sounds. I had a Juno 60 at the time, so having a lot of wild and whacky analog

sounds from the U-20 wasn't important. I knew up front that programming would

be a chore, but I wanted a keyboard that I could PLAY, not program -- the factory

sounds of the U-20 are VERY clean, and the piano (in my opinion) still matches

any keyboard out there. Most of the other acoustic instrument samples are very

good too, while the more traditionally "synth" sounds are only average (the U-20

doesn't "synthesize" sounds from "scratch", it only plays back samples).

I thought the Juno/Jupiter string and brass samples sounded pretty close to my

old Juno 60, however! I use the U-20 primarily in my home studio. It's connected to a PC running

Cakewalk Home Studio. I haven't had a problem with the U-20 not being 100% "GM"

compatible -- the biggest incompatibility is simply that the U-20 only can play

6 voices (or MIDI tracks) at once. The drums ARE GM-compatible, and I had no

problem playing the Cakewalk GM MIDI demos thru my U-20 once I set the U-20 MIDI

channels to match the Cakewalk settings. Programming the U-20 is an incredible chore -- even after 6 years I still don't

"get it"! If you're not happy with the factory sounds you hear, DON'T buy this

keyboard, because you'll go insane trying to "tweak" anything. Actually, it's

not THAT bad, compared to other Roland keyboards, but programming the U-20 is

definitely NOT for beginners. Roland REALLY ought to do us all a favor and start

including Editor/Librarian software with all its keyboards, since they just can't

seem to make an intuitive user-interface. I see other users have had problems with the keys and with dust -- I haven't had

any problems, but I keep my keyboard at home under a cover. The keys themselves

DO seem to be pretty cheap, but I lent my U-20 out to a friend for 4 months who

was playing clubs in Minneapolis, and it survived unscathed. As a matter of

fact, my friend (who is an avid Ensoniq user) went out and bought a used U-20

for himself! The U-20's "Play" mode for live performance is very straightforward

and as I said before the sounds are VERY clean -- you can't find better piano,

strings, or brass sounds for the $400 cost of a used U-20! The BIGGEST problem I have experienced with the U-20 is the "Voice Reserve".

The U-20 is capable of only 30 notes at once -- when I start adding the 4th,

5th, and 6th parts to my more ambitious compositions, notes will start dropping

out as the U-20 reaches its capacity. I constantly have to go into "Edit" mode

and tweak the "Voice Reserve" settings for each part. It always seems to happen

when I least expect it, too, which makes it even more aggravating! All in all, I am very happy with my U-20. Even though it is 6 years old, it

still is my main keyboard and does everything I need it to do. If you're like

me and all you need is a HIGH quality-sounding keyboard, and you don't care about

programming, MIDI, or multi-timbrality (i.e. if you play live a lot), a used

U-20 at $400-500 is a terrific BARGAIN. I give it a 4 out of 5, with one point

being deducted because of a most non-intuitive user interface.

Very limited programming options - no filter, coarse envelope adjustment.

Dense chords tend to cause note lag, but that's not so noticeable if it's used as a MIDI module.

Built-in effects are fairly good.

or else i would be screwed. But after hours and hours of editing and saving it becomes

simple. The sounds are ok, the piano sounds are amazing, the strings could be

better, and the rest of the sounds are ok too. They can be edited to what ever liking.

It only has 6 parts for midi channels and only 30 voice reserve. The voice reserve has

been the only problem though. I have the latin and FX Percussions, orchestral strings,

and pipe organ and harpsichord PCM cards, they do just well. (good violin/cello sample).

If you find one used for $400 or less don't hesistate, get one.