Roland XP-50

There is no "ease of use" its a nightmare to operate this device,only some things are to tweak a bit fast and easy,the rest is put away in a most stupid and strange way,and why??
The sequencer i never used,how to operate it,is one of the biggest secrets i ever experienced,i have simply no time to figger out how it works,i want to be creative and not losing myself in al kinds of stupid and strange operations to let it work!
Program this Roland is a nightmare,the OS really sucks!

Al the features are not bad,in fact there are a lot of them,polypony is reaaly good,effects are good,the sequencer is a pain in the ass,i never use it again!

Almost al sounds are extremely good,this is were the XP-50 really shines,this is also the reason i keep this synth. Roland did a VERY good job,sounds are stunning,overwhelming,some are very realistic,piano sound is dated and weak,pads are awesome,organs are fine but could be better,gitars are very good,brass sounds awesome,synthesizer sounds are also awesome!
Incredible! a 10!

My XP-50 has no problems til now,i think this is an reliable product!
build quality seems to be very good!

I dunno,never dealt with them,hope i never wil! LOL!

I bought it second hand for 350 Euro some years ago,believe me its worth it,due to its sounds,but no more,if it get lost or stolen,i buy something else with a better and more logical OS,i hate the OS:it gives me nightmares when i try to tweak and program this device,i have more things to do than spending 100 or 1000 of hours to tweak/program this nasty beast!
But the sound engine is incredible! VERY,VERY PROFFESIONAL!
i use only the presets wich i sometimes tweak a bit,some programming is possible in an easy why,further or deeper tweeking is a horrible job!
the manual makes me laugh,it must have being written by a clown,this is my 3th experience(S-10,Juno G,Xp-50) with a Roland product and this is also the last one! no more Rolands for me!
a 7 because of the extremely good sound engine!

Browsing patches and playing them is easy. The rest, well plan to spend a lot of time reading the manual, which is huge and not exactly user friendly. In fact, I think it could be used in a technical writing class on how NOT to write a users manual.

Huge learning curve, but once I worked with it about a month, it all made (more) sense. Lots of button pushing\multiple uses for buttons, etc. I do like the numeric pad for quickly punching in values. Basic loop sequencing is pretty easy. Within an hour of getting the XP-50 I was laying down tracks and jamming over the top of them. The more advanced sequencing features are tougher, again more manual studying is required.

Editing sounds is a real pain from the front panel. I use Soundiver software and it makes a huge difference, although it causes the XP-50 to lock up occasionally.

I think the features have all been covered pretty well by previous reviewers. Basically its a JV-1080 with a keyboard and sequencer built in. It has a 3.5" floppy disk for saving songs and settings, and can play standard MIDI files.

I like the two sliders that can be assigned to a lot of different parameters for realtime control. The only thing I wish it had is an arpeggiator, the XP-60 has one. But I can live without it.

The JV-1080 is an industry standard ROMpler synth, and for good reason, it sounds excellent, even today. OK, some of the presets are not that great, especially the drums, but with four expansion slots you have room for adding plenty more sounds. I have the World, Session, Super Sound Set, and Orchestral expansion cards. There are also lots of sound banks for the JV series available on the web, for free and for purchase, so there are lots of options for upgrading the factory sounds. Of course, tweaking the sounds to your own liking really helps, especially with piano sounds, as many of them are programmed too bright for my taste.

The keyboard is a very light synth action, no weighted feel, but not bad. It has aftertouch, but you almost have to break your fingers to get it to engage.

Seems pretty sturdy.

Never dealt with them.

If stolen I would probably try to get an XP-60. I am primarily a guitarist, and keys are my second instrument. I have a couple of other synths, Korg DW8000, X5DR and E-MU Proteus 2000, and use Cakewalk Sonar for serious sequencing. I just wanted an inexpensive, lightweight, good sounding keyboard with a built in sequencer for practicing, writing, and the occasional jam. I picked up the XP-50 on Ebay for $400, in great shape. I think I got a good deal and although its been a challenge (still)learning how to use it, I really enjoy playing the XP-50.

I am tech-slow, and I do not need to edit patches. The sequencing is laborsome, and I am still having trouble with it. Not it's strong point.

This keyboards strong point is it's expandability. I am having difficulty hooking it up to cubase though.

The sounds are awesome- the expansion boards like the "keyboards of the sixties and seventies" are the best thing you can buy to augment this board. The basic sounds are good, but most of the expansion boards are where you will find the essence of how good this board can be.

I have used it on a couple of gigs with no problem.

When I called roland with tech questions about my cubase issue, I recieved a rocket scientists answer to my question ( i am not a rockey scientist). It was an unpleasant experiance.

Nowadays...you can get the exp- cards on e-bay cheap. If you are not into editing sounds and just want to plug and play, you will not find a better value! I would buy it again for sure.

The Roland XP-50 in fact is very easy and intuitive to use. I use the XP-50 now for ten years buying it a few weeks after it came out. I've used it live, in studio's at home, etc. If one's willing to spend some time (as you in fact should do with all new aplliances you buy) to read the manual you'll be up and running doing crazy stuff with this keyboard in no time. Have a Triton aswell the 2-lined display seems not much and Oscillator and Envelope data is displayed in mysterious mnemonics, but then again, the manual can and WILL help you in that area!

64-voice polyphony... a plethora by the time it came out, still enough for most performances nowadays! The built in effects are easily accessible but sound a bit tacky all over the board. The keyboard is featherlight and has a good respons... for those people complaining about the keyboard, you can edit the responsiveness of the keyboard which will make you have to play the keys more or less hard to get the same volume. The onboard sequencer is a bitch to use because of the small display, but then again if you give it some time in fact you will find that it is quite an ingenius sequencer with all the functions you'd expect and need... again... take time with the manual and don't try to build a house from the roof down!

The sounds overall are good or good enough. Hence this is the keyboard-version of Roland's JV-1080 which is still one of the most used modules in studio's! I would discribe the sounds as very allround and apllicable for most styles of music. The only downpart of this synth is that the sound overall is a bit to hi-fi and crispy... If you listen to the XP-80 for example you'll find that the XP-80 has been improved to a certain degree in this area having better outputs and D/A-convertors.

It is reliable, although time will catch up with it if you play live for about a 130 times a year. Coming from the Nehterlands, the European power-supply which connects to a power-outlet via an electric-razorcord is absolutely a nono, and this turned me down immediately after opening the box after purchase. This is so clumsly, cheapo made, and has let me down more than once. I already had a new power-supply installed in my XP-50 and ackwardly all the time the two screws keep unloosening themselves falling onto the mainboard, occaisionally shorting everything out, to the extent where the whole power-supply comes undone an rips loose the soldered wires which over and over have been resoldered by me. Also I have a problem with my outputs, so I've refurbished the Phones-output to a stereo line-output which connects to the mixer with an x/y-cable, but this ouput now also starts humming and crackling as probably soldered connections on the board are becoming loose. So if used heavily every week, this keyboard can turn into a bit of a careneeder, however, recapitulating the fact that mine fell at least 3 time from a height of about 3 meters (in the flightcase ofcourse) to the extent where even the keyboard is slightly bent, it still works and goes on. It even managed to continue working on a way to low voltage for half an hour once before the power-supply burned (without a fuse installed this was a problem playing live!). Another problem with the XP-50 seems to be the expansion-boards which keep coming undone out of their sockets about once a month. Nevertheless keep in mind that mine is on the road for an average of 3 times a week!

Never needed it. Do the repairs myself or have a repairshop to which I can go have it repaired which has parts on stock.

The XP-50 is for the ten years I've used it become a steady and more or less reliable part of my setup. If it dies on me one day it will be replaced by a Yamaha Motif. By the time I bought it was worth every penny. Showing it's age it can still compete with instruments being produced right now and apart from some ackward things as the tacky cheapo powercord and cumbersome powersupply, in combination with no fuse. Also from time to time you will have to refasten your expansion-boards, but they keep working till the extent that they are literally dangling from the sockets. It has helped a lot with my productions and live-performances and many of the sounds are still on to par with recent keyboards.

First off, my use has been mainly a hobby w/o much live application...

Like most gear w/ a 2 lines of text, its display is nothing compared to newer synths w/ touch screen color lcds. That said, I never editted patches/settings directly and have always used a sequencer/patch manager so to me it was a non-issue. I'm a geek so I actually think the controls make sense but I'd be surprised if that was the case most of the time. I never used the sequencer or rps functions. I've always used it w/ a PC midi program and it has worked beautifully.

64 notes has been plenty for me. It's works fine in live applications using a single patch, and for studio situations. As far as I'm concerned if that patches sound great live, it works for me. You can go performance mode and stack ungodly amounts of wavs,filters,patches, etc... and 64 should still make u happy. If you're recording, you can always record tracks individually to go beyond 64 poly. 4 expansion cards is a nice option. I've never used it, and quite frankly, feel now a days (tho I bought it 7 years ago), samplers r a dime a dozen so it didn't affect my purchase but... the sounds from the expansion cards r still pretty sweet. I suppose they would be useful if you didn't have a sampler.

Personally, I've never liked Roland pianos, and the patches here are no different. I will say this though. The piano sounds r much better w/ a decent weighted controller. However, they still don't stack up to kurz or yama's piano sounds all things being equal. Again, maybe I'm biased on the controller to a degree. Another big disappointment are the drums. They are just very stale. I had a Alesis DM5 at the time and it blows it away. Now, the DM5 just sounds ok...

Now, the punch bright sounds are just that. Wonderfully open and clear. Most people probalby love Korg organs but organs on here are great. The pads on here are awesome too. Tons of parameters to play with. The roland sound just seems to have its trademarks at the upper registers. Bright strings and pads just sound perfect.

You get a ton of sounds w/o any expansions. I used this for everything and as an all rounder it is great. The controllers work well and you can definitely get a good feel w/ the pitch/mod wheel - as standard as it is.

The effects are nice but there's only 1 as opposed to the newer models. Mind you, patches r also associated w/ effects so if you use patch A that uses chorus and patch B that uses delay at the same time (say in a 16 part sequence) only one could use the effect. Again, this wasn't a problem for me since most of the time I sequencing so I could record the parts one at a time.

Nothing has gone wrong w/ it for 7 years.

Never dealt w/ them

Overall, I don't plan on selling it anytime soon. It's a fully featured synth. It doesn't have sampling, but that's not why I bought it. Stand alone, I can compose and jam w/ all the sounds I need and w/ a sequencer and I do even more. I think the sounds are stellar except for the piano and drums. Not that they are unacceptable, there's just much better available. anything I wish it had? Actually no, at this point, it does everything I need it to do. W/ a sampler and nice weighted 88key controller I'm set :).

I have been spoiled over the years with my Korg T-3EX and to work with this board you sometimes need to go three levels deep in nested menus to make it do what you want but I'm an old computer geek anyway so not a big problem. But the UI could have been layed out a little more simply. Otherwise a piece of cake to use.

This was a major workhorse keyboard throughout the 90's and even today it holds it's own against some of the latest models in terms of sounds. 64 voices are nice coming from an era when most keyboard sported 16 - 32 voices. All the midi capabilities are there and easily setup. The built in effects are nice but the stock patches are a little too drenched in reverb for live use. Easily fixed though.

The sounds in this board still hold up even to this day. For it's time though it had one of the best pianos. Lots of ethereal sounds and that signature Roland brass ensemble patch. On the whole though, you'll want to tweak the patches for live use to make them less "wet". Everything is soaked in reverb! The extra control sliders next to the volume fader are certainly useful. I was never a real big fan of Roland's combo pitchbend/modulation stick thingy. It doesn't feel as nice as Korg's 4 way joystick or even the old two wheel system of older boards but that's a matter of personal taste.

I have used this board all over the world and it has never failed me. My one gripe however is that over time the most oft used buttons become less responsive to the point you're pushing so hard they break and sink into the face plate making it even harder to work with. Also they keybed sensors become utterly useless if any debris enters the contact area. I have opened mine up and lightly caulked the keybed sensor strips shut to keep debris out and never had a problem again after that. The button sensors are not as easy a fix as they are permanently wired to the main board and thus when they start to go you're only real option is to replace the main board.

I've had great success with Roland. Because I usually do my own repairs once the warranty period expires I've had great success will-calling replacement parts and installing myself so if you want to call that customer support then great! Otherwise, I've never shipped this board back to Roland for repairs.

I'm not married to the unit itself. I've been looking into replacing it with a Phantom but alas, the sounds I need such as the Roland brass stabs don't seem to exist in the Phantom (at least not that I've found yet). If stolen I'd probably replace it with a JV-2080 rack module and a controller keyboard since I already have 2 other workstations and don't need the sequencing capabilities.

Very easy to use. If there would be a complaint about it, it would be about the display's size, but that's just because I've tried the XP-80, and it was much easier to work on the sequencer and a bit easier to edit patches, other than this, if you were ever good woth any MS-DOS-like Computer Operating System, it'd be a piece of cake.

Good preset sounds, but it lacks a hammond patch. Editing could be easier, but never had any problem with it.

64-voice polyphony, 16-track sequencer, floppy disk drive, lots of Roland-quality effect (And that's very good!), actually I couldn't use half of this baby's features. If I keep it, I'll probably spend a lot of time exploring its capabilities.

Also, there are 4 expansion slots fot the SR-JV80 series expansion cards, which gives this synth great expansion capabilities. If I keep it, I'd probably get the orchestral one. There're gourgeous sounds in that thing.

Marvelous pianos! Wonderful pianos! Great pianos! Fat-sounding pianos! Ah, did I mention this synth had excelent pianos? :) Well, unfortunately that's very much about it. There some very good organs, but (shame on Roland) NO HAMMOND! Strings are great if you're going to make a soundtrack for a movie, but none could be used on stage. With some layering (violin + viola + strings) you can make a good one, but you'll have to work on it. Anyways, I don't think strings ever were Roland's specialty... Korg's ones are much better. There're beautiful synth sounds, great brass-sections, but I didn't like any non-conbined brass sound, but I could only find brass sounds that I liked in Ensoniq's synths. By the way, they're much better than any Korg's synth that I've tried, which goes from the X3 to the trinity, and I think that they can beat this one only with strings sounds. The orchestral expansion board may supply this deficiency, but I really don't have great expectations on roland's strings sounds.

I own it since 96 (that's 8 years) and never had an internal problem with it. It just got out of tune misteriously, but it was easy to fix. I even dropped it during a rehearsal with a cable in the output, and it was bent. Send it to a Roland authorized repair shop, and they fixed it quickly. Even after the drop it's still functional.

I'm giving it a "7" because the repair sho owner told me that this board frequentkly have problem with some SMD capacitors leaking, and this can damage the mainboard, and in the worst case scenario, you'd need to replace the entire think, which would be very expensive. It's possible to replace all the capacitors, but that also would be expensive, so I can't rate it better than 7.

I can't rate i precisely, because I know the repair shop owner which I deal with, and he's a pretty friendly person with anyone. Nevertheless, whenever I needed a replacement part (which was only an output jack), I could get it easily from Roland. This shop owner told me that the cheapest keyboard replacement parts are from Roland, and the easiest to get also. The still make parts for the U-20!!!

Great keyboard, but I don't thik I'd buy it again. Instead, I would buy a XP-60 or XP-80. :) It would be much better if there was a hammond patch and a decent-sounding strings one, but the pianos and synths make for it. If you can get one for a good price, buy it, but don't forget to check for the capacitors' problem that I described!

Well, this is my first workstation, with the caveat of having owned a Boss DR-5 Dr. Rythm Section, so I am used to pattern type sequencers. I found the XP-50 easier to use than I thought it would be. Within 3 days I was saving multi track recordings on it. There are some documents on Roland's web site that I found to be the most important. The manual is really tough to understand.

The preset sounds are OK, but the add on board sounds are what is so amazing. I bought this keyboard used with a POP expansion board and a Dance expansion board. The Dance board is fun, but not really useful to me (it is on sale on eBay as I write).

If I did not have previous experience on drum machines and synths as well as a bunch of other Roland gear, this would be hard to use...but I found it pretty easy to do what I want.

This is my second keyboard, and I really like the action on this one. I am not a pianist, so 'weighted' action does not matter to me...matter of fact I LIKE synth-action keyboards better.

Polyphony is more than adequate for me. The sequencer, which is why I bought this board, is fairly easy to use. I can create music fairly fluently with it after two days of learning it. Given that I have a drum machine background, the loop recording feature is cool.

Sounds are sooooo subjective. I always have liked Roland's keyboard sounds. The XP-50 sounds really good to me. I do believe, however, that if I get the cash saved up, I'll invest in a KORG sound module next (X5DR, or Trinity rack) next, as opposed to a getting more sound boards from Roland. Each manufacturer has it's own strengths and weaknesses....I would like to mix and match the two manufacturer's sounds.

This thing seems pretty reliable.

Roland is pretty hard to get ahold of on NEW stuff. I hope I don't need them for a board this old.

I really like this board. I am mainly a guitarist and want to compose and create backings on a keyboard. This unit is really a huge, huge deal to me and has already shown enormous value. I can expand on it through cards or add on sound modules. It's a keeper, especially at used prices. I looked a Roland Fantom S...and although those are really cool devices...and sampling would be nice...the price difference is for functional difference is tremendous.

My friend Pavle have this synth Roland Xp-50.
Synth price is 1500 german marks for used xp-50.
512 patches,A bank 128,B bank 128, C bank 128, GM bank 128.
Total 512 preset sounds + 128 user sounds.
Strongest point of this synth are:synth strings and synth pads.
Ideal for New Age ,Progressive rock,Ambient and Eletronic music.
If you want to hear preset sound you must push button patch and push
shift + bank (A B C GM or USER bank).ROLAND reads standard midi file
0 and 1 format,and GM bank are better than my Korg Is-40.And midi files sound better than my Korg Is -40.Editing is EASY because synth
dont have to much things to edit, and all parametars are written on
the board.My roland D-50 have much more things to edit.

Polyphony is 64.Sounds have 4 oscilators.Keyboard action is LIGHT.
Effect are;Chorus+Reverb+another one(41 different effect to chose).
Roland Xp-50 HAVE A SEQUENCER WITH 16 TRACKS,AND SEQUENCER IS VERY
HARD TO USE.IF SOMEONE READ THIS PLEASE HELP ME HOW TO USE THIS
COMPLICATED SEQUENCER.My email is ; geza@ptt.yu

My first priority is a great piano sound, which this unit has (I'm a former classical pianist). Other than that, for live work I've custom created almost all the patches I use. It takes a bit of time but you can get some really authentic sounds if you work with the programming carefully, which you basically have to figure out on your own as the manual is pretty much useless. If you're looking for keyboard sounds I recommend adding the Vintgage Keyboards expansion board - some excellent B3 sounds, which if programmed properly to incorporate leslie effects, are very authentic. The Rhodes sounds are also great. I've used these both live and in studio and love them. If you're doing home recording and need them, the Bass and Drums board is also very true sounding. You can get passable horn section sounds by custom programming, but I've yet to get a good solo violin type patch out of the unit.

I could almost use MORE polyphony - when you're layering several patches (16 sounds) for a big 80s type synth pad you quickly run out of voices. I don't require a lot of effect for the type of music I do, so this isn't a concern. The sequencer is very difficult to use - saving patch assignments with a song is still boggling me - but I don't require this live.

Again, the piano rocks. Very full - usually the engineer has to turn roll off some bass in the mix. I've used it live and in studio for pop, rock, country and jazz. The expressiveness is quite good (assuming you adjust the settings to your own touch). I'm quite a heavy player - having started on an acoustic piano - and can get a good range of dynamics.

I've never had a problem with it, with the following exceptions. By loading in patches from the disks which came with the unit, it erases all my custom made patches (luckily I have these backed up on disk). Also have noticed that if you have it set up for two pedals (i.e. damper and modulation), you must have pedal 1 plugged in or pedal 2 won't work properly. But this is maybe a programming thing that I haven't figured out yet. Otherwise, I've trucked it around in all kinds of extreme weather and generally mistreated it to no ill effect. The buttons are getting a bit "sticky" now but that's to be expected after five years of heavy use.

Haven't required.

I would definitely try to find another, mostly because I know what I can get for sounds if I need them. I have been shopping for a newer keyboard just for variety but haven't yet found one that's going to give me all the sounds this board does. For my uses - authentic sounds both live and in studio - this is doing a great job.

Not so easy to use for a beginner
For instance splitting the board is far from immediate.
Only two sliders which makes real time changes a big no-no
Manual is OK
This board is very powerfull once you manage to edit things.
EVERYTHING can be edited. You can create sounds from scratch
Preset are 95% horrible unusable trash.
For instance, only the 128 first presets or so COULD be used
The 128 followings are almost exclusively filled with bass (OK I might need
one from time to time but this is too much)
The 128 followings are 100% unusable phrases, fadings, ambiant stuff.
The 128 GM sounds are .... there .... and absolutely useless unless you
play back midi files. But even then, you're better done creating dedicated
performances with your own patches.

You don't really need a PC patch editor, but of course it's easier.

small basic sequencer.
Good for note pad. For real sequencing, get a software and use MIDI
FX are average
Polyphony is 64 (more than I'll ever need)
Channel and poly Aftertouch, velocity
Only 2 sliders. (actually only one assignable in case you intend to use
the aftertouch feature that monoplies one slider)
EVERYTHING is editable and can be adjusted to personal tastes !!!!
No arpegiator which is my major bummer on this synth

Action and touch is excellent for my taste.
Far better than the cheap plastic one you can find for instance on a
CS1x. You could call it a "sturdy plastic touch" :)
It doesn't feel cheap at all (something I hate about most similar synths)
I don't care for weighted action. You CAN actually play piano on this
board !!!

I haven't deeply investigated the MIDI features
All I can say is that soft seq. work well, and PC patch editors work well too.
I'm planning to get a couple of sound modules to connect to this board
and I'm quite confident with MIDI implementation

The tone starts aging but you can still use it nowadays.
Good : pianos, ac. guitar, bass, pads, synth tones
Sucks big time : rock organs, disto guitar, choirs (lots of jazzy "dooos"
and "doo-dabs",but very very few usable "ahhhs" and "ohhhhs"), brass is
horrible (including trumpets, sax)
Some "brass" patches might be usable for ambiance but there is ZERO usable
patch for rock (which is what I do)
Not a single B3, no distorted organs

Analogue sounds are feasible but there's no real time knobs. So everything
has to be programmed with LFOs

I got mine used
The INC button is an bit sticky and tricky.
I'll clean and fix this when I'll be installing the expansion cards
I'm planning to get soon.

I mailed the local dealer (Belgium) to get the manual.
120? and they sent it within a few days.
Nice !

First of all, it is understood that Roland tried to catch as many people
as possible with this does-it-all synth. So it really can do EVERYTHING, from classic-
pop-rock-ambient-film scores to jazz-RNB-disco-techno-analog leads,
BUT it excels NOWHERE !!!! This is a swiss knife keyboard.
Also, it is tuned towards studio and recording. So playing live
requires a lot of fine tuning and editing (forget the presets when playing live)


425? is a steal for this in my country (Belgium - Europe)
I still see people asking mors than 1000? second hand
The expansion cards remain way to expensive considering that the
JV1080 engine is more or less out of production
(ONE card is half the price I paid this synth).
I guess they don't want you to upgrade your XP board - they want you
to buy their new XV synths instead ! Fuck !!!

I'm missing : arpegiator, real time knobs and sliders,
better organs, and better brass
The rest is actually pretty decent.
My main interest in this board was the piano and I'm very very
happy with this (especially seeing the price I paid).
All other features are bonus to me .....
I plan to buy a B3 module for rock/distorted organs
and a small analog-type synthy for fat lead play
I probably should have bought the XP30 instead (or was it 60 or 80)
Damn, can't remember! The one without sequencer (I don't need it)
but with arpegiator.

i've been useing it for four months and its my first board. i'm in a heavy hardcore band. we just went in the studio where they had a triton available for me to use. although the triton was easier to navigate i ended up using my xp-50 for almost all my tracks. it just sounds better. it's definetly not user friendly, but once you learn how to use it you'll love it. patience is key.

not that easy.you might confuse using sequencer,tone shaping.XP 60-80 is better.

good expending capibilities.RPS rocks.transposing is well thought.sequencing functions are pro enoungh,better than Korg,unlike some KORG's,do write transposition to songs(GM or not).but when you read direct from disk,some flaws come out.

1080 quality ,industry standrad for that time(1995-98).piano,strings,ac gutars,bass are good.brass,rock organs,el guitars and ofcourse reed (like Sax)sucks.You can't beat Korg's Sax,can you?drums -not punchy.effects -so so.

light but not as hard as other gear.some cheap plastic parts.

ok

I exchanged with my Korg X3 since I need a key with sequencer+direct disk play.Was it worth it?not so.the drums sucked,the keys are not as reliable as Korg gear,low performance memory(64),hard to learn sequencing,some bad or jumpin'direct disk play.good pianos and more sounds that Korgs but when it's time to solo(espicially live)it is a weak one.good and clean output for studio use but not too good for live.

I really don't like the way that the XP-50 menu is made. I came from a DX7 and a M1 and I was feeling much comfortable with those interfaces. I feel very difficult to assign the joystick or the sliders to new features and / or modify parameters.

Great polyphony, good keyboard.

XP-50 lacks of personality and gives few sliders / knobs or other tools to control the sound. Besides this, it has hundreds of great quality and cheap generic sounds.
Good piano, good range of synths, electronic music, good effects, good basses, good acustic instruments, good organs. Every sound is a 8, none of them is a 10.

Had some problems with humidity

I'm not really using any software, rather mainly use it for live gigs. I find the overall procedures pretty confusing. Roland manuals have always been NON 'user friendly.' The presets are generally pretty good. I always discover some amazing sounds when I put a pair of headphones on! If it were easier to steer, the XP could serve you well!

64 Polyphony. The keyboard action is a bit rigid...a 'plastic'-type feel. However, the response is good and the touch-sensitiveness is great. The keys will simply bounce right back at you. It has the option of expansion with sound cards internally, however, they naturally cost a fortune. I've used the MIDI capabilities a few times and it responds well. A 16-track sequencer is on board which is also a bit difficult to steer.

The strings are great! The pads are better!! However, the organs absolutely suck! I wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole! I always refer back to a KORG or Hammond for the organs. It's a very versatile board but not very usefull for modern or classic rock. It reacts well when you're talking pads but when you want to throw in an organ swipe, the keyboard is extremely static and rigid.

I can always depend on it! I wouldn't use anything without a backup, however, I've never had any problems with it. I've used it quite often with a power converter when in other countries and it responds well.

Great! I rang them before doing a very important show in Nashville and they were right there to give me assistance. They've faxed me through procedures which cannot be found in the manual which was very cool!

Even though it's a GREAT board, I would probably replace it with something that had some killer organs as well as the great versatility of pads and strings. I've been playing professionally since the age of 18. I've got a Lync LN-4 (Lync lives on!), Kawaii K1, and Korg N364.

I got the manual @ video, but the procedures are quite complicated
in the sequencer ( Im in the first week...)
RPS is not intuitive nor immidiate

keyboard is noisy - mechanicly when the key returns up
i guess a better dumping can be attached.
Sound is impresing - it took houurs on hours just 2 explore
the presets
Yet you can't add sampled wave, just the original boards/
patches are nice but they are still patches not waves!

Its a sinti mostly - and sound like you expect from electronic music
piano is nice mostly for the velocity dependant voice
i loved the piano bottom.
aftertouch require mussels...

bad jog wheel!
i have replaced it ( im tech ) but even the new 1 misses some time
the keys however are more durable than you may guess.

good! (in israel) got parts and accesories at rediculus prices.

Im happy with it - It encourage experiments, learning and
joy of music & sounds

Using software v1.0

This machine combines two important features for me. It sounds amazing, and is so easy to use that even in the heat of a gig i still know exactly what i'm doing. The synth layout is simple. It works on a 16 track midi program, combining (big wow) 16 midi sounds, in one patch, so that interfacing with a midi sequencer is easy!!

64 note poly. Synth action, is not even vaguely piano like. Not too many fx. Expansion cards are indeed the dogs. The various piano and ep sounds are better than i need (jazz session musician) all of which can be used through midi with the patch settings.

Inbuilt sequencer is good, although i only use it for storing ideas. However, used with disk drive means you can load up midi files (type 0 and 1) to play through the sequencer.

Usual problems with trumpets violins etc. But string ensemble sounds are beautifully produced. Indeed, most sounds are excellent. Special notice for the acoustic guitars and vibe sounds!!!

Been giging with it for 3 yrs. Never had any problem. Just remember to take plenty of spare figure of 8 power cables, cos they do go from time to time.

Never had to deal with company because there's never been any problem. Expansion boards are readily available, and downloads online are worth checking out too!

I gig with this keyboard. I record with this keyboard. I prefer this to the korg triton, because, it does what you want, when you want it. Simple. A novel idea in todays world.

Basically, this is not a synth for one who has no experience and short on patience. It's easy to use if you know what the heck you're doing.

The keyboard is good for in a studio, or on a stage in a concert - I've used it in both, and it's awesome.

Like most k/b's the trumpet/violin/viola are lacking. However, Roland has included some totally awesome new sounds, including good orchestral, techno, piano, and e.piano sounds. Also it's touchsensitive which is hugely important for a synth.

It "froze" once in 5 years, and I simply restarted and it was fine. This keyboard is high-class reliable. I wouldn't require a backup for a gig.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Good.

Most reviewers here have done an excellent job already, I will limit my review to only a few remarks. I hope they will be helpful.

The workstation is quite easy to use when you remember that a keyboard workstation simply can't help being a fairly complicated machine. The 10 I gave it is therefore a tribute to the designers' effort, not an absolute assessment. A very general description of the interface concept I would give is that the buttons activate patch, sequencer and other modes, the screen displays various parameters. Take your time, learning it is no rocket science.

What is shipped with the keyboard under the name of "manual" is indeed a reference book. Actually there are two books, one is the reference book and the other is an introduction to the instrument with a few sound programming/sequencing examples. I do recommend to study it, it helps you to understand the concept of the keyboard, other than that you'd better rely on your synthesis/sequencing knowledge gained elswhere.

The keys produce a noise when pressed. The action doesn't in the smallest degree resemble that of a piano - sorry, piano players, look elsewhere.

The on-board sequencer provides event editing, groove quantize, lets you record from any measure, has an option to mark reqgions for easier access, has a looping feature. To me this all makes well up for an outstanding sequencer.

The tracks don't record performance change, or I failed so far to figure out how to do it. This means that each time you want to play a sequence you have to select an appropriate performance first. If not for that (and mind you, I don't think this is a deficiency, - merely a thing to consider...), I'd award 10 in this category no problem.

The synthesizer engine is powerful enough to make the keyboard sound realistic. The presets prove that (WHICH IS WHY I THINK THE PRESETS ARE THERE AT ALL).

I object to the expectation of realism when you deal with digital synthesizers. I am a trumpet player myself. I don't believe anyone can successfully emulate a trumpet part on a synthesizer only relying on "realism" of a sample or an algorithm employed by a synthesizer engine - unless you know how a real trumpet "operates". I believe the same holds true for many other instruments.

No experience. I use it in a home studio.

No experience.

N/A

The software version is 1.0. The machine is a bit complicated to use. I bought it secondhand without manual more than a month ago and I had lots of problems figuring out how the sequencer works. I still haven`t figured out it completely, so I hope I will find a manual to buy. Editing patches is not a problem.

It has 64 voice polyphony. Keyboard action could be better. It has one EFX processor, reverb and chorus. It`s fine with me since I`m not a techno/dance freak. There are 4 expansion slots, what is very good, since there are many SR-JV-80 expansion boards on the market.

The basic patches sound good. But if you want very realistic, great quality sound you have to go for expansion boards. I have 2 of them, Pop and Vocal and they sound terrific, especially Vocal. The rating in this category is based mostly on expansion board sounds. The great thing about this machine is FD. You can download hundreds of patches and patch banks on internet and put it in the user bank. It does a great job on all kinds of music. You just choose the boards that suit you best. I play progressive doom metal and it suits my musical demands.

It is pretty reliable machine. I bought mine secondhand and I see that it has been used a lot and it works fine. Some of the buttons had almost no response when I bought it, but I fixed it and it works fine now. I use it on gigs in pair with my Korg X5D and I`m sure it won`t fail me.

They fixed the buttons and it works fine. But, when I got expansion installed, they `took away` the accessories that come with it.

I`m pleased with what I got for my money. I would like having an XP80, but it wouldn`t fit my car (this one barely fits). XP60 is better, but I don`t think that it`s improvement is worth the difference in price. I needed an affordable machine to create music on. The alternative was Korg N364, which is basically an X5D and I own one of these. N364`s (X5D`s) combis sound fine, but the progs (only which can be used in sequencer mode) are nothing compared to XP patches. N364 isn`t expandable and it`s sequencer is less powerful than the one on XP50.
The sound on this machine is uncomparable to the sound on Roland`s new RS series. RS sucks. I tried RS9 in store and wodered how can a great manufacturer like Roland be proud of the lousy piano sound on it. They assigned a button to that piano sound and put a label that says: TRY IT! The other sounds suck too. I also tried Yamaha S30. It has great quality sound, but most of them for techno and it doesn`t have a sequencer. I regret not trying a Triton, but I couldn`t afford it anyway.
This instrument inspires me and it gave my composing a fresh impulse. I recommend it.

the presets are very clean and well sampled,i have the vintage board there are some great sounds on this board, the bass sounds are good and the pads are exellent,i cant really say ive had a go at sound editing,its easier to buy the expansion boards, that cover the full spectrum of music styles,the manual sucks its like reading in a different language. who the hell employs the writers!

poloyphony is a healthy 64 voice plenty for my use, the keyboard feels better than my other synths,i have a yamaha cs1x and a roland xp10 not really in the same league as the xp50, now to the thing that really pisses me and no doubt thousand of other users off, two global effects and one insert not enough i believe theres no better effects section on the xp60 or xp80,the onboard seqeuncer is really usefull with cut copy paste and loop record functions,great just to sit down with the synth and make music not a computer in sight,i am thinking of getting the techno expansion board it sounds like it has some great drum patches on it.

the pianos are exellent power grand will cut through any mix,piano blend is nice and soft some great electrics as well. over all the xp50 works well with all music styles from classical to rock to techno,one thing that annoys me in multi mode you cant set the controller sliders for cut off and resonance,if im wrong can someone tell me how to do this.

i had mine for about a year and had to get a new power switch fitted its been ok scince,if i was to ever do a gig i would have full confidence in it, i would sync it with my rm1x to give me a kick ass drum backing.

ive never dealt with customer services i got mine repaired by a friend who does keyboard repairs

if it was stolen i wouldnt buy it again, because technology as moved on and new synths are starting to offer so much more value for money with more control knobs or sliders more effects etc, but even today the sounds are still good for someone just starting in music, it offers a good seqeuncer good sounds expansion options.

This is a complete musical instrument. I have it for three years now and enjoyed all the time I spent with it. You can compose almost any kind of music with it. The ROM version is 1.01, which is the oldest, however I have experienced no problem with it. They have fixed the bootup click in the newer versions but that is a small problem. It is not software upgradable since it doesn't have a flash ROM. You have to keep in your mind a map of internal connections of oscillators, efx processors, sequencer, LFO's etc, because most of the parameters are hidden deep in the operating system and it is a tough time for the beginner to follow the menu in its small display. However you soon get used to it and it is a fun to discover a parameter unnoticed before. The manual sucks for sure! You only need it to get the internal organization schemes. I have a notebook computer which have no MIDI ports on it, so I must do everything using the display and the buttons, which are extremely durable-I must be pressing the buttons millions of times a month! But it is nice to have a single machine to do your work. Especially the microscope thing enables you to edit anything to an enormous degree. I can't play keyboards well, I am a bass player, but using the microscope and notebynote recording you can create professional sounding tracks with nuances not achievable by hand. Sequencer is powerful, thanks to the vvverrryyy powerful CPU. The note-lags or fluctuations in the tempo is easily overcome by shifting busy tracks a few computer clicks back or forth; this annoying lags would almost cause me to sell the machine the first week I bought it, but soon I learned this shifting trick to solve the problem. Most of what is complained of by the reviewers here are solveble with minor editing. Afterall, this is a complicated beast...

Keyboard is fine but noisy I guess. You have to bend over the keyboard to activate the aftertouch. The modulation stick sucks, I'd prefer a wheel instead. It is 64 polyphonic. I don't agree with the reviewers who find this figure less than enough. You can switch off unimportant osc's to create room for complex chords. Though I write songs that uses more than 16 patches, which is more than the maximum number of parts allowed in a performance setting and many simultaneous notes in a track, I have never encountered a problem. People may contact me to learn how I do this. The effects are more than enough. Although the XP has one EFX processor you can change the whole settings, including the type of EFX in the middle of a song. You may have a flanger, a distortion and a stereo quadruple delay in one song. You guys, you have to learn to use the sequencer, it memorizes everything; got the clue?

Since I only had one synth before, a DX7, I cannot recommend on the quality of the sounds. But I am sure my XP sounds are very beautiful and realistic. It has piano sounds better than my sister's real piano. Guitar and bass patches are of studio quality. The presets banks are full of unusable thrash. One more thing, make some editing on a patch, this changes the feel considerably. The XP has a wide dynamic range and low background noise (almost none).

The thing is sturdy. The sides are plastic and easily scratching. The metal panel is finished in a sorta granular thing, that is when your nails scratches on the panel, a white line is drawn and a jjeeeeekkkss heard! Never had a problem anyway.

www.rolandus.com is an unfriendly page for XP users. Most of the information and support is available on other music sites. Never needed repair.

I love my XP, I cannot do without it. I would positively buy it again if I were ever to lose it. I have my XP and my philipps headphones, that's all I have. It is a 1996 make, but the technology inside is still concurrent. I sold my bass and acoustic guitars lately. But I keep sending out great music to my friends out of this beauty.

OS Version 1.01. (Sequencer Mode -> Hold Shift-Enter-Exit in that order)
I have no expansion banks.

Acoustic presets are reasonable for the aging JV1080 engine. Don't expect it to be too realistic, be content.
You want a VERY good approximation of acoustic instruments? use yamaha's VL engine. but even yamaha's VL engine is probably like 1-4 note polyphony, but it sounds good!

The presets suck for electronic sounds. i'm complaining because i can't do realtime filtering on my XP-50, which many synths can do. it has to be pre-programmed into the patch to be able to do it. and 99% of presets don't make use of it. i can overcome this by downloading some nice User-Presets, or programming it in.

When editing patches... when you're used to it, it's pretty ok. but i'm lazy, i'd rather download. its irritating that the preset patches can't be saved over. you can only have 128 savable patches of your own.

Manual... i heard it was so bad, i haven't even started. But there are other downloadble Sequencing/Advanced Sequencing guides on the net that might be worth reading.

64 note poly (mentioned lots of times already) note that it can be easily used up in multi-timbre sequencing. i had a few notes cut off on me before.
(I hate yamaha for putting 64 note poly into MOTIF, giving the excuse that people rarely use that many notes, and telling people that it can be expanded with a piano expansion board)
1 Reverb, 1 Chorus, 1 Selectable EFX. to me, reverb/chorus doesn't count. that means, only 1 effect.
4 expansion slots. you know this by now. it is aftertouch sensitive, CC1, CC2 sliders.
it has onboard sequencer which i never used so i can't comment on this. i use computer midi.

patches sound... See 'Ease Of Use' above. in addition...

Preset patches:The nylon guitars are... very good if played well. The jazz guitar i faked fooled my friends.
Distortion guitars are fun. Too bad they require EFX to sound good. Sounds thin and lame without effects in multi-timbre. Multi-track.

Downloaded patches:i was pleasantly surprised by some User-Presets that breaths life into the XP-50. Novation Bass, TB303, Rebirth383, some Analog sounds, wow... saved me money from buying analog modules (for a while...). they sound quite close as well. the user presets were programmed well, with filtering/aftertouch, which can make it quite expressive.
as for how it reacts to velocity and aftertouch, i can't really comment, because EVERYTHING is programmable, you can change how it reacts if you know how to. this engine is good stuff.

Music it works well for: anything. if sequenced well.

EFX sounds good, too bad there is only 1.

the keyboard action is not bad. better than the CS-1x's toyish feel. some patches react well to playing (reacts to velocity/aftertouch). nice.
i think the yamaha's EX-5 keyboard action is better because its more rigid. but i have no complaints for XP-50.

it hasn't failed me before in the 3 years i used it. unlike the idiotic windows 98 computer...

Never dealt with customer support

If lost/stolen, i'd probably get the latest thing on the block, yamaha MOTIF! i might get the VL expansion...
but it was worth what i paid. other synths might be better, but they cost a lot more. i'm currently doing electronic music anyway so i don't really care for Korg's sax/brass, or Yamaha pianos.
and they don't sound nearly like the real thing either. and when you mix multi-channel music, the difference gets less.

i love the fact that there are so many sounds u can download.
i hate the fact that what you hear when you fool around with patches, isn't what you hear when you do multi-timbre sequencing.
i hate the fact that it doesn't have a cutoff/resonance/attack/decay slider which XP-60 has.
i hate the fact that the drums can't be filtered, unless used as a patch.

i compared this with the MOTIF... err... guess who won? not a fair comparison anyway.
this wins the yamaha CS-1x. on-par with CS-2x/trinity(empty). loses to CS-6x/trinity(fully loaded)/triton/XP-60.
i chose this becoz this uses an industry standard sound engine, and it is cheap. and it still sounds professional,
it is comparable to XP-60 and CS-6x quality.

it loses to XP-60 and CS-6x because it is a lousy controller keyboard. you only have 2 sliders (in addition to the standard modulation and pitch bend)
XP-60 has 4 more sliders (i don't care for its arpeggiator), and CS-6x got tons of knobs! (drool...)

The presets are low quality and not very good for R&B (which is what I do). I use a rack module for most sounds (though I still use some sounds from the board itself). Editing patches is pretty easy but there isn't much I can do with what's in the board to adjust it to my style. Manual is good though I very rarely had to use it. I'm a hands-on-first-manual-later type learner and the XP-50 was a piece of cake.

Whoa boy here we go. This was my first synth and I didn't have mega bucks to spend when I got it. At the time it seemed like the greatest thing in the world until I started reading more about stuff like the Trinity & Triton. I also realized its limitations when I had much difficulty getting the sound that was in my head to come out from the board. The effects are way too limited and suck anyway. Expansion is excellent though. Could stand to be more expressive. The sequencer is soooooo easty to use but it hiccups like a baby after 10 bottles of water when you're playing multiple tracks. This absolutely sucks because It's my controller board (and I do all composing/sequencing on it) and I assign every instrument or sound to its own track. And without the quantizer, the timeing of the sequencer is an absolute disgrace. It never plays back the way you played it. It's often chopped and out of place. This is horrible when you want that human feel or when you want to do a riff or run that the quantizer can't handle. I count down the days till I finally own my own Triton (to replace the XP as the main board and midi controller).

As I've mentioned before, the sounds aren't all that. The pianos are good if you compare them to cheap Casio pianos. They suck more than anything has ever sucked before (well I hear the Triton's piano's suck, but I have a Proteus 2000 module which takes care of those for me). There are, at the very most, 10 sounds on the whole thing that I use regularly. But then again, I do this on a professional level which means I demand professional sound. The sounds may be excellent for a gigger or someone who doesn't necessarily need "recording quality" patches. The effects are to be pissed on (the Proteus effects are much better and they could stand improvement too). One would do best to just buy an outboard effects processor instead of relying on another machine with built in effects anyway. This board might do well for old style pop and probably old style anything but it's to be shat on (shat: past tense of shit) in modern music.

I don't gig but this son-of-a-bitch has been through some serious shit (even though the jog wheel thing-a-ma-jiggy pissed out on me about a year or two ago). I can't imagine a piece of musical equipment more durable. You could run over it with your SUV and the SUV would suffer more damage

WARNING: The above was an extream exaggeration of the truth. Do not attempt running over your XP-50 or any other synth or musical equipment you may own. To do so will result in sever idiocy, un-repairable damage to equipment, and unbelievable amounts of wasted money. SUV's may not suffer any damage to such actions.

Never delt with 'em, but like most customer support, they probably suck...

This may seem odd considering the ratings and ravings I've given, but I wouldn't trade this board for anything. Not even the Triton I'll be getting soon. Despite its shortcomings, it has helped me to create many great songs. I think this keyboard and I have somehow bonded over the years. It won't respond to anyone like it will me (everyone else catches hell with it...lol). I'd be heartbroken if it were stolen and I'd probably buy another one AFTER I aquire all the other stuff I need. And the Triton will replace it in duties only, meaning the XP will still be a major part of my studio but in a reduced role. That being said, my love for it still doesn't affect my overall rating for the machine...lol. That may seem cruel but I gotta be real about it. I would rate it much higher if I were speaking in terms of amature use. In fact, I'd probably rate it a perfect 10. But alas, this review is professionally speaking so...

Basically if you are a beginning to gig I would not suggest this keyboard because the industrial design does not really work that well ergonomically speaking. Korg is far more consistant. I bought it in JUne of 1997. The octave button can be pressed accidently while soloing and the presets do not register that easily when you are working in a big rig situation. I have had it happen at the worst time's during preformances.

The action is alright but if you come from classical training your hands will hurt trying to get expressivness from this board. The keys are kind of small for solo purposes. I have used this keyboard at least 200 times giging out. The squencer was not easy to use and the manual was not much help. I went and bought the video and there again some information was left out.

The sounds are ok but Yamahas pianos always are more consistant because they make pianos anyways. I do like A11,A25, and A26 THe expansion board has some nice organs. The orchestra hit b71 is nice too. Try using b-28,B-29, 002-4 from keyboards from the "60's and "70's if you have the expansion board. The strings are allright and brass ok too. Korg has the brass category hands down. Any Reggae band will use Korg's brass first.

The keyboard is still in mint condition after all this time and has served me well.

Never had to deal with customer support.

Actually with the Yamaha S-80 and Triton and CX-3 out there now I would not buy it again knowing what I know now. But it might not be fair to compare it to today's synths. It is a good all over synth but some patches don't cut it in a live situation and you alway's have to have that or else it gets lost in the mix. In fact I am trying to sell it with the manual and video manual.

Preset sounds are very good, especially important seen as editing is a complete pain (the editing interface is quite difficult to get to grips with). Using a patch editor such as SuperJV is easier. Best sounds are Acoustic Guitars, Basses, Strings and Pads. The GM bank is a real letdown - the sounds on a sound canvas are much better - in particular, the Pianos and Drums are quite honestly DIRE. Manual is comprehensive as far as what parameters can be changed but doesn't tell you actually how to use them creatively. Didn't fancy paying an additional #30.00 for the video manual. This should have been included in the synth price.

64 Voice polyphony but can be limiting if you like your sustain pedal. Keyboard action is responsive although the noise of it will annoy your flatmates late at night. Built in effects are good particularly the compressor (good for that Phil Collins Drum sound) and Space-D (adds some ambience, expecially good for the lacklustre piano presets). Good MIDI implementation, aftertouch and velocity sensitive keyboard. Intergrates well with my other gear (Alesis DM5 and Yamaha P-50m). Onboard 16trk sequencer is as good as any I've used and it's especially useful as a scratchpad for ideas. Use your computer sequencer for the final stuff. Editing songs onboard is quite easy although you'll be pressing a lot of buttons.

Best sounds are Strings, Guitars and Electric Pianos. Organs are really quite amazing - particularly the Hammond-type presets. Not so good sounds are Acoustic Pianos (when compared to my Yamaha P-50m) and the drums are OK but not astounding (you can remedy this quite easily using the onboard EFX module though). Good for Pop and Rock music, not so good for Acid/House. Generally a fantastic sound set overall that will always provide an excellent quality set of bread and butter sounds.

Generally reliable although some memory problems and it has frozen a few times on me. This hasn't happened that much recently though. Don't gig it because I use it for writing and not performing. Probably would gig it if I did perform though.

If it got stolen I wouldn't buy it again, but not because I don't like it. Just because I would buy one of the newer models i.e an XP-60. Love the sounds overall and it forms the heart of my MIDI setup. I find the noisy keyboard a bit annoying but that's just nit-picking after all! When I bought it (Oct. 97) it was the best all rounder in my opinion and still holds up today as a great synth. I wish it had better Drum sounds all though I've got an Alesis DM5 now so it's not much of a problem anymore. Best thing about the unit is the ability to get ideas down fast with it and it is generally very reliable. All things considered, I would recommend it unreservably to other keys players!

As a sound module easy to use. But you can get more out of this box than just presets.

64 Voice, 16 part multi-timbral rompler workstation w. small but well readable 2 line display,
61 plastic keys (loud! but good response), two assignable data faders, joystick (pitch, mod.)
32 User Performances. 128 User Patches. 1Multi Effects (40 Types), 1good Chorus, 1 so so Reverb/ Room/Delay section, all with Sends and Returns. Only Stereo Outs (plus Headphones).
Built in 16track sequencer w. 20 000 events capacity, 100 user-Patterns (also playable realtime
via keys) well done event editing (sadly no controller fades possible), about 60 Quantisation Templates (straight, shuffle, tuplets). Seq. records fader movements and Sysex!

W. up to 4 Osc's in a single Patch it's easy to make lush single finger textures.
Some 400 multisamples offer you sound basics but raise appetite for the manyfold expansion cards.
With Aftertouch and the Realtime Controllers you can play expressive. There is a matrix for assigning most important parameters to many Controllers (Mod Wheel to LFO Speed....)

Different Portamento modes different trigger modes for Waveforms. Analog Feel emulates an instable pitch generator. Each Osc can Crossmodulate itself (no real X-Mod but useable). Multimodefilters (Lp, Hp, Bp, Peak) w much Reso (Reso at 126 is full, at 127 it gives you awfull Aliasing, attend your ears!), Pitch Env., Tune, Fine Tune, Amp, Panorama Mod.. Pitch and Pan have its own Random, Alternate Generators. Filt, Amp, Ptch are Velo sens, Keyrange sens, have their own multi stage Envelopes with modulatable Times/Levels. Each Osc has it's own Pan/Fx Routing. Best I've seen so far in Romplers.

Most people don't know much abot the 10Algorithms of combining two Oscs.. A pity! Apart from simple structures giving you serial Filters (for Hp Lp or Bp Bp or just 24db Lp/Hp/Whatever) the Osc can modulate each other with differnt Ringmods (giving you Ringmod and type of simple FM) or have an "interactive" overdrive (depending on Waveforms and Filter settings). Suddenly BP vowels become deep, 303 emulations get dirt, a choir with x-mod ringmoded with Peak filtered aliasing strings occurs..... With these functions you really can expand the sonic capabilties of the XP/JV from clean and timid to razor sharp teeth. In addition to the realtime controls here you can achieve expressiveness even beyond reasonable usage.

Sound:
You may dislike it or love it. Apart from it's heavy output noise the signal is (same as the JV1080, 2080, XP 80, 60 etc.) very clean, dynamic and fine fitting in every mix. One could consider it's overall sound as warm, without the "overdriven" heihts of e.g. Korg products. It's no sub-sonic monster, unless you lay hands on the filters with full reso.
The wooden string instrument patches (ac. guit, harp, string ens) offer you a good alternmative for samplers. Reed instruments are well done too. The Shakuhatchi is the best I've heard in any rompler. Nice non-dominant bells, Massed Horns is a unique French Horns Ensemble for background. Moving orhestra scores perform very well on this engine, atmospheric orchestra scores of course suck (as they do on every machines under 128MB samples). Church Organ Multisamples are fading in to long, no use for faster pieces (how much slow organ pieces are found in the Kochelverzeichniss?)

As a pop/rock machine the XP 50 does it's job also well, even in multi timbral mode. You easily can do a whole pre-production. Pianos are more realistic than Korgs or Yanahas. E-pianos sound well (for D&B and Jazz they are to clean). Spinett, Chembalo, Metal Clav have no punch. Brass Ens. are okay, solo Brass are ashaming, so are Ac.Basses, Pick Bass is fine, Organs show their sunny side with Rock Organs and 50ies Soap Opera Queeks. "Nature"-Pads very well. Synth Pads have to much metallic components in their overtones (digital filters). Synth Basses are thin, leads really can be expressive, Fx and noises are crap and compensate this with being overdrawn (suitable for cartoon-soundtracks?).
Drums are entirely crap! Overpronounced mids. Annoying high spectres. No punch.
Techno can be done but you can get more out of Yamaha. For dirty Techno and Trip Hop a Korg suits better because their Overdrive Algorithms and the bad Interpolation of older machines (M1, X3, Wavestation .....) really deliver you the harshness you are searching for. Roland's Overdrive Algorithms are unable to generate acceptable overtone massacres (though you can choose out of 3different GuitarAmp types). If you're into Electronica and not into sampling the XP's are the alternative for Kurzweils. O.k. the K series offer 40 oscillator algorith

Had no bad experience. OS is stable. Cassis is metal with plastic at both sides. Machine is easy to open for the four expansion slots. Keys of XP 50 are not very good. Xp 80, 60 are better in this topic,
but a typical Roland illness is that older keys lose their sensitivity. Many freeware products are found in the net (programmers, librarians, sounds). The XP 50 is sound compatible to the JV's and other XP's.

Never needed. I always contact my dealer, never companies.

Studio standard. This thing hasn't feature XY giving you many jobs in Radio Jingles. What it does it does good. You can use it for every style of music. Using several Parts in a playback doesn't annoy.
Using it entirely for a playback....(so with every machine but Samplers). Learning to programm it is thankfull. If you consider to buy one of the older Virtual Analogs comopare them to the XP. It can do what they do an much more. I use it for most jobs together with Gigasampler and a Z1 without having the feeling of missing something.

A bit tricksy but everything is pretty clearly labelled and fairly intuitive. Best to use a patch editor if you are into that kind of thing

64 note poly, nice synth-type KB. This was a total bargain as it already had the Session, Techno and sounds of the 60s/70s boards installed. Sequencer OK, adequate midi. Effects..well its a Roland.

Quite unbelievable. I read a lot of posts here and I'm never sure what people want from these machines. If you want to make your own sounds...get a sampler....where are all those sounds that people claim to be making....I've not heard anything 'new' since the Fairlight was splattered all over 'Never Forever' by Kate Bush, and YES I do get out quite a bit!! Literally thousands of sounds, including a great selection of 'bread and butter' stuff, but i mean is anybody really going to find a use for ALL those sounds?...NEVER. It sounds professional, high quality and there is no extraneous noise. As a guitar player driving it through a pitch to Midi converter and recording into Protools/DIGI001 it is more than adequate for me and my band. Don't like THOSE strings, then use one of the other 30 or so!!!

5 years old and effectively unused. Its a Roland.

Joke

I'll never find a bargain like this again....effectively brand new, almost fully expanded and #300 less than a basic XP30. The additional cards alone are worth the price......lucky me I guess

Using the presets is very easy, editing is somewhat harder then other manufacturers.

It is a workstation so it can do a lot.No sampling.
The expansion boards are very welcome. Keyboardaction is not the best.There is also a midi hickup from the modulation stick.

Overall the XP-50 sounds very good.Digital synths and effects are great.Piano sound is very good.I use the orchestral expansion for violins and strings, use the 60and 70's for rhodes and hammond sounds.I have also the dance expansion but that was a waste of money.
A don't like the preset drumsounds but I do like the drumsounds from the dance expansion (although they are electronic) buy the drum and bass for acoustic drum sounds. Some sounds are to digital and weak.

Never let me down

never used it

Great overall keyboard. Great for doing giggs. You have all the sounds and is expandable.In the studio you need other soundsources for drums and brass.Listen to TLC and Destiny's child for the famous nylon string guitar sound.Roland should consider mounting a modulation wheel instead of a stick

I've had my XP-50 for 5 years and overall I am completely satisfied with it. I am not a patch freak and don't expect every instrument to be electonically reproduced. About 50% of the presets are junk. I love Rolands piano sound for it's brightness and fullness. Compared to Kurzweil's piano sounds which I think are a bit muddy like playing a piano under a blanket.

The manual is not easy to use, but makes a great reference if you are looking for something specific.

Polyphony is fine. True, some patches use 4 osc., but unless your are programming symphonies, there is nothing to worry about. I only run into the polyphony ceiling if I'm on the sustain pedal and banging out 10 notes chords nonstop. even then, the key priority order is effective and you lose your old notes for the new ones you're bangin out.

It holds up it end on the workstation front as well. While the internal sequencer may not be feature rich, it gets the basic job done. Cut/Paste/Copy/PunchIn/Erase/Delete/Quantize/Mix/Replace. It is a bit clumsy only because you have a set a buttons to navigate and not a nice mouse interface on a big 19 inch monitor where you can see everything. I mostly use the sequencer like a scratch pad to record ideas and melodies etc.

I also use the hell out of the 'Performance' mode. This is one of the most convenient ways of setting up patches for songs. When in this mode you can set up 15 patches plus 1 drum patch in a cohesive collection. This is great during live shows because you can just click one button to move to the next patch for your next song and not have to spin the dial while the rest of the band waits for you, or have a 10lbs book next to you with all the patch numbers written down.

Also, Layering and splitting is a breeze. If you want to split your keyboard into 16 sections and assign a unique patch to each, go ahead.

The XP-50 also works great when you have other midi controllers pluged into it.

The string patches are excellent, only 4 horn patches out of 15 or so are usable. Only 2 organ sounds...unless you go with the 60s/70s expansion card...then you have 255 patches that I think all excell. Drum patches are not chessy at all, but if your drum sound is important to you then get a drum machine which specifically focuses on the drum sounds. The drums on the XP-50 lack dynamics...big deal.

The keys themselves are excellent. I think they are very expressive and reactive. You can't just come off another keyboard or a real piano and expect to retain the same style of play with the XP-50. Once you are familiar with how this keyboard feels, you will be disapointed with most others.

Very dependable, I've had it on the road for 5 years, it's full of stickers and expansion cards and I have never had a single day of trouble. Never had a backup keboard for this guy. is there some wood around here?

never needed it.....that may tell you something.

If I lose or break this thing I'd first look for another XP-50 used or just shell out the cash for an XP-80.

Remember, if you want a real piano sound, play a piano, all other play Rolands.

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!!

It takes a while to learn how to use this synth properly, and the manual is utterly useless. Everything from using the sequencer (I use a softseqencer for the most part) to editing patches is confusing until you're really familiar with the board, though patch editing is easier from computer. However, once you DO understand how everything works, there is some sort of bizarre logic to it, and it becomes fairly intuitive. It would be a lot easier if they had called things their proper name (i.e. ADSR vs. T1,T2,T3,T4, etc), and figuring out the whole Program vs. Patch thing is rather annoying...

The XP-50 has a good selection of features for its price range -- 64 polyphony, 500+ patches, 3 FX processors (chorus, reverb/delay, and one other), velocity/aftertouch, "FXM" ring modulator, 2 sliders + mod/pitch bend, good portamento, 2 envelopes, 2 MIDI syncable LFOs, MIDI syncable delay, etc. You can throw 4 add-on cards in it, and I have the techno add-on, which is pretty good. I tried a few other cards, but I was unimpressed.

The instruments are not very realistic, though I've always felt that if you want an electric piano, use a real EP, or if you want a guitar, use a real guitar. The XP does have some very nice pads and trance sounds, though editing is almost always required to make the sounds interesting. The FX processors are very nice, w/ 40 effects to choose from, plus chorus and reverb for each sound. I use it exclusively for ambient/trance/industrial/drum n' bass, and I have been able to get some nice chill pads from it as well as some disgusting wails. It doesn't do analog very well, but I find it blends fairly well w/ the analog I have. Probably the most useful things about it are the MIDI-syncable oscillators, which allow you to make some really interesting sounds. The cutoff and resonance filters are nice (the resonance can chirp if you crank it, but it sounds like a digital chirp), and you can choose from LPF,BPF, and HPFs.

It is certianly a dependable synth -- I haven't had any problems with it. I don't have a back-up, though I mostly use it for studio work. Chances are the worst thing that would happen would an accidental change of some parameter in the system menu that suddenly causes the synth to stop making sounds...

Never dealt w/ Roland.

Had I known more about synths when I bought the XP, I probably would have spent my money on an Arp Odyssey, a Juno 60, and a sampler. Might even have been able to pick up an SH-101 as well at that time... All in all, it's a good synth for all-around usage, and if you tinker with it, you can get some quality sounds (especially if you have the techno add-on card). When I bought the XP-50, it seemed like the best choice in its price range for an all around synth for the type of music I make. I like the fact that it has an onboard sequencer, and the more time I spend making music, the more I feel the urge to get the instruments away from the computer. As for features I wish it had... well I'd love it if it clocked CV, had an arpeggiator, had the guts of a minimoog inside it, etc... seriously, the synth would be nicer had they not made as many pianos, organs, and brass patches and put more "synth" sounds on it, and I would probably rather have an onboard sampler than a sequencer. I think it's a pretty solid board (especially w/ the add-on cards), and tho it is hard to use, it is packed full of features, and once you understand how it works, you can get some funky noises from it. I don't feel I wasted my money on it.

Once again, Roland excels in making a keyboard to end all keyboards. The presets on the XP-50 are delicious. However, I think they need to use an expansion board using all 8 megs on good piano sound. The dance board presets are wonderful and with some minor editing, they're even better. Even though the samples on the dance board are from the latter years of the rave era, they can easily be reprogrammed to be updated to newer, more current sounds. To the novice, programming can be a bit tricky. But to anyone who is familiar with programming a digital synth, it's not too bad. However, a patch editor makes the whole process very simple (fun, even). The manual? Hmmmmm. During the process of trying to decipher the manual, I've learned to speak in 18 different old-world languages (none of which are used anymore), and I think I've learned some insight to the code of Hammurabi...but it didn't help me with but one or two things regarding the keyboard.

The 64-note polyphony has opened up a whole new world of sequencing possibilities for me. The action of the keys is smooth and precise. The 40 built-in effects are all great. I love being able to have chorus and reverb along with the extra effect of my choice available at all times. The expansion boards allow this keyboard to become a gigantic sound engine...and all of the sounds on the expansion boards are way above average. MIDI capabilities are quite extensive and easy to use. I love this sequencer...while it took some time to learn, I now find my way around it quite comfortably. Easy to record, easy to edit, and easy to save...what more could you ask for? But, I am a little disappointed that it only has room for 20,000 notes.

Overall, most of the sounds are very realistic and can trick a very sharp ear. I produce techno/trance/acid house music, and I am still amazed every time I play the xp. The filter allows the user to grab a very similar to analog feel and control over the sound. And the pads....my, my, my...the pads. Very big, very warm, and very yummy (for lack of a better word). The effects can make the xp's sounds even better. It is very reactive and precise. And through the sliders, aftertouch and velocity, you can control almost any parameter of each sound (or voice).

In my experiences, Roland gear just doesn't quit. My first Roland was the juno-6...still going strong (hasn't gone down even once). I then bought an jx-8p...same story as the juno. And now, the xp-50...flawless to-date. A friend of mine has an SH-101, and though it looks like a toy, and he threw it around like a toy, it still works perfectly every time. So I know the quality of Roland products...they never let you down. And I have, and always will be comfortable with using it on stage without a backup...and without a worry.

If you don't mind a 500 dollar phone bill, you could call the Roland tech support line. Then again, sending your problem to them third class might even be faster. But, after 15 proud years of Roland ownership, I've never had to call them about a problem...just questions. They were, however, very friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful with my questions.

I would love to have another xp giving my xp some companionship. But, being that it is one of the greatest keyboards of all time, it needs nothing to make it more complete. If someone stole it, of course I would buy another one. It is worth far more than what I paid for it, and no other comparable keyboard (well, as close as comparable can get) compares at even twice the price. Korg...yuck. Ensoniq...ha! Yamaha...not even close. I can definitely say that I have made the best music I have ever made with the xp. Once I learned how to get around on it...it's super easy. And, it's never a headache to work with.

First of all, if you're looking for a Dance / Techno board, this is it. Then again... be prepared to spend awhile creating your own patches. The presets are good for multi-purpose applications, but if you want your sounds, learn how to make'em. Editing/creating patches with the XP-50 takes a while to master, especially with the small display, but if you have a computer and a MIDI cable patch editing can be a breeze using all those freeware XP-50 patch managers out there (WINXP). For the manual... THE MANUAL IS CRAP. No matter how many times it's looked at, it still dosen't help. But all-in-all, once you master the XP-50 and it's sequencer, it becomes extremely simple to get exactly what you want!

Polyphony is at the MAX at 64-voices and 16 parts. It was one of the reasons why I bought it. Its the power of two synthes in one (32-bit RISC chip). Any part of any patch can be modified (TVA,TVF,LFO1&2, Pitch, etc..) It's features are best used with more modern techno applications than anything else. Keyboard action is above the standard as far as 61-note keyboards. It's ideal for composing anything but classical. If you want a better feel and a couple of extra octaves buy a XP-80, but it's not much of a bonus for +$500. The SRJV series of expansions are top-notch. You can get any style of sounds that your heart desires. Right now there's about 8 +/- 2 expansions of compressed 8Mb (16-Mb linear) waveforms (another selling attraction). MIDI is fully implemented in the XP-50. Both velocity and aftertouch are sent/recieved by MIDI. The board can be used on it's own, or as a controller or as a 64-voice module. It's really limitless! The sequencer has all the functions that are really necessary for complete composition, but... I'm not really sure how much 1 song/ 20,000 notes internal memory is. It's really straight forward but it takes awhile to fully understand and feel comfortable with. (no thanks to the manual)

The XP-50 comes with +640 patches that covered all musical genres. Each one of them was distinctively different from one another, which is good! ( I don't personally like 25 types of harmonicas!) I also have a Dance, and a Vintage Synth expasion. I use them more than any other bank, but in general.. they're all are digitally delicious. I spent a few weeks trying to assign two different insert effects to two patches, but both of the patche's effect settings changed whenever one of the patches was changed. It was that I discovered that this board ONLY HAD ONE INSERT EFFECT PROCESSOR. It's too bad, the're really good (40 of'em). Though this might sound greedy, a couple more would help! The XP-50 has one of the most impressive sound pallets for it's category to date. The keyboard facilitates playing piano patches expressively. (mostly due to velocity and aftertouch) It's really a good keyboard response for it's type, but classical is really impossible to play. (unless your third arm can control the octave shift button)

Roland had made them..... they'll be here forever! Roland has made them.... they'll be here forever! Roland will make them.... they'll be here forever!
I know people who still have JUNO's, JUPITER's, etc... Roland, (like BOSS) makes 'em tough!
It's probably more reliable than your girlfriend/boyfriend/wife/husband.

I never experienced a problem, but I was looking into a RAM upgrade, though I haven't ever contacted Roland directly. If they can make a keyboard like this... they have be great people!

It really is a keeper! It was worth every penny put into it, and will be for a long time to come. In general.. The XP-50 can handle a whole project on it's own, it's just about the greatest board for Techno/Dance out there right now. The only thing that I could possible complain about would be it's somewhat small screen (though they tried to jam as much as possible into each page). Before buying it I had looked at Korg's O1/FW workstation. It didnt have the 64-voices or even the sounds that I was looking for. The XP-80 is a bit pricey, and unnecessary if you already have a computer with a patch manager, and mabye even a full blown windows sequencer. And the Korg Trinity is a piece of crap wrapped in foil for $3500. Sure it's great but $3500.. I think not! (the touch screen is frustrating and not very responsive. It a toy rather than a tool.) The XP-50 had everything I wanted in one package (a JV-1080 equivalent sound engine, a responsive controller keyboard, a full blown MRC-PRO sequencer, and the three effects processors. The only thing I wish it had would be a WAV sampler, where the user can import WAVs directly from the PC. (Ensoniqs new MR-series can but I hate Ensoniq and there boards. The '50 has become my sole tool for making Techno. There isn't anything that gets in the way.

For one thing, most of the presets are pretty good. Some definitely could be better with a little programming, effects, etc. Editing patches is either simple or difficult, depending on what exact sound you want to produce. I don't own a patch editor and really don't see the point in using one unless you're dealing with several megs of sounds. The manual definitely sucks, as most users agree. Documentation is terrible and many main features aren't discussed.

This unit has 64 notes of polyphony. However, I have programmed some performances that results in some tones being lost. Keyboard action is impressive, and can be controlled via velocity. The built in effects are pretty useful and easy to use. The unit has 2 effects processors, one with reverb and chorus and another with various additional or "insert" effects. Expansion is a great feature. I own the fairly new Session Board, and despite needed improvements in the presets, the waveforms are good. I don't mess with MIDI that much, but I know it responds well. The on-board sequencer is flexible, but takes time to learn. A metronome can be used for tracking, but I don't use it.

Many instruments can sound very good, but they need intense programming. I'm no whiz at it, but I've made many great sounds. Electric pianos, brass, and some strings need improvement, but sound o.k. I use my instrument for rock and alternative music, but it can work effectively for various styles of music. This unit could be a killer in dance music and techno, if you're into that. The onboard effects are pretty good, but you'll have to play with levels, decay, etc. The unit definitely reacts while playing it...anyone heard of velocity and aftertouch??? This unit has it.

Reliability can be a small problem. After 4 months with the unit, it created a loud crisping sound. I took it to my dealer and waited 3 months for it to get fixed. 7 months later, the instrument works fine. I might have had a surge or something that screwed up my board. However, I would use it on a gig without a backup. I have only one other keyboard, and it sucks. This unit blows it away.

After diligent calling and bugging the company, my unit was fixed promptly. They were friendly and well-informed of my situation (I needed it in a week before hitting the studio). As far as I know, my unit cannot be upgraded, except for expansion boards.

I would definitely buy this unit again or go up a level and buy the XP-80. It is worth every penny. I love the sounds I can make on this unit, and there isn't much to hate. Once I heard it, I had to have it. I wish it had better brasses and electric pianos, but that's nothing to whine about. The XP-50 really helps you make music and doesn't hold you back. This unit smokes(not literally) and was the best music decision I have probably ever made.

Presets sound great - a lot of excellent sounds for use in a lot of things... plus if you start adding Expansion Boards ( I have the World board), look out! Getting around the machine is a bit cumbersome, and my meager knowledge of a of sound-making makes it more difficult, however. As usual, the manual is packed full of information that is difficult to interpret. Some things the XP-50 can do aren't mentioned in the manual.

Polyphony = 64 I'm not the best judge of keyboard action, but it's adequate. Lots of built-in effects, but certain modes cause the sound effect(s) to change, depending on how everything is interacting. Four Expansion Board slots, nine Boards to choose from, up to 32 MB extra waveforms and patches. COOL! All typical MIDI; aftertouch... A pretty decent sequencer, and its not too hard yo get around and do stuff with it.A

All sounds are great. I've managed to coax some different styled stuff from it. Onboard effects are great, but they interact differently depending on the mode you're in.

They helped as much as they could, and pretty much sent me off in the right direction. Upgrade, more than likely (there's an XP-80 out there!)

I'd buy another one, if need be. I love it because it's the first REAL synth I've ever owned! But I hate the learning curve. No comparison... I walked in to the dealer, told him what my requirements were (portability, everything to make most of the music I need to make in one machine), and I walked away with the perfect instrument! I wish it had a better manual. I can make cool music with it. It rocks! If I had known that an XP-80 was coming out, I may have held out for it, but I am extremely pleased with this synth/workstation!

Killer presets! Editing patches is quite involved, having a patch editor is a plus. (Several shareware or freeware are available) The manual is typical - OK but incomplete. This is a powerful synth with many parameters to set when editing sounds. Expect a learning curve but it's worth the effort!

64 note polyphony. Nice keyboard (synth type) action. Very nice and flexible on-board effects. 4 expansion slots for JV exp. cards - can total something like 1500+ onboard sounds when fully expanded! Excellent Midi implementation. Sequencer has many good qualitites, the foremost being the ability to read SMFs directly from disk (for a toatl of 180,000 notes!)

Saxes are poor. Most other sounds are very good. With expansion boards, you can do ANY style music. Even without the exp boards it is very versatile.

It seems well built, but would I use it with out a backup? Depends on the Gig - I may not use ANYTHING without a backup :)

Love the sounds, love the sequencers ability to read from disk. I wish it had a larger sequencer buffer though (20,000 note). But since I write with CWPro and just use the XP50 to play the files live, it's no prob for me.

Presets are OK, but they don't use the Powerfull filters and synth structures on the synth. Editing takes some time to get used to, A patch editor is nice because the screen doesn't display any waveshape graphics. The manual is useless, roland was trying to cut printing cost.

64 Polyphony Great FX, 40 insert + main reverb and chours. 4 Expansion slots for up to 40Mb of Waveforms Aftertouch, great Mod controller, 2 assignable controler ports+sustain. Can be used as a master controler

good on board sounds, but the Expantions are a must for Killer sounds. Ochestral, Vintage, World, Dance are just some of the few that this baby can handel. One of the best sound sources around. Great onboard FX, could be linked to Midi controlers And syncs with Midi clock! Adjustable Velocity cuves and aftertouch

very reliable It is a gig by its own.

coustumer support is ok, NO 800 #, have to wait for a while

A good value, worth every penny. Killer sounds for every musical style "With the expantions" The onboard Sequencer has a small memory buffer which suks when you try to use controlers More expantion slots, more onboard memory for sequencing. It take your musical ideas into a new dimention whith its pattern sequencing capability. Great Keyboard that is a keeper.