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Hello,

I own a Roland FP-10 digital piano, and I decided to share this tiny web app I created for my personal purposes.

https://piano.draho.cz/rc

It is supposed to be a replacement for the "remote control" function of Roland's official mobile application Piano partner 2.

The Piano Partner 2 is nice, but I find it to be too much hassle to use - you have to be online, you have to have an account, it takes too long to load and the Bluetooth connection is cumbersome on Android - it is several steps before you can use it. I also don't like the fact that Roland sends every piano keystroke I play while the Piano partner is turned on to some cloud server (which I had no idea about until I started to reverse-engineer the app).


So I created this web page, which works in browsers on phone/tablet as well as on PC, using the USB MIDI connection. Just load the page and that's it (it is cached to your browser so you don't even have to be online next time you want to use it)

I originally created it only to be able to select instruments that are not accessible physically on my FP-10 piano, and later started adding other functions.


It is still work in progress, so not all functionality is supported yet. It is more like a "proof of concept", but perhaps some of you find it useful.
I only test it in google chrome - it is not guaranteed to work in other browsers.

The instrument selection is only compatible with FP-10 and FP-30, but the rest of the function should work with any of Roland's digital pianos which are supported by the official Piano partner 2 app.

Any feedback welcomed.

Interesting app... Congratulations on a great idea.

I don't own a Roland so cannot try it. I assume that the page is loading some MIDI API with MIDI transmit codes. Thus, is it possible to configure the page to communicate with any keyboard? Far simpler than making an arduino hardware controller...

@vagfilm
Thank you.

Yes, that is right, it communicates over MIDI protocol, using Roland's custom* MIDI messages.
It is indeed possible to implement the same or similar functionality for many other digital pianos, but I would not say it is only matter of "configuration" and it is IMHO not possible for "any" keyboard - it is not just matter of different values, but different manufacturers might use an entirely different approach in their API, allowing to tweak different aspects of the piano and so on, some even might intentionally obfuscate/encrypt the messages to make it hard/impossible to replicate (I doubt any manufacturer would bother doing that but it is possible), and some might not even use MIDI interface at all for this purpose.

But you are right, definitely simpler than some kind of hardware controller.


* not standardized, nor documented - probably part of the intellectual property, kind of gray area I suppose, but I hope, since I don't want to monetize it, no one from Roland will be bothered by that

Nice job draho!

I seem to recall a similar FP-30 control webapp from another user, perhaps ~6 months or so ago.

Kind regards,
James
x

Thanks, looks really interesting, I'll give it a try. Would be nice if I could use it on my Android phone over bluetooth midi (not sure how to get that connection going outside the Roland app, though).

@James
Thank you,
you are talking about this https://jjulio.github.io/FP30playground/ right? That's amazing, some of the extra voices even work on my FP-10, I had no idea my piano is capable to produce more than the 30 sounds. I have to analyze it and add some to my app. Thank you for this discovery!


@hes
It is possible, but I found out that is is quicker to just connect the usb cable to your android device. But if you want to know:

You should be able to estabilish bluetooth connection by using this android app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mobileer.example.midibtlepairing&hl=en
- make sure you don't have your piano paired in the bluetooth system settings and that you have enabled location (it might seem werid but it is required for the search in the BLE app to work).
Once connected you should be able to use my web app in the same way as if you were connected using usb cable.

How can I make it work on ipad with bluetooth midi. I tried the midi browser but this does not work on that browser as well.

I am sorry, I don't own an iPad, so I am not able to help with that.

If anyone fancies developing something to replace the ‘Piano Everyday’ app, I’d be keen to give it a try.

Piano Partner 2 is better than Piano Everyday IMO (easier/quicker to use for basic functions - at least for me)... so I assume it would be difficult to come up with something even worse. 😬

Draho,


Your RC is woderfull, for my FP-30!
PianoPartner2 is not so powerfull and good like your RC.
I have a problem with pitch control.
I can't set to 420Hz, and also save it.

Thank you for your appreciation, Dusan!


You are right, there was an issue in the pitch input field, preventing to make a change of more than 0.1Hz at a time.
I just fixed it.

Thank you for pointing it out.

Note that most of the changes you do, including the pitch tuning, are not persisted when you turn off your piano.
You have to press some special combination of buttons to save the changes permanently. Refer to your FP-30 user manual for details.

Just came to know about this... well done @draho! There's also a popular user built editor for the (complicated) RD-2000. Apps like these are a pleasure to see evolving! Well done again!


Oh; I didn't think this was possible. Is it limited only to FP-30? Is it available for example, in the FP-90? I can't seem to find any reference in the FP-90 manual..

Thank you, mmathew.

FP-90/60 differs a bit from FP-30/10, but the possibility to save the setting permanently is there for all them.

I looked into manuals of all of 4 pianos, and there is the list of where you should look for:

- For FP-10 see Saving the Settings (Memory Backup) at page 9 in the FP-10 Reference manual (it is not in Owner's manual)
- For FP-30 see Saving the Settings (Memory Backup) at page 6 in the FP-30 Owner's manual
- For FP-60 see Retaining Settings After Power-Off (Memory Backup) at page 16 in the FP-60 Owner's manual
- For PF-90 see Retaining Settings After Power-Off (Memory Backup) at page 17 in the FP-90 Owner's manual.

Also for FP-90, you can save Performance Settings (Registrations) - page 15, but I'm not sure what exactly does it save.

Draho,

Is it posible to set chek box for 432Hz?

Dusan,

you are asking me to add a third preset button next to the 440 and 442 Hz?

Well, I can do that, If you find it useful.

I'm not sure what is so interesting about the 432Hz - I'm not much of a fan of the esoteric theories.

But the main issue is that when I set the frequency to 432Hz and try to measure it back with my pitch tuner, it actually reads something around 432.1 to 432.2Hz.
It might vary a bit depending on your speakers, your room, air temperature/humidity, etc...

So if you want to really "vibrate with the universe" precisely, you'd probably have to tweak the value a bit anyway.

Draho,

I mentioned, and hav'd in my mind - how it would be nice to
have more presets and possibilites.

Personaly, I use preset of 432Hz.

Thanks a lot.

Dusan.

Love the idea of this app! I also discovered it is possible to adjust the filter cut off and resonance of most sounds on the Roland FP10. Is that something you can add to this app?

Simon

Sorry I meant will this app suppport the FP10?

Simon