 40 pretty good EFX, but it sucks cuz you can only use one per performance..bogus huh? i usually end up using the delay or compression. expansion capabilities you ask?? probably the most expandable synths ever, the JV/XP line are all about expansions...the Xp50 can accept up to 4 SRJV cards..mines halfway loaded up with the Techno and Vintage cards..they serve very very well, i reccomend em...This synth has midi capabilities up the wazoo..sync Lfo's and other cool stuff for weird electro pop tunes or anything you want...has MIDI in,out,thru ....very cool..keys have velocity and aftertouch, which i love as well, very very useful...Now...the onboard sequencer...its a shame that this is on it..i had it figured out the first night and im not fond of it..quite possibly because i've been using an Mc50 forever? maybe..but all great tracks start w/ drums in my opinion, and this doesnt have halfway decent drum programming....fie upon you ROland!! otherwise if you had an external drum machine, you can sync up your phrase tracks to that and things would really kick ass then!!

Like i said...Jv1080 soundset..the guitars are the best ive Heard IMHO, and most of the analogue imitating sounds are quite nice..the strings are a bit thin, but program and you can fix that easily..or expand with the Vintage card and rock your world with big warm sounds..I got friends who play in rock bands with this, friends who play in pop bands, friends who write every type of electronic music possible with this thing, very very versatile. onboard EFX are quite nice..only in use per performance tho...bogus...Reacts to my playing very well..i like its metal black case...sooo sexy!! the only gripe i had with this is no arpeggitor!! i thought i could pull some kinda trick and use my Jp8000;s arp, but i couldnt find a midi setup which could pull it off, so i might have to buy an Oberheim Cyclone Arpeggiator now...oh well..Oh! i also want to add that people complain of noisy outputs, but i hear NOTHING at all...

would i depend on it? damn right!! when 14 outta 16 of my parts including drums are comin from this thing, it better be good, and i trust roland for that. I own nothing but roland gear, and its held up perfectly for me. Course i would use it on a gig w/o a backup, i done it lots o times already!!

Well, i now can say i dealt with Roland...I called and had to ask a question, and they were quick and honest and knowledgable about it, thanks guys!! the only thing i would consider upgrading is the current ROM as mine is still from '94..but sending it in just to fix a popping noise is stupid, even when i dont notice it..

if this were lost or stolen, id probably go after the bastard who stole it. But now that i've experience the Roland Workstation power, i'd go out and buy an Xp60..many improvements, including a damn arpeggiator!! id sure miss the Xp50's Backlit Lcd tho!! I been programmin since i was 13 or 14..cant remember..but my first synth was a digital casio, in which i learned what an enevelope was and how a basic sound was constructed, then i moved up and bought my Jp8000, which i learn't tradtional subtractive on, and i always use her on every track, the maximum 8 voices and 2 parts i can get outta her. My gear list is all Roland, so here goes...Xp50 for most stuff (expanded with Techno and Vintage cards)Jp8000, Mc50 for sequencing..Tascam Porta 02 ministudio for my 4 track recording needs..i only been practicing theory and playin piano for about 2 years now ( im 16)but knowing how to play Tocatta Fugue in Dminor on an Xp50 using a 303 is very useful. filter it afterwards and i know im glad i know how to play piano ; ) Love my Xp50, helps me so much in makin music. I love Roland gear!!