Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards THE RD-700NX Thread!

I'm not sure what effect this guys is using other than some reverb, but this RD700GXF sounds exquisite. Not entirely on topic, but to my ears, most of the pianos on the RD700GXF and RD700NX sound nearly identical. Actually the guy in these videos has recorded numerous pieces on the RD700GXF with the various SN pianos as well as some stuff done through software like Synthology.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj3m5KMJ02o
http://www.youtube.com/user/cubusdk#p/u/45/exuFxCaOX5o

A little story time again folks. As you know I bought one of these last month but due to my very thin wallet I waited a little, the original one got sold so I ordered another one to the store.

Mine finally arrived and I went down to fetch it at the store. The clerk (and also owner of the store) had promised me the "best price" all the time and I got a wooping 30 dollar discount. Yay. I wasn't in the mood to haggle nor wait another month and a half to order from the US. The latter would have saved me 300 dollars I think, tax and shipping included. This was one expensive mother... I was just so taken aback by the clerks "best price" so I just rolled with it and thought 'screw this, I don't need money once I have the piano anyway' got the guy to at least give me a ride home. Packed it up, put it on the stand (which was thankfully included) and played it with headphones a bit, and was disappointed.

All this time I've been practicing on a Steinway Grand and since I was tired, a little moody and more or less ripped off, I must have thought it was the real thing. Turns out it really wasn't. Keys were much lighter and didn't have the "swinging hammer" sensation. The grip felt "rubbery", and worse yet, I couldn't dial in a single sound that sounded good under my fingers. Not at all what I tried back in the store when I decided to buy. Everything sounded muddy and unbalanced. The Steinway is way muddier sounding but you can hear every single wood grain through the wall of sound it produced. And the low keys was much stronger and boomy, yet clear as a bell.

Aghast, feeling really down now, I franticly pushed buttons and turned the dials. Nothing could save me from the horrible Roland sound pounding my ears. I took off the headphones and went to make some tea. Man what a crappy day.

Standing there in my kitchen watching water slowly turn to boil, my head was completely empty. Only then it occurred to me: I have been practicing on a Grand piano for two weeks straight, day in and day out. A Steinway Grand piano in a sound proof room on a stage perfectly calculated to make it sound beautiful. There is no way in heck another piano will sound as good as that. Pondering that I take the tea and sit down at the NX again (on an ikea fold-up chair cause the clerk didn't include a damn bench). Breathe in the scent of tea and hit the keys. It was the ridiculous Clav 2. I turn on a beat and goes into some sort of Stevie Wonder frenzy. It's pretty fun so I dial some more and other sounds pop in and hop around a bit. It's good. It's really good. At last I return to the Concert Grand and try a few chords -and I have to laugh out loud. No, it's not an acoustic Steinway Grand, but it's damn good for a digital piano!

Haha, slept on it and came up with the perfect solution -and I'm so going to store clerk heck for it.

I'll keep it until my gig in 15 days, then return it for a full refund and buy the cheaper one from USA. It'll save me 300-400 dollars.

Cheers
Fred

/edit
And if I'm lucky they forget to add the total to shipping and I don't have to pay import duty. Which will save me a total whopping 1000 dollars. It has happened to me before on a very expensive guitar. Was so happy I danced all the way home and celebrated with champagne.

I just got one of these bad boys for Christmas. I'm very, very impressed. I like it more the more I am acquainted with it.

Just had a revelation: Played around with Pianoteq on a friends laptop the other day and decided to try it out at home. Borrowed his laptop and plugged in the NX. I don't have speakers so that's the only way I could record something and sing at the same time. And... they sound very similar. Apart from feeling that I might have gone over my head with the NX when this could have been my practice setup for months with a much cheaper keyboard.

I know there is lots of threads about Pianoteq/Ivory etc and using a laptop, and though playing on the NX feels a lot "closer" to the sound. Have anyone compared the two if you put in into recording? Pianoteq is a little brighter overall but the effect of decay is very similar.

/* SARCASM_ON

It may be crappy but hey, it's not looped, you know... Because that's what's important for a digital piano. (Not that we can hear looping in other digital pianos but we can observe that in software, you know)

/* SARCASM_OFF

If you can't hear looping in most DPs you need a doctor. In low to midrange notes it is absolutely blatant in my view.

It depends. It was clearly audible on my ex RD-700SX even when playing real stuff. However on my Kawai CA-63 it is so subtle that it's approaching the limit of being virtually inaudible.

Well kudos to Kawai then! You are right that it is very audible in the RD-700SX. I need to try a Kawai with UPHI, I really do.

Steve

.

Great review Dave. I was anxious to get your take. I'm quite sure you would give the RD700GXF a very similar review. It's honestly astonishing how much better the GXF is over the GX thanks to the SN piano sounds. Just makes the GX more playable, more dynamic, and overall, just better as a piano. Add the RPU-3, and you've got a nice little digital piano set up. The RD700NX is a really nice piece of kit. Beautiful LCD screen and you're right, very intuitive layout.

Here are my thoughts on the RD300NX, without trying to off topic. If the RD300GX to the RD700GX is anything to go by, the RD300NX is bound to be much much more watered down, and far less capable than it's larger 700 series sibling. Not to knock the RD300GX because it's proven to be a great little light-weight gigging board, but it's not nearly as capable as the RD700GX(F).

- I think it'll have PHA II Ivory feel keys, not PHA III.
- I think it'll have a single SN piano, possibly a few based off the prime SN piano (like Mellow, Bright, etc.) then probably the Expressive Grand from the GX.
- I think it'll have a larger LCD screen, but not like the RD700NX.
- It'll probably have some SN EP sounds, and maybe the Sound Focus feature.

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Where did you get this info about the release of a V-Piano 2 ?? I am dreaming of this, but unfortunately, I don't expect anything like this soon. So, any additional comment on this rumor will be welcomed.

thanks

I went today with my piano teacher (and 2 AKG 240 mk2) to a very large reseller that had on display to try all the EP that we wanted to test:

- Kawai MP10
- Roland V-PIANO
- Roland RD700-NX
- YAmaha CVP 509
- YAMAHA Avantgrand n2

I came with the idea of buying the CVP509 because it has everything in one: Piano, Multiple sounds, and many many features to make piano more fun.

But... after 4 hours of test, we really did not like the keyboard of the CVP, nor the keyboard and sound on the Kawai, and did not get so much impress by the Avantgrand.

So... The winners, by far (for our taste) are the 2 Rolands. The V-Piano being very very slightly better than the RD-70O NX, but really the RD-700 NX at half the price of the V-Piano impressed us a lot.

So, my question is: If I take the V-Piano or, more likely the RD-700NX, is there a midi rack/module that I could plug in the V-Piano/RD-700 through Midi, and that can add to the Roland everything that the CVP509 or a TRyros has (additional sounds, arranger, rythmes, sampler, Accompaniment style, drums kits...).? A sort of Tyros4... RACK :-)

Thanks in advance for your advices

Anyone had a problem with their wav recorder? I don't know if it's my memory stick, the recorder, or something else, but some of my recording go blank at random. Some files windows media player won't recognize, some are OK, some are OK for a bit and then go silent. Any ideas?

I don't remember if this video regarding an issue with the 700NX has been posted before.

I hope it's a sporadic case.

Fabrizio

Surely Yamaha makes something? Is there a motif or similar? In the "old" days they had the MU-90 and 100 that would have ticked a lot of your boxes; even had a rudimentary mixer onboard and ADCs to take mic/guitar/other line level sources and add effects at the same time as being a pretty elaborate (for its day) XG tone/rhythm generator.

2 Little questions:

- I find that the original RD-700's stand (KSG8) does not have enough stability. Can the bigger V-Piano 's stand be used with the RD-700 ?

- I tested the RD-700 with the Roland DS7 Bi-Amp monitors. I found them very good, but... (1) I read that they are discontinued by rolland ! Is it true ? What monitors you recommend ? (2) Will the DS8 be worth the increased price in term of quality ?


thanks

Nope it's not. I have the same problem with my RD-700GXF. It must be be something with the SuperNATURAL piano, because when I switch over to the non-SN pianos it doesn't have that bazaar cut off. I tested the RD700NX when I briefly owned it, and it did the same thing. I have NO idea why the SN pianos do that. The V-Piano does not though. I checked it.

Question about headphone: I found that the internal headphone AMP of the RD-700 is not strong enough for my AKG 240 MK2/AKG271. I need to put volume all the way up to get the same volume that a V-Piano will provide at 50% volume.

--> Are some people using a Headphone AMP with their RD-700 ?

Or Will a more sensitive headphone solve the problem, but the AKG 240 are already quite efficient since they are OK with MP3 players. May be a Grado headphone ?
_________________________
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever

On youtube some people reported an issue with supernatural piano. Does your RD's behavig like that?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_d2zKuBV2I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNNGiJjPEI4

Sorry for my bad english.