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Hi,

I just rented a brand new LX706 since with Covid my entire family can't escape my piano playing and I guess I was driving them a little crazy. :-)

Anyways, I listened to all the reviews/samples I could on youtube before getting it and all of them had AMAZING sound and and tone (for a digital). But when mine arrived and I plugged in the Roland headphones that came with it it sounds AWFUL ... NOTHING at all like the youtube reviews.

So far I've updated it to latest firmware 1.07 and reset it to factory settings and then used the Piano Designer App on my ipad to load the factory default sound settings.

What sound settings do you think give beautiful tone when using headphones on the piano, because right out of the box they're terrible.

For example compare the tones between:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-s5nOF9IgwUxTbG7mZdRikA-wpFq6B1A/view?usp=sharing

which I recorded with a USB stick directly off the LX706 with

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpJ8V6Z6oeY

Obviously I can't play as well as the youtube guy, but the tone on the recording is NOTHING like what I'm getting.

My tone has a lot of banjo twang which is awful.

Which Roland headphones are they? Open or Closed?

I don't hear big difference between your recordings and the YouTube clip. I even like yours a bit more because the one in the YouTube are too boxy and mono-like which is a general quality of the Roland modeled sounds that I don't like and is also present in yours but not so much. I think a difference is that the guy seems to play more dynamically and across the keyboard which utilizes a wider dynamic and note range, whereas you play rather in the middle of the keyboard.

All that being said, I hate the Roland modeled sound (and other modeled software piano emulations), so maybe you're one of us. People either love or hate them. It may take time to realize that. I hope you can return the piano if you can't tweak it to your liking (which in my biased opinion is the case with modeled piano sounds when people don't like their typical character).

As a Roland user, I think I might know what you are referring to. Things to try:

1. Use only European V2 grand ( that one seem to sound best ). Use European Grand V2 with Brilliance +3, Lid opened to 5, you can add hammer sound +1, Duplex +4, and set the touch curve setting to 40 ( this is my latest setting, if you play at a higher volume, I think you can leave it to something like 45 ), and I also use Cathedral ambience set to 1 currently.
2. You can try and use my previous setting which drastically changes the sound
piano type: European V2
touch sensivity: 60
lid: 5
duplex scale: +4
hammer sound: +1
soundboard: 5
brilliance: +4
tone character:C4# character changed to +2 from 0 ( I find the default C4# character to sound bad on speakers )

Please go ahead and try these 2 things, and meanwhile, don't forget about your speaker setting EQ which was added to LX705/706 you have Dynamic and Dynamic2, maybe those will help, I couldn't know since I own an LX708. Best of luck to you! Let us know if this helped

Also note that my latest youtube recordings are made using the second option. next one will be with option 1. The only slight difference is that ambience cathedral while recording to USB I usually use a higher depth ( like 5 )

I hear the exact opposite which is no doubt due to the equipment we are using. Having played the 705 and 708s in person I would say that the YouTube clip is a pretty accurate sound recording.

Yes - the older LX7/17 which I have is a bit like you describe. I am certainly looking for something else once this situation improves.

1. Did you listen to the YouTube recordings with the same Roland headphones?

2. Remember that the headphone amplifier on Roland instruments is not highly regarded. (Kawai`s CA series dedicated headphone amplifier is way better)

With Roland pianos, I recommend that you use a separate headphone amplifier connected to the line-out (not the headphone-out) of the piano.

My LX-705 suffers from banjo twang somewhere in the top 1/3 of notes using the on-board speakers, however it doesn’t with headphones. Peculiar to the speakers I believe.

Due to a bad ear, I can’t use headphones at the moment so I can’t comment on what settings I prefer with them... which doesn’t help this thread particularly.

Recently updated firmware to 1.07, factory reset... using Dynamic 2 speaker setting with the factory default European Grand sounds (Euro 1 has improved since the dynamic 2 update so I use it more often now), and ambience set to Lounge 6. Touch sensitivity 55. VERY happy with it.

I noticed the banjo twang is less prevelant (to my ears) with tuning set to 442 rather than 440 - so perhaps play with that too as it might help a bit.

I really cannot understand the American sounds (1&2). They just don’t work for me.

When I was searching for my digital piano in August last year. I was able to try both the 706 and 708. I was lucky the Roland rep was around giving the blurb to the floor staff of these new models.

I thought the 708 sounded significantly better than the 706. when I was asking the rep about the different models the rep let slip that the default settings on the 706 where the same as the 708, and that considerable work had been done to optimise the settings to get the best sound out of the 708.

I kind of got the impression that to get the best out of 706 speaker configuration you will need to spend a lot of time playing with the large range of settings.

tutor33sud,

I went ahead and tried your suggested #2 and compared it with your latest recording.

factory reset
EuroV2
Cathedral +5
Lid +5
duplex scale: +4
hammer sound: +1
soundboard: 5
brilliance: +4

To my ears, my recording sounds really muted and fuzzy (like a cheap spinnet) while yours sound much cleaner, nicer.

What do you hear?

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1E-ztD0qiiQQrGLph8RIef43jA_uwSvqg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wt1EZ2llmw

Whoops, just realized that first recording was with Euro not Euro2.

Here's one with Euro2: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1g673Y4jePNWiPjtKpboP91zSsSxEXrkc

Yeah so the tweaking is made for European V2 I think it sounds quite nice in your recording. One thing though that I forgot to mention in that setup is to change touch sensivity to 59 or 60. That is how I was playing in my previous videos, and the reason for that is that touch sensivity changed to harder makes an overall more mellow sound. You should try changing touch sensivity as well, and let me know your thoughts

Edit: oh sorry now I see that I mentioned in my original post about that. Just wodnering if you changed it in your recording

Tudor33sud,

Thanks so much for helping out. I went ahead and bought Audio-Technica ATH-M40x headphones and WOW!!, what a difference.

Whatever you do, do NOT buy the Roland RH-A7 headphones (which came for free with my rental) on this piano.

I'm eager to hear your recording with your #1 sound settings. Will you be posting something soon?

Thanks again,

K.

P.S., You are right, I had dropped my touch setting to 50 and it does produce a twangy sound there, but moving to 60 fixes most of the issue.

I hope so, I am struggling a little bit to find the time, but I'll try to let you know when a new video is up

Sorry that you're having issues Kevin.
I'm afraid you're not alone in being conned by the sound of YouTube---it affects many digital pianos, not just Roland.
Part of the problem is that recording direct from instrument to PC sounds better than the on-board amplification system and often better than the onboard headphone amp (in Roland's case).

That said: my instore test experience of the Roland LX708 was shocking for me i.e., at how poor the sound was through both headphones and through the Roland speakers (which I though were pretty decent in the LX17).
If you can get hold of a headphone amp to test, try listening through a good set of headphones to see if that helps. E.g., Sennheiser HD660S or something of that quality.

I don't know if there is a basic solution to the LX700 series. Bruce from Philly has had better results from tweaking the Roland RD2000 (which I tested in store and also found to be wanting). Maybe you could PM Bruce or check his threads about it first.

Kind regards,

Doug.

I have a Roland LX705 and am also disappointed with the piano tones. The sample songs sound great but I can't replicate their sound at all - so frustrating! Also in the 2 octaves around middle C, there are 3 "bum" notes that sound really tinny. I've contacted Roland support but no answer yet. Should I try adjusting the settings?

The difference between the samples and the actual sounds, whether via headphones or speakers seems to be a common theme with Rolands. I had it even prior to their modelling, though less so. You should try adjusting the bum notes with the piano designer.
Modelling still has a long way to go.

Thanks for the new settings here, improved a lot the sound, I am a new owener of the LX705, same family series.

The problem with Roland LX series is the defeault sound of the new "pure acoustic" isn't the best but with tweaks it can be signfiy improve, I wish I did more reaserch and I might got the kawai but in my counry there is only handful sellers so they are not as well known as Roland or even Yamaha in that matter, but aside that, it still great Piano with lots of feature for it's price.

Preferred sounds is very much an individual thing. I tried out Kevinkille's settings and didn't like them at all. I use the European 1 tuned to 440 and have edited the characters of quite a few notes and this gives a far more even characterisation throughout.