Roland Go Keys5/Go Keys3 thoughts

[richkeys]

While Korg products are current topics on the forum here, I thought I would bring up another Yamaha competitor, Roland. They launched the Go:Keys5 and Go:Keys3 back in March. Below YTube links give an idea of the pianos and overall features. This product should not be confused with the older Go:Keys product.

https://youtu.be/DLTm-En7eZ4?si=mipk9kDE5tNlkhgl

https://youtu.be/2SCVl8E8kOs?si=Wo4H0K7kWRkNSfiX

A few non-tech observations:

-it is an arranger keyboard with styles and what Roland calls Scenes, which saves sounds and styles and effect settings similar to Registrations

-this is budget priced and seems to compete with Yamaha's E series. While the screen is small, navigation seems easier than the Yamaha function button on my E373

-keys are piano style but not weighted. One review says they have been stiffened to feel more premium, another says you can play expressively on them but it is certainly not an option for pianists

-it has Roland Cloud voice & style expandability, which Roland says keeps music fresh & modern. The selection of genres in their cloud app seems pretty expansive. You can import the expansion content with a wireless adaptor that communicates with your phone/tablet OR load them in by USB stick. But I cannot find out how much user memory is in there to be able to store all this content....

While I don't see this replacing my SX900, I do think it possibly can replace my E373. I wonder if Yamaha would consider this kind of expansion platform for its arranger keyboards.

Rich

[BogdanH]

hmm... It's about 500€ and at least visually, it doesn't justify the price for me... and specifications also isn't something to write about -just my opinion.
If I would be after entry level keyboard, then I would definitely prefer PSR-E473 for 380€(!).

Bogdan

[richkeys]

The GoKeys3 is the cheaper model, only difference is weaker internal speakers and no dedicated stereo outs. At this price level, cost & appearance is less of an issue for me. It's more about can this be a keyboard that I can get some different enjoyment out of when I don't want to turn on the SX. So I guess it depends on what we are looking to do with it and what specs we are looking for. The Roland voice & style cloud expansion should not be overlooked for those that like expansion, assuming the ecosystem works well. Polyphony on the Roland is 128.

I have not played the E473. The cheaper E373 keybed is just horrible. I would guess the E473 is the same. The Roland Go keybeds might be better but I just don't know. The Roland product does look like a toy. And as mentioned before, the U/I on the E series is pretty awful. I would not buy an E473 based on my experience with the 373.

Rich

[Toril S]

I have a Casiotone, very small and handy. And I like the GoKeys too. The Yamahas are bulky and heavy. BUT, the Yamaha styles are tons and tons better, that is my persomal opinion. I believe young people will like Roland and Casio, the styles may be more modern. But in my opinion they lack life and luster! They sound kind of dead. But I really wish Yamaha would come up with something lighter. Even the E keyboards are bulky, and the screen is they have is terrible. As for the keys, the Casio is fine, and so is the Roland GoKeys. But I like synth action keys. I am not really a pianist. The green GoKyes 5 is beautiful, I felt it calling to me, but I already have too many instruments!

[Amwilburn]

I've not tried the new ones; the original Roland Go Keys was really cool! Best semi weighted keys I've ever tried on a 61 key, super compact and slim, and the sounds were really good.

However, the old one was marketed as an arranger and it really wasn't (it was a 4 part arpeggiate looper, so no fill ins, etc) and the phrases were sometimes coded odd; anything that was basically a chord would translate just fine changing chords, but they had phrases and basslines that were very melodic that would *not* work properly between minor and major. But it was cool overall, that was a minor gripe. The new ones looks like they're *actually* an arranger now (with 4 parts, and hopefully fills and intros/endings). There was also no way to download styles in the old one (since they weren't actually styles) but the new one can, so that's also quite cool.

The original lacked variety compared to the Yamahas, but the slim form and superior keys and sound made up for it. But with the Gokeys 3 and 5? If nothing else they seem more modern than say the E series. I look forward to bringing one in and trying it out (they've *just* arrived at our warehouse)

Mark

[SciNote]

I'm glad someone brought this subject up, because I'm curious about what other people think of these keyboards.  Jeremy See's video came up as a suggestion on my phone, so I checked it out.  At first glance, these keyboards seem very impressive... Over 1100 sounds using Roland's pro sound engine, a slew of sound-shaping options including filter, an attack-decay-release envelope generator, and a ton of digital effects, a wide range of styles, and the ability to load a wide range of additional sounds and styles.  So, I downloaded the manual to check out the details, and unless I am missing something, there are some serious short-comings...

Now, if I am wrong about anything I am saying here, please let me know.  I am only going by what I saw in the downloaded manual, and maybe I missed something.

First of all, as has been mentioned, it uses "scenes", which is equivalent to a registration on the PSR keyboards, and there can be an impressive 256 of them -- eight times that of the PSR-E473!  But unless I missed something, there are no direct-access buttons to get to these scenes!  You have to go into a scenes menu, and then you can only access a particular scene by turning a knob!  Carefully turning a knob to choose between 256 selections?  Seems like it would be pretty cumbersome to do between different parts of a song, like between a verse and a chorus...

But even if you could easily change between scene selections, there does not seem to be any way to "freeze" the style/accompaniment between scenes!  This means, as far as I can tell, that each scene has it's own style and tempo, so that switching scenes in the middle of a song will abruptly change the style and tempo for the accompaniment -- unless you set up more than one song-specific scene to provide the same style and tempo (and even then, I do not know if simply the act of changing scenes will interrupt the playback of the style or not).  So, I guess Roland expects that a person will only use just one sound set-up of the keyboard for an entire song?  Again, unless I'm missing something, this is what it looks like.  There is the ability to save five of your favorite sounds for immediate access, but this appears to just be for sounds -- not entire scenes.

On my PSR-E433, as well as on many of its successors, you can save a registration without a style logged to it, so that you can freely switch between these registrations without changing the style being played or its tempo.  And I'm pretty sure that the E473 has a dedicated freeze function for this purpose.  I know when I'm playing songs on my keyboard, I use multiple registrations to change the sound through a song, and I almost never want the style and/or tempo to change when I do this.

Another thing that I personally don't like is the lack of a numeric keypad.  I know that it seems like there is an industry movement away from numeric keypads on these keyboards, and that perhaps they are seen as more of an entry-level feature.  But to me, a numeric keypad is very convenient.  When I play a song and know that I want a tempo of, say, 134 beats per minute, on my keyboard, I can just tap the tempo button, type in "134", and there it is!  No need to carefully scroll with a knob to zero in on the tempo that I want.  And it's the same with sound or style selections.  As I've learned my keyboard over the years, I already know the sound and style numbers that I often use, and to me, it's easier to just type in the numeric selection, rather than have to select a category, and then scroll through selections within a category.  And of course, when searching for something new, my E433 and its successors do allow the ability to easily scroll through the list of sounds as well, if desired.

Also, there is no multi-track recording on board.  This may not be a big deal to many people, especially since multi-track recording can easily be done on a computer.  But I know on my E433, it's nice to get a song started by using its onboard multi-track sequencer, and then when I'm done there, I record that entire song to Audacity, and then add additional tracks and effects using Audacity, if desired.

Again, someone let me know if I missed something.  But so far, to me, it's like Roland set up all of these great sounds, styles, and features, but then put a big wall between all of this and the user, and then only provided a 6-inch hole in the wall for the user to reach through and try and access all of this capability.  I will say that Casio did something similar with their newer CT-keyboards, where there are just four function "soft keys", and they can either be for registrations, or for style control (start, stop, fill-in, etc), but that you cannot have the complete set of both registration and style controls available at once -- as far as I know.

By the way, someone said that the only difference between the GoKeys 3 and GoKeys 5 is the better on-board speaker system and additional output jacks, but the GoKeys 5 also includes a mic input, and I believe that can be used for harmonizing and maybe even some basic vocoder effects.

[richkeys]

SciNote,

Good comments. It looks like Roland didn't think everything through on the U/I, or more likely because it's just a budget keyboard with a small screen and a knob.

Were you able to determine how much user memory is in these? The cloud expansion voices & styles feature is sort of useless if there's not a lot of internal space for them.

Rich

[SciNote]

SciNote,

Good comments. It looks like Roland didn't think everything through on the U/I, or more likely because it's just a budget keyboard with a small screen and a knob.

Were you able to determine how much user memory is in these? The cloud expansion voices & styles feature is sort of useless if there's not a lot of internal space for them.

Rich

I just took another look at the manual, and I could not find any reference to the amount of onboard memory or storage or the number of additional styles or sounds that can be loaded at once.  This may take a little more digging.

[pjd]

As far as the Song Recorder is concerned, Kraft Music claim: Proprietary MIDI format (99 songs, Approx. 70,000 notes memory per song).

I wouldn't expect too much from a budget keyboard...

I liked the sound of the original GO:KEYS. I just couldn't hack the touch and one of the keys was defective. I returned it. Roland did a nice job upgrading from the original gen.

Take care -- pj

https://sandsoftwaresound.net/roland-gokeys-first-impressions/
https://sandsoftwaresound.net/roland-gokeys-is-gonekeys/

[JohnS (Ugawoga)]

Hi
I have just got the Arturia essential 49 keyboard and it is fantastic
Being a usb keyboard it compliments all Arturia software and cubase 13.
It is a controller keyboard and loads of functions can be assigned to it.
Mapped to Cubase 13 for Arturia software and it can conrol third party software.
9 Sliders and 9 knobs. Drumpads, Arpeggiator and a lot more.
If you work with a Daw like Cubase you cannot go wrong for £166 Thomann.
The keybed is good and full size keys.
Lay a Genos2 styletrack down and you can use as much software as you like with the Genos.
Another great bargain i saw was from Native instruments. Guitar strum for £49.
Lay down a drum track and a strum track and get musical ideas flowing.
Cubase 13 is great for Genos and software and has a great chord feature.
Once you get your head around Cubase 13 ,sky is the limit.
The trouble is my ears are waxed up at the moment and it is a miserable feeling.
Out with the otex or a visit to the doc for a syringing

All the best
john

[EileenL]

You'll be lucky John if your Doctor dose your ears. We now have to go to the Chemist
and pay around £60 an ear.

[JohnS (Ugawoga)]

Hi Eileen

Thinking of you at this difficult time.
You are an inspiration to us all here on the forums.
Otex is quite a strange feeling as when you put 5 drops in, it sounds like chips frying breaking up the wax.
It does work though . Hope to escape £60 an ear
I still practice every day and now have just started to do some work in Cubase and have a bash at creating my own music.

All the Best John

[Amwilburn]

Well, first impressions are mixed: Still a nice key feel like before (very springy), but I don't recall the black keys being this shallow: they seem a full 3mm less tall (sticking up above the white keys) than usual. Very sleek, attractive case (I put the Gokeys3 Blue on display), great piano & EP sounds, usable strings, fantastic organs and synths, and pretty good electric guitar. But I don't like only having voice categories for Piano, EP, Strings, Synth and other, and the rest you have to spin a knob.

Yes, these are finally styles (and very modern contemporary ones at that) with 4 variations, 1 intro 1 ending (but no dedicated buttons for those, you have to go into 'arranger' mode and use the on screen buttons to activate, which makes it awkward to switch anything else, like the main voice

Absolutely baffling choice that the default is chord sequence (you can't play chords, until you turn the chord sequencer off every time, *then* it becomes an arranger).

The feature I reallly wanted to try was the Roland Cloud downloading, etc. You *do* have to pay a (lifetime) subscription fee to access all the stuff, but there is free content too. But that was rendered moot because it's an app you have to install (and it used to work on my work) but no longer!

Had to re-download it, and it installer won't run :/

As far as I can tell, my work pc meets all the requirements (Windows 10, 4GB ram minimum, etc) https://www.roland.com/us/products/rc_roland_cloud_manager/specifications/

But it simply fails when installing. "Code execution cannot proceed because MSVCP140_1.dll was not found" and also "VCRUNTIME140_1.dll was not found". But neither of those is included in the Cloud manager download...?

But I'm pretty sure there's no sample ram, some roland keyboards have downloadable patches, some only have downloadable styles, and this seems to fall into the latter category (although I'm judging from screenshots, as the current version of the installer simply won't... install)

Mark

[BogdanH]

hi Mark,
That "VCRUNTIME140_1.dll was not found" usually means that you have no VC++ libraries installed (or you have too old version installed).
Try to install the latest which you can find here.

Bogdan

[Amwilburn]

Thanks Bogdan!

Why on earth do I need C/C++ to run a piece of Roland software...? What a weird choice on their part (YEM, MEgavoice Enhancer, and MidiToStyle all just installed...!)

Mark

[SciNote]

Well, first impressions are mixed: .....

Mark

Now that you can get your hands on one, I am curious as to whether what I surmised by reading the manual is correct.  Mainly...

Are there really no direct ways to get to specific scenes?  Do you really have to push a button and turn a knob to pick through 256 selections?

Is there really no way to freeze the arranger accompaniment style when going from one scene to another?


If this is the case -- with both the above questions -- then how does Roland expect the keyboard to be used live?  Roland has been making synths for, what, 50 years?  Surely, they must know that people want to change sounds during playing a song without abruptly changing the style.

And as you confirmed, you get a whopping five category choices for sounds (piano, electric piano, etc.), then have to turn a knob -- and this is how you're supposed to choose from over 1100 sounds?

Some people will say not to expect much from a low-priced keyboard, but this keyboard (GoKeys 3) is only slightly less expensive than the PSR-E473, and the E473 has dedicated registration buttons, dedicated style buttons, and more categories of sounds and more flexibility when selecting a sound/tone.  And not only does the E473 have many of the effects and sound-shaping features of the GoKeys 3 and 5, but it also includes live-control knobs (albeit with those knobs placed in a horrible position toward the back edge of the keyboard).

I have nothing against Roland -- in fact, I use a small Roland synth along with my E433 when playing live.  And these new GoKeys boards really seem to have great sound.  But then, they seem to make the keyboard difficult to use for live performances, unless used with at least one other keyboard.

One other thing... The manual mentioned that five tones can be stored and brought up quickly using -- I think -- the category buttons, but it did not go into depth about this feature.  So my questions here are...

When these tones are stored, does the keyboard store them with any sound-editing you've done, such as filter, envelope, and effects?  Or does it just store the basic sound?

Can dual/split tones be stored?  Or just single tones.

Can each scene have its own set of five stored tones?  Or is that a global feature that is common no matter what scene you're using?

If it can store the tones with sound edits, and if each scene can have its own set of five stored tones, then that would make live playing a little more realistic -- especially if dual and/or split settings can be stored in these tone memories.  Those would be much like sound registrations, in that case.

[BogdanH]

The GoKeys3 is the cheaper model, only difference is weaker internal speakers..
...... Polyphony on the Roland is 128.
...

-weaker than in GoKeys5, which has two tiny 5cm (2") speakers?
-polyphony is not mentioned in Roland GoKeys5 specifications.

I have no idea how GoKeys5 sounds.. it obviously sounds. 128x64 display (do smaller even exist?) and extremely simplistic interface suitable for children. Let's face it: it's only a modern looking (overpriced) toy.

Just my opinion,
Bogdan

[richkeys]

I'm not really defending the Go Keys 3/5. I thought it looked interesting when I first heard about it. But after doing some further research, it sounds like a half-baked product from Roland. I am hearing you need to delete preinstalled voices to make room for expansions. So much then for their cloud library. But this cloud feature is something Yamaha should do to keep styles & sounds fresh. As far as GoKeys having more modern styles, possibly, but I am happy for now with what I can get with Yamaha. There is also a Roland FP-E50 which is an 88-Key digital piano with arranger functions for $900 USD, but it just seems that Roland is far behind Yamaha and Korg in the arranger keyboard category in terms of U/I and execution. Their Fantom synths have touchscreens but not their arrangers.

Rich

[orangeman]

Roland has done some innovative things, with the ability to interface with a smartphone, and ease of style additions, lots of modern styles, great synth sounds, etc. Fingers crossed that these sell well enough that they get back into making a high end arranger. I agree that the shortcomings of this device are significant, but at least somebody is thinking and trying to bring new things to the arranger space.

[pjd]

-weaker than in GoKeys5, which has two tiny 5cm (2") speakers?
-polyphony is not mentioned in Roland GoKeys5 specifications.

Hi Bogdan --

I don't think anybody at Roland proofread the specs. Reputable on-line retailers are claiming 128 "voice" polyphony. That's on-par with instruments in this price tier.

The speaker specs are truly botched. Both the 3 and 5 have two oval 12 x 6cm speakers. The 5 adds a 5cm passive radiator. Speaker box upgraded?

The new models sound good. As I said, I liked the sound of the original GO:KEYS although I didn't keep it.

Take care -- pj

[pjd]

Why on earth do I need C/C++ to run a piece of Roland software...? What a weird choice on their part (YEM, MEgavoice Enhancer, and MidiToStyle all just installed...!)

Hi Mark --

Gotta put on the software developer hat. Somebody at Roland (or a contractor) botched the install process. If a developer uses C/C++ for development, that C/C++ runtime library is needed. Smart developers figure out how to hide this phase of the installation.

Windows C/C++ is really picky above versions and digital signing, too. Our team had to sweat all of this stuff for our Windows-based tool. (Linux was a different nightmare... )

Glad to be retired   -- pj

[Amwilburn]

But this cloud feature is something Yamaha should do to keep styles & sounds fresh.
*snip*

There is also a Roland FP-E50 which is an 88-Key digital piano with arranger functions for $900 USD, but it just seems that Roland is far behind Yamaha and Korg in the arranger keyboard category in terms of U/I and execution. Their Fantom synths have touchscreens but not their arrangers.

Rich

1: Yamaha already has downloads for PSRe373/473 at the new Yamahamusicsoft site, so they are keeping in fresh with downloadble style packs (currently only latin though). Korg has 10 different packs to download for their EX50 (ANd some packs include new drum samples! THe caveat, is that downloading and installing the packs with samples? seems to corrupt the keyboard's os  and eventually I have to do a factory set after using those packs; using the packs *without* the drum samples seems to work just fine though.

2: I absolutely love the FPe50. Yes the DGX does more (and most of it better; acoustic guitars, choir, and woodwind & brass are far superior on the DGX). BUT: due to the underpowered amplifiers I'd previously griped about, the FPe50 actually *sounds* better in person (as long as you avoid styles with acoustic guitars and choir) because they matched the amps and speakers properly, and it never fraps out at any volume. You can really push the FPe50, and the drums are great! The piano is good (more expressive but less "real" than the DGX due to it being an algorithm model), but it's the drums & bass, and synths, that combined with the superior speakers really give it a lot of punch. The sound chips on the GOKeys 3/5 appear to be the same chipset, so yeah, they sound good, too.

But unlike the Go Keys, the FPe50 actually has a really easy GUI for selecting voices and styles (categories, cursor keys and all). No knob, no knob needed. My 1 complaint (other than the acoustic guitars) is the screen is pretty bad; the even GOkeys have much clearer screens! (and so does the DGX670)


Oh, also it turns out only the GOkeys 5 has any 'expansion' abilities; apparently the 3 doesn't anyway.


Mark

[vbdx66]

Hi everyone,

I think that nobody mentioned what for me is the most interesting feature of these Go:Keys! 3 and 5: a full chord sequencer, which you would usually find only on a Yamaha Genos or SX900, or Korg PA5X or such high-end arrangers.

This chord sequencer seems pretty sophisticated. You can program chord changes down to the beat, which is unheard of in this price segment. You can also specify which style variation each chord will use, etc. You can use inverted chords. And when the sequencer is in playback mode, you can solo on the whole keyboard on top of the sequence. You can also send existing full chord sequences to the Go:Keys! 3/5.

I think that this is a really cool feature for any songwriter.

@pjd, @Scinote, any insights on this?

Regards,

Vinciane

[pjd]

Hello Vinciane --

No real insight, but Roland did a nice job with the chord sequencer, especially for a "budget" keyboard.

I someone would like to try a few of the built-in chord progressions, they might find some here:

https://sandsoftwaresound.net/chord-progressions-for-yamaha-chord-looper/

The new GO:KEYS progressions are hipper than the PSR-E383   -- pj

[vbdx66]

Hi PJ,

The really cool thing is that you can create your own progressions and edit the existing ones.

Regards,

Vinciane