GO:KEYS : The new Roland portable keyboard

The GO:KEYS is one of two new entry-level keyboards from Roland (the other one is called GO:PIANO).

The GO:KEYS has a street price of $299 USD, 299€ in Europe, and is intended to inspire new keyboard players without spending too much, no music knowledge is required to have fun with this keyboard.

The 61 keys are separated into 5 one-octave zones: Drum, Bass, Part A, Part B and Part X and each key in a zone triggers a two measure musical loop that repeats until the zone-specific STOP key is struck.

The Drum and Bass zone lay down the basic groove while Part A and Part B are related to the harmonic loops like electric piano comping or a string pad. Part X adds variation with up to four phrase subgroups. Only one phrase can play in a zone at a time.

When you have the band grooving, you can switch to regular keyboard mode and solo to your heart’s content. Whenever you feel like it, you can switch back to Loop Mix mode and move the band to a different place.

The keyboard is equipped with twelve different Loop Mix Sets and each set is a scale-compatible collection of Loop Mix phrases.

The twelve style names suggest the musical genres and the target audience for GO:KEYS. The Sets are modern sounding.

Recording and playback are not the state of the art, don’t expect a workstation at this price! You can record an improvised backing and save it to a song file.

The keyboard is equipped with an USB port to save the song file to a PC or Mac through the back-up function. The PC or Mac see the GO:KEYS like a flash drive.

The GO:KEYS sound set is a real bright spot. The standard “panel” voices which seems to be taken from the JUNO-DS series. The built-in speakers are OK, but again, don’t expect miracles, you will need decent monitors to enjoy the sound quality.

 

MAIN FEATURES & SPECIFICATIONS

• KEYBOARD
  • 61 keys (Ivory Feel and Box-shape Keys with velocity)
  • Touch Sensitivity : 3 types, fixed touch
• SOUND GENERATOR
  • Maximum Polyphony : 128 voices
  • 16 parts (Keyboard play: 8 parts, LOOP MIX: 8 parts)
  • MIDI Format conforms to GM2
  • 554 tones (GM2 compatible sounds are included).
  • Multi-Effects / Chorus / Reverb (Only Reverb level is adjustable)
  • Master Tuning : 415.3 Hz–466.2 Hz (adjustable in increments of 0.1 Hz)
  • Transpose : -5 – +6 (in semitones)
  • Octave Shift : -3 – +3
  • Sampling Frequency : 44.1 kHz
• LOOP MIX
  • 12 Loop Mix Sets
  • 672 patterns (12 sets x 56 patterns)
  • Interactive Chord function
  • Tempo : Quarter note = 5–300
• PERFORMANCE PAD
  • 10 Pads (5 x 2)
  • Function :
    • Bender: Pitch Bend / Modulation
    • Effect: Roll / Filter
• RECORDER
  • Save Format : Standard MIDI Files (Format 0)
  • Song Storage : 99 songs (within the limits of Note Storage)
  • Note Storage : Approx. 30,000 notes
  • Tempo : Quarter note = 5–300
  • Resolution : 96 ticks per quarter note
• BLUETOOTH
  • Bluetooth Ver 4.2Profile Support: A2DP(Audio), GATT(MIDI over Bluetooth Low Energy)
    Codec: SBC (Support to the content protection of the SCMS-T method)
    *This function is not available for GO-61KL.
• OTHER
  • Display : Character LCD (with backlit)
  • Amplifier : Power Output 2.5 W x 2
  • Speakers : 12 x 6 cm (4-3/4 x 2-3/8 inches) x 2
  • Connectors
    • PHONES/OUTPUT jack: Stereo miniature phone type
    • AUX IN jack: Stereo miniature phone type
    • PEDAL jack: 1/4-inch phone type
    • USB COMPUTER port: USB Micro-B type (MIDI)
    • DC IN jack
  • Power Supply : AC adaptor or Alkaline battery (AA, LR6) / Rechargeable Ni-MH battery (AA, HR6) x 6
    *Carbon-zinc batteries cannot be used.
  • Current Draw1,000 mA
  • Battery Life for Continuous Use
    • Rechargeable Ni-MH batteries (AA, HR6): Approximately 6 hours
    • Alkaline batteries (AA, LR6): Approximately 4 hours
      *This figure will vary depending on the actual conditions of use.
  • Accessories
    • Owner’s manual
    • Leaflet “USING THE UNIT SAFELY”
    • AC adaptor
• SIZE AND WEIGHT
  • Width : 877 mm
    34-9/16 inches
  • Depth : 271 mm
    10-11/16 inches
  • Height : 82 mm
    3-1/4 inches
  • Weight (excluding AC adaptor) : 3.9 kg
    8 lbs 10 oz

 

In clonclusion the GO:KEYS seems more a preset-only machine, there is no voice editing.

The GO:KEYS includes also a full General MIDI 2 (GM2) sound set.

The GO:KEYS does not have conventional pitch bend or modulation wheels. The touch panel has two strips that apply pitch bend or filter/roll effects.

 

It could be a great and fun instrument for a novice or a bit too limiting instrument for an expert player : ok, stop talking now and have a look at the videos to judge by yourself!

 

GO:KEYS IN ACTION

 

GO:KEYS ON ROLAND

Roland Official Product Page

 

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