Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards All about Roland FP-80 & FP-50!!!

Scott: I meant it as a type of Sound-Interface to be able to record directly to a DAW over USB cable. A lot of synths and keyboards have that function.

Oh heck that sounds great!

Nope - there are certainly things that I like about Roland (SN AP / connection between touch and sound) and in fact the alternatives in my list are less expensive. They are simply not available in my region, whereas the Roland I can pick up right away for an interesting price.

Also I'm just trying to determine how much this DP is different from my ES7 in terms of features (audio-input / signal routing / speakers) , touch and sound. I know how the PHA-III plays , until now I didn't know how the audio-input performed and if it is usable for instance to route your laptop output through the speakers to play a software instrument in a decent way. Since you and Cmin are the first ones who own the FP , I just fired away the questions I liked to see ticked off. Several of them are clear now:

1) There seems to be no structural factory fault that caused the 'distortion' you first mentioned in the thread. More a sound character thing, that you may or may not like
2) Speakers are OK and a step up from the FP7 - no only marketing talk, but a real improvement
3) Keybed is roughly the same as before in terms of response and mechanical sound.
4) SN Grand lacks the lid simulation but added sound board simulation and sounds good overall. Most probably the processing 'slot' for lid simulation had to be sacrificed for the sound board processing. Whatever...
5) Mic input / audio input is sort of half baked. But personally I don't care about the Mic input. Decent audio-In would be welcome..
6) SN EP's are nice (?) but lack editable parameters.

All in all it seems an attractive piano with good AP sound , with a few caveats if you're really interested in using the Mic input , effects and such. Don't know if anyone here would buy it for the arranger, or has tested it yet - personally I don't care - so I don't know if thats a good feature too. If you don't use or need the additional features, it's a bit expensive for pure piano practice and play , but other than that is looks good so far. Judging from the Cmin sound examples above it sounds good.

Note: the F4 "problem" is not so bad as I expected form your remarks. In solo notes it's there, but I guess in chords or playing, it's not so obvious , right ? The sustain phase sounds a bit like an old fashioned ugly and far too short looped sustain of a high note on an older rompler. "ponk , hijaaaaaa, ponk hijaaaaaaaa" ;-) Thanks for all your input Cmin and Free Thinker !!

But can they do this without installing custom drivers on your Mac or PC? You're talking about recording audio, not MIDI, right? The only board I have that does this is Yamaha, and it requires custom drivers (and the Yamaha is not class compliant).

Yes, I'm talking about audio. Midi already passes through. Sure, you'd probably need a driver. Having been using both Mac and PC, most likely Mac wouldn't need a driver. But, what ever it is - they should've made it possible. I mean, if Midi already goes through then audio should have too.

aka this

Very nice demo, thank you!:-)

Thank you, my pleasure.

That sounds wonderful!

I don't recognize the reference "Gee Dee" - would you mind sharing what it is that you are playing there?

And thank you for the recordings. Made me go out to a local shop that had an FP-80 and listen to it there, too, and I have to say I am sold. Have been looking into a DP that can be moved around for a little while and the FP-80 has finally put an end to that search.

Thanks a lot. It's just a piece I wrote a while back. (I only play my own stuff)
You are making the right choice - you'll be very happy with the FP-80.

Just out of curiosity, but have you been checking out some other stage models too , recently or in the past ? Like Yamaha's, Roland Fp7F, FP-50, Kawai ES7, Casio Px-series ?

If so , what made you choose the FP-80 over the others.

I was cruising around GC website because they are having 48 hour 12% off sale and saw this unfavorable review. I find it a bit unfair review considering it's more of a comparison than a review from an unsatisfied customer w/ big expectations.

For what it's worth... http://www.guitarcenter.com/Roland-FP-80-Digital-Piano-109123802-i3068702.gc#customer-reviews

For the record, that Guitar Center discount doesn't apply to Roland, according to their coupon exclusions page. Oh well.

Not entirely true. The guy at GC (in Boston) said they put almost every brand up there as an exclusion to basically cover their butt for liability from manufacturer. However, if you go in the store they will honor 12% on almost everything in stock in the store. I suggest you call GC to make sure they will honor their coupons/discounts before you buy.

Here is something interesting for those who complain about the the 'whining' sound. (Freethinker, JFP.....)

In the FP-80 manual (page 54), Troubleshooting:

"A "whining" noise is heard
If you hear this in headphones:
Some brilliant and sharply defined piano sounds contain significant high-frequency components, which may sound like a metallic resonance has been added. This is due to the faithful simulation of a piano's actual characteristics, and does not indicate a malfunction.

You can adjust this resonance by editing the following settings.
-Duplex Scale setting
-String Resonance setting
-Ambience Depth setting

If you don't hear this in headphones:
Some other reason may be responsible (e.g., resonance in the FP-80 itself). Please contact your dealer or Roland Service Center."

...So Roland is very well aware of the 'problem'. (Which it is not).
As I have stated before, I too got rid of some abnormalities using the Piano Designer.

Oh... and here is what Roland writes about the onboard "Acoustic Projection" speaker system:

Roland FP-80 Manual, page 26 (SMF and audio recording):

"....Thanks to its multiple number of speakers, each of which can be used to play a different portion of the overall sound, the FP-80 is capable of producing piano sounds that possess great depth and three-dimensional presence (Acoustic Projection).
When playing from the keyboard or from SMF data, the FP-80 applies an acoustic projection effect that makes the sound more natural. This effect is not used with audio recordings, as they are already recorded in stereo (using two channels)."

I am really starting to like the speaker system on the FP-80. It does 'engulf' the player, simulating depth and width quite realistically. One can notice this 'effect' not only with the ambience, but also when adjusting the Cabinet Resonance.

Also, I use that microphone input (in order to use the onboard speakers and the harmony effect) going out of my mixer with a usable processed microphone signal.

Hi Cmin, Thanks. Glad to see someone has the manual. This is the one thing we have all been trying to get our hands on prior to purchase. Not sure why Roland has not posted it for download yet.

When you said "I am really starting to like the speaker system on the FP-80." Do you mean that you did not care for it at first and it grew on you? Just looking for some further detail. That's a feature I am very interested in.

Hi Marko,
as always I'm a bit skeptical at first. No, I do really like it. Compared to the FP-7F (as I recall) it is louder, clearer and more spacious. It was a slight down turn for me on the FP-7F.
If you have the possibility, try it for yourself.

"This is due to the faithful simulation of a piano's actual characteristics, and does not indicate a malfunction."

Tried some acoustics lately and for instance on an upright Schimmel there was a metallic ring, almost artificial , on some mid high and high notes. Some more than others. The whole unit (metallic strings, soundboard , everything) resonates and creates overtones and sometimes these almost weird high pitched sounds. Pedaling had a great influence on the occurrence of those frequencies. All in all , I think when you start to look for certain characteristics you'll find them in almost any instrument . These SN pitched metallic frequencies many people complain about may be part or the original piano samples (and thus part of the source piano) or the processing or both (!) . But I wanted to emphasize now that I tried some 'real' piano's that it was possible to hear and reproduce some similar ringing sounds and pretty artificial sounding effects as well. Had been too long since I played and acoustic; perhaps we're so used to digitals that we forgot what broad sound spectrum an mechanical instrument can produce and blame the DP if it shows some of those unexpected frequency combinations as well. Only problem could be that a digital instrument will always exactly produce the same 'problematic' by-sounds with a certain playing style, whereas an acoustic is more organic , meaning never the exact (!) same sound twice. This repetition is what can/will become annoying.

@ JFP: I guess you're right. The Steinway and Bechstein I play has a lot more "impurities" than my FP-80. That's what makes it real and alive.

Yesterday I turned off all the possible SN parameters, just to see how it sounds and play around with it a bit. The sound was still quite usable (it sounded a little like my old DP), but somehow 'lifeless'.

I think a lot are bickering at a very high level about the sound and feeling. These are DP's - and I must say it sounds and feels better than a lot AP's out there. Sometimes maybe even too good.

Another presentation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CvO5kVugbs