Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards All about Roland FP-80 & FP-50!!!

I'm thinking on saving for a FP-50. Those -200 grams made a big difference for me Also I guess the speakers will be a bit better than F4-F's... Shame the RD-64 doesn't reach the F1

I think the speakers of the ES7 are actually quite good for a stage piano with build-in amp+speakers. At least better than most comparable DP's I've encountered so far. None of them is really comparable to separate studio monitors or a high end cabinet DP, but that's also hardly possible if you want to keep it compact and portable. The FP7F speakers we're inferior to the ES, the FP-80 might be on par or better.

By the way , there are no reviews of the FP-80 yet as far as I know and I've certainly not seen any rave reviews . Musik Messe will tell us more I hope.

New Musikmesse video: They look nice but I WANT TO HEAR IT!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4icBFqTTIfA

Found a video of the new FP-50 and sounds cool!

enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5ttkVK11Hw

FP-80 listed at Thomann for 1869 euro. Shipping in 3 weeks time...

Kraft Music saying May 3. $1,999 FP-80

http://www.kraftmusic.com/roland-fp-80-digital-piano-black.html

Does it have the SN Studio Grand (apart from the Concert Grand that was the only SN piano base for the FP7F) ?!

Can anyone on the Messe floor check ??? Any Roland representative ever (?) present on this forum to answer such questions ? Kawai and Casio are doing a great job in that respect ! Even David Weiss from Kurzweil drops in every now and then. Where's Roland ? Ignorant ? Arrogant ? Living in another time and space ?

Roland have their own forum:

http://forums.rolandclan.com/

James
x

Great, they have no FP-80 discussions in their own forum. Weak.

....Has anybody gotten Airplay to work with a MacBook Pro?



Thomann : 1799,- Euro

I guess the extra 70 euros is because I live in Denmark which has a nice 25% tax rate.

I noticed that in the specs of FP80 they don't list "Open/close lid" setting in Effects-Piano Designer section, do you think they really took that away? All HP pianos do have this (as far as I know) and I recall that it significantly changes the sound character. Also Brilliance is missing, which was addition to HP 50x models, wasn't it? And lastly, there is no button for Reverb, can it not have reverb?

Buy it in Germany???

Hookxs: Yeah, I also noticed that. Strange isn't it?

Thomann varies the price depending on which country they're shipping to...

Hi my first post.
My fp-7f definitely had a honky tonk sound at approximately the 3rd and 5th octaves, I went back to the store to see if the floor model was the same. It sure was. I showed the salesperson. To prove my point I switched quickly between those notes on Grand Piano 1 and honkytonk piano. The sounds were nearly identical. The sound was less prevelant with earphones which made me believe it was not the speakers fault. The longer you play the more the errant sound spreads to other keys. And I also detected it in other voices. Sounds like a very complicated problem. I returned it for a Kawai ES7. The SN sound is a clearly superior sound to the Kawai if it weren't for the problem keys. I'm thinking of exchanging the kawai for an fp-80 but I tried the fp-50 today (fp-80 was in stock) which was on display and I believe I detected that same errant sound as the fp-7f but the store was too busy and lots of pianos playing so not sure. So I wonder if the fp-80 has the problem too.
I also own a baby grand and I'm thinking that maybe I'm spoiled with that sound and people who play digital all the time may get used to a not so perfect sound and might not detect the fp-7f problem.

I had one on order (could get a nice price); but when the manual was finally available I found out the FP-80 was 80% identical to the FP7F, meaning:

- same keyed
- same basic AP sound(s) - although sometime with different preset names
- 99% same other sounds
- same display and operation
- same polyphony
- same effects and eq

Improvements:
- speakers
- SN EP's
- rhythms

Gone:
- the looper
- lid simulation (why ?)

I really had hoped the other sample bases like Studio Grand had also made it in the FP-80, giving it a wider pallet of AP sounds. But for pure AP playing , I thought the differences where to small to justify the investment. So cancelled and still on the hunt...

Usually an acoustic piano will be less perfectly in tune than a digital. So to even up things, the makers throw in the odd out of tune note for a bit of realism. That`s my theory. I don`t think it works . . . my piano has the opposite fault - a note which is perfect unison. But it is sampled over the next 5 . . .I live reasonably happily with it.

JFP, I believe the FP-7F had rhythm accompaniments too - it's just they were called 'Session Partner'.

James
x

I know - but the FP-80 accompaniment has been reworked, extended and improved.

But personally I don't care at all about these gadgets ; just want good action, good and realistic sounds and a good connection between the two. If a good speaker system is added as a bonus , that could in practice save me the hassle of extra external equipment ; but if better speakers is the main improvement of the FP-80 and all else is roughy the same, then IIMHO the Roland is not innovative enough to justify the steep price. I know the EP's are SN too now, but that is not totally new either, they have been around on some other models for a quite while.

The addition of the 'other' AP sample sound sets (studio grand/ brilliant grand) would have made me buy the FP-80, despite the fact that the keybed may still be as 'thumpy' as in the previous Roland models (no comments from people who tried the FP-80 on that ??) . Because I simply like the sound of the Studio Grand better than the 'standard' SN AP you find in most models.

Now I consider to go all software or wait for some more reports on the alternatives that have other advantages:
- software and fixed setup (not for take-away) as I was planning to do in the first place (VPC1),
- low weight, interesting price and many sounds and features (PX5S + extra MIDI box for half-damping) ,
- extended masterkeyboard functionality, relatively light weight and still the option to use internal sounds (Pysispiano K4)
- Nice wooden action, relative light weight (!) and an AP grand sound I liked so far (from the only demo that is available); SL Numa Concert

But I'm hijacking the conversation here. Please continue...- only thing I tried to emphasize is that for AP playing I think the FP7F are pretty much the same , apart from the speakers; making the FP-80 such a strange beast for a "new" product. Too much recycling, to little innovation...

Considering the lack of innovation as described above I think it won't attract much attention and people seriously consider the (often cheaper) alternatives. Why is it that Roland thinks they have to sell products by adding Airplay like functionality (it had an input already to plug-in your playing device) ? It's a piano ; improve where it counts and people will come (not in gimmicks and gadgets).

Just my thoughts

FP-80

Again, I just want to hear the damn thing!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcqt1nCYeks