Roland Prelude 61-Key Portable Arranger Keyboard

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.

Overall User Ratings (based on 26 ratings)
  • Overall:
    4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Sound:
    3.5 out of 5 stars
  • Features:
    2.5 out of 5 stars
  • Ease of Use:
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Quality:
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Value:
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Manufacturer Support:
    2.5 out of 5 stars
  • The Wow Factor:
    4.5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4.5 out of 5 stars
(26) (see rating details)
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 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
18 of 25 people (72%) people found this review helpful. Did you?
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