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At Merriam music in Oakville Ontario they had an fp 7f and a es7 back to back in the middle of the floor. You could play both pianos at the same time. What a difference. The fp 7f sounded so much clearer and brighter. The es7 dull in comparison. But on it's own the es7 was also compelling. Just don't play it alongside the fp 7f. Yet tastes in sound are personal and someone might prefer the es7.

My HP-505 has a setting "soundboard" which upon usage at higher values lets the single tones of a block played chord sound a little bit more transparent / slightly moved stronger to the foreground and away of all this resonances noise background. It is a very, very subtle fine tuning of the SN behaviour, something you would rarely notice if not sitting in front of the DP and searching in the sound for changes when changing this parameter. It might be the same on the FP?

Hi free thinker,

I'm also considering this vs the Kawai ES7. Are you able to elaborate how it sounds against the ES7 using purely the onboard speakers? I know you say it is louder... I was also previously put off the FP7F by the stupendous noise the keybed made. Is it still really quite loud?

Thanks!

@ Marco - do you think the soundboard effects is comparable to the similar named effect StudioLogic claims with the new Numa Concert (listen to the demo's in the Numa Concert thread) ?

I never thought of the keybed noise as a problem on the fp 7f and yes the fp 80 has it too. I only had the fp 7f for a week and returned it because of the metallic noise coming from some keys. But it's looking like the fp 80 has that noise too. I'm thinking of returning it as well but in the store I couldn't detect the noise that I hear at home. I am first going to try several things beforw I return it maybe get a Roland tecnician in. Also the es7 has only a few sounds and no drum kits. I returned the es7 for that reason as the salesman told me the es7 had those things. If you don't need more sounds or drums the es7 might be for you but if you're buying the roland test it thoroughly.

Just to clarify, the ES7 features 32 sounds that can be selected via the instrument's front panel. There are a number of additional sounds (including 4 drum kits) used for the instrument's 'Rhythm Section' accompaniment feature and MIDI song playback, however these cannot be accessed via the front panel.

It's unfortunate that the sales person did not make this point clear to you.

Kind regards,
James
x

Out of curiosity: what kind of metallic noise do you mean:

1) Is it also audible over headphones ?
2) Is it only audible at high volume over the speakers (material resonance)
3) Is it ONLY in one, or several AP presets, or also noticeable in the other sounds like EP etc ?

If it's audible only in certain AP presets that are based on the same sampleset AND also over headphones, I think it is part of the sound itself and you can either choose to live with it or not. One thing you might try if that turns out to be the case , is dial back ALL virtual piano effects , like string resonance, hammer noise and all the rest. Than you have a clean sample based piano sound without processing. If the metallic noise is than gone, it might be one of the virtual piano effects. Try adding the effects back one-by-one and see what causes the metallic noise.

I'm very curious what the answers are and what you can find out.

Thanks very much for posting this. I loved how Maul gave different examples and samples of the piano. It's exactly what I wanted in a piano (before I knew I wanted it). I wanted a full up piano with piano sound to practice, but I would also love to play around with different sounds that I hear on television, radio, commercials, etc. The Yamaha P155, although a nice piece of equipment, doesn't give me that.

Hi free thinker,

Thanks for all the info on your FP-80. Would you elaborate or explain a bit more on the distortion you mention? I assume it occurs on the lower end. At what volume does it occur?

Marko

Thanks JFP I'll try that later when I get home. A bit of a learning curve for me.
The noise is easily apparent on only some keys but the louder the volume then it can be detected in other areas of the keyboard.
It is most easily detected at d#3 and the 2 adjacent keys. This is the same area as the fp 7f.
It is also apparent over headphones but less so. And it is more apparent when you strike the key hard. However some keys will not produce the distrtion no matter how hard you hit the key. I returned the fp7f for that same reason. I believe it is also in the model with 300 in the name. I believe that possibly most Rolands (SN) have this problem but I'm guessing here. And there is the possibility that only some people may hear this noise clearly or you would get more people complaining about it. Or the noise exists only on some pianos.
I have not detected this in any kawai or yamaha.

We'll can you check on headphones ? And with other sounds ? And with turning off the piano effects etc as I suggested ? In that way it will be easier to determine what's happening (material/ acoustic resonance, SN processing, the base sample set , your own ears ).

Cheers, J

I did as JFP suggested. Went through all the parameters. Noise still there but slightly less with some adjustments.

JFP noise is NOT there with earphones. I'll keep trying with earphones so I can verify that.

earphone sound is good.
connected to external speakers and can detect noise however they are computer speakers of average quality.

What about using the earphones output to connect the speakers ?

Using earphone jack for speakers? I don't think that's possible. Afraid to damage unit.

The earphone jacks can probably drive 32 ohm. The powered speakers probably have 50kOhm input. The reality is that you should probably add additional resistive load to match them up!

Please, no earphone output to speakers! I have an ES7 that sounds absolutely amazing. I use a Mackie mixer with external speakers and headphones. The mixer allows you to achieve "your" near perfect sound. Mixers are not very expensive and can make a world of difference on most DP's through headphones and/or external speakers. However, I don't care much for the Roland SN sounds, but never tried it with a mixer. Maybe it might help adjust that annoying metallic ringing sound.

Well I have used my casio px-350 headphones output with my computer speakers (Logitech Z-2300) without any troubles.
Maybe I should stop doing it...

Regards,
Oscar

Meaning it's not the sound engine. Leaves the amplifier , speakers, cabinet or a combination of two or three of those.

To rule out external causes:

1) I think it's possible to record directly to USB with the Roland (bypassing the amp/ speaker system). If your make a recording of the problematic region to USB and manage to playback that recording on your stereo installation with the speakers roughly at the same position as the Roland is in. If you have the same 'distortion' , it might be an acoustical resonance in your room.

2) Second thing you can do is put the Roland in another room and see if the distortion is gone. If so - than it indicates the same problem.

Wonder what the result will be...