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MGR/Nicola Mayer « Roland RS-5 »
Published on 12/21/03 at 15:00I bought this synth from Sound Control in Glasgow, Scotland in October 2003. I paid £399 for it, with £100 off, since the product was discontinued by Roland and has been superseded by the Roland RS-50. I had been looking for a synth suitable for gigging and that could ease me into composing my own music at home, and the RS-5 seemed to fit the bill.
What drew me to the RS-5 was its its range of functions and sound quality. It has a superb range of sounds at a very competitive price. I found that there was a large gap in price of keyboards that i shopped around for, there was very little in the budget range i was aiming for. With the RS-5 I found the perfect instrument. It has 640 internal tones, 128 can be preset by the user to suit their performance so a very good range of sounds can be achieved. Your most frequently used tones can be stored within the favourite tone bank. In addition it has a decent selection of on-board effects such as the arpeggiator function, chorus and reverb.
The only criticism of the unit i would have is the design of the knob controls. Since they project out from the unit, I can imagine that over months of continual use these could work loose if any bumps or knocks to the keyboard occur. This would be deleterious to accuracy of playing and would ruin the whole look of the synth. The RS-5 does not have integrated speakers, so I use headphones whilst practising and connect to a power amp in the recording studio. This should be also accounted for when considering your synth budget.
Construction and design quality of the unit is almost impeccable. The brushed aluminium finish is easy to wipe clean and surprisingly durable. The design is simple yet functional, not too many buttons and knobs and has a search facility to access tones quickly.
The bottom line is this: if you're looking for a budget synth which looks as good as it sounds look no futher than the RS-5 - it is a great buy.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com
What drew me to the RS-5 was its its range of functions and sound quality. It has a superb range of sounds at a very competitive price. I found that there was a large gap in price of keyboards that i shopped around for, there was very little in the budget range i was aiming for. With the RS-5 I found the perfect instrument. It has 640 internal tones, 128 can be preset by the user to suit their performance so a very good range of sounds can be achieved. Your most frequently used tones can be stored within the favourite tone bank. In addition it has a decent selection of on-board effects such as the arpeggiator function, chorus and reverb.
The only criticism of the unit i would have is the design of the knob controls. Since they project out from the unit, I can imagine that over months of continual use these could work loose if any bumps or knocks to the keyboard occur. This would be deleterious to accuracy of playing and would ruin the whole look of the synth. The RS-5 does not have integrated speakers, so I use headphones whilst practising and connect to a power amp in the recording studio. This should be also accounted for when considering your synth budget.
Construction and design quality of the unit is almost impeccable. The brushed aluminium finish is easy to wipe clean and surprisingly durable. The design is simple yet functional, not too many buttons and knobs and has a search facility to access tones quickly.
The bottom line is this: if you're looking for a budget synth which looks as good as it sounds look no futher than the RS-5 - it is a great buy.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com