Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Bye Bye RD700NX ...hello RD800 (with a Vpiano grand)

I think we're confusing "cool" with "geektastic", which is pretty much the polar opposite of cool. But then, trying to be "cool" is what teenagers do in the playground, and shouldn't be part of the behaviour of any self-respecting adult...

We are clearly generalising from very different eras. In the same way you can't really make generalisations about the cool factor of a Mustang -since you might be referring to an 80s Mustang, whereas another is referring to the 1960s classic. So, while there are clearly some iconic products it is fair to say that the most prolific era of Roland products had a much more Tomy toy appearance. In my opinion they haven't quite shaken that look.

But dewster didn't mean it as a bad thing. Coming from him, this surely ranks as the highest possible expression of praise!



Quite so. It's probably a cunning strategy: dastardly cunning.

Had a chance to play both the RD 700 nx and the RD 800 yesterday. The instruments were side by side and I used a headset. My only concern was the action and the piano sounds.(only one mans opinion) While playing the 700 the action seemed to have offered more of a distance between initial strike and key bed. The 800 seemed lighter. I read a comment recently where someone felt the action on the 800 was heavier. I can understand why someone would get the impression that the 800 action is heavier. I believe it's because the keys respond quicker (which i think) makes it harder for you to throw your weight into the keyboard. So,perhaps one could over compensate by leaning in when it isn't necessary. The 800's action is very nice if you like running over the tops of the keys. As far as piano sound, the 700 sounded much more open, as if you can sense the sound in relation to it's environment. The 800 sounded compressed. The 800 did sound even top to bottom, where the 700 seemed to have one or two notes a little louder than others. Perhaps that's just one of the reasons that the 700 sounds more realistic. Roland claims that the internal pianos for the most part are the same. Maybe it's the DA conversion from the keyboard that is superior on the 700.
My 2 cents

Hi guys. This is going to sound like a petty question, but hang in there - have they switched back to a figure of eight (two pin) mains socket for the RD-800? I was considering the 700NX a few months ago, and one of the things that grabbed me was that it had a 3-pin Euro (or kettle) socket.

I know it sounds odd, but in a gigging scenario, there are always plenty of these leads about. I've hauled an A-90 around with me since they came out (well, three of them), and have always had to take a couple of dedicated mains leads just in case.

I play mainly rhythm and blues, and the keys tend to get a beating, hence why I've got three A-90's and am constantly building a gigging one out of spare parts. The time's come to upgrade, I think. The 700NX is on offer in several places in the UK, but I've not had a chance to play the 800 yet.

As a cheeky secondary question, I also used to play with a VK-7 on a second tier, but sadly broke a few keys whilst getting over-involved. Interested that the RD-800 seems to have the VK organs in there. Does anybody know whether the drawbars can be controlled via MIDI, so I could put in - say - a studiologic organ keyboard? Might be able to get away with a weighted action for an organ, but it's not ideal.

Any advice greatly appreciated. Thank you.

By the way, I'm not all that convinced with the "tone color" knob. A lot of the videos seem to be focussing on it, but the ability to switch between different types of EP isn't something that's beyond the realms of a patch change. Unless I've missed something.

And sorry, I just jumped in and first-posted. I've been reading this site for a while with great interest. Been playing live for about 20 years, and only really use pianos, electric pianos and organs. Happy to meet you guys.

That knob is unfortunately portrayed as some kind of gimmick in some of the videos. The NX has a similar knob called "Sound Focus", which is used to to alter some parameter, like EQ or dynamic range, that makes the sound stand out more. It can be configured to do different things for each live set. It's occasionally useful for solos, I guess. I think the Tone Color knob on the 800 can be used in the same way, but there seems to be more parameters that you can assign to it now.

Thanks for that, similar to what I was thinking.

Is the RD800 unavailable outside of the US at the moment? Have read about power socket concerns, so I didn't know whether it was being recalled. In the UK it's just disappeared off some websites, but with very little information. Secretly hoping they're switching over to an IEC socket.

Another decent RD800 demo if interested.

A nice classical music demo:

Since we have been talking about the coolness of Roland, I'm a little surprised no-one roped in the Jupiter 4 into the conversation....to support either side of the argument. This is the last word in cruddy design, silly logos and monstrously outrageous sound potential.

It was brought out in 1978 - years ahead of its time, and relatively affordable compared with an ARP, Oberheim, Moog or Prophet, which was all the competition back then, apart, I suppose from Yamahas CS series.



It had 'Compusonic ' written in big futuristic letters on top of it, if you please!

Who can fail to love Roland?

EDIT: Compuphonic, not Compusonic - they must have fancied Greek more than than Latin.....Cooler

I can't decide between the 700NX and the new 800, where/how did they cut almost ten pounds from the piano? Does that mean components are lighter plastic and less road-worthy?

You should read other threads about RD800

I have been reading them for the last day, I didn't see what exactly was changed to drop that much weight

The main difference is the top cover is plastic as opposed to aluminum, probably some internal savings too.

Still feels robust, and no reports that it's easily damaged (unless you plug the mains lead into the XLR )

The more I look, the less I find about specifics. That's really a lot of weight. Anyway, the reviews on sweetwater.com are hilarious. Roland really has the PR team turning out rave reviews. These 'people' conveniently needed to upgrade their 700 series pianos. For as accomplished as they claim to be, they are impossible to locate on google or facebook searches.... http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/RD800/

I think they are somewhat true. Makes sense that some RD700 owners upgraded to the RD800. However, I don't bother much with user reviews. These reviews can be overly positive when one buys a new instrument for two reasons; the honeymoon phase and the justification of their purchase. Or if they don't like it, they will rip it apart in a review to justify returning the keyboard. IMO I believe most of these reviews are a kneejerk reaction whether they love or hate the instrument. Its rare when you see a review after six months to a year of ownership.

But it you value these reviews, I think you will start seeing many more reviews, both good & bad, once the RD800 is re-released. I've owned the RD800 for months and Im still not comfortable giving it proper review as there is so much to still learn and figure out my likes and dislikes. Sure I like the action and sound very much, but that goes the same for my ES7. I think reviews need to focus on all aspects of the board for someone who has used it for a decent amount of time. It took me over a year of putting my ES7 through h-e-l-l that I can give some honest feedback about it.

In the meantime if you want to read a good "honest" review about the RD800, got to SOS http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr14/articles/roland-rd800.htm
or if you want some specific feedback, you can PM and I will try to answer your questions best I can. (OT: that goes the same for ES7)

What's the best price people have been able to secure a new RD-800?

I paid $2,125US. 15% off is pretty easy to find if you shop it. Just be sure to ask for absolute best price wherever you go.

I had a guy at a shop offer me one for 2100 (US) so I think that's ballpark.