This is my review on the 49 key Roland A-49 MIDI controller. This controller currently sells for about $300USD, and is absolutely PERFECT for MY needs & I love it! But . . . it might be totally WRONG and a waste of money for YOUR needs. Let’s check it out and talk about why!
Two Types Of MIDI Controller Customers
Working With DAW Software
So the vast majority of people that buy MIDI controllers will be connecting their MIDI keyboard to an app on a device (so a phone, tablet or computer), usually a DAW app (so … digital audio workstation) to record music. These apps will have sounds built into them, so when you play your keyboard, it will trigger whatever sounds you have selected within the app – so you could use your keyboard to play a piano sound, or … a guitar sound etc.
Examples of DAW apps would include GarageBand, Ableton Live, FL Studio etc. So when these people are shopping for a MIDI controller, they are often looking for . .. how well does a keyboard work with their favorite DAW software; some MIDI keyboards integrate better with certain DAW apps (so all the buttons, knobs, sliders and pads get automatically mapped to the appropriate controls in certain DAW apps), so that’s important because it can make your life much easier, not having to map these controls manually. And to many of these players, these features can be more important than “how good is the key action”; there are a LOT of MIDI controllers out there that have TONS of great features, and fantastic DAW integration, but . . . not great, and in some cases downright awful key actions, especially in the 300’ish price range. I’ve tested 2 other popular MIDI controllers in this price range; the M-Audio Oxygen Pro and the Arturia Keylab Essential:
These 2 MIDI controllers both have FAR more features and configurable onboard controls like sliders, knobs, buttons and drumpads than the Roland A-49, and they both (the Arturia in particular) have MUCH fancier built in DAW integration. But the key action? The Oxygen Pro key action is . . . OK for the price; while it’s not ideal, I could probably get away with using that keybed in a performance situation – but the keybed on the Arturia? It’s really not that great, there is no way I would try using that live with my band.
For Controlling Other Keyboards
So what are the OTHER people or… vast MINORITY going to be using their MIDI controller for? Instead of connecting their MIDI keyboard to a device with an app on it, these people will be connecting their MIDI keyboard to…. ANOTHER KEYBOARD. And why would you want to do this? A few reasons. Now first off, this isn’t something you can do with just ANY keyboard – the keyboard you are connecting TO MUST have a MIDI IN port, which is something you often find in stage pianos or stage keyboards. And your MIDI controller keyboard really should have a 5 pin MIDI out port (many of the cheaper ones don’t, they only have USB MIDI out – now you can still use that port to control another keyboard but you will need a converter box like the DOREMIDI to do that):
I did a review on the DOREMIDI that I will link to in the description below. So when you connect a MIDI controller with a MIDI out port using a 5 pin MIDI cable to your main keyboard, you will be able to trigger the sounds on your main keyboard using the MIDI controller’s keybed.
So as an example, my Yamaha YC61 stage keyboard can play 3 sounds at once; one from the organ engine and then 2 other sounds – and they can be all layered together, or split across different areas of the keybed etc. But with only 61 keys, there isn’t a ton of real estate for multiple sounds. For example, in my band I’m often playing piano in my left and organ in my right with a keyboard split … then my band says “hey can you do a sax solo?” Well that’s where an external controller becomes super helpful. Instead of trying to split my 61 keys into a THIRD zone, I can assign that 3rd sound (the saxophone) to JUST the external keyboard, so I still have the full 61 keys on the YC61 for organ and piano.
Key Action Versatility
Another reason people use MIDI controllers to control other keyboards are to get the “best of both worlds” as far as key action is concerned. For example, my YC61 has organ style semi weighted waterfall keys, which… I don’t mind playing piano pieces on, but more piano purist players might prefer to have a fully weighted and graded hammer action keybed for piano pieces. So to do that, they could buy a MIDI keyboard with a fully weighted and graded hammer action, and connect it to the YC61 to trigger the amazing piano sounds on the YC, and then just use the YC’s keybed for organ and synth pieces. Or, same thing the other way around – if your main keyboard does have a fully weighted and graded hammer action, but you wanted to play some organ songs – then you could get a MIDI controller with a semi weighted or more “organ friendly” action to connect to your main keyboard and use for organ sounds. So for the customers like me that are looking for a MIDI controller to connect to other keyboards? For THESE players, the quality of the key action is VERY important, much more so than any fancy DAW integration features.
Why Is The Roland A-49 Perfect for ME?
So that brings me to which of these customers am I, and why did I buy the Roland A-49? Well if you follow my channel, you probably already know – I am NOT an expert on MIDI controllers, and I RARELY use any DAW software – when I HAVE to, I use GarageBand on my iPad, and I know just the bare minimum about it. So I definitely fall into that second minority group of users who are looking for a MIDI controller to control other keyboards.
Roland A-49 Features
So with that in mind, what were the most important features for me when looking for a MIDI controller to play those “extra sounds” on my Yamaha YC61? Key action, portability, a 5 pin MIDI out port, and I also wanted BOTH a sustain pedal AND expression pedal port; a lot of inexpensive MIDI controllers only have a sustain pedal port. So I knew from the specs online that the Roland A49 met all of the technical needs:
Portability
The Roland A-49 is CRAZY portable; it only weighs 5 pounds, and because it has a very minimalist user interface and only 49 keys, it’s also very narrow, shallow and thin
MIDI Connectivity
The A-49 has a 5 pin MIDI out (so I can control other keyboards with it) as well as the usual USB MIDI out for connecting to a computer, iPad, iPhone etc.
Pedal Ports
The A-49 has both a sustain pedal port AND an expression pedal port; this is important for me to have both for organ and piano playing.
Key Action
But what about the one feature that you never know till you try – the key action? When I ordered my A-49 I was super hopeful, because a lot of online reviews and blogs really praise this key action; Roland markets the A-49 as a “super portable MIDI controller with PRO level key action”. And a lot of organ players say it’s great because the keys have slightly rounded corners, which should make organ slides and palm smears much smoother and easier.
So how do I like it? I LOVE IT. This key action (in my opinion) is miles better than the key action on any other midi controller in this price range that I’ve tried. The keys are synth style diving board keys, and while they aren’t weighted or semi-weighted, they offer a fair bit of resistance; they actually feel semi-weighted. They are extremely playable, they respond well and it’s really easy to control your dynamics. And above all of that, they really feel solid and high quality; there’s no side to side movement at all. And the comments online about the rounded corners are 100% correct – they REALLY help with playing organ style songs by making palm smears or glissandos smooth, easily controllable and comfortable. Now they are “synth full size” which is slightly narrower than most digital pianos, with an octave width of about 159 mm as opposed to most digital pianos which are about 164 mm. This is something I’ve mentioned a LOT on my channel; but . . . my main keyboard is now a Yamaha YC-61 which also has a narrower octave width of 159 mm (and semi-weighted action); so now that I’m becoming used to a narrower octave width, the fact that the A-49’s is the same makes moving back and forth between the 2 keybeds really easy.
I will be totally comfortable playing piano, organ or any other voice on this keybed in a performance situation with my band.
User Interface
Another thing I REALLY like about the A49 is the big and clear octave shift and transpose buttons. You hit the +/- to move up or down octaves, and the level indicator to the right gives you an immediate indication of how many octaves you’ve adjusted; and if you want to transpose, you hold the transpose button down and use the +/- buttons and while the transpose button is pressed that level indicator switches to show you how many steps up or down you’ve transposed – this is awesome, especially for someone like me that wants to use this keyboard in live performance situations.
Here’s a quick demo of a setup I have for one of the songs with my band; I have 3 sounds set up on my Yamaha YC61; I have a saxophone split to the left side of the keyboard, and a piano split on the right. Then I have my third voice as a Hammond organ, but I’ve specified that on the YC61 to only be triggered by the “external keyboard”, so the A-49. Even for organ, this key action is really impressive!
Customizable Buttons & Knobs
So what about customizable buttons, knobs, etc? While the Roland A-49 doesn’t have all the drum pads, sliders and buttons that the competition has, it does have 2 customizable buttons and 2 customizable knobs. Now while I’m not going to be using the A-49 with a DAW, I COULD also configure those knobs to control things on my YC61. To be honest I probably won’t actually do that, since I’ll have the YC and all of its buttons and controls right in front of me anyways, but it makes for a good demo nonetheless.
- Assigning CC # to S1/S2 buttons
- Function–>S1 (or S2)–>CTRL CHANGE–>NUMERIC ENTRY (type in your CC number)–>”+” for latched or “-” for momentary
- Assigning CC # to C1/C2 Knobs
- Function–>Assign–>(Move a knob to choose)–>CTRL CHANGE–>NUMERIC ENTRY (type in your CC number)–>Enter
So, not a TON of assignable controls, but at least there are some. This process will work the same within apps you are configuring as well; you’ll look up the CC number in the app for whatever you want to control, and then assign it to one of the 2 buttons or knobs on the Roland.
Now there are some other controls on here, there is a pitch bend joystick that also doubles as modulation when you move it forward. Then we have a button labelled “Supernatural” – this is actually used for telling the A-49 that you are connected to something with a Roland Supernatural sound engine, so it configures the A-49 to do that (this isn’t something I bothered looking into at all, so if you’re interested in more info on this, check online).
Then the final control to talk about is a very unique, and I think . . . kind of gimmicky and goofy control which is the Roland “D-Beam” controller. This controller senses movement, so if you have the pitch button selected, it will sense your hand when close and function as a pitch bend if you have it set to volume, then it will control that. Kind of cool . . . I guess???
One other thing to quickly mention, is MIDI controllers like the Arturia Keylab Essential typically have the ability to save multiple configurations and setups – I don’t see any such functionality with the Roland A-49, but I did confirm that the A-49 WILL remember it’s last setup when you turn it on, so at least if you are always using it with the same app, software, or other keyboard, any customization you’ve done to the configurable buttons or knobs won’t have to be redone every time you power it on.
Included Software
The Roland A-49 currently comes with a subscription to Ableton Live Lite.
My Complaints?
Getting The A-49 To Work In The First Place!
So before I sum up this review, I do have some complaining to do, and also possibly some VERY useful information for people who have recently purchased a Roland A-49. When I took the A-49 out of the box, I was super eager to test it out; so, I connected it to my Yamaha YC61 with a MIDI cable, and used the USB cable to plug it into a power outlet . . . . and . . . nothing (no power). So I thought . . . is my cable no good? So I tried another . . . nothing. So then I tried connected the USB cable to the USB A port on my YC (which should also supply power). . . nothing. Then I used a lightning connector to connect it to my iPad which should ALSO power the keyboard . . . nothing. I looked through the manual, and there was absolutely nothing about this, so I started looking online.
I eventually discovered this:
The Roland A-49 out of the box, is configured only to function (which includes receiving power) if it is connected to a computer that has the Roland driver downloaded and installed.
So if I had connected the A49 to my computer and had downloaded and installed the driver I would have been fine.
Using The Roland A-49 As A Keyboard Controller
But to use the A49 as a controller for another keyboard or for an iPad, you have to switch the default driver the keyboard is looking for from the Roland one to a generic MIDI compliant one.
You do this by holding down “Function, Assign & Pitch” when you connect the A49 to a power source
Once that’s done, it works great as a controller for the YC61 (it can use power from a USB cable plugged into an outlet, or from a USB cable connected to my YC61). This to me is . . . kind of crazy! I have NEVER seen another MIDI controller not get power without some kind of bizarre configuration step before. ESPECIALLY when there is absolutely NOTHING about this is in the manual.
I actually found numerous posts and videos online with some very angry and frustrated people who were convinced the keyboard could only work with a pc. I even reached out to Roland to ask them about this, and their response was to apologize, and they did totally own up to the fact that they should have had this clearly included on page 1 of their manual. They also said the A49 is supposed to ship with a card that includes that info (mine did not).
Using The Roland A-49 With An iPad
So then I connected the A-49 to my iPad, and sure enough, the iPad provided power to it; so I loaded up my IK Multimedia Hammond B3 app but . . . the app wasn’t recognizing the keyboard; none of the keys worked. Well, yet another bizarre configuration that you need to just KNOW . . .
To use the A49 with an iPad, you have to hold down S1 and S2 when powering on the keyboard
Then? It works great!
Using The Roland A-49 With A Computer (PC or Mac)
To use the Roland A-49 with a Mac:
- press FUNCTION so it is lit
- press the key labelled ADV
- if “+” doesn’t light automatically, press it so it is lit
- download and install the driver from Roland’s website
Roland A-49: The Verdict
If you value key action over DAW integration in a MIDI controller? The Roland A-49 is AWESOME, and I HIGHLY recommend it!
So, verdict on the Roland A-49? Like I said at the start of this review, it depends on your needs. For me, this keyboard is perfect! It has a fantastic key action for the price, it has MIDI out to use as an extra set of keys with my Yamaha YC61, it has both expression AND sustain pedal inputs, and it’s insanely portable at only 5 pounds as well as being super slim. I can comfortably fit the A49 in between my MacBook keyboard and the monitor to use with online organ lessons on my kitchen table.
PHOTO
And while I almost never use DAW software, if I was to start doing that, I’d rather have something with a good quality playable key action than something with a bunch of assignable knobs and faders that had poor key action.
If you are WANTING a keyboard with all the knobs, faders, drum pads and controls that will integrate better with your favorite DAW software, then the Roland A-49 probably ISN’T for you.
But with all that in mind, for someone like me looking for a portable MIDI controller that actually has good key action? I have to highly recommend the Roland A-49, even with the goofy startup issues I came across; I think it’s ridiculous that it didn’t just work as a controller for my YC61 right out of the box, but now that I know how to set it up for either that use or to use with my iPad? Not a big deal.
Thanks so much, and happy MIDI controller playing! (and shopping 😉 )
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