Fans of Roland

Jazzpunk, yeah, it is definitely hard to find the "showroom" kind of places we used to 20 years ago. I guess having a lot of inventory tied up on a showroom floor can get pretty expensive.

About the only other option I can think of is having someone like Sweetwater send several to try out then return the ones that are the least desirable. I'm sure there is a restocking fee or some such, understandably. It might help me that I've bought quite a lot of stuff from Sweetwater over the years and they know I'm likely to continue buying from them. I also find that when I talk to my sales guy on the phone (there is one in particular), he pretty much always gets me a substantial discount of some kind. And my wife likes it when there is candy in the box when it comes. LOL!!

Just finished playing through most of tomorrow's set on the old Casio. So far, so good. No issues. Hoping it's fixed for a while anyway.

If I weren't gigging, I think I'd have probably tried to get an MP11SE. It's just too heavy for me to hump around, my ol' back would not like it at all. Even the RD-2000 is pushin' the limits, I had to get a soft bag to carry it instead of the hardshell case. I just have to be extra careful. I have the heavy case if I think I need it. The hardshell case is something like 32 pounds, just the empty case, plus 45 or so for the RD-2000, that's probably 80 pounds if I put the pedal, a cord and some light accessories in there. The soft case is maybe 4 or 5 pounds at most.

rogerch Have fun at your gig tomorrow!

It went well. Casio performed flawlessly. Customers enjoyed the music but only one or two actually sat and listened for a while. We did what they wanted done, some live (and lively) music. Got paid.

The most irritating thing was an outside speaker for the radio inside that they couldn't turn off. We made enough noise that it was tolerable... except when they were using it as a bullhorn to announce winners of door prizes. :/

Like I said, got paid... and any gig that's a paying gig is a whole lot better than one that doesn't. People were happy and friendly. Very laid back atmosphere. The expectation was pretty low on the "performance" level, not much worry of wrong notes or mess-ups, stuff like that. It was a "live rehearsal" for another gig we have next week!

Probably more than you wanted to know. LOL!

Enjoyed reading, TC3.

I do like my RD-2000. It's not that I wouldn't love a real acoustic grand. Of all of them that I played and worked on over the years, I can see myself with a 7' Baldwin, perhaps, it's just a sound and feel that always "spoke to me". That said, I have no space for such a beast. It's just not gonna happen. I have less interest in an upright than I do in electronic keyboards so zero interest there. So... electronic works for me.

People definitely make different choices depending upon their needs, their wants, their situations, their tastes, and their budgets. It's actually getting more rare for me to even play an acoustic piano anymore as most of the places I frequent have electronic keyboards or expect musicians to bring their own. And to be honest, I almost prefer to have a known electronic than an unknown acoustic that who knows when the last time it was tuned or how bad of regulation it's in. Might be great, might be atrocious. With my RD-2000, I know it well, both sound and feel.

I had a Roland for the 18 months before I moved to the USA. I sold it because bringing it over would have been impractical and I needed the money to buy a keyboard here. It was the model HP603. When it powers on, the presets are kind of flat and it doesn't sound like a nice piano at all, but once I got into the voicing of the individual notes, and used all that virtual technician stuff to change it, it was quite amazing what could be done. I really enjoyed playing it. Also the touch was enough like a grand piano so that there didn't seem to be any adjustment required in the touch moving between a grand and the digital.

I think that as far as digital pianos go, Yamaha sounds the most accurate, but I think that Roland might be more playable in a way. It's not that Roland didn't always strive for accuracy, but they were always more interested in how a piano behaves so that from the point of view of the player it always felt like a real instrument. Not necessarily a real piano, but a real instrument in terms of the expression. That's what they achieved in the 80s with the RD-1000 and its babies. I remember being a bit sad when the sample based pianos came out through the 90s because they were never quite as expressive as the RD-1000 family (HP-4500, HP-3000, HP-5000, HP-5500, HP-5600, HP-6000, RD-300s, RD-250s, RD-200, and the Rhodes MK-80) even though they sounded more 'realistic'.

Disclaimer - I haven't tried a new Clavinova in about 4 years so I can't tell you how they feel. I even taught in a music store in recent months but I just didn't bother trying the new pianos, it was in, teach, out.

I find it interesting what different people find appealing. There are some who really do not like modeled piano sounds. And there are some who really do not like even well sampled piano sounds. It is also interesting that some manufacturers are hybridizing the two in their quest for the "perfect" piano sound.

Personally, I find that a piano sound that is "too perfect" becomes irritating to me over a short time. When I hear some complain about Roland's out of tune notes and funky tone in various places, I find it somewhat amusing because those things are intentional. I believe there are a few who have developed editors for some of the Roland keyboards to be able to easily mess with those types of parameters.

No one is wrong, only tastes vary from person to person. Just observing.

Hi all, a new Roland fan here. I just bought a FP10 for travel purposes. I like it being compact, relatively lightweight, and with 88 weighted keys. It’s really perfect for keeping the practice going during travels. Compared with the Yamaha p525 that I use for silent practicing at home, the Roland action feels a bit heavier (which I don’t mind) and a little “springy.” But for its price - especially an unbelievable deal from the Guitar Center - that is good enough. The only complaint I have is the low volume output, with or without headphones. That makes me compensate by playing with greater force. After a weekend of practicing on it, I found myself playing loudly when switching back to my acoustic piano. I wonder if any of you have a similar issue with your Roland and if there’s any way to address it.

TC3 An inexpensive headphone amp could get you more volume. Something like this would work:

Behringer MicroAmp

Wow, that is great. I didn’t know such a thing existed . Thanks very much!

Something else you can explore... usually keyboards have an adjustable sensitivity / touch weight setting that can affect how hard you have to play a key vs what you hear when you do it. (I can't remember the exact word for it.) It doesn't change the actual feel of the key in any way, only how it sounds when you play it. Set to "light", you will get a lot of reaction for a light touch and set to "heavy" you will get a way reduced reaction for a heavy touch. On my RD-2000, there is something on the order of 100 or more possible settings, way more than I would actually need, but it's more than just "light", "medium" and "heavy". And I don't even recall exactly where I have it set. Anyway, it's something you can explore on your keyboard to see whether a different setting might help you.

FWIW, I do find that if I don't have my sound turned up high enough or if I'm using one of the more "quiet" piano settings, I do find myself beating a lot harder on those keys, hard enough that my hands can get sore. Playing solo, it's not a problem, usually happens playing with the band if I don't pick a piano sound that cuts through the mix better.

Best of luck!

Bellyman Thank you Bellyman. I did see instructions about how to adjust the sensitivity level. I’ll give it a try.

I found your comment about Roland's out of tune notes and funky tone as part of the intentional design interesting. I have noticed the unevenness in tone across some of the keys, and that varies by the piano sound I choose.