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I didn't say that developing apps is cheap. But once developed, the incremental manufacturing cost of supplying them is zero. It also costs money to develop better modeling algorithms and whatever else you may include in "re-engineering the SN engine" but unlike an app, there is more likely also an addition to the manufacturing cost for more processing power or whatever.

At any rate, the fact that they are paying programmers to develop iOS apps does not mean that they are not also paying programmers to continue to work on their other technologies, SuperNatural, etc. And odds are they are not the same programmers.

This even afflicts the flagship 700NX wrt compressor and sound focus, iirc.

Just wondering if anybody with fp-80 had any luck playing mp3's on usb stick through their piano speakers? I followed manual instructions and can get as far as seeing the various folders displayed but cannot see individual songs. Notified Roland but no response for 3 days.

I expect you will need to convert the audio file to WAV format, as I don't believe the FP models can playback/record MP3.

You may be able to get away with simply changing the extension of the file from .mp3 to .wav, however make sure you turn the volume down, just in case the instrument attempts to playback the data as uncompressed audio.

Cheers,
James
x

According to the manual that's true. Only midi and wav. But hey, why should someone support such an uncommon format. Kawai should better develop ios apps than integrating such useless features ;-)

Free Thinker: It is not possible to playback MP3s through the USB to the FP-80.
According to the manual only these formats can be played back:
Standard MIDI Files (Format 0, 1) -SMF
Roland original format (i-Format)
Audio Files (WAV format, 44.1 kHz, 16-bit linear)

Do not change .wav to .mp3 as James stated (sorry James). That will not work what so ever. Those are two completely different formats and changing the endings will just mess up those files and they will not work at all.

It is though, I believe, possible to play MP3s when hooked up wirelessly with an iPhone or iPad.

I agree, it's unlikely to work, but is surely worth a try.

The RD-700NX supports MP3 playback (I believe it's currently the only Roland instrument that does), so it's possible the that functionality also exists in the FP models, but that the file browser is just hiding the .mp3 extesion.

As I say, it's unlikely, but renaming file extensions is rather more straightforward than converting a load of MP3s to WAV, so again, it's worth a try.

Cheers,
James
x

Seemed the RD700NX had/had problems simultaneously playing back MP3 files and the performer playing the SN sounds. Could lead to cut off notes. Perhaps that's why they only support WAV for now, since it doesn't need decompression (using the CPU). It does lead to a higher data-stream however; obviously that's not a problem.

Quote MagicK: "Kawai should better develop ios apps than integrating such useless features ;-)"

Yeh ... and add a mic input with harmonizer crippled by half-baked effect routing...

Just tried changing .mp3 to .wav on fp-80. The song comes up on the screen and looks like it's playing but no audio. After stopping, error #18 comes up. format un-supported. It was worth a try though.

*.wav is actually just a riff container with pcm data. I think there is a way to properly embed *.mp3 data into a wav riff file, but I don't know how. (And here it probably wouldn't anyways.)

Indeed, worth a try.

On the FP-80 I've been playing a lot with the first three SN-pianos, Concert, Ballade, and Bright. I strongly believe that these three are different sample banks. I noticed impurities in different keys, key ranges in these. In concert it is the range of Eb1-F#1 and on the bright piano it's the Ab4. It is not bad, but they are different samples. Ballade seems quite clean but also very mellow/soft in sound.

As I say - it is not bad. Maybe it is a realistic string or cabinet resonance recording.

I Have also played a lot with the FP 80
and the more I play, the more I love it.
you can tune the sound as you want and the piano dynamics / key connection to the sound, is incredibly good
I take a lot of pleasure playing with this piano.
Now I am more using my NU1 for "training" session, for improving my technics, But I am using the FP 80 for "pleasure" , this piano is perfect for my Jazz practice
As it is so easy to get the piano reacting as you want.

I have not noticed any "imperfect" sound, and really like all the SN piano sounds

For those who are asking about the hard bottom up of the keyed, I can say that I find the keybed really really good (quite light, but it is was I was looking for)
and I have no finger pain after 'very) long session.


By the way, I have a question for FP 80 owners: have you find the way for having 2 pianos sounds overlaying ? and not only a piano sound with an EP sound or string sound (which is clearly explained in the manual, but nothing about overlaying 2 piano sounds)


Cheers

You can only select sounds from an other bank to layer. So the only way to double pianos is to select the second piano from the 'Other' Bank (for example #41). Yes, those are GM sounds, but not all that bad.

How does Ballade compare to Studio?

All right.... here is a brain teaser:

In the functions menu the Audio Transpose does not work at all.
Another strange feature is that the Mic Harmony affects the audio input as well - I'm sure that is a flaw.

Hi Cmin,

is there a bug report / feature request page somewhere on the Roland forum(s) and/ or corporate site ? One that does actually get through to the right people ? I suggest posting your findings there as well. If Roland doesn't hear from it , they will probably never fix or enhance things in a firmware update. I'm pretty sure no relevant Roland employee is reading this forum, so they won't be aware of flaws or things that can be done better. (If there is a a roland representative ; please reveal yourself ;-)

Just a suggestion. Mike and James are all eyes and ears and will pick up issues or request very fast when they are described on this or other fora, but for Roland I think some aggressive and properly directed action from the customers itself may be necessary to get things done...

Hi JFP. It was hard enough finding a customer support email address on the Roland site. Yes, I have sent in a request a couple days ago an just now received an answer. They didn't quite get my problem though and gave me some bizarre answer. I will try it again.

Unfortunatley, after bringing up some issues on un-pragmatic behaviour of the HP, I also got from them a very short justification why things are implemented as they are, but no sign of really willing to improve something.
At least I got a description how to better use the HP according to the user operation workflow as they have it in mind. So, I received some 'workaround' instructions, but of course would prefere a real improvement...

"You're holding it wrong" (you dumb...).

Familiar ?