Roland XP-60

Bs/Pno+brs is my favorite patch. Love it. It has that authentic bass sound when u press it. The piano must be played softly,or u can get brass cool

The keys have a nice springy effect.

The bass/piano+brass is the most realistic sound on that board. hands down

You can always depend on it. If u take care of it.

never had to call

I'd have to steal this back.LOL.

Sure, it's easy to use... after you spend many hours trying to grasp the design of the system. Yeah, it's complex, but now that I've owned it for 7+ years, I've got it down, and it's fantastic. Almost everything you could want to do with a standalone workstation is possible.

The expansion cards are great, I have the Techno Ccard and the Orchestral 2. The disk drive works great, but now that it's 2008, I with there were USB ports, SD cards, Wi-Fi, ect.

I initially thought that I would want fully weighted keys in my main keyboard deck, but I love the semi-weighted feel of the keys. The action and expressiveness are perfect for my style which includes trance, techno, etc..

7+ years mostly in the studion, but occasional live gigs - been wet with beer and other unidentified liquids - never let me down - this thing is a tank!

In all this time, I've never needed support, but if I were to base my opinion off of Roland's website, hmm... I'd give that specifically a 5-6 - I don't think the site is that great.

I researched and researched - I really thought that I would buy the Korg at the time, but the XP-80 (I wanted the 76 keys) just kept coming out ahead - I'm very happy that I did.

If you are interested in this workstation, then I cannot recommend it more highly - I love it!

I use this keyboard for backing a guitarist/singer with my own play and bass/battery sequencing. Quite easy to use. You need some time to get how do to thing but everything seems logical.
However, deeper involvement in sound synthesis may be difficult.

Standard features for a workstation : synth engine + effect (Cho + Rev + 1 MFX)+ sequencer with user patterns. Well today you should expect sampling capabilities, which was not the case when this keyboard was released, and more MFX. Polyphony is 64.
It seems evident to me that it was designed for live perf. You've got 1 hold pedal, 3 assignable sliders and 4 (yes 4!) assignable foot pedals (for any control change or special feature (sequencer start/stop, patch up or down...), keeping you hands free for playing. very useful. I've got only 2 of them on my fantomX...

It's a JV-1080 sound engine, thus standard but not up to date. Synth pads are very good, others may seem more cheezy compared to more modern synths. But the expansion cards raise the quality. I put 4 of them in my XP60 and it just sounds great. My mark corresponds to my appreciation of the sounds in the expansion boards.

I bought this one on second hand and I take it with me every week. Looks solid because it is !

Never had to deal with.

Sometimes it can be annoying, sometimes you get just what you're looking for...

Creo que este sintetizador es una excelente opcion en 61 teclas del Roland XP 80.
Compre el XP 60 usado y parece que la programacion y el software son de "fabrica". Desde hace 10 a?os he sido usuario de Korg, desde el celebre T2 hasta el Triton, asi es que usar Roland es un agradable cambio de "timbres". Los pianos acusticos y electricos son excelentes; las emulaciones de guitarras electricas tambien. Los Pads, los Strings, los leads para musica electronica son muy buenos. Donde si esta un poco falto de realismo es en las guitarras acusticas, en los brasses y en los saxos. Este sinte tiene muchos sonidos de teclados clasicos de Roland como Juno, D50, D70, JV90, etc. No tengo manual y tuve que descargarlo en fragmentos de la pagina de Roland.

64 voces de polifonia esta O.K. sobretodo para hacer "capas" o "texturas" (layers) en pads. La unidad tiene tres tipos de efectos: Reverbs, Chorus y EFX. A diferencia de otros sintetizadores de Roland creo que los efectos incluidos le agregan dimension a los presets. El XP60 acepta cuatro expansiones del tipo SR-JV que rondan sobre los 100 dolares. El toque de las teclas me parece un poco de juguete, pero aceptable. Tiene un secuenciador de 16 tracks y 60 000 eventos que, a diferencia de Trinity o Triton, incluso que Yamaha, me parece complicado de entender y manejar por estar relacionado directamente a los presets del performance.

Roland es muy buena opcion en pianos en general. Los ensambles de cuerda son excelentes al igual que los solos como violin, cello, etc. Los pads electronicos son buenos. Creo que las guitarras electricas estan muy bien logradas al igual que los leads. Sin embargo, los brasses, las guitarras acusticas y los saxos podrian ser mejorados sustancialmente.

Este teclado es idoneo para cualquier tipo de musica, y si los presets de fabrica no convencen mucho para cierto genero se pueden mejorar utilizando las placas de expansion.
Un gran acierto fue hacer la seccion de efectos accesible desde el panel y poder manipularlos a traves de los 4 faders. Quitar o agregar cualquiera de estos tres efectos a un preset hace variaciones interesantes en ellos.
El teclado es buena opcion para aquellos quienes buscan presets "finos" y no tan usados. Sin embargo, creo que podria ir acompa?ado por otro workstation de diferente marca para complementar un concierto.
El XP60 presenta respuesta aceptable al aftertouch, muy util en los organos electricos.

Actualmente mi equipo de teclados lo conforman Roland XP60, Korg Trinity Plus, Yamaha Motif 7 y Korg Triton. Y en cada uno de ellos uso determinados sonidos. En el XP60 uso los strings, los pianos y algunos organos electricos.

No he tenido la necesidad de acudir al centro de servicio especializado porque el sinte esta muy bien cuidado. La memoria de User esta expandida y por el momento mi XP60 no necesita ser actualizado (Upgrade). La unica vez que lo abri fue para darle una revision general a las teclas y las placas de circuitos.

Si vendiera mi Roland XP60 probablemente compraria un Fantom X6, aunque creo que por el momento no lo vendere. Lo presets son justo lo que necesito para la musica que hago. Tengo un a?o trabajando con el XP60 y me quedan muchas cosas por utilizarle.
El Roland XP60 es un teclado muy ligero, y lo mejor de todo es que tiene la calidad de un XP80 en menor tama?o, asi es que es cabeza de serie, mas alla que los XP50, 30 o 10. Antes de comprarlo tenia un Korg X5D, asi es que mejore en el aspecto de teclado-Calidad-Ligero.
Lo que no me gusta es su secuenciador un poco dificil de usar, sin embargo creo que metiendome mas tiempo en el XP60 podre entenderlo.

Okay, years later, I still love my xp60. I bought it used about 5 years ago for $1300 and it is quite the easiest songwriting tool I've ever used. I came from over 5 years of fumbling through the Kurzweil K2000 and the frustration of poking around the clumsy sequencer and annoying sample-loading delays. The presets are very usable, although today's XV, Triton & Motif soundbanks are superior, the groundwork is in there. Within owning it for the first two weeks, it was so ergonomically designed that I wrote between 40-60 eight and sixteen bar cool loops that I still am very proud of. The manual stinks. Editing patches are a little difficult but I have been happy enough using the presets. Have never tried a patch editor with it.

With the 64 voices, I have never run out of voices. The action is Roland, so it's the best. The effects are very easy to pop in and out and assign to multi-timbral channels and the expansion slots (4) make it a wonderful tool. Again, as I stated above, the midi capabilities are extremely deep and the built-in sequencer is the best I've ever worked with. So easy to use, you'll be popping out tunes in the first hours of ownership.

The sound is very usable and I would put it in the category of a realistic general all-around workable tool. The sounds and expansions give it a wide enough span that will cover almost any area of music you're incined to. The effects are very good and quickly usable and adjustable. The action on the board with regards to velocity and aftertouch are as good as you could expect and the two controller sliders on the left are assignable to quite a few parameters. The only problem I have with the sounds are the hi-hats. No matter how exotic or elaborate they design and sample the kits, they continue to use the same hi-hat samples on every drum patch. It's annoying because you want the sounds to vary per song, but if you continue to use the sounds built into the xp60 all the hats will sound the same.

So far, very dependable. No problems.

Never needed to call Customer Support.

Just because the sounds are not as good as what's currently out there, I plan to replace it with the Fantom X6 which I hope is as easy to use if not easier, but with better sounds. But besides that, it is the best keyboard I've ever used in my 20 years of being a Keyboard geek. I wish it had sampling capabilities but back when this was made, it was almost unheard of for the price.

Presets sounds are very good. Piano's, Bass and drums are great and even the strings. I have owned korg N364, and this is much more better presets. Sequencer is also easy to use, though still I'm not yet trying to get deep (e.g. editing). Editing patches is also easy almost same as korg n364.

64 polyphony is enough for me. Keyboard action is really great, you can feel the weighted keys. Effects are not so many but many of them are useable. I just notice that sustain effect is misssing since this is one of my favorite effects. It has four expansion boards though I'm not planning to add them since I just use this for personal use. Sequencer is very flexible and easy to use. With 16 tracks, again this is enough for me and very easy to use.

Pianos are very realistic. Also bass, strings, and drums are very good. It works well for any type of music. Onboard effects are fine. I really like the sounds, it is much more better than I have before(korg n364). Velocity and aftertouch is also good.

I can really depend on it, This is my ultimate machine!!! I can do a lot on these keyboard. It is really very powerful and very easy to use.

No comment for the moment.

If this were lost or stolen, I will definitely buy it again. It is really worth the price I paid. I've been playing for just a few years and I have owned a korg n364, it is much more better than the latter. I love the presets and all of it except the sustain effect is missing, which is my favorite. I've compared this product to the triton Le, the keyboard action is too bad on this one, I've chose this because of the weighted keys and found out it's really good. I've been planning to buy a Korg Trinity, but since it's already out of stock, this was my second choice, and I didnt feel very bad at all as I discover how powerful and reliable this keyboard was.

No problem at all- very logical. Not as fast as say a quasimidi but still easy. All functions are close to hand and real time control does help. I also like the parameter entry wheel- Im not sure if manufacturers put these on anymore- out of vogue.

Really good. The only thing it hasn't got is sample ram and more effects. This does mean that you'd want to have a sampler somewhere if you were using it as a trance/ house synth as 3 effects at once are perhaps not enough. But it really is very in depth. If you bought the whole dance synth thing (as I did)you probably ended up a little disapointed with the very limited capabilities. this kills all those crap synths and I got this for #300! on ebay

Its bloody great! I bought this because I was burgled 4 years ago and lost all my gear. This came up and I thought well for #300, even if its not my thing its no great loss. Its ended up being brilliant. Great for synthy sounds- trance and house sounds are plenty on aftermarket disks and its so much better to spend 300 and get one of these than spend #900 on the synths that are marketed toward the dance market but end up being annoyed that you cant do this or that and outgrowing it quickly. You can sync effects to midi on this too which is useful. The sequencer is well regarded though I havent gone into depth on this yet.

I wouldn't buy a techno card or whatever because you may not be able to get the best from it if you're using the keyboard in multi timbral mode. The sounds are good enough without this- a sampler would be better than a house/dance/techno expansion

This does lack trancy drum sounds for which you could get a sampler (cheap now)

Oh, the LPF is steppy as someone else here noticed. I'd agree with that. Strong though

Someone was saying about the D/A circuitry or whatever- I don't notice little things like that- it makes music fine and thats the main thing for me- I expect people will hear other interference from things Im recording before they hear any anomolies with the XP circuitry- its fine.

Giving its not up to dat Im giving it a 9 as it still sounds really good

Yes fine- parameter wheel is getting abit iffy- they tend to get dirty I think.

Sometimes it gets a bit moody

Dont know

Really pleased. It has something for everyone, this. Its not for sale. dont think that because its not silver, its not good- it is a good synth and Ive owned a few now! I wasn't a roland fan until I actually owned one- I also kept thinking of the fat lad from Grange Hill!!! Well worth a 10

This is great.

Whose stupid idea was it to attach the power cord permanently to the XP-60? Never, never attach the power cords to synths permanently!!! It make the synth a pain to store in the case and causes extra time to set-up on gigs for pro players. Smart pro players will leave all their short power cords attached (male end) to one short multi-socket extension cord. It saves time on your setup and tear down and that is really important when you play for a living.

Whose stupid idea was it to attach the power cord permanently to the XP-60? Never, never attach the power cords to synths permanently!!! It make the synth a pain to store in the case and causes extra time to set-up on gigs for pro players. Smart pro players will leave all their short power cords attached (male end) to one short multi-socket extension cord. It saves time on your setup and tear down and that is really important when you play for a living.

The preset sounds in this keyboard are very useable. The bass sounds especially and all the organ and piano sounds. The drums are from Roland's great sample library. Editing sounds is easy and intuitive on all levels. Also gets great 'analog' type synth tones. The huge display on this keyboard makes editing easier too. The manual is so much easier than some other Japanese manufacturer manuals. Easy to get around in and to find the parameters for all functions. With the supplemental notes the sequencer is the easiest and most powerful I've used in a keyboard. Simple simple simple. And it locks to my VS880 recorder so I don't need a computer for sequencing.

64 note polyphony! The keys feel solid and professional, not 'plastic-y'. Full digital delay and reverb effects. Very high quality effects. Very useable. Can accept 4 Roland expansion boards for up to 40! mb of sounds. The midi synch features are way to numerous to mention. Great arpeggiator, and key/phrase sequencing. Again, with the supplemental notes from Roland, the sequencer is very easy to use.

Roland's sample library of sounds is famous. The XP-60 comes stock with a very wide variety of sounds for use in almost any application. They really covered all the bases with this keyboard. The expansion cards are killer for assing icing to the cake.

This is a pro level keyboard. Steel chasis etc. Very durable. Roland's reputation is awesome for pro level keys. I use it without backup

I've dealt with Roland for about 15 yrs now. They keep getting better in the customer support category. They don't have a 1-800#, but the people who answer the phones know what they're doing and have gotten me out of jams many times.

I would run to get a new XP-60 if I lost this one. It's my main ax. It's worth the money because nothing else is in the same range. I have 3 other keyboards that I mosly use for sounds, the XP-60 is my controller. I use the sequencer on it exclusively. I've played on 2 cd's and working on a 3rd using the XP-60 for 80% of the sounds.
Great keyboard.

i found the rolandxp60 really easy to use once i had figured out how all the different modes were grouped. one of the best things about the xp60 is that it has realtime control over most of the essential parameters, such as transpose,portamento,solo,arpeggio and the ability to turn each of the sixteen individual midi tracks on and off during composition. as there dedicated sliders for volume,attack,decay,filter-cut-off and resonance you can choke or release a sound to your hearts content and even record and re-record your takes.

if i were to buy a keyboard again, i would go straight for a fully loaded xp60 as opposed to the new fantom which loses all the realtime control that the xp6o offers. the only bummer is that the xp does not sample. for this this reason alone the triton sounds ideal for keyboard players who want to do a real time performance where you ,lock up the two sequencers and get the xp to trigger the midi stuff and the triton to trigger all the vocal lines and additonal fx. more details about the feature set. there is a giant display screen which is very intuitive and 'soft intelligent' buttons below the screen for quick navigation. all the dedicated switches,lights and realtime time control via the means already mentioned above plus the modulation and pitch bend joystick are a real strength of the xp60. the floppy drive storage is really really helpful to store both all your sequencer data as well as patch and drum sound data. you can create your own patches in one mode by putting together between one and four single sounds and also create huge performances in another mode which will allow you to stack up upto sixteen different sounds. Bear in mind you get all the flexibility you will need in terms of tweaking individual sounds to mix well with others in sound patching situation. things like crossfade,volume,keyboard response,panning,effects,synth parameters..you get the idea. the sequencer is just fantastic. i can't praise it enough. i use it all the time at the begining of every session before exporting all my ideas into logic for further perfection. what's more you can control all your parameters in the xp and in logic you can see all the right faders moving in real time. things like the mixer panel faders and the midi pots in logic for panning,effects and attack,decay,resonance and filter-cut-off. so when it comes to automating things in logic, the xp60 will prove to be a worthwhile investment just for all the realtime automated stuff that you can do in logic. my friends who use cubase can only dream of these facilities. one cool feature is how the extremely well specified arpeggiator can be used in real time to create drum rolls on the fly by just holding down a snare note and then flicking from 16th note to 32nd note in realtime while recording in logic. bear in mind this is only an example. the arpeggiator comes with many fantastic templates for a variety of different sounds. there are two sequencer modes. song which is linear and pattern which can be used as nonlinear or groove based. both are extremely well specified, there is one level of undo for all sequencer operation and it goes without saying that there is a real time and step time mode for the input of sequencer notes. there is also a clever facility through which while you are recording say a four bar sequence of some sort, you want to delete certain notes and re-record them without coming out of record mode. enter the rehearsal and erase mode. both these clever functions are easily accessed from the display panel. there is also a rps mode which stands for realtime phrase sequencing. here you can assign pre-recorded midi sequences to any key on the keyboard and even specify the trigger mode such as 'once only,loop,touch based' etc just as you would do on a well specified sampler. these movements or performances can then be recorded back into either of the sequencers that is 'song' or 'pattern'. it's all very easy and great fun and you'll see what i mean when you take this machine for a spin. you can also edit individual events offline in the microedit mode. quantise can be applied in real time or offline. the range of options for quantise are in three modes, groove, swing and shuffle. again there are loads of preset templates for each option. you can also create and store your own templates. next up is the effects section. there are three busses in all and in a multi-timbral mode each sound can have it's own individual effect setting

as i use my xp mainly for contemporary pop music, i can proudly say that the xp60 is my only source of hard-ware sounds. all my other sounds come from the exs24 softsampler. the range and quality of the roland sounds is staggering apart from the orchestral presets. still if that's what you need then you should get the orchestral expansion board. bear in mind that the xp only delivers 64voice polyphony. having said that, the sound themselves are truly 'full-phat' and will fill the mix space very graciously. the types of sounds that my set-up with all the expansion cards excels at are, house,techno,hip-hop,rnb,garage,dnb,industrial,rave,oriental,indian,japanese and all the new agey etheral stuff. don't forget all the vintage stuff tb303,808,909 and acid stuff is all right here. the combination of high quality sounds, fantastic keyboard action and the added bonus of aftertouch and velocity reponsiveness make the playing experience truly fulfilling for synth-type keyboard players.

the machine has frozen on me a few times during programming but only due to my own faults. the way i have caused this to happen is by multi-commanding it to do too many tasks all too quickly! but that's more to do with how well i know the xp60. even when this does happen, if you leave it for a rather long time, it will usually sort itself out. question is when you are in the middle of a session, have you got ten minutes to spare? still this beast is highly reliable and i can't even remember when was the last time that i caused it to freeze!!

you won't need it if you know what you are doing. i have called roland uk a few times with certain questions and they have been reliable and helpful. there's a guy called wayne over there who is top for the job. if no one else helps you try and get him on the line. oh and he's got a fit girl friend too! i only know because i saw his picture in the roland magazine after having spoken to him over the phone and then saw him at music industry exhibition at wembley where he was manning the roland area. see, techie guys and their girlfriends can get famous too! if all else fails, get the video tutorial. this can be quite helpful. that is if you haven't got a short attention span. i have!

i would definately buy it again and again. infact if i had the money, i would buy two. i hav been playing keyboards since i was 9 and i am 26 now. i have no other keyboards but in the past i have owned and played yamaha keyboards such as the dx100,and various psr and sy series,korg x series such as x3,x5d and n364, and various roland synths and home keyboards. my only wish for this machine was that at some point during it's marketing life it was given the ability to record and playback samples from an onboard flash memory chip. if roland don't do well with the fantom which they won't, after that completely justified review in 'sound on sound' magazine feb 2002, they can always repackage the xp60 by adding more outputs, polyphony, more sounds,change the expansion slot criteria to both srjv80 amd srx compatibility providing users can install the same type of sounds from either type of board,and add more effect busses, keep the fantom display, and add usb compatibilty for the transfer of sounds and other data. this type of machine will sell and sell and sell. i would certainly buy one even if that means that i have to take out a loan!