If you own a Roland A-88, I’m interested in hearing about any problems you’ve had with the keyboard. I found an open box model on Ebay for a good price but it’s not covered by the factory warranty.
I got a decent price on Amazon uk (about £100 less than everywhere else). It turned out to be a previous return. It hadn’t been packed properly and one of the end foam pads had come away so had had a rough ride. It had 2 stuck keys. They sent another immediately and it arrived next day.
That one possibly was a customer return, but it was hard to tell. It’s worked perfectly.
I’d say that it’s strong in the right places. I’d prefer better build quality but it’s something like 16kg now and I wouldn’t want the extra weight.
The silly usb drivers (not class compliant) only allow it to be powered on when the system has booted. It gets me worried every time but has always worked via usb no probs (apart from having to change the midi device in C3 when it moves usb port).
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I’ve ordered mine. Should be here by the end of the week
16Kilos? My Oxygen 88 is 21 Kilos. It’s not a Rhodes but as I’m a lot older now it bloody well feels like it.
I nearly bought the Roland but stumbled across the Oxygen at half price from a dealer and snapped it up. Pleased so far.
The Roland must use more plastic in the build?
Neil, does your a-88 travel? Mine will be going from home to church and back so I need something, but nothing heavy-duty. I was looking at THIS on Amazon
I’ve the same case. I use it once a week togo to practice. It makes a long keyboard even longer!
It’s ok but I won’t buy another; I’ll save for a bsepoke case.
The material ought to be reinforced more at the bottom where can it scrape the ground (stairs especially due to its length).
Since there are minimal sliders and knobs on the A-88, do you use another device for midi control? e.g., Korg NanoKontrol?
The board arrived today. A little dusty, one key was a bit sticky but pushing against the side of it realigned it so it clears the adjacent key. @Neil I see what you mean about the fiddly USB setup. Why even bother to have a USB source option button on the back if you have to keep it set for AC Adapter??
You don’t have to keep it on ac. It’s just that if you’re running on usb, you’ll need it set to usb and it still won’t power up until the driver has started.
I don’t know what’s under the cover but the plastic on top has a thinnish feel. The whole mechanism seems to be a triumph of design; with minimal size but excellent action. It’s just a bit bizarre as with the RD64 that they’ve stuck the controllers on the left thus making what would have been an amazingly compact controller into something less portable.
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yes, it is quite long. Fortunately I won’t need to haul it up and down stairs.
I guess they figure you’l generally want that stuff by the left hand, down there where the OH FLIPPING JOY-STICK YOU FREAKING BAST**DS WHEN IN THE NAME OF GOD AND HEAVEN WILL YOU GET OVER THAT AND JUST DO WHEELS SO I CAN CONTROL A FREAKING STRING PATCH AND DO PROPER BENDS YOU FREAKING----
Oh sorry, don’t know where that came from.
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not to mention the amazing dust collecting D Beam
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LOL You organ grinders have a thing about wheels (tone wheels)
(but what about that clav with the wammy bar, That was some serious s**t!!!)
Theremins were never a passing fad.
TBH, I can do a bend on any controller (joystick or wheel) quite nicely after a bit of getting used to it. WRT using a modwheel for a string patch: as long as I have enough faders / sliders, I can ignore the vertical dimension of any joystick, paddle or whatever…
Yeah but I bet it’s not very easy for you to to bends of half-steps, whole-steps, or thirds like I do 
If you do you spent a long time working on it. Also, with the correct non-spring loaded wheels I can bend up or down and leave it there. Lots of good stuff. Anything done with a joy-stick is a work-around. They are of Satan.
Ugh - these are of Satan 
- ever played one-third of a song tuned down by 1/8 tone, just because you accidentally touched the pitch controller?
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Well… no I bet there’s an easy way to set up a zero all pitch controllers panic button if that happened. Not a bad idea…
My first Sunday at church using the a-88. No complaints about the board, except it’s weight. I know it’s relatively light compared to some boards, but compared to the the Novation Impulse 61 I was slinging over my shoulder (about 15 lbs), it’s a beast. Really too heavy to break down, set up and transport every Sunday (I opted for a soft bag without wheels). I suppose that if I do get back into gigging with a band I’ll need to purchase some kind of heavy duty case with wheels. For now the a-88 will stay at home. Hopefully I can get the USB driver installed for the church’s resident RD700sx and I will use that as the midi controller instead.