Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Could the Roland RD-64 have been better?

My question is: could the Roland RD-64 have been better than it finally was? I think it has a few fantastic qualities but Roland lose a big opportunity to build an indispensable traveling tool (at least for my taste). The good qualities it has are:

- It's shorter than any 88 keys slab.
- It weights "only" 12 kg.
- It has a real hammer action (although a bit light one)
- It uses a top DP sound engine that I like a lot
- It's price is around 800 eur
- It reaches A1 note so there is a slight widening of the repertoire one can play on this thing.

So what are the characteristics I miss to be this the ideal weekend break piano?

- I would have liked that it reached 4 more keys at the bottom, until F1. That would made this machine ideal to play any Haydn or Mozart sonata and many Beethoven sonata. Several pieces by later composers could be also played without trowing away some bass notes.
- As many forum members noted on previous threads, they maybe must reduced or removed that giant left control panel, or have moved it's functions to the top panel.
- It has no speakers
- It weights 12 kg. Yes, it is lighter than the FP4 but 12 kg makes it as weighty as the Casio PX-120/130/135/150, so regarding to portability RD-64's only advantage on this respect is that it's a few cm shorter, but not as short as it could be as it has the disproportionate control panel.

I think Roland done a big product in many respects but they lose the opportunity to release a really breaking product. At least that's my humble opinion.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

I'll go along with the F-compass thing, I would have thought that would have been obvious to the design team, and yes the controls on the side seem like a waste of space.

I'm not sure I'd picked up on it being speakerless.

I don't care about lack of speakers, but I wish the left panel weren't there. Extra notes and the same length would be good, but 64 notes and less length would be even better, AFAIAC.

I may get one anyway -- it's a lot closer to a piano than the NP-11, my current travel ax. Twice the weight, though.

Almost triple, indeed. 12 kg vs 4.5 kg. That hangs me back from buying one... I guess it's the price that must be paid for a weighted action.

Thinking on a NP-11. How about your experience, ClssLib? Thanks!

The NP is a lot better than nothing, but a lot worse than Casio PX-350, which I also play. There's a big difference between the Casio's decent, weighted-key action and the NP-11's unweighted, spring-activated, pressure-sensitive keys.

The NP is, however, light, short, and cheap. I check it as airline baggage in a Roland Juno padded soft case, which fits it like a glove, and it has always emerged from the baggage hold unscathed. That's almost disappointing, since if United would just crush the danged thing, I'd buy an RD-64.

The best thing about the NP is that I don't worry about it when I travel. Que sera, sera.

Thank you, ClsscLib.

I just found a photo that has almost convinced me about the RD-64:


The fact you save the nuisance of collapsing the car's seat is interesting comparing to the PX-135 I own. I'm really tempted regardless the weight...

I also guess I wouldn't be bothered by the absence of speakers as headphones or a pair of small computer speakers can be carried easily.

EDIT: I also loved this picture:

It wasn't really designed for the classical crowd. No product is perfect, but I think controllers on the side is better than on top of the keys. I really don't like controllers on top when I'm using them quite a bit.

The one other thing you'll want to think about is a stand for the keyboard and how you will transport it.

I get by without a stand for the NP -- it's light enough and short enough that there's usually a hotel end table, occasional table, or coffee table that will work reasonably well.

I would fly with the Casio PX-350 in a hard case if I could just think of a way to solve the stand problem.

I've used my PX-330 resting on two pretty flimsy coffee tables, and on a single coffee table when its been rather sturdier.

I think an Rd76 would have been nice, but I'm pleasantly surprised that I'm getting by with just 64 keys. Over all I'm happy with it, good sounds and a nice action and very manageable to move around.

I just got the RD64 but I only have a guitar amp...
What would be the best audio solution for home use (practice) ...
A keyboard/ Bass amp?
Speakers?
PA system?
Not expensive doesn't have be too loud..

That depends on how "realistic" you want the sound to be -- particularly, how much bass response you want. (As I remember, the RD64 doesn't have the lowest octave of an 88-key keyboard -- so "low bass" might be irrelevant!)

The cheapest answer is "Headphones" -- you can buy a good set for $100 or so. (mine are Sennheiser HD280 and AKG K240; you can spend more money, and get better models.)

I have a pair of Behringer MS40 powered speakers. I don't like them for piano -- not enough low bass -- but they're inexpensive, and the midrange and treble are fine. Computer "multi-media speakers" with "subwoofer" and two small satellite speakers -- they tend to have weak mid-range (but I only tried one, some might be better).

A guitar amp has "tailored frequency response" -- not flat, not good for piano. A full-range bass amp may be better.

A small powered PA speaker -- 8" woofer -- works well. EV ZXA1 is excellent -- good bass, flat frequency response -- but expensive. (I could afford _one_, that's what I use.)

Any "powered monitor" with 5" or larger woofer will probably be OK. The JBL LSR305, or similar models from Yamaha / KRK (Rokit) / etc are all used. Larger woofers cost more, and get you more bass response, and more powerful amps.

Will you be using the RD64 for gigging? If you have a small PA system, that will be more than enough.

Thanks for the reply..
I won't be gigging..
I'm fairly new to keyboard having played guitar.

Would an amp within 8 inch speaker be better than a monitor with an 8 inch speaker?

What would a monitor with 4x4 inch speakers be like?

Roland do a monitor called cm30 I think it's a 6.5 inch speaker with 30 watt and has a tweeter in the dome apparently!!!

Is an 8 inch speaker with an 8 inch woofer and a tweeter better than a sole 10 inch woofer?

BTW I will get headphones too but I also want some kind of sound system that others can hear too....

First, don't get too hung up on speaker sizes. All else being equal, a bigger speaker will give you more bass, but other than that, it doesn't tell you much. A given speaker system with an 8" woofer can sound better than some other system with a 10" woofer, and a given speaker system with an 10" woofer can sound better than some other system with an 8" woofer.

However, you do want a system with more than one speaker, i.e. a woofer and tweeter (low and high frequency drivers), rather than a single "full range" speaker. So to answer your last question, a speaker with an 8" woofer plus a tweeter will sound better than a sole 10" speaker, as a sole 10" speaker cannot give you the high frequencies that you need.

I think Charles gave you good advice. For home, in a stationery application, I'd probably look at the JBL LSR305, I've heard a lot of good things about them. I use the EV ZXa1 for gigging.

The only thing that has stopped me from buying the RD64 is that it doesn't have any strings sounds. I can deal with all the other little issues you mentioned. But it seems very odd that such a common and loved sound among keyboard players is missing from this board.

You talk a lot about "a" monitor.
Your biggest improvement will come from having stereo sound so you need two. Best to go for a set of powered monitors.