Roland Forums

Hi, Long story short. i play bass in a covers band and as our keys player is no longer around and they are in short supply around here i have decided to go back to playing keyboards after a long layoff. i went to a local music shop the other day to try out a Korg M50 and the Roland stage, i was impressed by the Roland, not so by the Korg. But as its a lot of money to shell out for something i'm not 100% sure about i would like a bit of advice.anyone had any experience of the Stage?, as i said its a covers band and apart from this keyboard i'm at a bit of a loss to what other to get, Thanks.

Well I can't offer an opinion on the 'Stage', never seen or used one. It did make me raise an eyebrow when it was released, I would point the bands keyboardist towards one if he was willing to spend money, which he doesn't. (Have to keep fixing his aged Korg M1's)
"Does what it says on the tin?" to paraphrase a well know varnish maker.
The only thing that concerned me when I saw it, it's powered via an adapter. So when you do go out 'Don't forget your adapter' else you will have a short gig.

I would however point out that you will need to remember that you will need to be able to hear it.
So some form of keyboard amp may also be required. If you have decent monitors to could send the keys back though them, better still if you can separate the monitor mixes so your monitor has what you want.

Thanks for the reply. yeah i am slightly worried about the adapter. the one i looked at was slightly under £1100 so i am bit puzzled about that. taking spare leads to gigs is something i have always done, but spare adapters!

well, I have sold them to loads of people over the years, and have yet to have someone come back for a spare adaptor. Incidently, doesn't the M50 use an adaptor too? One guy in particular plays about 10 gigs per week, and he absolutely adores it, particularly as it is so fast for selecting patches. It is absolutely designed for stage use, hence the name, and is a performance keyboard first. It is not a workstation, though for those look at Fantom G series or Juno G. The price reflects the sound quality, key range, 3 year warranty etc etc.

You have certainly done the first thing correctly, you have gone to try them both. Now, are you going to trust your own ears and buy the Roland?

Hey, I'm the guy John just mentioned and he's right. I do love the JUNO stage. Loads of great sounds and just the ones you need for playing live. I liked the KORG too but felt the basic sounds weren't quite right and too much emphasis was placed on the patches with drum patterns and stuff. I use a G70 for auto accompaniment so that doesn't matter to me. As far as the adaptor goes, the main reason I upgraded to the JUNO from a KORG X50 was that the adaptor socket was coming loose AGAIN and it's a difficult fix since the parts are non standard and only available from KORG. The JUNO socket uses standard parts available from Maplins and is easily repairable should it be required (which so far it hasn't). Also, should the adaptor go wrong, (which again mine hasn't) roland stuff tends to be ok with the universal adaptors available from ARGOS or your local 24 hour supermarket. You can't do this with the KORG because of the connection. Don't let the adaptor thing put you off the roland cos it's not a problem really. The KORG one is.

PS. Don't tell John Sweeny I said you don't have to use Roland adaptors , but you really really don't.

Hi Joe,

I see you have tracked me down! Hope you don't mind me mentioning your Juno Stage on the post!

PS. Don't tell John Sweeny I said you don't have to use Roland adaptors , but you really really don't.

I heard you! Just wait until I see you tomorrow! I assume you are still coming in to see me? Just for the benefit of everyone else though.... should you choose to use an adaptor other than the supplied one from Roland (or a direct replacement from Roland) then we would not entertain any warranty claim where damage had been caused by the non-standard power supply

Isn't it called 'magic smoke' by technicians?
When you see 'magic smoke' a strange thing happens to the item it comes from.
Mysteriously it tends to refuse to work any more.