Maybe it’s the visual aesthetic which keeps drawing me back to the Roland GO:KEYS 3 and 5. Yes, it’s a box. The simple lines, however, are clean. The chassis colors are well-chosen and the turquoise is lovely. The pastel white keys are a good match.

With time on my hands, I dropped by Kennelly Keys in Everett, WA to give the sounds a try. With so many on-line demos, I decided to focus on playability and voice quality. The styles and chord patterns are hipper than Casio, Yamaha and Medeli. Roland are catering to younger players and contemporary genres. I could have a lot of fun jamming along to chill, downtempo, neo-soul, etc. with GO:KEYS.

Roland Go:keys 3

Today, however, it’s the Advent season church music for the week. Why not kill two birds with one stone and get today’s practice out of the way, too? The instruments are light-weight (max 5.5kg or 12.3 pounds). I could see taking one to church rehearsal (maybe a church gig) since they run on battery power and have built-in speakers.

The keys are piano-ish and are not synth-style keys. They are great for the more than decent acoustic pianos, electric pianos, pads, strings and orchestral instruments. If you have a chance to play a GO:KEYS (gen 2), take it. The keys compare favorably with the Casio CT-S500 and CT-S1000V.

Sonically, pianos are definitely a strength. Strings are good and you get a healthy selection of tones and articulations. (It ain’t VSL. 🙂 ) The pads surprised me. I found more usable simple pads than MODX. I don’t need or want tricked up pads. I didn’t have to look too hard to find them.

The orchestral instruments (e.g., oboe, clarinet) are passable. French horn ain’t bad. If this is your thing, too, I would look to the Roland Cloud and download the EXZ007 “EXZ Orchestra” expansion. The Orchestra expansion contains voices from the SR-JV Orchestral 1 and 2 boards, the Vocal Collection and more. I bought these boards back in the day for $200 USD a pop. Amazing.

Organ-wise, I got on with so-called pipe organ reasonably well. The quieter pipe organ voices are pleasing. The piano keys don’t get in the way if you are playing at a slow tempo and legato touch. Faster tempos may require adjustment. EXZ007 adds a few pipe organs, too, along with a raft of choirs from the old Vocal Collection. (Thank you, Eric Pershing.)

Hate to say it, but Hammond B-3 organs are a disappointment. None of the basic tones/registrations clicked with me (no pun intended). Further, who in the hell makes organ voices velocity sensitive? Yes, there are a few of those abominations.

Better drawbar organs are available in the EXZ008 “EXZ Vintage Keys” expansion. The EXZ008 contains the SR-JV Keyboards of the 60s and 70s (pianos, clav, B-3, combo organ) and a slew of vintage synths. The in-built “VK Rotary” effect is an improvement on the bog standard rotary effect which is really a chorus in cheap disguise.

Playing B is where the box piano keys got in the way. This could be a deal-breaker for organ-oriented players. Playing at a fast tempo felt wrong and I couldn’t adjust to the key response. Major yellow flag for me here. Bummer, everything was going so good.

Roland cannot be faulted for the keys. My Novation Launchkey 49 Mk4 has box piano keys and I have similar issues playing organ with them. I bought the Mk4 for playing AP/EP on a light, swappable MIDI controller in my studio. Think over your requirements and choose.

I spent most of my time playing the GO:KEYS 3 through its internal speakers. The 3 exhibits a lot of boxy-ness. Yes, I’m sure it sounds better through an external amp. The 5 is less boxy. Overall, not a big deal because I usually play through battery powered Yamaha Stagepas 100 or Headrush FRFR GO.

So, 3 or 5? The 5 has much better connectivity. It may seem a trivial matter, but the 5 front panel legends are easier to read than the turquoise. I flat out could not read the button labels on the turquoise and kept refering back to the white 5 nearby. Advantage 5.

Now for the big decider. The 5 can load EXZ expansions which include waveforms. The 3 can only load patches (voice meta-data) and styles. I would almost certainly acquire EXZ007 and/or EXZ008. Both expansions include waveforms, so GO:KEYS 5 it is.

I’m still sorting out Roland Cloud subscriptions and lifetime keys. I would likely get lifetime keys for EXZ007 and EXZ008. That’s an extra cost. Wait, there is another extra cost — downloading requires the Roland Cloud Connect wireless adapter. $124 USD Ka-ching. The adapter includes a 12 month Pro Membership, but still…

Overall, I’m favorable impressed by the current Roland GO:KEYS. If there was a model 5 with a synth-action keybed, I would buy one.

Right now, we are in the looming shadow of NAMM 2026 (January 20-24, 2026). Yamaha will almost certainly announce the next E-series 400 model sometime in the next few months. Plus, it’s time for Korg to update the i3, EK-50 and Kross. Logically, it’s better to hold off for NAMM and see what comes our way.

Copyright © 2025 Paul J. Drongowski