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What is a N3 ?

An N3, is a Yamaha Avant Grand digital piano.

Here t'is:

http://www.avant-grand.com/

Shows you how often I play a Steinway (not for years) but I do quite like the Expressive Grand in the RD700GX ... its certainly a more European sounding patch then any Yamaha one.

I'd choose an upright over a grand for a lot of popular music, Blues, Ragtime, Rock 'n Roll lots of older Jazz. Grands just sound too sophisticated for many genres, like an opera singer covering a Rolling Stones song - shudder!

How did Roland which is a Japanese product acquire a non-Japanese name ?

And where are Korg and Kurzweil made ?

Correct me if I'm wrong. It does appear that Japanese are the leaders in DP technology.

Kurzweil was originally American I believe but is now owned by Hyundai (Korean), Korg is Japanese and I presume Roland chose a western name for marketing reasons.

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it;

"Origin of the Roland name

Roland was founded after Kakehashi cut ties with Ace Electronic Industries (a company he founded in 1960) and Hammond International. As with many Japanese startups of the period, the name Roland was selected for export purposes as Kakehashi was interested in a name that was easy to pronounce for his worldwide target markets. Legend has long circulated that he named his company after the French epic poem La Chanson de Roland. In actuality, the name Roland was found in a telephone directory. Kakehashi opted for it as he was satisfied with the simple two-syllable word and its soft consonants."

V-Piano supposedly models a Steinway and a Bosendorfer, but it doesn't sound like either of those instruments. The V-Piano sounds like, well a Roland piano. (My engineer says that the problem with Roland pianos is that they all sound like Roland pianos).

I don't believe an authentic Steinway sound exists on a DP. You would have to use a sample library.

The Expressive Grand in the RD700GX is sampled from a Yamaha CFIII, I thought you would like to know that.

You forgot to mention - creating work for piano tuners.

Yeah, that's better.

What is a V-Piano ? A particular Roland model ?

I don't know where you got that information from Its a Hamburg Steinway C according to my sources.

The demos of the Garritan VST are nice but still not as good as I had expected.
I might get it someday and hook up my digital to my PC.

I'm getting tired of the plastic sound of my Roland HP-201.
If you also get tired of the sound of your digital while practicing, here's a simple tip: transpose the keyboard one or two semitones up or down every now and then. It really helps for the music to stay 'fresh' to your ears.

V-Piano vids

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUh21Eje56g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GxxFiw743Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTfAnfNcLd4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DM1vYVZkpcc

I'd call that a piano synthesizer

Wikipedia
Steinberg User's Forum has tutorials
A bit of humor with your midi.
Another one I like.
And a wealth of info from a member of the forum.

If by "European sound", you mean thin mids, then, yes, Roland has it nailed firmly to the mast of the good ship Wimpy.

"Expressive Grand"...ha...never was there a piano patch so inaccurately named.

It's not that I don't like Roland...I just don't think they should be making digital pianos...I like their synthesizers (I have a JX-10) and their earlier digital piano actions were very good (the SK-6 especially), but since then they have been trying to keep up with Yamaha, and still tagging along behind.

I firmly believe their acoustic piano sounds are a composite of several pianos. I do know, from personal experience, they don't sound like a Steinway, or a Yamaha.

Snazzy

Or Bosendorfer.

Snazzy,
Grands may be the only acoustics selling well in your location (I note from your profile that's it's 'earth'), but I can assure you that uprights are selling very well in many places elsewhere!
My local dealer sells more uprights than digital and grands put together. And I believe in Asia that uprights outsell grands, although this trend may be changing.

That may be true, Mr.Tweedy, but for the life of me, I can't imagine why anyone would waste good money on an upright piano.

Their bass strings aren't a whole lot better/longer than my old Yamaha CP-80, and it's many times I have compared a decent digital's low notes with an upright's, and my gast had never been so flabbered at how the former had more clank and bottom, not to mention, even better tonality and presence.

Perhaps it is also to the digital piano's advantage, that it is sampled from a grand piano, and also that there just doesn't seem to be any actual advancements in the design and construction of uprights...they are a waste of good wood, wire and felt in my opinion.

Like their more snooty and sophisticated brethren, the grands, they still require maintenance and/or tuning, which in most cases, requires the not so inexpensive services of a tuner/technician, and the disheartening feeling of not only listening to the wretched instrument go out of tune, but to bear the inconvenience of trying to contact the slowly disappearing species known as piano tunerus expensivo, known better by it's common name, the piano tuner.

That's why it is most heartening to see Piano World express such wonderful open-mindedness and create a forum dedicated to those of us who prefer digital pianos over their dinosaurial acoustic counterparts.

Snazzy