Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Roland FP7F versus Roland RD700NX

Very pretty floor, too!

Yes, it's custom made... and a beautiful job too!

http://vkny.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/102/

Personally, I would love to see Kawai produce high quality, real wood stands for the MP10, however I expect sales of CA models would be affected.

Cheers,
James
x

Yes, exactly like that.

However, I doubt that what that looks like could be built for $250.

Regardless, if I eventually get the 700NX, I will look into a setup just like it. Thanks for the visual.





No, I am doing this in order to get a sound I like that comes from the engine in my keyboard.

The keyboard action is probably inferior to what I now have in that it is pretty light, but it is fine for me. I am not trying to train for playing on an acoustic.

I certainly will utilize my software piano sounds through it but I like the option of having a sound I like right in my keyboard.

Foolish ? Probably. But most things I do with this piano stuff is foolish, financially anyway.



Cheers,
James
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Definitely a nice LOOKING setup, but fairly confident that the speaker placement is more for convenience and not sound. I personally wasn't happy until I had the monitors with tweeter just below ear level and separated so that the outer side of the speakers were about the outer width of the DP. Speaker placement has a HUGE impact on the sound.

OP, GL and hope you find what you are looking for with the Roland! (I got the FP-7F and love it)

My thoughts exactly when I saw the picture. The speakers almost certainly need to move up a shelf.

Thank You. I am constantly vacilating between the FP7F and the 700NX. You have shifted me toward the FP7F again.

The downside of the 700NX now includes .... Extra $1000 cost, No internal speakers, & No furniture stand available for it.

Are they really all 3 supernatural? Because only Grand Piano 1 is labelled as Supernatural (it's written under Piano 1, no other sounds has that).

Hi!
Well, I faced a problem with the FP7F. The sound level either from the speakers and the output line was so weak that I decided to give it back to the shop and bought the RD-700NX (this was an year ago). I’m reasonably happy with the output level from the RD-700NX, that as we know doesn't have speakers, I' using an external amplifier an speakers (take a look to other thread in this forum) – it seems to be a characteristic at least with the different Roland digital pianos I tested: all of them offer a very low output level as regards the acoustic piano sounds (and an annoying unbalance between the acoustic piano output levels and all the other sound levels, EPs, organs, etc.. We have to be careful when moving during a perfomance from acoustic pianos to other instruments!).

Cheers

Nothing weak about the output of the FP-7F. You can increase the Master Gain setting (in the Functions menu) to as much as +12db (deafening thru the internal spkrs and needed occasionally for house PAs), although unfortunately you can't save it to survive power-off so you have to re-set it every time you turn on your instrument. This becomes second nature after a while.

Also, although in the FP-7F vis-a-vis the 700NX there is only one SN piano sound, if you don't like it or Roland's variations of it in other patches you can change it to your liking pretty drastically if you play around with Equalizer and Piano Designer.

You guys considering the RD700nx should do yourself a favor and try the RD300nx too. I've mentioned it here before but when I had to replace my main keyboard, I tried a bunch of them. I like heavy action and I found the 300 to actually have a heavier, more realistic feel than the 700. I know it's just a preference thing, but the 700 keys felt a little sloppy to me. The only other real difference that I could tell is a smaller display and the loss of a layer (the 300 can do 3 layers, the 700 can do 4). The plusses for me was less weight (I play out a lot) and the obvious price difference.

I don't know if others have tried the 300, but for me, I've been happy with it so far (about 6 months). I'll also add that I use virtual pianos at home, but use the internal sounds on the road. For me, the feel is the most important factor when buying a new board and the 300 won me over.

Brian, thank you for sharing your thoughts.

May I ask which virtual piano software you use when playing at home?
Do you ever have any difficulty transitioning from the software piano to the hardware piano?

Cheers,
James
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Thank you for posting this. It gives me another viable option.

I was hesitating on the FP7F because of the loss of the Acoustic Piano options found on the 700NX. I was hesitating on the 700NX because of the lack of on-board speakers and price.




Brian: I would also be interested in your response to these questions.

Yes, all the pianos in FP-7F are supernatural - no stretching, no velocity layers, no looping. But they are derivatives of the same voice.

No *detectable* velocity layers. We don't know the details of their implementation. They could well have a few layers that they have simply blended together in a way that prevents detection by dewster's tests.

Yes. No "audible" velocity layers. I was going to write that but couldn't be bothered!

The 700NX plays and sounds better then the 7F to me. If you need the internal speakers and the furniture type stand, that might tip the scales towards the 7F.

I use Native Instruments Komplete Piano package. It's been renamed a bunch of times, but the piano part was called Akoustic Piano when I got it. I use the Steinway D mostly, although it has a Bosendorfer, a Bechstein grand and an upright as well.

As far as the transition, I don't think any on board piano is going to be better than software samples (does any board sample pedal and key noise? Don't think so). I'm just not at the "take a computer on the road" point yet. Some gigs I have a monitor engineer, so he takes care of sound issues. But when I'm plugging into a local PA, I like the onboard EQ options on the RD300nx. It's probably on the 700 too. Helps me roll off offending spikes in the sound.

Like I said, I haven't used it for long, and I still have to get into all the features, but so far I've been really happy with it. I like having the layers with faders to add strings to the piano sound and slider controls for each sound's volume. I even noticed on the first gig I used it on how much more accurate some licks were. I came from a Kurzweil PC88 for reference. Great action, some useful features. I'm a believer.

Hmm, but is it officially mentioned somewhere (manual, guide, etc.) in Roland papers? Because, if they are all 3 supernatural of the same voice, I wonder why only Grand Piano 1 is labelled as supernatural...

Roland generally just says "SN Piano" in the specs for everything. But for the RD-700NX they specifically say there are three distinct SN piano voices.

I tested all three FP-7F piano voices here and found them all to be SN, but just EQ (and perhaps other settings) variations of the single "Concert Grand" voice in the RD-700NX. "SuperNATURAL" not showing up on the screen for the other two voices has caused a lot of confusion.

Dewster, does the above statement applies to the Roland Fp4f as well ?