BK-9 Serious Competition?

[Reuben]

Rolands BK-9 looks to be a serious competitor?
http://www.rolandconnect.com/product.php?p=bk-9&l=en-US
Composite Video Out, ipad connectivity, 76 keys, very good. You would have to think that Tyros is now dead.
On the downside, the buttons look childish. The screens a joke. Doesn't seem to have vocal harmonizer.
Mr. Korg, Can we have ipad connectivity with an OS upgrade and USB dongle? This would put us still ahead of the game.

[Sam CA]

Rolands BK-9 looks to be a serious competitor?
http://www.rolandconnect.com/product.php?p=bk-9&l=en-US
Composite Video Out, ipad connectivity, 76 keys, very good. You would have to think that Tyros is now dead.
On the downside, the buttons look childish. The screens a joke. Doesn't seem to have vocal harmonizer.
Mr. Korg, Can we have ipod connectivity with an OS upgrade and USB dongle? This would put us still ahead of the game.

Those are some nice features. Maybe Screens are not that bad. I don't know, gotta see it in person. Korg's vocal harmonizer is not that good either. In fact I prefer a keyboard that is just a keyboard. You can always buy the real standalone vocal harmonizer hardware.

Few questions:

1) Can this keyboard handle multiple time signature per style like Korg? Tyros can't do it. That's a deal breaker for me right there.

2) Can you create styles in a DAW for this keyboard?

3) Guitar mode or anything comparable?

[Asena]

here is Bigg Limitation,Couse NO SAMPLING!!!!


2013 No sample Not eben 4 MB,s hahhaah Fooooolllll

[Yatrix]

Well, yes, there is no sampling feature in BK-9 and not so many parameters for sound engineering like in Korg's engines.
And we know there are a lot of guys here who like to load user sounds or play around with hundreds of parameters, but practically that is so time consuming, samples are not always sounding as goog as planned and all these technical activities are drawing away from music, so if keyboard allready contains decent factory sounds then absence of these features are not so crytical (in my opinion).

Anyway, for all of us as consumers that is very-very good news that Roland has manufactured device comparable to Korg. Now we have chance to choose the one which better suits our musical needs.
Wish Yamaha to introduce something fresh as well....

[Thoraldus]

160 x 160 pixel displays? - FAIL!

[Asena]

YAMAHA WILL BLOW OUR MIND I THINK!

ZEUS IS COMING THEY SAY!

[karmathanever]

ZEUS IS COMING THEY SAY!

Who is "THEY"?
...and where do "THEY" say it
...and where are the specs/pictures....
If you are correct, I so hope that Yamaha created a new keyboard and totally ditched the Tyros OS

YAMAHA WILL BLOW OUR MIND I THINK!

...and most most most definitely blow our bank balance....

(By the way, "wiki" says:- Zeus is "Son of Kronos" )

Roland BK9
Personally I can't see this coming close as a competitor.
I have always liked Roland gear from the days of the innovative and revolutionary E20/E30 which were based on the classic Roland M32 module (analog).
Those keyboards (I had both of them) knocked Yamaha PSRs off the shelf.
I still use some of those E20 brilliant styles on my PA3X today.
G70 was a huge let-down for Roland - bit like Audya - too many problems and bad reviews.

So BK9 to me looks like a very acceptable "backing" keyboard for singer/guitarist/accordionist one-man bands and certainly looks more pro than the grossly overpriced T4.
I will check it out if ever they reach Australia - however the price is excessive already and I am sure it will climb if sold here - I bought my Kronos for less and my PA3X for only $900 more (this is based on what I have read so far)

Oh well I am sure we will hear from a BK-9 owner soon enough - will be interesting.
Roland definitely need to improve the BK9 demos if they are serious about competition.

Cheers

Pete

[Asena]

HELLO KARMA, Belive me , it,s coming , And it,s GOD , my best friend is a close YAMAHA dealer, So just wait 3 more weeks and we will heave more infos

BK9 Nothing for me, i must heave Sampling.

[Aaad]

If BK-9 does not have the possibility to samplesound, then it's not usable for me.
I read somewhere that Yamaha is bringing out the follower of Tyros 4 at the end of this year.

Aad

[Vex]

Rolands BK-9 looks to be a serious competitor?

Is this a joke? How can it be a competition without "1000000" functions that Korg has?

Maybe it is a competition for people who play arranger keyboard "out of the box" ...

I could live without sampler if all that famous brands (Korg,Yamaha,Roland) give to us good ROM sounds and factory samples. If Korg does not have a sampler it would be disaster. ...

So,Roland is out of competition in every way in my opinion - old ROM with little improvements ( It sounds like G70 to me with fine EQ tuning ) + lack of functionality - no touch screen and like I sad many life saver functions.

[Yatrix]

One informed man wrote on Roland-arrangers.com
http://roland-arranger.com/index.php?op ... n#msg11017

"I write only facts, believe me
I saw and heard BK9, talked to Roland producer...
Even if you read carefully in roland connect there are these words:
"The BK-9 is also equipped for future expansion, with a User Tone area dedicated for upcoming BK-series sound collections."
So there IS a way "

[karmathanever]

OK - we're wondering about the Roland BK-9 offering here in this topic.
Here is an extract from someone who is clearly better informed from the Roland-arranger forum
(http://roland-arranger.com/index.php?op ... n#msg11017)

Read on.... (or click above link)

I am not sure where any of you are getting extra sampled Tones from. I see no mention of this anywhere. The only things you can load in from USB are Styles, SMF's, MP3's and (this is what you are possibly confusing with extra sounds) .Wav audio you can assign to the top 7 keys.

So far, no official mention has been made of whether these imported .WAV files can be synched to tempo or key, whether they can be looped, or what they do. I guess we'll have to wait for the manual (not out yet).

But there is NO way to increase the number of samples in the BK. Yes, you can EDIT the factory sounds (and this is where they would become User Tones, which is what may be confusing some of you), but Roland even dropped the SRX slots, so completely new keyboard sounds are right out, IMO.

There's no mention of Guitar Mode (that's long gone, IMO) and was NEVER used in style mode. You had to fix the Guitar Mode's output as basic MIDI, and then the style engine treated it as a regular Part. There never was any way to get the G/E series to play correct guitar voicings in Style Mode. Guitar Mode was a realtime ONLY feature. Yet another great idea by Roland, dropped before it was perfected (or even useful).

The MIDI sequencer is back, but so far, I don't see a simple 'Recorder' for MIDI like the G/E series. You can capture a performance fully in audio, but unless it is hidden in menus, I don't see the old 'Recorder'... TBH, I had little use for the full 16-track sequencer. It will never be as powerful or as easy to use as a DAW like Cubase, but full style transmission over either USB or MIDI never gave as good, tight timing results as using the G70's MIDI Recorder. My main workflow is still to do a basic style capture in the G70, then save the SMF and go to town on it in Cubase. Let us hope Roland haven't forgotten this.

I am VERY concerned about the wording on the new 'Chord Looper' feature.
Quote
The convenient Chord Loop feature instantly captures rhythm backings as WAV audio loops, and also makes it simple to build chord sequences from rhythms to use for composing in the sequencer.
This implies it merely records the AUDIO of the loop, and plays it back. This is COMPLETELY different toa proper chord SEQUENCER, where only the chords you play get captured, and you can still change Variation, Fills, Breaks, Style, Tempo, basically anything BUT the chord in real time while the chords continue to play. This is a HUGE misstep by Roland if it IS audio only!

I still don't see where anyone gets off comparing this to the old Roland TOTL. This is, if you like, a seriously beefed up E60, but still a pale shadow of the G70. Only 2 UPR Parts, and a LWR/M.Bass choice, compared to the six active Parts on the G70... No G70 keybed that Roland have been using for the TOTL since the G800/G1000/VA76/G70, with not much weight (seems a shame to have those lovely SuperNatural piano sounds, and a lightweight plastic keybed!) and no aftertouch (mind you, aftertouch had been made FAR less complex and useful after the G1000).

Personally, I am happy with no VH. Better none than a bad one! G70 was maybe OK, but no current arranger's VH is anywhere close to even modestly priced standalones, nowadays. But the mike in and effects (hope there's a nice tailored to vocals 'soft' compressor like an LA2A) is very handy.

500 'new' tones, and the 22 SuperNatural tones gets me interested, but I think I still would prefer less and an SRX slot. At least that way you can pick and choose what you need to add on.

I sincerely hope that Roland listened to the G70/E80 owners, and have made the overdrive on the B3 sim PRE-FADER! There was no way to get a realistic growl on the G70's VK section without it being overwhelmingly loud! And, I am going to miss the additional outs from the G70. Firstly, if you are doing a LH bass gig, putting the bass to the separate outs and going into a bass amp was the ultimate in stage reality (if playing with a live band), and, although the G70 could not do this, it would have been nice to route the VK Organ section off to a real Leslie!

I really feel that the BK-9 is Roland's move back into the middle of the line arranger market. It strikes me as a competitor to the S950... in fact, if Yamaha hadn't got their head shoved up that dark place so badly and actually made a 76 key PSR S950, this would be priced and aimed at basically the same demographic. Let us hope that the BK9 does well. Perhaps if it meets with success, Roland may get adventurous, and have another REAL crack at the TOTL market, and make something to compare and compete with the PA3x or the T4.

This isn't it, yet...

[Rob Sherratt]

You are incorrect about the BK-9 sound expansion and sample capability. I quote from Roland's web site:

The BK-9 is also equipped for future expansion, with a User Tone area dedicated for upcoming BK-series sound collections.

http://www.rolandus.com/products/details/1274/459

It is not advertised as a sampler, that is true, but is has the capability to add new sounds including samples into this "User Tone" memory area. It may be that this is only for use by Roland, but we will see.

[AntonySharmman]

I believe that an experienced arranger (backing) keyboard user can easily distinguish the real sound magnitude
of factory library in a few played notes of official demos !

As Vex said , it's a kind of joke to compare Pa3X with BK-9 at any dimension !
Even BK-9 compared with Pa600 is out of question , at least Pa600 has a PCM player and can load custom Sets from
Pa samplers , on the contrary BK-9 is just internal wave Rom or Card Rom wave reader that Roland will "decide" ,
as workstations since 90's , in an updated version with some today's but limited features.
The only arranger that can dare to follow Pa3X in "highway" is Tyros 4 & Yamaha !

[Rob Sherratt]

OK - we're wondering about the Roland BK-9 offering here in this topic. Here is an extract from someone who is clearly better informed from the Roland-arranger forum
(http://roland-arranger.com/index.php?op ... n#msg11017)

I am not sure where any of you are getting extra sampled Tones from. I see no mention of this anywhere.

Hi Pete,

Even forum admins get it wrong some times Diki later on in the same thread published a retraction, and Deja who has played the BK-9 and spoken at length with a Roland dealer, said:

Hey Diki, no problem. It is kinda vague. They didnt want to reveal how much ram it is cose they say that its irrelevant information to us. They explained that it isn't same as regular sempler ram because they use specially compression (but less lost) when they do that expansions. They only say that there is plenty room. About user tones (from roms) there are no other way but to store performances. But they will soon present easier way to select performances and if you dont want to recall rhythm with tone, there is the way to quickly "lock" rhythm (by pressing and holding any of rhythm buttons).

Sorry to say it, but my Pa2x sale proceeds are going towards a BK-9, not a Pa3x. The BK-9 has many useful and free applications including a sound and style manager running on the iPad. This solves the main problem I have had with Korg arrangers. I expect I will keep my M3-88 as a master keyboard MIDI'd to the BK-9 for when I play as a pianist at home, but when gigging I think the BK-9 with wired connection to my iPad will suit me fine.

Basically, the lack of external software support for the Korg Pa-series sucks by comparison with Roland! I invite Korg to respond on this thread if you disagree.

Regards,
Rob