Roland is proud to announce the affordable EM-55 Interactive Keyboard. It offers beginners and pros thousands of top-quality Roland sounds and hundreds of musical styles-all in a compact, 5-octave keyboard with a built-in sound system. But this new kid on the block also makes performing music fun, thanks to new Session Partner Pads for triggering live phrases and a D-Beam controller with 50 ready-to-use templates.

Features
61-note velocity-sensitive keyboard brings new interactive features to an affordable price

64-voice/32-part multitimbral sound engine with 3,559 Tones + 116 drum kits

Up to 128 onboard musical styles (64 ROM styles and 64 via floppy disk)

Helpful Music Assistant with setup templates for 100 popular songs

Light-sensing D-Beam with preset templates for controlling various functions

New Session Partner Pads for triggering phrases and muting parts

Create cool DJ mixes using DJ Pads with 64 real-time phrases

16-track song recorder for recording performances or loading Standard MIDI Files

Game function (Guess the Tone and Guess the Chord) helps students learn about music using interactive games

Built-in stereo sound system and 3.5 in. floppy drive

The EM-55 has a 64-voice, 32-part multi-timbral sound engine and is packed with 3,559 of Roland's best sounds - including everything from piano, strings and bass sounds to synths and sound effects - and 116 drum kits. The EM-55's EZ Search feature tames this massive collection of sounds, making them… read more easy to find. Users can get started in a heartbeat with the EM-55's 64 exciting onboard musical styles (expandable to 128 music styles via floppy disk).

With the Session Partner Pads, arranging music on the EM-55 is truly interactive experience. Users can trigger any of 96 pre-recorded phrases that automatically follow the left-hand chords as a style is playing, or they can mute the style's instruments - its drum kit, bass or piano, for example. The pads can also serve as "DJ Pads" that trigger scratching sounds and other DJ effects.

The EM-55's D-Beam controller is lots of fun, and easy to set up. Users simply select one of the 50 preset D-Beam templates and start waving a hand through the D-Beam's infrared beam of light to play melodies, mute parts, change filter cutoffs, and more.

An onboard Music Assistant takes the work out of selecting the right instruments with setup templates for 100 popular songs, allowing users to focus on music. Three games - Guess the Tone, Guess the Chord, and Chord Finder - help children and students at all levels learn about music. The EM-55 also contains a 16-track song recorder for capturing performances or for playing Standard MIDI Files loaded from the EM-55's internal 3.5 in. floppy drive. read less