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Edirol PCR-30: Dead Keys
EDIT: Amazingly enough, 3 years after I posted this Edirol has made good!

So back in early 2004, in a fit of optimism, I bought an Edirol PCR-30 MIDI controller with the thought that I might try sketching out some tunes using software-synthesis. In the almost two years since, of course, it has served as a silvery musical paperweight. Tonight, however, I felt the urge to lay down some tracks in GarageBand, so I dusted off the PCR-30 and plugged it into my trusty PowerBook. My first stumbling block was that I hadn't reinstalled the drivers since updating to Tiger. No sweat, I install the drivers and the keyboard shows up in Audio/Midi Setup. Hooray! I Launch GarageBand and hit a few keys…

Plink, plink, plink, [...], plink.

Perhaps I should explain: [...] is the sound of hitting a key and hearing nothing come out of the headphones. It turns out several of the keys have gone dead over some velocity range. One is almost completely dead, only registering a note if it's played extremely softly.

Mind you, this is not a keyboard that's been pounded on in smoke-filled clubs and had beer spilled on it. It's literally been played about ten times, spending its entire life sitting on my desk. This is pretty bad performance for a product that's marketed to semi-professional musicians!

A little googling revealed that I'm not the only one to have this problem. I've sent e-mail to Edirol customer support, but I'm pretty sure I'm out of warranty. The third testimonial on this page suggests that there's still some hope that Edirol will make good, but we'll see.

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October 15th, 2005 [Music] 7 comments permalink TB
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  Comments:

1. n8gray.org: Edirol/Roland Makes Good replies:

[...] bygone days of yore I wrote a rather angry post about my Edirol PCR-30 midi controller, whose key contacts failed after essentially zero use. In my post I mentioned e-mailing Roland [...]

September 18th, 2008 at 6:14 pm

2. millch replies:

i have the same problem with my third G. my one was a present from my master and he has definitely played it several times. what means that i know i’m out of warranty. my question is know if you guys may have found a solution possibility to fix that problem. would be great. play on. pisaut

November 17th, 2008 at 5:08 pm

3. spazmaster replies:

I have the same problem. I recently acquired a used PCR-30 which was used only a few times, it was in amazing condition, it doesn’t even look like it was touched. Two of the keys are dead at higher velocity ranges, it is very disappointing.

March 31st, 2009 at 12:09 pm

4. Seven replies:

Ditto: Edirol pcr-30 almost never used after purchase 4? years ago- yet, when tested to day 2 of the keys constantly plays with louder velocity than the others& goes dead at maximum velocity.

May 21st, 2009 at 9:43 am

5. n8 replies:

Guys, be sure to read my later post where Roland agreed to fix the problem even though my PCR-30 was way out of warranty. You should call them up and see if they’ll do the same for you. Just make sure to emphasize that this is a known manufacturing defect.

http://www.n8gray.org/blog/2008/09/18/edirolroland-makes-good/

May 21st, 2009 at 10:35 am

6. Per André replies:

Thanks for your post. I have the same issue; three keys in the upper register on my PCR-30 have died for no reason. Will try to call Roland.

July 25th, 2009 at 5:48 am

7. Tom replies:

i called Edirol (Germany) about the same problem on my PCR-30 a few days ago but they only suggested to “clean” the contacts (obviously they didn’t know about the true problem) or send in the unit to a Roland repair service (and pay for a relpacement, since it’s out of warranty).

both options don’t seem useful to me. i tried the cleaning which resulted in two more keys slowly dying and i don’t want to pay 20 EUR or more for a repair of this rather “toy” either.

luckily i stumbled upon this post by Theisovian on:

http://www.fixya.com/support/t451937-replacing_key_contacts

check it out!

dead key contacts can be recovered with a little help of a screwdriver, graphite powder or -spray and a fine brush. it’s pretty easy to do took me about 20 min to fix 3 dead keys. they’re like new, hope they’ll last for a while.

good luck!

oh and in the future i will certainly stay miles away from anything carrying the name Edirol… ;-)

August 8th, 2009 at 6:12 am

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Play HexaLex for iPhone

Like my work? Check out HexaLex, my game for iPhone & iPod Touch. It's a crossword game like Scrabble, but played with hexagonal tiles. http://www.hexalex.com