XP-30 anyone have one?

[Blaster]

Almost bought the QS7.1 at Sam Ash's blowout sale. Held back since I thought that it may not be what I need. Still thinging about it.

 

Anyway, what do you think about the XP-30? I almost purchased a XP-50 used for a great price but thought that the XP-30 may be better. Heck, I am thinking about the Trition Le too.

 

I play classic rock and some driving country in a weekend band. I also am into recording.

[RABid]

My cousin had the XP-60 and later traded it when he got a Yahama S80. He missed the sounds of the XP so much he picked up an XP30. It is nice that it has extra built in expansion ROM's but I don't like the joystick on the XP-30 as much as the joystick on the XP-50 or Triton LE.

 

Robert

[Tusker]

The nice thing about the xp30 is that you do end up with lots of good sounds for the money. Also I like the fact that with the Roland JV series, you can get resonant squeals and stuff out of the filters if you want to. It's a flexible little unit and covers a lot of bases.

 

The joystick Robert mentioned is a major beef for me, becuase it goes from zero modulation to full modulation with no ramp. Also the keyboard feels a little cheap to me. It's really hard to play pianistically on it because it's so light and wobbly.

 

I have an xp50 at home and at the the church I attend I play an xp30. If it was my only controller, I would think twice and make sure I was comfortable with the limitations, but if I had other controllers that I could midi to it when the need arose (weighted keys, ribbons, etc) I wouldn't hesitate.

 

Best,

 

Jerry

[demtation]

I chose the XP-30 as the sole bread-n-butter synth for my studio and have been very pleased. I personally don't mind the feel of the keys at all, in fact they feel much, much better than my 6-year-old XP-50 (but I'm sure that's the case with any older, heavily used keyboard)

 

Anyway, I like the variety and quality of the presets, and the expansion is nice. I have the Orchestral 2 and Keys of 60's and 70's which are very good. The continuous controllers are easy to navigate, but like everyone else, I hate the mod/ joystick. It's not bad for leads/pitchbending, but in addition to having the either 'on' or 'off' modulation, it seems like an awful lot of force must be used. Well, for the huge inventory of sounds, I'm willing to live with it, or just buy a CC pedal.

 

Just a $.02 on the Alesis, I have the QS8 and while the pianos and e-pianos are useful, just about everything else is pretty lifeless to me. In it's defense, the QS series (weighted or not) has my favorite feel and touch of any synth period. Although I don't know about it's controller capabilities, I would definately consider one as a master keyboard in a multiple synth situation.

 

Hope this is helpful!

 

Demtation

[chris c]

I have an XP-30 and love it. An unbelievable value for the money, IMHO, given the number of excellent onboard sounds coupled with possibility of expansion. For the kind of music you do, you'll find plenty to like already onboard (although the "techno" expansion may not do you much good!). Lots of good piano, ep, organ, guitar and other realistic instrument sounds, plus pads, synth leads, etc. You might want to check out the Keyboards of the 60's and 70's expansion rom, also, which I have and like quite a lot (tons of b3 sounds, plus other organs, clavs, EP's and a few randoms).

 

I like the keyboard quite well, and have only recently gotten into the expressive possibilities of the aftertouch (many of the lead type sounds use this feature well). Its awesome. About the mod wheel, I agree with the criticisms above, but one possible workaround is to use a pedal. This is what I do when playing organ sounds.

 

Definitely check one out - think you may like it.

Chris C

[RABid]

The Techno board does have a lot of junk but I bought it anyway. I liked the analog type synth sounds that it had.

 

Robert

[MusicWorkz]

I've had m XP-30 for about 2 years now and love it. I got it for $949 at Sam Ash and haven't seen it cheaper since. The sounds and the expansion slots let you semi-customize it to your particular music style, so it is very flexible. I have a great soundscape to work with (Triton, D-50, among others) and it works well in a mix.

 

The Mod issue isn't really a big one-the work around is to assign one of the sliders to affect modulation (I have mine set up C1/Mod ext, C2/Vol ext, C3/reverb depth int, C4 chorus depth int). it isn't as sexy as having the joystick to use, but it works well.

 

There really isn't anything out that matches the flexibility, sound quality, size, functionalit of the XP-30 (I also have the JV-1010 shoudl you want to go a different route but still want the sounds...).