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A-80 At a Glance
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Craig Rodmell writes:

One solid, roadworthy beast. I've been gigging with this thing for well over a decade, and it's still going strong. Great feeling keyboard - takes all the punishment I can dish out to it (88-note weighted). Great for piano work. Later models that I've tried haven't had anything like as good a keyboard as this.

MIDI implementation not wonderful. When you change patches, it defaults to the values the sliders/footpedals happen to be physically on, rather than ones you program - a real bummer. I had to get around that by over-riding these with values sent from my sequencer. Also, you can't have a zone transmit on the same channel as another zone. Not so good for building up huge sounds from multiple modules.

Also a bummer, won't change patches while there are any notes down, or any MIDI data passing through it (whether it has anything to do with the A-80 or not). I had to buy a 32-channel sequencer to get around this.

These are the sort of things that SHOULD have been corrected by a software update - but none was ever produced.

Manual awful, as is usual for Roland, I find.

Getting back to the plusses, it uses mains power, not a wall-wart or line lump. Good big LCD display.

Overall, a staple, solid piece of gear that's been at the centre of my rig for years, and will continue to be until it dies.

Comments About the Sounds:
No sounds whatever - this is purely a master keyboard

(Thanks to Craig Rodmell for this info.)

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