| I have the last sale-priced XP10 at Daddy's Nashua on layaway, which gives me
a month to look around. So far, everything I have checked into is either not
as good in some respect (often the keyboard touch is poor even if the sound
quality is good, for example on a new a Yamaha) or way out of my price range.
I also purchased a cheapie used Roland consumer type model that had an
unusually good touch and octave shift. It has MIDI but no programming. A good
knock around keyboard that could also be a reasonable controller.
Alex
[Posted by WWW Notes gateway]
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| Bought the XP-10 last week and played around with it quite a bit. Daddy's has
a 7 day return policy and I have decided to keep the unit.
For those of us who only do synth music at home with an occasional gig for
friends and can't justify spending thousands on toys, the XP-10 is a nice
follow-on to the lower end JV series. It has a fixed set of wave tables (the
biggest limitation), but a fair amount of tailoring you can do (they call
programming). I compared it directly with a used D-50 and the 10-year
technology advances gave the nod to the XP-10. Unfortunately the display is
not backlit, so you need a light (although I heard on the web that the latest
units Roland is shipping apparently now are backlit).
For one who is not jaded by 2K-4K keyboards, some of the sounds are pretty
spectacular. The thing is lightweight and easily carted over to my main
computer. It has a serial interface (which I have yet to use) and is supposed
to come with $600 in sequencing (FreeStyle) and librarian (Unisyn) software
from Roland (still checking into this).
The arpeggiator, which is over-rated (because it can't really be
programmed--only tailored), does have a guitar strum which I was able to
adjust to a quite convincing 12-string sound with a split keyboard (LH strum,
RH pick). Other options also seem promising.
But the important point is that with this keyboard, I can quickly enough reach
fine enough sounds that as a musician I stop tinkering and get involved in the
music. The thing stops being a computer and becomes an instrument.
Another bonus: The Roland EM303 which I picked up for $150 used (a steal)
shares the same basic tone architecture with the XP-10. So I can split both
keyboards and play four patches at once as one might do in a quartet. When I
select a tone on the EM303 (say nylon guitar), midi channel 4 shows "Nylon
guitar" on the XP-10. Nice.
Summary: an inexpensive (I paid low $600s) keyboard with very nice sounds,
computer interface, lightweight enough to pop over to a kitchen table if you'd
like. It's good enough that if you bought an XP-50 or XP-80, you might still
choose to keep the XP-10 to cart up to the summer home.
And if you know anyone looking for a great consumer keyboard that has some
sounds that rival Roland professional units, tell them to search for a used
EM303!
Alex
[Posted by WWW Notes gateway]
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