This keyboard is very well built for being so light. The synth sounds are excellent. The high brass sounds are much better than those found in most other keyboards, although the low brass sounds are weak. The effects are very good. This keyboard is very easy to use, and the manual is a great improvement over other manuals that Roland has included with their products.

This machine have great sounds, I bought for replace my Alesis QS6. I was looking for a Low price Keyboard with good Hammond sounds and I found this on RS5. I use with Korg G4 Leslie simulator and sounds great. It

Feature:
pianos - nice quality indead. many different piano sounds. dont really like the rhodes and e. pianos. too early 90's. organs - nice variety, and with the built in multi effects you can add rotary or phaser, and they sound pretty authentic. guitars - yeah right bass - it has a few good synthbass sounds trumpets, tubas & such - not that impressive for a roland synth. synths - it has to many leads that sounds like a fat cat. though there are many good sines. dont get this if you are looking for fat sounds for house/dnb or any other clubbin music. effects - a large variety. some of the fx are good, but somehow there isnt a way to modify the parameters you want during a live performance. for example, if you use the "stereo delay", you can not change the rate using the knobs.

Quality:
strong and solid

Value:
its a good product, but you dont need half of what it offers. it is the keyboard you used when you were 10 with much better sounds and features.

Desirability:
black and silver. it does look like a cool instrument.

Feature:
The real time knob controls are very good but I miss a sustain control.

Quality:
Well made and no mantainnance probrems.

Value:
good price

Sound:
Poor acoustic pianos; keys extremely soft; good but limited elctric pianos, electric organs and synth sonds. Very poor pipe organ and harpsichord. Very good sax and flute. It souds expressively, but the keys don't help.

Support:
Easy to find suport.

Overall:
I'm saving money to change it.

I purchased the RS-5 for use with my ProTools set up. The Drums are incredibly realistic(I even fooled a professional record producer).
The bass guitar sounds are equally good and
the piano is more realistic sounding than most other boards I have used, costing double what the RS-5 cost me. The only downfall is the lack of expandability, hopefully Roland will develop an external patch to upgrade the RS-5.
To conclude my review...Great job Roland !!!

The keyboard action is beautiful and is the only thing making me think about keeping it. I was going to use it as a midi controller and as a practice (piano) instrument, but thought the sounds would make it worth the extra money, but it's short on good (usable in a mix/song) sounds, keyboard has no aftertouch, and the reverb is very weak. Paid $800 for the 88-key version, and I'm afraid that's too much. I'd love to keep it for the keyboard action alone (best unweighted action I've ever used), but think the price is just too much for that.

I've played with it. Very easy to handle (i've never had a real synth (only virtual software) but i could test it. Loads of sounds, very good keys (realistic) but I think the sounds and the fx should be a bit better. It's expensive - for this quality. 3/4th of its current price would be good.

Use this as a controller and also use some of it's sounds it will fit well into your studio!