Roland VR-730

The Nord beater

For the gigging player, this does everything you want, plus all the sounds you'll ever need, at half the price.

Great keyboard for live use

I've only recently started to play as a keyboard player in a band, and was looking for a suitable keyboard which covered mainly the classic sounds. I knew someone who had one, so could try it out and absolutely loved the sounds and simplicity of the instrument. It's divided into three simple sections, organ, piano's and synth, which are super intuitive to get to via the 'main' buttons indicating each section.

I absolutely love the sounds of the organ. I guess nothing can beat the real thing, but for something so light and portable it gives you all the B3 tones you could wish for. And then there is the electric pianos, which sounds are some of the best I have yet come across, especially at this price point. I must say though, the piano sounds are a bit weaker. I can get away with this because I don't use to much piano sounds, but it is something to keep in mind if you're predominantly a piano player.

The keyboard itself feels premium, even though it is made of plastic. In my opinion, this is largely due to the high quality feel of the knobs and switches, and the very nice keyboard action. The 'Hammond' type waterfall key bed feels absolutely wonderful to play on. It works really well for the glissando's and fast playing on organ and the electric piano's. Yet it's weight decent enough to play piano parts as well.

The overall quality is rather good. Even though it's made of plastic it doesn't feel cheap or fragile. It feels like a high and stage instrument, build to last.

Overall I think this is a brilliant piece of gear for the gigging keyboard player. It covers all the classic sounds you might need, and does so rather good. Especially at this price point I think you can't really go wrong.

Great gigging keyboard

I play keyboards in a bluesrock combo. Mostly organ, piano, wurly, strings and a bit of synth. My setup consists of both Hammond XK1-c and Roland VR-730 and KC990. On small stages where I can only take 1 keyboard, I take the Roland VR-730. It sounds great, it feels great (marvellous keybed), seems solid enough, puts all the controls that you need during a gig right under your fingers and is easy to carry (around 10kg). It is also a great keyboard to practice at home: I select a rhythm, tap the tempo and play.

Pros

Quality of sounds

Easy layering & splitting

Easy gig-oriented interface

Keybed great for organ but also very good compromise for piano & synth

Weight

Cons

Seems to work only with EV 5 expression pedal (I want to use my FC-7 but it seems to need an adaptor to reverse polarity)