Thanks for that review, Patterson. I suspected the NX would be a large step up from the SX and you confirmed it. Do you feel that anything has been lost with the upgrade from the GX to NX?

You influenced me in a second way. The dealer from who I ordered my NX revised their shipping date and told me today they have no clear idea when my NX would be shipped. That's all it took for me to cancel the order. I was seriously thinking about ordering the V-Piano instead, but after reading your review I decided to wait until next year for the V-Piano and order the NX now from a different dealer.

Great review Patterson. I agree with all your points as far as the NX being a great compromise that really exceeds well in most areas-for me all areas that I care about like sound, feel, and the connection of the two. I played it literally back to back with my GXF, and knew within 10 mins actually that the NX wouldn't be worth the money. It is a substantial upgrade to the SX. I played an SX not long ago, and the GXF is a substantial upgrade as well. The NX is not a substantial upgrade to the GXF. I would say marginal if any in sound quality, and slightly better in the action, but then again, some prefer the PHAII vs the PHAIII. In any event, nice little review, and congrats on the new board. If I didn't own the GXF, I would most certainly have kept the NX. I think Roland is just inching the bar up ever so slightly. Heck, I think even the GXF would be the best digital stage piano on the market right now.

What is interesting to me is what will happen if the superNATURAL kit gets upgraded? The GXF would probably be able to use it as in GXFII but the NX is stuck where it is. That makes the GX even better.

/PS
My current employer is late with my paycheck so my NX is still waiting at the dealer for another week. I have a Gibson Songwriter guitar if somebody wants to trade?

Fred, the Supernatural Kit was very much a stop-gap measure for Roland to compete with Yamaha's launch of the CP1/5/50 range while they prepared the NX. There seems little possibility of Roland putting out a further expansion upgrade for a model which has been discontinued, and which in some respects would, as you point out, eclipse a current model.

Though there's been a great deal of discussion of the SN Kit here, I'd be prepared to bet that only a small proportion of GX owners have actually purchased the upgrade - the card's main use was to be able to bundle it with the GX as the GXF to compete with Yamaha.

But as a trend, the big manufacturers are going cold on the expansion card concept (hence the loss of the SRX slots in the NX, and Yamaha's abandoning of the PLG slots) as the number of units sold doesn't generally appear to justify the development, production and distribution costs.

Thanks.

Classical, as far as things that have been lost from the NX, I really can't think of anything significant. I never used the expansion slots, strangely, because it makes it harder to rationalize getting a new keyboard. I have normally sold and bought a basic unit I was happy with. The access to a dedicated button for a drum that you can use for live play was something that I missed, because I used it for percussion. On the other hand, the user settings make it simple to set one up in about 30 seconds. You balance those losses with new functions like the ability to play and time-stretch or shorten .wav and .mp3 files from a USB for rehearsals, and I'm not going to miss anything.

Aidan, that was my feeling as well. Who knows what Roland might do, but if they had any long range plan to come out with an upgrade board, they would want to get the maximum possible sales. It would only make sense to justify the development and production costs. The fact that they cut out the expansion slots in the NX is a pretty strong hint that they don't need the potential market of all the customers who are going to buy an NX. Of course, it's all reading tea leaves, so we may be wrong.

The GX series eventually will be retired due to redundancy across models. If a SuperNATURAL upgrade is released, it would consist of the same expansion board and new software. Don't hold your breath waiting for it, however. Chances are the GX will be phased out in 2011.

Although the NX has no expansion slots, it can be upgraded via USB, as is done with other Roland products. The GX is upgraded to a GXF through the addition of the expansion board and a software update through USB. The more complex V-Piano requires an update to the VP Evolution through only a software update via USB.

This is Roland's trend: by using more advanced hardware and simplified implementation they are reducing their costs and delivery complexity.

Yeah, I don't think that's possible. The way the interface is, you can either choose a song and hit Play, or you can record a new song. Can't hit Play and start recording

Also, it seems to use some default piano sound for MIDI files; can't override it as far as I can tell. I'll keep working on it though.

Just a question about the key surface of the new NX: is the "ivory touch" the same as that on the V-Piano? I have played on the V-Piano in a Guitar Center, and the surface gets pretty grimy and ... grainy on the fingers. Is it also true on the NX?

Yes, they're the same keys. The V-Piano's keys felt rough because they'd been played on by every Joe Shmoe who walks in a plays it. So the keys aren't taken care of. I've had my RD-700GXF longer than many dealers have had V-Pianos and my keys are in much better shape than the PHAII and PHAIII keys I've seen at dealers. If I were a dealer, I'd clean them at the end of every day, because that's something that could turn someone off. Personally I really like my keys now that they've been slightly worn and have a rougher touch.

Today I received my NX. I had to cancel my original order because the online store was unsure of when the instrument would be shipped. There was nothing left to do but cancel my order and place a new one with a different online store.

Having played the NX for only a few hours, I will reserve my comments about it for a later date. In the interim you can bet I am really happy with this digital piano. Every successive iteration of the RD-700 series is an improvement.

While searching for another store with NX inventory I discovered something else: I could buy a V-Piano for several hundred dollars less than expected. This was very tempting. But I decided against the purchase since I would probably want a set of $1,000 speakers too. I plan to buy the V-Piano next year.

I ordered the NX with the KS-G8 stand. Luckily, its price was the lowest found anywhere. The stand is packed with much more cardboard protection than the NX digital piano! It arrives folded and requires about 45 - 60 minutes assembly time, depending on your skill and the chosen stand height level. My recommendation is to leave the default Level 1 unless you have a very high chair or piano stool. Even then you might still have to sit on a pillow to raise your hands level with the keyboard and avoid repetitive motion injury.

The KS-G8 is shipped with a couple simple tools. No other tools are required. Height adjustment parts can be attached to the stand as well as plastic holders for the tools. The holders are useful for holding the items if you are gigging with the stand and worried about losing the tools or height extension parts. Moveable plastic guides attached to the stand hold cables neatly in place.

Given the amount I paid for this stand, I would not hesitate to buy it again. It keeps the RD-700NX completely stable on the carpeting in my music studio.

Yes I had a KS-G8 with my RD-700...sold the piano but kept the stand for future use...great piece of kit and good looking too.

Look forward to reading your opinion about the NX.

Cheers,

Steve

ClassicalMastery, I'm probably freaking out over nothing, but I'm kind of new to keyboards, so please understand my fear, even though it's probably unjustified. Once I have owned a few more digital pianos and synths I may understand things like you do.

Anyway, my question regards the harpsichord voice - does it really seem SuperNATURAL? Does the piano designer work with it? If so, what can you adjust? Do you hear any looping?

TIA!

The top row of presets PIANO and E.PIANO are SuperNATURAL presets. The harpsicords are located in the CLAV category below. All the Live Set presets in this lower row are not SuperNATURAL.

The controls on the left adjust the sound. As the knobs are turned the display shows a changing graphical representation as seen in the promotional Roland video. I have not heard any looping on the harpsichords, but I must admit that I spent no more than a minute on these specific presets while quickly running through all presets in a couple hours.

So the harpsichord isn't SN? It seems like it might be on the FP-7F.

I don't think so. When I played the FP-7F earlier I got the impression that only the first Grand Piano sound was SN.

But that said, I have no idea how Roland distinguishes a SuperNatural sound from a non-SuperNatural sound.

Cheers,
James
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Hello everybody,
You helped me a lot with my decision regarding a new DP. I went for an rd700nx, which arrived five days ago. I tried the cp1, sv-1, v-piano and rd700gxf in store. I really liked the sound and feel of the rd700gxf best, so I ordered the NX. Now that I have used it for some hours, I think I made the right decision. The acoustic pianos are the best I've ever played in a DP. They are very dynamic and alive. I've only once played a real rhodes piano, but to me the SN-rhodes sounds are quite authentic and have a good feel. You have to tweak them a little and adjust the keytouch but then they're really nice, even compared to the cp1.
I have a question for other NX owners regarding the SN-e-pianos. If you turn of the speaker simulation and make use of the sound-focus feature, do you also get a very noisy and nearly unusable sound? Thanks for any information about that.

The SuperNATURAL sounds are easily differentiated from their non-SuperNATURAL counterparts in the display. SuperNATURAL sounds have a graphical representation of the instrument and the word "SuperNATURAL" overlaid on the graphic. The non-SuperNATURAL sounds only have the name of the sound on a plain black background. The Features tab for the RD-700NX on Roland website explains that only pianos and electric pianos are SuperNATURAL sounds.

Roland RD-700NX Features

Straight out of the G8 ...as far as my ears can tell.

Do you mean for the 7F or NX?

I posted this on another thread but as there is a lot of cross talk regarding the NX and the FP-7F, I thought I would again paste the email I received from Roland UK regarding the SN pianos in the FP-7F. I pushed that point that the Harpischord was listed in the SN pianos and he claims it is SN. He emailed Japan for confirmation..

What distinguishes a SuperNatural sound from a non-SuperNatural sound?

Cheers,
James
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I would assume that means no stretching, no layer transitions, and no looping, but this whole SN harpsichord thing is totally unexpected.

And it's hard for me to believe they would put a SN harpsichord in the FP-7F and then leave it out of the RD700-NX, but I guess that's what people here are saying.

A SuperNATURAL sound has 3 characteristics:

• Seamless tone variations regardless of played velocity
  
• Smooth and natural tone decay
  
• Expressivity (unique ring and decay) for every single key

It is possible that Roland put a SN harpsichord in the FP-7F but omitted it from the RD-700NX. They might have done this intentionally, or it could have been due to separation of project development. Sometimes Roland has released one instrument with a superior feature and then followed it with the release of a second instrument that has slightly older technology.

For example, they did this with storage media when standards were changing. Since their engineers decided during the design phase to use CompactFlash cards, they did not make a design change later when USB flash storage was becoming increasingly popular. As a result some instruments were released with a USB port and others were released with a CompactFlash port. The type of storage depended on when development of the instrument began.

In the Tone List for the FP-7F there are 3 harpsichords. Two are in the Piano section, which tends to suggest they are SN sounds. The other two are in the GM2 List.

Received my NX today; and I love it.
I paid $2099 for it at RMC Audio Direct, so if you paid more for it, it's time to make them honor their price guarantee.

The things I don't like about it so far:
The escapement simulation adds some noise too that keys when they're pressed. In addition to the thunk-thunk-thunk that we're all used to from acoustic pianos, now there's also a "thick-thick-thick" sound. The grand piano sounds also have a bit of a metallic edge to them, but it's not too bad. Maybe I can dampen it by tweaking all those filter settings. Also, this is one heavy unit.

The keyboard action is about as realistic as you can get from the state of the art. I won't say that it's more or less realistic than another brand, because that would depend on which acoustic piano you're comparing it too. When I was playing it, I quickly forgot that I was playing a digital piano. Ivory feel feels great, so lets hose they fixed that key wear issue. Knocking on wood (or ebony)...

Sexy new screen is a little bigger, but still not color so it's not really that much sexier.

Holy crap, that's a great price mah115! And thanks for your preliminary comments!

I see that they (and others) have something called the RD-700NXC, which is the NX with the RPU-3 pedal thrown in.

[edit] I just got an email price quote from them for the RD-700NXC - $2199. I don't think it's in stock though.

[edit2] I just pulled the trigger on the NXC! Thanks loads for that pointer mah115!

That's cool that they bundle it all together. My RPU-3 that's been on backorder for 2 months, finally shipped last night. I can't wait to plug it in and see how it works with my GXF. I may be the first guy on here to get the RPU-3.

I got my RPU two weeks ago (with my FP7F) but it is a disappointment because it wanders around under the piano. Although it looks big and heavy, but my legs are much stronger. I put a big box of printer papers behind it to brake the movement somewhat.

Yeah I know what you mean. I hate that my sustain pedal wanders around. I'll be keeping my RPU-3 at home, so I'll likely just rig it up with duct tape to keep it in place. What about functionality? The tri-pedal on the Nord Piano works very very well. How well does the RPU-3 work?

Congrats dewster!

Cheers,
James
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