HONEST OPINION OF THE ROLAND FA-07

[scottWOLF_00]

Received an FA-07 , The keyboard feel is nice, good weight, but honestly the only good sounds are the organs and pianos. Also the newer synth sounds are excellent in the FA. However, horns are very buzzy and its hard to even layer 2 or more horns to get that full band effect. The strings are ok, but are not natural sounding. Choirs and voices are not good. I play mostly R&B and 70s and 80s top forty. This is not the keyboard for this kind of music. I should have done more research, I sent it back in exchange for a a little more expensive Kurzweil PC4-7. I have read some bugs exist in the KUrzweil, but I know a guy who has one and he loves it. He says the pads are outstanding and has some pads similar to the old Ensoniq sound.

 

[anotherscott]

The FA-07 gives you a lot of capabilities for the price, but most of the non-synth sounds are from the 20+ year old XV-5080. (The only ones that use their later "SuperNATURAL" tech are the piano, EPs, clav, organ, basses, acoustic guitar, and ensemble strings.) Though there are also freely loadable expansions you can load in, which come from slightly newer SRX cards, which might have given you the more satisfying horns and strings you were after.

Overall, I'd prefer the PC4-7 as well... though it, too, has a mix of newer and older Kurzweil sounds, and similarly has areas where its sounds are stronger or weaker. Overall, I'd say it's more versatile, though. Some of the things I particularly like about the Kurzweil that the FA lacks would be sample memory (for new keyboard-playable sounds), aftertouch, more advanced MIDI functionality, full FM synthesis, and more flexible implementation of seamless sound switching.

 

[Biggles]

You summed it up very well.

I spent hours researching an FA a couple of years ago and then about four hours in store playing an 07. I liked the keybed and the layout and did like the sounds which thinking about it were more akin to Yamaha with harsh brass and strings that were not right but I could not figure out why.

Layering was tried thanks to watching the vids on Roland's channel but getting the balance right was very fiddly.

I decided against an FA for the reasons that Scott outlines.

 

[scottWOLF_00]

Thanks to you all for responding , I am not dissing the Roland, it's a good keyboard. For stage work for newer music it is excellent. But it just wasnt for me. Biggles, you were smart in checking them out in person. Nobody in the Charleston SC area had either one on the showroom floor including Guitar Center