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Hello everyone,

I'd like to open a thread for owners of new Roland LX700 series pianos. I think this forum might be a nice starting point for people testing out various settings to get the perfect sound of Roland digital pianos.

Owning a HP605 before, I had the feeling that the default settings were just fine at the previous generation. However, on my LX708 I liked more to tweak the sound to get the most "accurate" sound to my ears. I especially like European Grand V2 ( it seems to have a wider dynamic range ) and I also played with the ambience settings. With the default settings, my personal oppinion is that the sounds tend to get blended in too much, and right hand seems not to have enough power to really sing along with the left hand.

I will share here my "perfect" configuration until now with the things I've changed apart from default settings.

• recommended volume level: 41
• piano type: European V2
• ambience: Lounge
• ambience depth: 8
• touch sensivity: 49
• lid: 5
• duplex scale: +4
• hammer sound: +1
• soundboard: 5
• tone character:C4# character changed to +2 from 0 ( I find the default C4# character to sound bad on speakers )

I find this setting to sound 90% similar to the tone of a concert Steinway from a video by Yann Tiersen, which I especially like. I'm waiting for other interesting configurations to try them out from other users

PS: link to the video mentioned above for you to make a comparison https://youtu.be/1LluM75bYf0?t=374

With headphones or without? Or no difference?

I think if one decides there's a big enough difference, that could be added. The setting I've shared for me was designed first to work best with speakers to get an authentic piano sound. I also like it with headphones as well, so for me it's like a general setting which I love on both modes.

Hi, I think what you're describing:
With the default settings, my personal oppinion is that the sounds tend to get blended in too much, and right hand seems not to have enough power to really sing along with the left hand.

Is much the same as I am experiencing with my DP603. I am also after a more open sound and find changing the soundboard to 5 seems to help. I'll just try your settings on my piano for interest.

Mine is the thread on Roland dp603 and Piano Designer settings

Please go ahead. Also, I forgot a few things to add into my settings.

• brilliance: +1
• cabinet resonance: 3

Hello all,

In case anyone missed this - there was an update for the LX705/6/8 on the Roland site badged as Ver.1.04 March 2019:

https://www.roland.com/global/support/by_product/lx708/updates_drivers/

Hey, does anybody have some tips to recreate the "ballad piano" of the previous generation on the LX 706?

Hello,

Does anyone know where we can download custom LX700 modeled piano tone files?

I want in particular modeled rag time/honky tonk piano. I tried to detune each note but I failed miserably. It sounded awful and nothing like honky tonk. lol Anyone here created their own modeled honky tonk or any guidelines on how to customize one?

TIA!

I'm pretty sure that, for a decent "honky-tonk" sound, you need to detune _each string_, not each note. That is, the three strings on C5 will be at slightly different pitches. (You can do that with a "chorus" effect, I think, or in the original sound samples).

Pianoteq (a modelled VST) has a "Condition" slider, that lets you go from "perfectly in-tune" to "horribly out-of-tune". And that control _does_ randomly detune string-by-string. So that C5 isn't just out-of-tune with C4 and C6, it's out-of-tune with itself.

Charles,

Thanks for the input. It doesn't look like my LX708 can detune individual strings of the same note. I did further readings on honky tonk tuning and it's beyond my understanding and ears to tweak in a timely manner. I rather use that time and learn how to play Maple Leaf Rag. hehe...

I guess I'll stick to the sampled honky tonk for now but I don't use it too long because it just sounds ok.

I hope someone on here has done it already and share the settings.

Looks like "European V2 + soundboard 5" combination is real hit. I like it most of all too (but I recieced my piano only yesterday, so, it may be not the final judgement).
But why is cabinet resonance so low?

I found cabinet resonance to affect the sound pretty much to my ears, thus making the tone very muddy and unclear. I pretty much respect a piano which can sound even and being able to hear a note, why also remaining towards a mellow tone ( this is why soundboard 5 I think fits best the european grand ). I'm very happy to hear that you also enjoy the same setting as I do, please let us know if you find anything else catchy!

OK

Also, one question from me please to you! Could you please tell me if the C4# sounds bad for you on the speakers as well? I find it like it resonates too much through the piano body, so I changed the character. I'm curious if this occurs only on my piano or not. Just try and play these basic notes with the pedal pressed and let me know if C4# sounds too "resonating": C4# G5# C5# . Thank you very much!

Just checked this. No, I didn't find any problems with C#4. I spent a lot of time changing notes character on FP-90, my previous DP. But here on LX-706 it sems better, the sound is more even.

Thank you! Then I guess it should be just my ear. I just retried it and noticed that through simple pressing of the key is not that obvious, so probably the 2 songs I play on it sound strange because of that, otherwise the note itself should be fine. Thanks again for trying this for me

Tell me please, have you installed Ver.1.04 March 2019 update from Roland's site? They say "The operation of [Piano Tone Edit] - [Single Note Character] was improved". I wonder was has this improvement resulted in?

Yes, I did update the software to 1.04. I had 1.02 previously and it had this issue that I couldn t control transpose if I were in other menus playing around. Related to note character, I didn t notice any change in that setting using piano controls. Maybe this helps when used with a tablet ? Not really sure... however the update didn t break anything, and now you can easily transpose being in other menus.

Also, one more thing to note related to software 1.04, I really seem to enjoy the new setting for Haptic Feedback very large. Previously I rarely felt the haptic feedback while playing, however with very large setting it seems better for me. You should try it as well.

Aha! The haptic settings finally do something!

Roland should have named the strongest haptic feedback setting "SuperNatural".

James
x

haha :)) nice one!

Sorry, bro, but I got 706 model. So no haptic feedback

Just a suggestion for the OP with his resonant C#4 which may help (I have a similar thing on the DP603. Instead of applying your tone settings to one of the stored defaults (if that is what you are doing) start by loading the custom Home tuning or one of the other custom tunings from the Piano Designer app because the individual note tuning, volume and character have all been carefully tailored to your speaker system.


Then do your overall sound edits like lid, cabinet resonance, soundboard etc and finally ambience and brilliance to taste for your room. That worked really well for me!

Hi Rob,

Thanks for your suggestion. Unfortunately, as far as I know, for Roland LX700 series, there's no custom piano tone So I guess it would be a bad thing to try sounds designed for the previous sound engine. Apart from the C#4, I didn't change note character of any of the notes, so I could definitely just live with it. However, I won't mind if Roland reads your post and release a few tunings for Roland LX700 series It would be nice to try them. Enjoy your DP603, since I really enjoyed as well my previous HP605.

Why didn't you mention key-off resonance. I had piano lesson on acoustic upright today and set key-off resonance at 10 when came home, but then reduced it to 8. 10 creates too much feeling than as if on acoustic piano dampers do no work properly.

Hi Tudor

Yes, after your last post I looked at the app and there is only the initial setup which has all the values set to 0 or off: it must sound awful to start!

I expect they are taking their time creating custom tunings as they have done for the others. You could email the Roland support team and ask?

I wonder what's the difference between settings "Lid", :Brilliance" and "Character". All of the make sound brighter when increased.

I wonder if that is what raising the lid on an acoustical grand piano does? Make it sound brighter? Anyone know? (I have zero acoustical piano experience, whether grand or upright.)

Well, I had baby-grand. As I remember, opening the lid just removed some "boxy sound" effect and also made sound louder. Well, I can be called "brighter" sound, I guess.

I think mostly brilliance and lid resemble, however tone character on individual notes I find it really different in a sense that you could really change the overall sound of the piano ( the attack of the note, how harsh / how equal it sounds ) so a little bit different from them.


I'm curious, could you please share your personal oppinion related to having a baby grand or an lx 708? I never had a chance of having even a baby grand in my house, and I was really hoping for one until getting my LX708. Since you had the experience, would you choose a baby grand or an lx 708?

Did they have this setting prior to the update? I recall there being a heightened level for haptic feedback, but perhaps there are now more? Moreover, I can't seem to distinguish between EG1 and EG2. They sound too much alike for there to be any significant difference.

No, this is a new level added in 1.04.

EG2 > EG1 in my oppinion and the sound seems to me the more noticeable while playing through speakers. I find that the character is much more natural, and to be more widely opened in sound from the EG1 which sounds muffled and kinda boring.. This is my way of describing it, and during my research even in youtube videos many of the people out there are preferring european 2 instead of 1.

Funny thing though, it's rarely that you find someone to like the american grand.. for me it's just not playable or I don t know, something seems odd to me about the american grand(1 or 2) that I can't find a right piece to fit it

I had old soviet baby-grand. Bought it for 1,200$. The price was too high, but I wanted so much to have "real grand".
Well, I think that my LX 706 sounds better when headphones are used. Through speakers it's not that good. But in all other thing - smooth new beatiful keys with pleasant touch etc. - it beats any old baby-grand. If course, I'd prefer new baby-grand of famous brand, but it costs 30 000$. As for all that 500 -1000$ garbage: no, thanks, I'd stay with my digital.
I'm of those who'd prefer driving digital Bugatti Veyron in Need For Speed computer game than grandma's rusty 40-years old Ford in real life.

Sort of good to hear the same experience as me and my LX 705. The sound on headphones is really good. But through speakers not so good (although yet to go above 40% level if that makes a difference). And again, everything else is just flat-out excellent.

I will get around to tweaking piano settings later, but would likely mess up the wonderful headphone sound if I could achieve a good speaker output. Oh well.. Maybe Roland will address this for us if possible in settings.

I strongly suggest you try the soundboard 5 and see how it goes. I really had issues with soundboard 1 like the sound was way too muffled and notes blending in too much. Headphones sound still good for me considering the changes as well.

Thanks, yes. I will try this along with your other suggested settings soon.

Piano stands on a solid tiled floor, in a Hong Kong concrete flat!! So that would not help the acoustics and overall sound. Perhaps I should also try a carpet underneath the piano.

Hello everyone,

Noticed that there's a Driver update: Ver.1.05 [May 2019]. Looks like adding new functions to LX705 only.

Has anyone seen the new review of the LX708 posted by Rudi of bettermusic.com.au a few days ago? I play right-hand melody arrangements of contemporary pop, Disney (popular request of my kids for them to belt along to) and West End/Broadway musicals plus jazz and classical. Took some ideas of the instrument pairings that Rudi highlighted in his new video.

Hope this brings some joy! I certainly enjoyed Rudi's infectious enthusiasm and musicality.

BTW, this isn't intended to start a discussion on the relative (de)merits of the LX sounds or comparison to other DPs. YMMV and all that.

Thank you very much for reffering to this video! I personally love Rudi's reviews of pianos, he makes them all sound beautiful! Also I'm curious how is he recording the sound, since it seems to me it's probably better than recording it directly to USB with built-in recorder. Is there any chance someone could upload the same thing recorded via usb and via output for a comparison?

And BTW, I have a big curiosity. Does anyone actuall use American Grand at all in the new LX series? I find it to sound really bad, and I'm bumping the keys to hear the treble. It always seem to be covered by the bass, and just doesn't sound right. I'm curious if someone's actually enjoying it in any way. Thanks!

Yes, I do use both American Grands for jazz pieces using one of the My Stage options. Without the My Stage options, the American Grands sound muffled to me until I adjust Ambience depth to 7 and Brilliance to between 6 and 8.

For music that my kids want to sing along to, I usually start off by layering one of the American Grands with another tone of their choice. They like trying out the different sounds on their own. They have so much fun that I don't want to detract from their enjoyment. So, even if their chosen combinations sound 'odd', I'll still accompany their singing. It is fast becoming another way we spend time together - it is lovely as they now ask me to play instead of heading to their playstation or the TV.

Apart from my kids' requests, the focus is on regaining technique as my fingers can't do what my brains says they could in the past! Every moment I get to sit down at the piano is invested in regaining technique. There is so much music that I am itching to play again! Once I'm happier with my technique - I suspect my focus will shift to tinkering with the Piano Designer options ....

Best regards and happy playing to all!

Hi. New owner of an LX708 here. Going back to the tone settings, I had a question on how to save tone settings as registrations.
Is it possible? I've tried, but the settings don't "stick".

For example, I loaded one of Veryver's settings from Piano Designer and then created a registration for it. Then I went back to the app and returned to the default Euro Grand hoping that I could easily switch "pianos" without having to load the "pianos" from the app each time. But when I select the registration, the sound had gone back to the Euro Grand.

I have been able to set registrations for the "other" sounds so I wouldn't need to scroll through the 200 "other" sounds to find a specific sound sampling.

Thanks for your input and thanks for sharing your tone settings. I wish there was some repository of settings for different pianos, eg, Bosendorfer or Fazioli. I guess you'd need to have one of those pianos there with you and then painstakingly recreate the piano's tone.

Good question - I have wondered about that: ie, could one save different Piano Designer adjustments (including soundboard settings) under different registrations.

I would add an observation (based on the pre-loaded registrations). On my LX-705, having selected one of the piano registrations to have a play with... then switch the piano off, the next time I switch the piano on it remembers the ambience settings of that registration. It also appears that it happens when I go back to default piano sounds (without switching it off). Annoying - I thought the point of registrations would allow everything to return back to how you've 'designed' it was once you've gone back to the default piano sound on the main screen (ie Euro/American 1/2).

I've not thought to check as to whether it 'remembers' the brilliance settings too though.

Hello people I am a beginner in this piano world.
Recently I also bought a Roland lx708. It is a beautiful piano to see. First I had a Roland HP704 for 2 months, but I didn't like the cabinet. Otherwise it had a good sound. with the Roland LX 708 it took some time to getting used to. The lowest 5 tones sound a little bit digital, as if the vibration echoes through the cabinet in the distance. The HP 704 was better
to my taste.
When you press the keys with the lx700 slowly, there came no sound sometimes. Is that normal?

Does anyone have any tips for the settings. I usually use European 2.

I don't know how to change my message, i wanted to add something more. I have to say that the Roland HP704's bass sometimes sounded to bumpy with some keys where it shouldn't ,(C left hand almost in the middle) it's sounded like the sound was dropping heavy through an empty barrel. That is not necessary for me for that key. but would like the the last lower tones bass of the Roland Lx708 deeper, now it just sounded like weak and hollow in the distance.

Did you play with the volume? At what volume are you playing it?

You will find in the first post the settings that I've been using, please do not forget to set the touch sensivity to either default (50) or to 60 if you like less harshness in your sound. Soundboard 5 usually makes a difference, and you should also be playing with brilliance to set it at like +3/ +4.

I just moved from my apartment , and now the LX708 sits in a bigger room where reverberation is natural. So I ended up using the European V2 now with the default soundboard, raised the lid to 5, and used Brilliance +4, and touch sensivity to 41, with ambience Studio +5. I feel now that the tone is the most natural that I could get out of the piano, I really dig it. Usually the manufacturers default settings should be the best, so I guess that's the reason. The bass is well round and heavy, while the treble is now open and with more highs. Just try to use european v2 with added brilliance, touch sensivity set down to 41 and the ambience to studio or you could go with some other if you don't have natural reverberation. Let me know how that went

PS: in response to your question, you should not have problems with uneven keys, and pressing the keys slowly should have an outcome. However, it is possible to not get the sound if you press it slowly until the repetition resistance comes in, and then you go down fully. maybe you can record the differences so that we could judge.

Hi, thanks for your reply. Do you always have the top cover open while playing? Every now and then I keep changing the settings. European 2 indeed sounds the best. Have the volume at 40. one time the setting is on soundboard: 5 and sometimes at 1. Another question about haptic, I feel vibrations with the left hand keys, but not with the right hand keys.
But even if I turn this function off, I still feel vibrations with the keys with my left hand. how is that with you?can you export your settings and send it to my email or something?


I live in an apartment, without hang curtains. We have an laminate floor, so no carpet. And you?

I will need to check the manual a little bit on how to export the settings. Maybe it will be easier just to share you the full piano designer settings. The room that I have now is currently not that heavy with furniture, and is the same laminate floor no carpets. With haptic key vibrations , I set it to extra large ( you can find that under settings, it was added in some updated firmware), and you can easily notice if turning it off works for you because you have option to enable haptic feedback while using headphones. You should put it to on and test it with headphones ( I can only feel it mostly on my left hand, I think that's the case with a real piano as well ), and then set it to off and play again with headphones and see if you notice that it's gone.

I use 43 as my main volume now, but that mostly because I have some harshness in my right ear that will need to be checked at the doctor The top lid is always open, because that adds the highs that I like.

Oké thanks for your reply. For export settings:
You click on the gear on the far right, and you keep turning until you reach settings export, and press the button for oke.
Sharing your full piano designer settings, its oké to for me to. Thanks.

what do you boys do after playing the piano, closing the key cover or leaving it open? what do you use to remove fingerprint away from a black high-gloss piano? A piano shop was talking about glass sex. Is that safe? I try it first with a soft microfibre cloth. It's not like that i can't get it off with that.

I spoke to Roland's representative in the Netherlands. He will be at my house in 2 weeks, to tune the LX708. He even said that the HD704 is most like a grand piano for the money. But if he comes to tune my piano it will sound better than the 704

That s great! Please let us know which things did he change, I am really curious about it since it s the first time I hear about this process. I will send you my settings in private!

Looking forward to hearing from you

Of course I will let you know the custom settings. How do you send your settings to me privately? through pm on this forum?

Yes, I already did 👍

Sounds very interesting. I'd be keen to know how he manages to smooth things out, and whether it can be done by the user. 👍

hi, do you have the LX708 too? Are you not satisfied with how it sounds?

I’ve got an LX-705. Quite happy with it as is, but willing to try something different. Who knows, I might like it more. 😃

Hi everyone, reviving this thread if anyone is interested in some other roland lx 700 series tone settings for recordings / live playing.

I recorded 2 sample songs with the same setting for you to assess how it sounds.

Settings used:

• first reset your European V2 tone to default
• add touch sensivity 45
• use brightness +8
• in piano designer, change E#5 character to +2 ( I don't like the default sound of that )
• ambience Stone Hall + 2

Samples links:

• Sample 1
• Sample 2

Coming back to the setting used, Thanks to Colin Miles for idea in another thread I also tweaked tuning from 442Hz to 440 Hz and that seemed to balance more the upper register and gave it a little bit more character as I like it. 442 sounded a little bit twangy to my ears.

If anyone is interested about the outcome, here's a recording made with this particular setting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsJwYFijIXY

Hi there - the sample sounded much better than your previous ones. I have been using the European 1 for my changes since when I had altered the 2 and really didn't like the result and didn't want to lose my 1 settings by setting to 2 to default - it shouldn't affect 1 should it? Also regarding other changes I made I did quite a few characterisation changes around E2 to get a bit more evenness as well as a few octave tunings.

That's a good question, I am not sure if it somehow affects or not your European 1 setting. I would do a quick video with the values of the European 1 just in case.

From my knowledge, the only shared values are tuning HZ, ambience, brilliance. Everything which is done in piano designer it's individual to each sound. Teoretically, if you go to european v2 -> piano designer -> reset it should only affect European V2. I am going in 5 mins to test this on European 1 and I will let you know the outcome. I'll try to modify my european 1 setting, then reset to default, and check whether it defaulted my european 2 as well.

@Colin Miles, I went to piano designer and reset to default, and only European 1 settings were affected. So you are safe to reset your European V2 back to defaults without affecting your other sound.

More than that, tuning brilliance and other settings that you already have saved for all of them will remain unchanged even though you will reset your piano settings. My Brilliance and Ambience / tuning were the same after resetting the European V1.

Hi there Tudor33sud - thanks you must have been replying at the same that I was trying to post as mine didn't take. Yes - looks like we are safe to do a reset. In any case the Roland update site says as below, which is another way of doing it.


We recommend that you save your user data to a USB memory before you perform the update. If a problem occurs and your user data is lost, you will be able to restore the original state by reloading the data you saved. For details on the procedure, refer to the following sections of the Owner's Manual.

Initializing the Memory (Format Media)
* This formats the USB memory device.
Saving Piano Settings (Piano Setup Export)
Loading Piano Settings (Piano Setup Import)
Recording Your Keyboard Performance - Copying a recorded song

* Please be aware that "Ambience Type" is not saved to the USB memory device.

I would happily listen to your setting as well if you're willingly to share some samples. I'm curious about the output of your tuning and sound tweakings.

I haven't gotten around to doing any samples. Indeed I haven't even done any recordings on this piano since I go it in June. What I will do, when I get the chance/time, is to try exporting the settings as suggested and could maybe sent them via a pm. Like all sounds what suits you won't suit another and it also depends on the type of music you play. But do listen to the notes around E2 and see if you can hear what I heard regarding the character differences.

Hi there. I have an LX705. I have a lot of note character differences especially in the octave above middle C. (D, E flat, G, G sharp and B). They sound like they are coming from a different piano! I have adjusted the characteristics of these individual notes but am struggling to get a consistent sound especially across this octave. Any ideas?

Did you make any changes prior to this? You should try to reset to your default, and use your preferred european / european v2 grand. Maybe you ve gone too far with the customization and it s hard to make it back good. Youl could try using this thread using the different configurations that we shared here and let us know how that works out for you.

Thanks for replying. The character differences are there after a factory reset. Roland support haven't been much help - they suggest turning down the brilliance, closing the lid and turning up the key touch which muffles the bum notes but also muffles the whole piano sound

Personally, my best sound was lowering the touch to 45, add extra brilliance +8, a nice stone hall ambience +2, and that alone kinda does the trick. Also don't forget to change your tuning to 440hz , I found that also to be a very pleasing effect, thanks to ColinMiles suggestion. Other than that, I would suggest to only change the minimum amount of notes in order to be consistent and not mess up too much with the setting.

Hi, I'm a LX706 user. It seems to me that the 38 sharpest notes on the keyboard are at a lower level of intensity than the others.

To correct, I have found a simple way that I communicate to you:

- On the piano, export the settings on USB key.
- On a computer, open the setup file in a text editor.
- Go to the beginning of the "volume" section.
- Replace all "0" (zero) with "-9" on the first 88-38=50 values.
- Save the result.
- Finally, on the piano, import this file.

As you can see, it is necessary to reduce the intensity of the other notes because it is not allowed to increase the intensity.