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Thanks Jay, it's a shame about only being able to set the 'Tremolo/Amp Simulator' setting to one layer, guess this is a system limitation.

I have submitted the E.ORGAN anomaly to Roland UK, and added it to the list of my post dated 1st June on page 1 of this thread, which can be found here...
ROLAND RD-800 USER THREAD - page 1

Roland have recently released "System Program Version 1.04" for the RD-800.


As well as fixing bugs previously reported, Roland have added a great new feature;

Added Function (Selecting a Tone)
In conjunction with the SHIFT button, you can now use the TONE [0]–[9] buttons as numeric keys to directly specify a tone number.
1. While holding down the [SHIFT] button, use the TONE [0]–[9] as numeric keys to enter a tone number.
The value blinks while you’re entering the tone number.
2. Release the [SHIFT] button, the tone number is finalized.

Added Function (Selecting a Live Set)
In conjunction with the LIVE SET buttons, you can now use the TONE [0]–[9] buttons as numeric keys to directly specify a live set number.
1. While holding down a LIVE SET [A]–[J] button, use the TONE [0]–[9] buttons as numeric keys to directly specify a live set number.
The value blinks while you’re entering the live set number.
2. Release the LIVE SET button, the live set number is finalized.

Great feature! No more rapidly spinning the wheel.

On another note, one of the bug fixes "In Tone number 0367, "PizzicatoStr," the notes in some keyboard ranges were played as monaural sounds." This is fine but I noticed just above it, 0368 "Pizz 1" is the exact same as 0369 "Pizz 2". Also same goes for 0520 "Jazz Scat 1" and 0521 "Jazz Scat 2" both identical in sound. Was this the same before the update? Not that these sounds are important to me, but nevertheless, why are they the same? Or is it just me?

Hi Marko

To my ears, I can hear the subtle differences between 0368 "Pizz 1" and 0369 "Pizz 2", which are easier to distinguish on velocity layer 2 of C6.

Likewise 0520 "Jazz Scat 1" is a "doo-dat" with velocity switching, whereas 0521 "Jazz Scat 2" is only a "doo".

Great to see Roland are listening to their customers on bugs and enhancements. I raised the 0367: PizzicatoStr issue with them in April, which they quickly acknowledged was a bug, and now fixed.

I've also recently raised the 'Rotary' issue on E.ORGANS's 265-322, and the use of the cursor buttons to navigate in and out of menu's and 'Layer Edit', which have been forwarded for consideration.

Roland is sure taking its time getting units out to shops where we can try them and maybe buy them (at least around here). Ugh!

I know, GC still hasn't re-posted RD800 on website. Like it doesn't even exist!

If you are in the Boston area, PM and you can give mine a try anytime.

You are much too kind, although with the drive today being 11 and 1/2 hours, I'll have to put a rain-check on the keyboard check.

Well, if you still want to do it, dinner and drinks are on me! Now that's what I call a great demo!

Checking into flights now as we speak!

Finishing recording some Turbo Start video Tutorials tomorrow. Will post links when they go up, Hopefully by the end of July.

Jay

Thanks Jay! That will be great for both owners and potential buyers.

Nice one!

I'd love to do something similar for the MP11/MP7 - it's just a question of finding the time (I'm catching-up from my week-long absence as it is...).

Cheers,
James
x

Does anybody know if it's possible to disable the "transpose by holding the button and pressing a key" feature? If you want to transpose mid song, you can inadvertently tune it two and a half octaves down if you're still got a note on.

I know it's lazy of me to transpose, but I have cause to every now and then.

I don't believe so Cessquil, That was added for convenience.

Transpose isn't laziness, its an advantage of digital pianos.

Jay

Fair enough, thanks. Got caught out with a key change mid song on Sunday. Suddenly middle C was a low G. A teething problem that I'll get used to.

Maybe if it was a short press to toggle and long press to set it might be easier? (Just for my situation, obviously!)

Any opinions on the RPU-3 pedal unit? I had a recent thread on stage pianos for home usage and have pre-ordered an MP11. At that point, the RD-800 was not yet on my radar, but because the pre-order won't be filled until next month I've continued researching and have since become quite interested in the RD-800. I've also since had hands-on (foot-on) with Kawai's F-20 pedal unit from the MP10 and flat out dislike it. I expect the newer F-30 pedal model that comes with the MP11 to be very similar; the only noted distinction between the two is the addition of the sostenuto pedal. The pedals in the F-20 (and probably F-30) went down incredibly easily and feel totally insubstantial in comparison to an acoustic piano's pedals. It's very close to a deal-breaker because I'll be using the instrument in everyday practice of mostly classical works, and don't want to further develop my already somewhat poor pedaling technique (so started by my present mid-1990 era Suzuki DP).

Is the RPU-3 a [better/more substantially] weighted pedal? Roland's site claims a "real grand piano pedaling experience," but there really doesn't seem to be a lot of detail out there about it. Does it compare favorably to the general quality of pedals found in non-portable DPs?

And to preface a related question I'd also ask, I'll say that it's the onboard piano sounds that got me seriously interested in the RD-800 after starting to look into it. I think I prefer the Roland SN piano sound over that of Kawai, and while onboard sound isn't completely critical to me since I'll be using VSTs some of the time, for this kind of money spent I feel like I'd like to get onboard sounds that I really like since I will still be using it often enough. Unfortunately, the only Roland dealers near me are chain stores without adequate selection (no RD-800, no HP-506, no HP-508, and not even any PHA-3 models), so I can't actually try out the PHA-4-Concert key action in person to see how it stands against my points of comparison (on the Roland side I have tried the Ivory Feel-G though and found it passable but not great, on the Kawai side I've played plenty of the GF action and like it a lot). So instead, I'd ask any RD-800 users how they think the key action would fare for someone interested in everyday classical-style practice and skill-building without developing overly poor habits for eventual playing on acoustic instruments. As a sole instrument for someone without regular access to acoustic pianos, can the RD-800's action serve as a stand-in?

I personally love the feel of the RPU-3. Enough resistance to "keep it real" for half sustain and things of that sort. Haven't ever tried the Kawai version so cannot compare.

The RPU-3 is one of our most popular piano accessories.

Jay

At 5 lbs it's fairly massive. Pedal height, resistance, and travel distance seem roughly comparable to our grand piano. All three pedals are proportional, not switches. It suffers a bit from "creeping around on the floor" when you use it, though not nearly as bad as single units, and it might be better behaved on a carpet.

Unboxing of the pedal unit here.


IMO, the "Concert" and "Studio" SN pianos in the RD-700NX sound pretty convincing through good headphones. I think you could record them solo and most people wouldn't be able to tell they weren't the real thing. That said, I'd really prefer a full piano sample to sampled attacks and SN synthesized decays. I just don't trust anyone to model anything in a fully realistic manner. I'd really like to see Kawai step up to the plate and offer this, their actions look the best in photos. Roland is off in their own private Idaho with SN, bless them, but I've no clue as to why full samples aren't de rigueur in the rest of the top end DPs.

Thanks for the pedal thoughts, Jay and dewster. The unboxing is handy to see, too!


I definitely know what you mean here. I'm coming into the onboard DP sound world from the Kontakt library world, and it's surprising how dated the onboard sampling is throughout the entire market. Of course, even with the dated sampling/storage tech, they all still play way better than my current old Suzuki DP+Kontakt combo (and a newer DP+Kontakt will probably too do a lot better than I'm used to; my Suzuki's effective velocity range is pretty limited, not to mention the binary sustain pedal). Any modern $100+ smartphone could probably store and power an OS and piano library engine of greater size and complexity than even the toppest-of-the-line DPs, so it's depressing that we can pay $2000-10000 and still get such cheap corner-cutting in onboard sounds, no matter how premium the pricetag. Needless to say that I appreciate your DPBSD thread for shining an analytic light on the state of things.

It's so depressing I find it difficult to do any further reviews, particularly on the same old stuff in new packages. Not much point beyond noting model B has the same lame/missing sympathetic resonance and CFX sample as A but butchered in a slightly different way, etc.

An acoustic piano is this incredibly vibrant, resonant, loud, very alive thing. We've known for some time now how to fully sample them and use modeling or other manipulation to cover the small remaining gaps. Processor and memory costs are not the significant issue they once were, but here we are.