Roland Juno Stage

anyone have any thoughts or experience with this keyboard. and will it allow me to control a roland synth like the XV-5050? My A-90 Roland Controller broke a key and now looks done, although I did email roland to see about repairs.

Almost every keyboard nowadays has midi input/output so you won't have any problem controlling the other one.

I can't say much about the Juno stage since I never played one but I guess
it's a stripped version of the Fantom

I have a Juno Stage and been gigging with it live (nothing else) for almost two years. It's light, sounds good, fits in just about any car and it's reliable.

Your A-90 repair - go to your local music shop and ask who does the repairs. You'll have to pay to ship it to Roland if they are going to do it and if it's just a broken key it's unlikely to be a big job. Hopefully you've a local guy/gal who'll be able to order up a new key and fit it. The A-90 is a good box and is worth getting fixed. If I had an XV-5050 already that's the way I'd go.

The Stage plays well (both for piano stuff and synth/organ). It's a great live gigging keyboard if that's what you're looking for. I use software and VSTs for recording at home - though I sometimes just plug in the Stage and record audio directly - especially if it's a project for someone and there's a deadline issue.

Elwood mentioned a 76 note Kurzweil on another thread that looks good if you are going to purchase something new - worth looking at.

my main concern is the action on the Juno stage. Is it even close to like a piano or is it like a plastic synth? I do plan on getting the A-90 fixed. I actually live about 20 miles from Roland in LA so I plan on taking it in. I took it all apart to see what the problem was and one of the weights broke on the key. I was able to superglue and tape the weight back on for now and it seems rather sturdy. and it looks like the keys are one unit and not individually repaired. as is everything these days. but I still plan on getting it fixed unless it's crazy how much it is. It's a beast to lug around and something much lighter would be nice. I found a Guitar Center with a Juno keyboard about 15 miles from home so I'm going to head down and check it out today.

any other info would be appreciated from anyone out there using it.

By the looks of it - the Juno stage has regular synth action keys - not weighted.

But it's always smart to go and check the keyboard out before buying it

It's semi-weighted (think that's the term). I like it. I can play classical piano pieces on it (and Hanon exercises) and it took very little on my part to adjust. It's also easy to do organ runs and glides and clav funk riffs - all the stuff that's difficult (impossible) on a fully weighted 88 note job.

To samuelson

I tried to "quick reply" twice to your PM but it's not showing in my sent folder. Hope the A-90 repair is a cheap one - and yes it's great here in Scotland (I'm from Ireland originally).