Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Refunded my RD2000 - which keyboard is right for me?

Refunded my Roland RD2000 today after growing weary of its somewhat clunky action, coupled with the fact that it disappontingly does not have the capability of importing (piano) vsts, soundfonts and whatnot.

I'm after something with a more realistic action, which also has the capabilities of importing sounds to make my $2500 keyboard sound like a steinway. Admittedly I am completely inexperienced when it comes to MIDI and VSTs etc as I spent the most of my piano playing career learning classical on a grand piano.

I also very may well have an autism trait that I get tiresome of the same piano sound after a few weeks and counter this by transposing songs into different keys (the RD2000 (imo) has only 5 decent piano sounds)

I also once owned a roland HP series that also had this clunky feel (imo) so arguably this could rule out Roland altogether.

I’ve done plenty of research and visited 4/5 piano stores unfortunately to no avail, nothing really jumped out at me but I’m willing to give any a second shot.

My budget is $2500 though I'm willing to stretch a bit further for the right piano.

Other than using this piano for learning and practicing, I will be using this keyboard solely for future YouTube videos.

I would prefer something more lightweight than the RD2000 (for the occasional gig/live practice session) but this is not a necessity.

Hello,

I have avoided the Kawai Pianos because they felt not snappy enough. That's why I have bought an RD-2000.
Going downwards the ladder, Yamaha P515 would come to mind.

You can use pianoteq and use different digital pianos. It's better than the on board anyways.

Very few pianos allow upload of different samples. The first that comes to mind is Nord Grand which also uses a Kawai action. There's also the Nord Piano but it uses a Fatar action that might not be your thing. There are also Dexibell pianos, also with Fatar actions but I am personally not impressed with their piano samples although they have 4-5 already. I guess there may also be a Korg workstation that allows loading of instruments but it's probably too expensive and I haven't yet heard a Korg piano samples that's convincing.

No keyboard can import VSTs, but you can put a Windows tablet on almost anything to get your VSTs pretty inconspicuously. Some people sample their VSTs in order to import them into their keyboards, maybe that's what you're thinking of? The RD2000 does not support that, but some keyboards do. It's very hard to get good results doing that, though (they certainly won't offer all the qualities of the original). If you're really committed to it, the best board for that is Korg Kronos, because it has the storage space for large sample sets. Distant second in storage capability for imported samples would be Kurzweil Forte, then Yamaha Montage, then Yamaha MODX. Maybe Dexibell. You can also bring soundfonts into these boards (one way or another). A problem with your own samples as well as soundfonts is that they won't have some of the unique technologies the DP (and VST) manufacturers use to increase realism in terms of sympathetic resonances and such... they're basically just straight samples.

Just for built-in piano sounds, other models worth checking out would be Yamaha CP88 and P515, Nord Piano 4 and Nord Grand (same sounds, different action), Kawai MP11SE and MP7SE.

It's kinda obvious, but I'll ask anyway: have you considered a midi controller (like VPC-1) and computer with some software (like Pianoteq, or Ravenscroft VI)? That gives you plenty of sounds you can switch around if you don't want to commit to few presets that are normally hardcoded into digital pianos.

Another way to play soundfonts and other piano sounds would be to connect an iPad.

As for models where the manufacturer provides alternate pianos you can load in, Nord leads on that, Yamaha supports it some on Montage/MODX/CP88/CP73, and I think Korg and Dexibell.

Not to praise something I have, but if you want to have variety in APs, you might check Korg Grandstage. You cannot load samples, but in digital piano world only Nord and Dexibell allow this (of course, you can load only samples produced by the company). Grandstage has the same AP engine as Kronos, but have all its pianos available by default. It's Fazioli, Steinway D, Yamaha C7, Bechstein and Bosendorfer. All of them in different variations (Bright, Dark, FlatTune, Mono etc.). Hard to get bored with such variety. Some people don't like RH3 action, which they call a bit too heavy, but I got used after around a week. And still you can use it as a VST controller.

Some examples (until ~1:00 they are without and effects, clean samples):
Steinway D (Dark German Piano)
Yamaha C7 (Japanese Piano)

Thanks all for the advice. Essentially it seems that I can connect any MIDI compatible keyboard to my PC via USB and download some VSTs such a pianoteq to change up the piano sounds at my leisure, so I just need to find something with decent action..

I'm jotting down any recommendations in this thread; planning to take a trip to a piano store this weekend -

Check out Yamaha CP88. Recently Yamaha added new sounds to this keyboard which raises the potential VOICE updates in the future. Also, it has an internal audio interface which means you can hook any VSTs to it everything that comes from your PC through the MIC or Output of CP88.

I guess I could just copy and paste my spiel from the other thread but I second the VPC-1 and Pianoteq.

Thank you ! Added it to my list



Thanks !

If you don't like the RD2000 action, I would look at the Kawai MP11SE instead of the VPC-1.

Williams Allegro III - best piano by far!

Thanks , put both on my to-try list..!

My understanding is that some Dexibell keyboards can do that. If overwrites some of the Dexibell samples though, which may not be a major loss.

No. VSTs are not like bringing in samples or soundfonts, they require a Windows or Mac OS host (sometimes Linux, but even under Linux, most VST implementations involves some kind of Windows emulation). There can also be "standalone" versions of VSTs, but they are themselves Windows or Mac programs. You might as well be asking the Dexibell to run Microsoft Word.

Dexibell allows for SF2 loading, which is not equivalent to VST. The only interesting free acoustic piano I found was Salamander Yamaha C5. Worth checking. Around ~500MB of samples. The version with resonance is very artificial, but maybe it was an issue with my S7.

SF2 is old technology and doesn’t allow for advanced features used in specialized piano sample engines. I’m not sure why Dexibell even bothered with that.

I don't think SF2 loading capability was designed for APs - for this Dexibell produce their own piano samples. SF2 might be useful for those "other sounds", like some strange hurricane noises, pads, etc. It's nice to have it.

It's an outstanding feature. What should they have done instead? Without soundfont support, the only samples you could load would be Dexibell specific. Now there's a whole additional library of sounds you can load in besides. Plus any custom samples you create in this format are usable elsewhere, too. (Unlike, for example, creating custom samples for your Nord, Korg, Yamaha, or Roland, which can't work in anything but their own boards... and still don't give you the kinds of advanced features you're talking about.) No other non-platform-specific option exists, it's soundfonts or nothing. Unless you're aware of something else?