Roland Prelude 61-Key Portable Arranger Keyboard

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Roland's 61-key Prelude portable keyboard provides hundreds of high-quality sounds and musical styles and built-in amplification, all at an affordable price.

Prelude(TM) represents Roland's next generation of home-entertainment keyboards, featuring high-quality sounds and musical styles, built-in amplification, and an affordable price. Prelude is portable, and packed with an impressive library of contemporary sounds and authentic ethnic styles.

Features
Hundreds of essential, contemporary sounds inherited from Roland's top sound modules

Multi-format song player that allows song data to be played directly from USB Flash memory (MP3, .WAV, AIFF, and SMF format)

Stylish, lightweight design

Built-in speakers with impressively powerful sound

Flagship Sounds
Don't let Prelude's affordability mislead you -- it sounds like a keyboard costing twice the price. Prelude is equipped with hundreds of top-quality sounds derived from Roland's famous sound modules. It also features 128 polyphonic voices for smooth performance, even with stacks of sounds playing at the same time.

Play-Along Styles
Prelude is packed with a wide variety of contemporary sounds and intelligent backing styles, plus loadable banks of ethnic sounds and styles from around the world. Style Converter and Playlist Editor software is included so you can customize and arrange your songs via PC.

Fun, Friendly Features
Prelude's USB Memory Player allows direct playback of MP3, .WAV, AIFF, and SMF files from a USB key. For karaoke fun, the Center Cancel transforms your favorite pre-recorded songs into "minus one" type sing-along tracks. For dazzling performance effects, wave read more your hand over Prelude's invisible D Beam to manipulate your sounds in unique and exciting ways.

Power Supply: Power Cord (Included)
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Keyboard: 61 Keys (with velocity)

Sound Generator
Maximum Polyphony: 128 voices
Preset Memory:
- Tones: 896+256 (GM2)+World
- Rhythm Sets: 32 + 9 (GM2) + World
- Performance: 128

User Memory:
- Performances: 128

Effects:
- MFX: 78 types, Reverb: 5 types, Chorus: 3 types

Backing Track
SMF Song: Yes

Audio Files: MP3, WAV, AIFF

Style: 4 Intro, 4 Main, 4 Ending, 6 Fill In

USB Memory Player: Yes

Preset Memory: Styles: 130 + World

User Memory:
- Styles: 100
- Songs: 200

Others
Rated Power Output: 11W + 11W

Controllers: D BEAM, Pitch Bend/Modulation

Display: 240 x 64 dots graphic LCD

Connectors: Output Jacks (L/MONO, R), Ext Input, 2 Headphones, MIDI connectors (IN, OUT), Hold Pedal, Control Pedal, USB Connectors: COMPUTER (supports USB MIDI), USB Memory (supports USB 2.0 Hi-Speed Flash Memory)

Accessories Included: Owner's Manual, Tone

Size and Weight
Width:
- 1,044 mm
- 41-1/8 inches

Depth:
- 317 mm
- 12-1/2"

Height:
- 121 mm
- 4-13/16"

Weight:
- 7.8 kg
- 17 lbs. 4 oz.

*The specifications are subject to change without notice.

Power Supply: Power Cord (Included)

For support or warranty questions, please contact the manufacturer:
Phone: 323-890-3700

Reviewers gave this product an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. (26 ratings)
Submitted December 20, 2010 by a customer from hotmail.com

"Not a bad way to have your cake and eat it too"

Overall: 4.5 out of 5 stars
(see rating details)
Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.
If I do replace it, it will be with two devices: a smaller, lighter "fun" keyboard that I don't mind taking to friends or loaning and a smaller, specialized synthesizer for when I want to build a song,

Sound
I had high expectations for a Roland, even though I was sure this was a "starter" line for them. There are probably 2-3 dozen really nice sounds--too bad they're almost randomly distributed in the 1200 available.

Features
Single most annoying "feature" is that there is no way to avoid having a stupid blue light flashing--either the "Tap" button is flashing to show you that you can set the tempo by tapping the button, or the "Playing" button is flashing to show you that a rhythm is playing. I'm all for little tricks to point out cool features--but only for the first 10 minutes of use! I'll probably end up putting electrician's tape over them.

Ease of Use
Not bad. I'm not trying to use it as a sequencer--just as a sound source and a luggable keyboard. It works fine for that.

Quality
Seems pretty solid. It's new, so ruggedness is hard to judge, but it looks more solid than a Casio.

Value
I was looking for a cheap little keyboard that would be easy to carry around. This was on some kind of special deal and I figured the extra money would be worth it for a set of nice Roland sounds. So it's hard to judge...It's a lot more read more than I had planned to spend, but it's a lot more machine. That said, for the money, I probably would have gotten better sounds if I'd just gotten a single-purpose synth.

Manufacturer Support
Where's the "don't know; haven't needed to call" option?

The Wow Factor
Looks nice. Not quite the classic Roland look, but not terribly cheesy either.

Musical Background:
Hobbyist, composer, music theorist

Musical Style:
Jazz
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