Roland 49-key MIDI Keyboard Controller, Black (A-500PRO-R)

Are you a budding pianist looking for a way to practice your craft away from home? Or maybe, looking for a nice midi controller for your home studio? If either of these are true then you’ve probably been looking through the plethora of midi controllers on the market. And when I say plethora, that’s exactly what I mean. In my case, I recently had a need for a portable midi controller, which could fit into a medium size suit case and still leave me enough room for a weeks worth of clothes. Now that’s a tall order, because not only does it need to be small and light, but it also has to be tough. Well, with all the above prerequisites in mind let me introduce you to the Roland A-300 PRO a 32 key portable midi controller. That really is portable! Most of the smaller midi controllers on the market have either 25 or 49 keys, so you might be thinking that 32 keys would seem a little odd. I know exactly what you mean. However, it actually turns out that 32 keys might be the perfect compromise. Not too many, making your keyboard too big and not too few, making your keyboard hard to play. The Roland A-300 comes packaged with a rather weighty looking USB cable, a 90-page instruction manual and CD containing all the drivers, controller editor and a digital copy of the manual. The box is pretty sturdy and would make a great carry-on if necessary, (if your suit case is just a little too small and not up to the challenge). Build quality is always important, especially in a portable unit, so how does the Roland A-300 stack up? It’s been well put together and feels strong, even the sliders and touch keys have a quality feel to them. The bender lever feels solid and has a dual action including both pitch and vibrato. The A-300 comes in at a featherweight 6 pounds and 7 ounces plus has a tiny footprint of 24 inches wide by 10 inches deep and 4 inches high. The keyboard is pretty good considering the cost and features 32 keys with velocity and channel after touch. Now don't get me wrong, this keyboard is not going to feel like your grand piano at home (I wish), but for a portable unit it’s pretty good. Having tested other midi controllers in this price range, I can honestly say that the A-300 has one of the best keyboards for the money. This midi controller has two 1/4 inch jacks for hold and expression plus dual midi connectors, a USB connector and a DC in jack for use with an external power supply (not included). Again, everything feels well built and the connectors all feel tight and sturdy once installed. The A-300 features a whole host of programmable controllers, including 9 rotary knobs, 9 sliders, 8 pads and 8 buttons. All can be programmed and used on a selection of DAW software applications. The display is a 16 character, 2-line LCD with a backlight nicely installed in the top left corner of the keyboard. Now, obviously this keyboard is probably going to be connected to a computer so with that in mind let’s get into the software side of things. The instruction manual has you download the latest and greatest drivers from the Roland website, then plug in the keyboard. The installation process is very straightforward and didn't take but 5 minutes. Once set up, the keyboard was recognized as a midi device within the audio midi setup application (on a Mac) and can then be used by almost any piano or daw application. I tested the keyboard using Pianoteq, MainStage and GarageBand, and they all worked perfectly. Those nice people at Roland have also included on their website an A-300 PRO Control Surface Plug-in for Logic Pro and GarageBand. If you install this plug-in you will get a standard keyboard and slider map for the A-300, making it the perfect companion for controlling a bunch of features and options within your favorite apple daw. I was able to get the plug-in working with GarageBand straight away and it felt nice to have that level of control and integration especially when away from home base. As far as tablet use is concerned, I did try and connect the A-300 to an iPad with no luck. This is probably down to the fact that the A-300 gets it power from the USB connection and an iPad is not built to supply that kind of juice (300 milliamps). I’m guessing that if you were to connect the keyboard to an external DC power source, such as the optional AC adaptor things might go a little better. So, is this keyboard worth $219 of your hard earned cash? Absolutely, yes! You are not going to find a better-built midi controller with the features and build quality of this thing. It’s portable and functional, plus with the great integration offered by GarageBand and Logic Pro the A-300 will get your musical juices flowing, even when you’re away from home!

I'm not sure why this isn't more popular. Inexpensive, reliable, sturdy, and just the right amount of keys for portability. I'm extremely picky with what I spend my money on, and I return about twice as many things as I keep, but I'm beyond happy with this. This keyboard came with me on a 3-month, 8 country tour of Europe and Africa in my (soft) checked bag, protected by nothing more than the 2 styrofoam end-pieces from the packaging, one layer of cheap bubble wrap, and some clothes (see pictures). After being thoroughly used for 3 months, and after dozens and dozens of plane, train, and automobile rides, most likely being thrown quite a bit, it's still in 100% perfect condition (and so is the styrofoam). The combination pitch/mod stick is awesome. After playing this, I can't imagine using separate pitch/mod wheels. The keys feel great, the pads are excellent, the knobs and sliders feel good and offer just enough resistance, and the inputs are all on the left side so you can push it right up to your laptop. The rubber pads on the bottom keep the keyboard in place. I had no trouble programming the buttons in my DAW, and it works great with the Yamaha FC5 sustain pedal. One note on that - sustain works, but doesn't seem to be recording live-sustain into my DAW. Could be user error. Haven't investigated this issue deeply. It's not a huge concern. I had previously tested Akai, Arturia, and M-Audio, and I wasn't satisfied. The Arturia Keylab 49 is a nice unit, but it's too big and heavy for my use. Plus the Roland has MUCH better pads. The Roland pads are more responsive. The Arturia pads need to be hit REALLY hard to get them to work. Akai doesn't offer anything between a 25-key (too small to really play) and a 49-key (not portable), plus I wasn't impressed with the feel of the units I tried. The keys, the pads; it all felt cheap and spongy. M-audio seemed decent, but the only offerings between 25 and 49 keys have hardly any features. I will say the Axiom Air Mini 32 was pretty good for the price ($100), and is ultra-portable, but I returned it and got this Roland. Other than sustain-pedal recording, the only complaint I have is Roland customer service (eager to help, but not very knowledgeable), and the instruction manual. I'm generally an instruction-follower, but I tried to change the settings/programming to work with my DAW (Ableton Live 9) exactly as instructed, and nothing would work. An hour on the phone with Roland didn't help anything either. They suggested I take it to a music store with my computer and have someone figure it out for me. The solution? Ignore the manual. Just plug it in and play it. It's that simple. At least with my DAW.

I bought this for the faders (B3 controller!), good reviews and the Roland name. Overall it is pretty decent. I feel a lot better because I got a new unit for a discounted cost. Full cost and I probably would have returned it - see below. Pros - Lots of knobs & faders. Ports for both a sustain and an expression pedal. Can tweak and customize midi commands and profiles. Except for the issues below, is quality made and plays well enough. Smallish and light, is very portable. Can work USB powered but I do recommend getting a power supply to be sure midi output has good signal strength. It is intended to work with DAW software and I had no trouble getting it to control Reaper (Windows 10) and various virtual instruments. Maybe con? Keys are small and light plastic. Key action is springy. It's not *bad* and is similar to other budget keyboards, but it may not be your thing. Personally I have some trouble going between piano and this keyboard because of the difference in key size. Not having a weighted action isn't the issue, finger placement and muscle memory is the issue. I also find myself tending to play high up on the keys because of how small they are, which changes my leverage. I do get accustomed to it after a while. Expect to practice a good bit to get the feel of it. Unless you normally play on smaller keyboard keys of course. Like a lot of people mention about this keyboard, the after-touch is stupidly hard. Beyond the midi tweaks, there are dealer or DIY hardware adjustments you can make that apparently resolve the issue, but from the factory, after-touch isn't really usable. The unit is light and smallish and the feet are not very sticky. Therefore it skids off of a stage stand fairly easily. I covered my stand's arms with grip tape and that helped a lot. Like I said at first, if I paid full price, I'd probably return it and look elsewhere. But because I got a good deal, it's a keeper. It is really satisfying to have all those controls right in front of you, for the cost. Better adjusted after-touch and a 2nd Midi out port would have really improved this model.

The main reason I selected this controller board over another brand such as M-Audio or Novation is brand loyalty. I've been using Roland synths since the Roland D-20 / MT-32 days and I have loved every one I own. The other reason is that I use Sonar X2, which is Roland's DAW. The controller also works great in FL Studio, which is my other DAW. I also selected the A-800 because I am used to and wanted a board with 61 keys. (5 octaves +1 key) This controller is packed with tons of controls! 9 pots, 9 sliders, 8 touch pads, a basic control surface, a nice smooth pitch bend / modulation control, velocity sensitive keys with after touch control, and some other stuff. The after touch is a nice feature in a board at this price point. The keys are light plastic, and have a very similar feel to the light plastic keys of my D-20, and other boards I've used in the past like the Roland W-30, JV-80, and the Yamaha DX-7. These light, responsive keys allow for rapid glissando and arpeggio playing. The keys are not semi-weighted or weighted, so this board would not be a good choice for people who are used to playing on keyboards with heavier keys such as digital pianos or real pianos. This board feels a little soft compared to my D-20. The plastic housing actually causes the entire board to bend ever so slightly when I apply pressure to the keys to activate the after touch control. It isn't a major problem, and I'm sure any other competitively priced board is going to have the same issue. They just don't make things with the rigid quality of metal these days. Edit: Just an additional note. The drivers install 2 MIDI devices on the computer. One is the keyboard and pitch bend / mod wheel controller. The other is to control all the sliders, knobs, touch pads, etc. I had to tell my DAW software packages to use 1 as the MIDI keyboard, and 2 as a control surface.

Perfect midi controller for desktop music production! Things I like: 1) Solid Roland quality and great keyboard feel - not made in Japan like the keyboards back in the days, but it's still ok. In all fairness, I don't think Roland ever made a 49 key midi controller in Japan, only the bigger 76 and 88 key ones, so this is the best Roland 49 keyboard controller you can buy. The playing feel is great, feels like my Roland XP synth from 1999 made in Japan. 2) Actual 5 pin midi in/out - as well as USB, this keyboard still has good old midi ports, unlike most of the new keyboard controllers out there, so you can control external synths, etc 3) Lots of keyboard playability settings - it has aftertouch (yes!), which is not common on a lot of other controllers. Also, adjustable velocity sensitivity to accommodate different playing styles, and fully customizable settings for pretty much all functions 3) Slider and knobs are assignable to control whatever midi cc messages you want, so you can control software or hardware synths parameters like filters, volumes, etc 4) can be powered by usb or power adapter (adapter sold separately) 5) other cool things - keyboard can transmit midi tempo (set up in menu), adjustable LCD display, auto power off if not used after a long time Perfect size for a desktop...see the pics. Just use an under the desk tray for your PC keyboard, and you could even use the mouse next to the keyboard.

I love the build quality of the keyboard. It is clearly a quality item with nice knobs, buttons, keys, and sliders. The Roland "bender" control is there and works as on their other devices. Channel aftertouch works, though does indeed take some force as mentioned by others. Also: the keyboard, while naturally wide (61 keys), is quite narrow in the depth dimension (25cm) and thus fits pretty well on my computer desk next to a mixer and other audio components. The connectors are all on the side which I like (this also saves depth on a desk). So now the bad stuff: * The settings which are saved through a powercycle are very arbitrary. Many settings are retained, but octave and key velocity are not. Every time it starts up, I have to navigate through the menus and crank the knob to set a fixed velocity for the keys. * MIDI channel selection is retained across a power cycle, but not when you switch from "upper" to another setting ("lower", "dual", "split") and back. Then the MIDI channel reverts to 1. Clearly a bug here. * There is no easy way to directly set the MIDI channel. First you have to set the Value Knob to the MIDI channel setting, then you can control the channel. This also applies to the fixed-velocity mode: there is no direct way to set the velocity. This is surprising given that the GAIA SH-01 does this fine. * There is no way to set some of the settings except through the computer software. This includes the split point, and also control mappings to sysex and realtime messages. * The controller itself does not have its sysex messages documented. This means that you have to use the A-PRO software, which is not terrible, but annoying if you want to write your own configuration from music software or otherwise define your mappings. This is probably quite easy to reverse engineer, but still, there is little excuse here. * There are a few other minor annoyances in this theme of "strange limitations that cannot be justified". It seems like they were desperately short on internal memory. All of these requested settings could easily be stored in 4K of memory. C'mon folks, I've forgotten how to count that low.

This is an awesome keyboard controller! You cannot find ANY Midi controller anywhere near this price range that has as many available control functions as the A800. The array of controllers is mind-boggling. I'm using the A800 connected via an IK iRig Pro interface to my iPad Mini Retina. On the iPad, I'm running Galileo (for B3 Organ sounds), iGrand (for Piano sounds) and SampleTank (for various pads and orchestral instruments). The A800 allows me to have full drawbar controls for the B3 sounds using the sliders. Also, using the pads, I can pull up organ presets. The additional buttons and rotary controls provide for calling up presets on iGrand and SampleTank, along with volume and timbre controls. All that provides for a great live-performance controller. The only negative I can express about the A800 is that it does require reasonable knowledge of Midi to set it up properly. Once you get it set up, though, you will find it a true joy to use in the studio or on stage. BTW... if you're concerned about needing a power adapter...Please note that if you have a cell phone or tablet that has a power adapter with a USB port on it you can use that adapter, along with the USB cable that comes with the A800, for power. There's really no need to purchase an additional adapter

good keyboard, I"m happy I went with roland although i was also thinking akai keyboard, but they got a stiff keys problems. roland is very durable and i mean durable so much that i'm not afraid to abuse it anymore, so light that it feels cheap but in this case it is only a plus, plenty of controls (I don't even need to use all of them). running it with sonar x2. the only problem I found in it is when you turn keyboard in split mode, you then will only be able to transpose one part of it and never 2 parts at the same time. my Yamaha keyboard transposes 2 parts at the same time, and despite that i'm still giving it 5 stars and if there would be 10 stars this roland would get just that. Now about programing it: to be successful in it do some search on utube videos, it takes a rocket since knowledge about midi set-ups for beginners, it is very advanced and time consuming, but after that it is only a joy to play it and to play with it's controls. I'm using this controller for 2 years already and loving it every time of the use. Aftertouch is there and i use it but it can better be controlled thru the on board joystick or an expression pedal. good keyboard, thank you roland. ROLAND ROCKS ROLAND ROCKS ROLAND ROCKS