Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards THE RD-700NX Thread!

That somehow sound's really unintiutive to me. Did Roland never think of a simple way (i.e. without hands) of changing the tone? It is called a stage piano, so I just wonder if they didn't consider the necessity of switching sounds in a hurry. Let me ask, what is the smoothest way of doing so?



I think it depends on what you consider a real piano. There are many acoustic pianos much worse than the stage-pianos of that price region. I'd probably prefer anyof these to e.g. the Schimmel upright i played lately. But one shouldpossibly never try to compare stage-pianos to any elaborated grand. Additionally personal taste relativates any rankings anyway, so as usual personl favour is most important for the final decision.

TWO K10s needed to compete with your bandmates? I hope you also invested in some high quality earplugs to protect your hearing!

Also, in my experience the wedge shape of the RD series, combined with back-heaviness, makes it far more awkward to handle than, say the CP5, which is the same weight but has more square edges and more even weight distribution.

Alas, Roland has been wedded to that joystick for decades and seem very proud of it. I think the chances of them abandoning the concept are close to nil. Could be worse - at least they haven't put a D-Beam on it!

May I ask an additional question: Can I use the Midi-In for transmitting system commands? If so, is it possible to create/buy a device that sends one single command upon e.g. hitting a button?

If MIDI-In allows system commands (and I don't see why it shouldn't), the MIDI Solutions Event Processor will allow you to program any MIDI command to be translated to any other - i.e. you just need a switch of some sort capable of sending any kind of MIDI message. In the past I have even used the lowest note on a DP to trigger a series of such commands using the Event Processor (the only problem was pressing it slowly enough so that it didn't sound).

You can use MIDI for switching sounds. Some other things too, but it depends on what exactly you want to do.

You can download the manual here, click on the Support page.

As for the other questions, you can easily figure them out when you get your NX

This is really helpful, thanks a lot!

Yeah, I somehow feel like a six-year-old before christmas eve, barely capable of staying calm

Nothing beats the nord piano's upright samples (or grand samples) for onboard sounds, but it does not feel like an upright piano.

The 700nx actually feels a lot like my old henry f. miller upright piano. Honestly, it feels better. The action of my real piano is un-maintained, but in good condition, however over the last 25 years of me playing it every single day (not to mention whoever had it before me) the action has become more light in feel. The roland is very very similar to a very well broken in upright piano, but with the added benefit of being well regulated (digital piano wise).

I haven't tried more expensive roland digital pianos that mimic the feel of a real piano, so I can't speak for those. But at the price range, you can't beat the 700nx for key feel anywhere in my opinion. And the SN pianos are great and very enjoyable to 'feel' as you play them. Although, my dream is a nord piano controlled by a 700nx... :-)

Isn't the keyboard in the RD700NX the best one that Roland actually do? Namely, the PHA III keyboard, same as in HP507, LX 15, V-Piano as well as the cheaper FP7f.

Some have suggested that the V-Piano (and presumably the V-Grand) has a slightly different version of PHAIII. Frankly, I doubt it. I suspect that the difference perceived is related to the V's better key/sound connection, which (I believe) is governed by more than the 127 steps that MIDI is limited to.

As far as key action goes, if the PHAIII action is same in the the 700NX and V-Piano, does the overall weight of the DP have an effect on how the keys behave?

I personally don't think that weight of the piano directly relates to the weight of the key construction and therefore to the key action. Nevetheless a heavy piano will have a different behaviour on the stand, more precisely oscillations will need more forceful plying to occur but therefore last longer.

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I have had a few weeks now to test the 700nx and I am really happy to possess that magnificent piano now, which I bought together with a very stable stand, Beyerdynamic DT770 80Ohm headphones and the RPU3 pedal unit for 2700€ in a nice little shop in vienna.

What I like best about the piano is the key action. It proved superior to its direct contestors the Yamaha CP5, the Kawai MP10 and the Nord Piano 2. The escapement mechanism seems really well-engineered to me. I am not sure how escapement generally affects playing, but i think it that the finger can sense its velocity and adjust the force in the final moment before the sensor detects the action ... CAN THIS BE A CORRECT EXPLANATION? Nevertheless the 700nx escapement allows a really nuanced pianissimo play, which makes it really satisfying and fun to do. I think that the weight grading of the keys could be stronger, but actually it doesn't affect playing in any negative way. I also like the touch, which offers a good grip and feels neither too slick nor porously (to explain what i mean by porous: for my taste the kawai key surfaces feel like being a mixture of paper and porclain). I think there are lots of pianos (including acoustic) that have a the 700nx is able to surpass easily.

The sounds are good, bit I have to admit, that I believe this is less important in times of computer aided sound generation or midi expanders. The SN piano sounds are outstanding in my opinion, but I would not dare to compare them to my ~1900 Hölzl & Heitzmann grand piano. The sounds are 'full bodied' clean and have hardly any recognizable traces of artificial creation. I have too little experience to judge the electric pianos, but I like the tine e-piano veery much. From the general banks, the samples are sometimes nice and sometimes crappy. Sounds like guitars, the single violin, or the flute are simply unsatisfying. DOES SOMEONE HAVE CREATED A GOOD E.G. ELECTRIC GUITAR FROM THE TONES YET?

One thing that is notanle is, that it is not possible to make smppt transitions between presets. While the keys held by pedal keep on creating the right tones after a preset change, the volumes and effects change to the new parameters. The effect control with the additional pedals is great fun.The pedal assignments are individual for each preset, but the access to these are in the menu and not in the layer edit section, which is simply illogical to me.

Further I like the design very much, the interface is, as often states, a no-brainer indeed, the weight is tolerable and anything else is simply not tested yet, so I can only conclude by saying: This was a really great purchase.

I'll just answer the easiest question

Just hold SHIFT and press the pedal you want to configure. There are some useful shortcuts involving the SHIFT key, or sometimes just holding down a key. There is no list of shortcuts in the manual, but it's easy to just try all the possibilites and try to remember the most useful ones that you discover. That's what I did.

Will Roland be releasing a new RD 700 series soon? I know the NX was released about 2 years ago and chances are remote; I have a SX and planning to upgrade, but of course want the latest and greatest board available. Any info is greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much! How did you come across that shortcut ... is there a good thread on shortcuts? by accident? I believe it is not mentioned in the manual.

Greetings
mimesot

It's briefly mentioned on page 11 that there are shortcuts like this. Other than that, I think I had to use trial and error. SHIFT+CONTROL/LAYER LEVEL is another good one. Shows the fader assignments.

Someone should write a blog post with a list of these things.

Hi Dewster,

I am new here.
I have been reading this thread from the front pages.
But it is a long discustion and until the last page I read, I have not found some conclusion regarding the keys.
So, I decided to ask you, the guru of this keyboard, directly..

1. for the key, is it made of solid wood and covered with synthetic ivory?
I saw before in music store, it has wood pattern at both sides of the keys but I am not sure whether it is just a lamintaion or solid wood.

2. SuperNatural, is it a modelling technology or still sampling technology but the sample sounds go to some processing steps?

3. How is the strings and guitar sounds in RD700NX?

4. Comparing it with Clavinova CLP440 and Kurzweil SP4-8, whose keys is heavier?
those are pianos that I have ever tried before.
well, I have ever tried the keys of RD700NX but it was not side by side comparison with those two boards so I am confused my self.stupid me...:D

5. How do you compare it with it's lil brother RD300NX?
is the keyboard in RD300NX hammer action type one?

sorry for too much question

thanks

Hi premium_devil. Look, I am not Dewster, and do not pretend to have his knowledge but I think these are fairly accurate general answers. Dewster (or another) will correct any errors later.

There are several good string sounds, and you can easily combine them to get close to the kind of sound you want. Marcatos and pizzicatos are included, you can set them to trigger at only high velocities and things like that.

The classical guitar sounds sound good in the middle and lower register. And the overdrive/distortion guitars are pretty good. There are no fancy features like overtones, feedbacks, or glissandis, you would have to do that by mixing multiple layers. The muted fuzz guitar sound is bad, but you can probably mix it with other sounds to make it almost usable. Maybe that's Roland intention with it. Other guitar sounds are less good.

The keys are hollow brown plastic with the faux ivory glued to the top and front. You can see some pictures of the keys in my disassembly post.


My best guess is they use samples for the attacks and some kind of physical synthesis for the decays (string simulators stimulated by the attack samples). So there is no looping like in most DPs. You can read more about the sound in my review post.


Strings could be better IMO. A lot of string samples in there but none seem as useful as the string voices in our old Yamaha P120. Haven't played with the guitar sounds much.