Roland GO:KEYS 3 Questions

[carlosh11934]

After much searching, I have come to the conclusion that the Roland GO:KEYS 3 best serves my needs. One such need is a good sounding keyboard that allows me to play in the back seat of my car whenever we go on long trips. The first question I have is with the instruments. They advertise that it has over 1000 sounds, but I don't see Trumpet or Sax anywhere. I've attached the list of instruments in case you want to look.

The last question I have is, though I suspect I know the answer, how realistic are the instrument? Assuming that you can select a Trumpet or Sax, how is the quality of such instruments? I see the pianos. I assume that they're very good.

Carlos in Texas

 

[TedS]

I think the intent is that you download the sounds from Roland's "cloud."

Also, look carefully at the GO:KEYS 5 and Casio CT-S500. They both offer more flexibility for only a little higher initial cost.

 

[mwtzzz]

Have you played a Go:Keys, Carlos? Yes they are inexpensive but the keybed is very poor. I was in a music store a few months ago and played one. It's the most plasticky, poor-quality keyboard I've ever touched. I would recommend you avoid the Go:Keys - try to get something with a better keybed instead.

 

[nakeyer]

Have you played a Go:Keys, Carlos? Yes they are inexpensive but the keybed is very poor. I was in a music store a few months ago and played one. It's the most plasticky, poor-quality keyboard I've ever touched. I would recommend you avoid the Go:Keys - try to get something with a better keybed instead.

Seems you never touched Yamaha PSR's keys! From the first psr up to Genos their keys are terrible!!

 

[nakeyer]

After much searching, I have come to the conclusion that the Roland GO:KEYS 3 best serves my needs. One such need is a good sounding keyboard that allows me to play in the back seat of my car whenever we go on long trips. The first question I have is with the instruments. They advertise that it has over 1000 sounds, but I don't see Trumpet or Sax anywhere. I've attached the list of instruments in case you want to look.

The last question I have is, though I suspect I know the answer, how realistic are the instrument? Assuming that you can select a Trumpet or Sax, how is the quality of such instruments? I see the pianos. I assume that they're very good.

Carlos in Texas

What about to look at the page #9??

 

[mwtzzz]

Seems you never touched Yamaha PSR's keys! From the first psr up to Genos their keys are terrible!!

No I haven't. I'll be avoiding those as well. I wish I could help the OP with a budget-friendly decent-quality recommendation, but I don't keep up with the myriad of offerings available.

 

[mindfulplayer]

I played a GoKeys3 in store. Piano tone sounded nice for this price level. I prefer it to Yamaha's E series pianos. There are about 11 solo trumpets and about 11 solo sax's shown on the GoKeys voice list. The black keys are shorter in height than normal but for back seat of a car playing this keyboard is an option especially since it takes batteries. But be sure to compare to Yamaha E383 but not sure if that one takes batteries. Also YouTube has a few videos that demo all voices and styles from GoKeys. Styles on it are generally more modern than Yamaha E series styles.

 

[jmemcse]

In Roland we trust.

 

[seanL122]

I bought a Roland Go:Key3 a few months ago, and I absolutely love it. Here is my compact review:

Great things about the Go:Keys3:
The sound source is awesome – it sounds great, very tweakable, good effects.

Lots of good voices – many to choose from. Good Pianos, Electric Pianos, Organs, Clavinet, Brass, Strings, Bass, nothing missing. The sound of this keyboard is the absolute greatest thing: piano and electric piano samples that you will like hearing.

The velocity sensitivity can be set to NINE different sensitivities! This is more important than you might think. This makes the instrument very personal and adaptable. You can make it feel just like you want it to. You can get the Rhodes samples to honk.

The five buttons to change voices on the front panel can be set you your favorites (you will wish there were more), but bluetooth MIDI can be used to change the “upper” voice with a phone or tablet or computer. I am using MIDIDesigner ProX free version on an iPhone, and it works flawlessly (despite of the Go:Key3 limited MIDI implementation). The Bluetooth MIDI pairing is flawless and fast.

The speaker and amp combination works very well: it can get very loud with no ugly distortion. Nice.
The volume control is a slider, as it should be.
It is very small and light. Super portable. Oh yeah, it can run on batteries too. And it was cheap: $350.

Bad Things about the Go:Keys3: (As of firmware v1.10 December 2024)
The action is synth style, and the key-dip is shallow. It is very stiff out of the box, but it loosens up a bit. The action stick-length is short, and the black keys are reduced in height. I fixed the key-dip by removing the 3mm thick felt under the keys, and I installed 1.5mm thick felt (3/4” wide from Amazon). I plan on installing 1-ounce key weights soon (adhesive wheel-balancing weights).

All Voice and pre-set (scene) changes are made through a knob. There are no increment/decrement buttons. So you can’t prepare a bunch of presets and step through them during performance... you have to stop and fiddle with the menus and knobs.

The MIDI implementation is limited, only Channel 4, many features not selectable or settable via MIDI. Bluetooth MIDI works great for selecting the “upper” voice. You can’t use MIDI to select or change the “lower” voice; you can’t use MIDI to create a split or layer; you can’t use MIDI to change pre-set “scenes”; ... so sad.

The split keyboard button is shared with the layer (“dual”) function, so it takes two presses to get out of split mode.

There is no modulation wheel – you can’t play with the Leslie speed. Why include such an awesome effects engine, but omit this major control?

The “record” feature is hilariously bad... you can get it to auto-start, but you can’t get it to stop precisely. You can’t build a loop. This isn’t really a big deal, because your iphone can record and loop and edit and playback in GarageBand or any other primitive DAW.

It boots up slowly... it takes 11 seconds. Somehow this seems like an eternity when you want to play along with a song.


Even with all these bad things, this keyboard will inspire you to play it. I can’t keep my hands off this thing.


Who cares about these things on the Go:Keys3: These things are no big deal.
The Auto-accompaniment Styles... meh. The Chord Pattern sequencer... this should not be confused with a sequencer. The Arpeggiator is okay.

The Roland Cloud... who cares about extra Styles? And I can’t find a new voice online that I really “want” or “must have.” The names of the online voices are remarkably childish and unsearchable.

Yeah, Go:Keys3 has a bunch of drum sounds included. So what.

You get a lot of very good voices, but of course this keyboard comes with a load of lousy unusable voices. The specs claim 1,154 tones and 74 drum kits. Not all of them are winners. I wish I could just delete the bad ones so I wouldn’t have to sift through so many.

Pick your color: white, red, or dark blue. I got the dark blue, and it looks sharp.

Yes, you can pair it via Bluetooth Audio to push music from your phone through the keyboard’s speakers. This is definitely not my preferred play-along setup. Doesn’t everybody already own bluetooth speakers, soundbars, and headphones?

Sean

 

[amwilburn]

Seems you never touched Yamaha PSR's keys! From the first psr up to Genos their keys are terrible!!

I can tell you I have Pa5x, Genos1&2, PSRs970, sx920, PSRe (all of them) and gokeys 3/5 here. Also Korg Nautilus, PA5x, SV73, Yamaha Modx, MX88, etc

I loved the keys on the original gokeys and gopiano, but yeah, the new ones? The black keys are too shallow and take a *lot* of getting used to.

If you think PSRe and s970 and sx and Genos keys feel the same, you might need to lower your blood pressure to return the sensation to your fingertips? (Not being silly: I lost sensation on the right hand half of my body last Feb because my blood pressure spiked to 170/110 simply due to old age! and have been working at lowering it ever since)

Sean L, great mini review! I love the sounds, the partial arranger functions (much more fleshed out than the original GoKeys) and its compactness. I just wish the black keys didn't feel like that :1

Also yes, the Casio CTS keys are fantastic for the price point (and I really like the CTS1 and 400, but above that the sound quality doesn't improve, you just get more sounds) but the PSRs970 keys are *miles* ahead of the korg PA700/1000 keys (BUT the PA1000 has channel aftertouch, and the best on board speakers around). The PSRsx keys feel great... at first, but then get terribly clacky. Genos and Tyros keys are the same awesome semiweighted keys found on the Montage....? (The PA5x semiweighted keys are even a hair better! However the PA5x weighted keys are not as good as the Montage ones and a far cry from their wooden key actions on P515/P525/CP88/YC88/CLP845/875/885, all CVP805/809, *but* better than the actions on the Modx8 and Fantom 08, which are in turn better than the MC88 action, which is in turn a far cry ahead of the painfully slow Korg B2 action

Mark

 

[Tash428]

Hello, everyone!

I have an important question for you keyboard experts about the Go-Keys 3. Please advise:

I have an M-audio oxygen 61 MIDI controller and I use Logic. When I play chords, sometimes I hit the button on the MIDI controller under the "Snapshot" section that says "Advanced" to let a chord ring continuously after I let the keys up. Then I hit the "Advanced" button again so that I am able to play melodies on top of that chord ringing.

I have to know is this possible on the Go-Keys 3? If so, I'm sold.

Thank you all so much!

 

[seanL122]

Uhh... The Go:Keys3 has a sustain pedal input. Just use a sustain pedal.

The Go:Keys3 also responds to the MIDI controller 64 (40Hex) for hold(sustain).
Send it B3H 40H 7FH... to sustain, and
Send it B3H 40H 00H... to stop the sustain, or just send it a note off message.

 

[Tash428]

Uhh... The Go:Keys3 has a sustain pedal input. Just use a sustain pedal.

The Go:Keys3 also responds to the MIDI controller 64 (40Hex) for hold(sustain).
Send it B3H 40H 7FH... to sustain, and
Send it B3H 40H 00H... to stop the sustain, or just send it a note off message.

The sustain pedal wont sustain for a long period of time. The midi controller lets me sustain a chord for as long as I want if I press the Advanced button

 

[seanL122]

That depends on the patch(voice) selected. I just tried it with an Organ voice, and the sustain pedal makes it go on forever.

I also just tried setting up a MIDI sustain button. I sent the MIDI messages noted above, but it does not work. Hmmm... I guess I gotta ask Roland what is going on. I should have an answer by 2026.