KVR Audio

Seidhepriest · Post by **Seidhepriest** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 3:37 pm

Question for PCR- owners... Support for which country might be more responsive? Roland Japan? US Roland's constantly mailing the same phone number, which is a no-no as the phone call's going to cost serious amounts of cash from here...

Markleford · Post by **Markleford** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 3:57 pm

Email US first, perhaps?

- m

Seidhepriest · Post by **Seidhepriest** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 4:02 pm

They keep on replying with the same support phone number. And there's no working phone here, and it certainly isn't US (the phone number might be free for calls within US, but certainly not here)...

Markleford · Post by **Markleford** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 4:18 pm

Hrm. Possible to use Skype to get a phonecall there?

Seidhepriest · Post by **Seidhepriest** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 4:28 pm

Well yes, but it will cost regardless. Anyway, they just ought to reply by mail.

Sascha Franck · Post by **Sascha Franck** » Sat Nov 22, 2008 12:39 am

On my PCR-M1, meanwhile, all keys but two refuse to put out anything but velocity 127.
Having it opened already, I can only say that this is the cheapest thing I've ever had in my hands. In my case, I don't think any magnets are responsible for this behaviour at all. It's just uber-cheesy built quality.
I may need to add that I treated it relatively well. And uhm, it's supposed to be taken with you on the road or wherever.
As said, uber-cheap.

I got another pretty cheap one as a replacement for traveling (some 2 octave model of Miditech) and that one seems to be built a lot better (too bad it's not as slim).

- Sascha

LeVzi · Post by **LeVzi** » Sat Nov 22, 2008 2:45 am

wow seems you all have had problems, my PCR-50 is over a year old and its fine. Connected via USB, and its had a hammering at times, but still ticking. I keep a dust cover over it during no use, maybe thats helped.

Lunch Money · Post by **Lunch Money** » Sat Nov 22, 2008 10:33 pm

Rare earth magnets would surely be too strong for the kind of application they're needed for.

Seidhepriest · Post by **Seidhepriest** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 12:45 am

That's the snag with mass production by huge corporations - they try to cut costs on everything, it's penny-pinching literally.

MIDITech isn't on sale anywhere around here, so it's an E-Mu XBoard 25 (expensive, yes, but it's got real key aftertouch).

"Recharging" the magnets by coil field might help, thing is, the magnets stopped working altogether after the bands were bent (magnet field feedback?). All but the keys in the middle of each magnet strip are dead now.

Levzi: it's a matter of time quite likely, here the PCR-M30 lived for about a year and a half until six keys started losing sensitivity. Perhaps the -50 also has better-quality components.

pootsz · Post by **pootsz** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 2:14 am

I had the same issue with the PC-50...searched and found this forum.
I don't use the board a lot, just for the odd synth or piano track, so a lot of the keys see little use. A few of them stopped responding including the system key.
I took a peek inside just to see how things worked.
I have all keys working now so I'm pretty happy about that so here's what I did.

The contacts are positioned towards the top of the board, about halfway between the black keys. Vigorously play the problem keys in this area but not too hard, just get the key moving up and down fast. Keep doing this and if your lucky like me, the keys will begin to work. It a matter of those rubber pads getting no use that they get a little stubborn.

I'll have to see how this goes, but I plan to regularly give all the keys this treatment every now and then.

Best of luck...

traz · Post by **traz** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 2:41 am

About 3 years ago my Edirol pcr 50 also developed none-responsive keys. For whatever reason the contacts just lose it over time. No matter how much cleaning, playing them more or harder etc, the old contacts just quit working. I got in contact with Roland and they sent me out a new membrane of contacts for the whole keyboard for free. I have had no problems since. Roland Canada (Where I live) were great to deal with. Traz ps check Harmony Central user reviews for these types of keyboards many people have had problems.

music4u2enjoy · Post by **music4u2enjoy** » Fri May 22, 2009 4:28 pm

I only found this board a couple of days ago - thanks to everyone. I have possesion of a PCR-50 and, sure enough, only three keys were working at all. Having read the suggestions, I checked the rubber contacts under the keys and they APPEARED to be fine. However, they are NOT. Over the years I have replaced these regularly on Roland D50's and other keyboards and it is usually a problem with dust affecting the rubber contacts. In the case of the PCR-50, there was no trace of dust whatsoever. I contacted Edirol as a result of what is on this board and they just referred me to Roland in the UK who hold their spares. Roland, who are always very helpful, stated that they had got the parts but did not know of any problems. The complete set of rubber contacts was about £10 ($15 approx) and they sent them straight out. I have now found that the new contacts are different from the original and I wonder if the original contacts were a problem. Anyway, all have now been replaced and every single key works perfectly. I thought that £10 was worth a gamble before I threw the keyboard away - happily, I was right.

Barbed Wire Kiss · Post by **Barbed Wire Kiss** » Fri May 22, 2009 7:21 pm

It's funny how this thread get resurrected ever few months.

Well I have a new chapter to my story in that I've started to use my PCR-M30 again after a year or so off. When I last used it one of the sliders wasn't working, but magically it is now.

Markleford · Post by **Markleford** » Fri May 22, 2009 7:31 pm

Barbed Wire Kiss wrote:Well I have a new chapter to my story in that I've started to use my PCR-M30 again after a year or so off. When I last used it one of the sliders wasn't working, but magically it is now.

I've found that my PCR-30 behaves slightly differently according to temperature, actually: I guess the rubberized material inside reacts differently. (slightly better in cold weather, I think)

I can also get my dead keys back in service by "exercising" them and their neighboring keys.

Time to call Roland Customer Service one of these days, though...

- m

Sascha Franck · Post by **Sascha Franck** » Sat May 23, 2009 1:00 pm

music4u2enjoy wrote:I have now found that the new contacts are different from the original and I wonder if the original contacts were a problem.

I think that's pretty much the problem. Early adopters as beta testers or so. As said earlier in this thread, the contacts of my PCR M1 are of almost abysmal quality. Pretty bad as I really liked the super slim concept - the similarily slim ones of M-Audio are out of production and unfortunately my fingers are really too fat for a Korg Nano Control (really, for the same reason I can never buy an iPhone as I always hit wrong letters).

- Sascha

Some of the keys on my Edirol PCR-50 are dying!