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Would like to contribute some impressions after buying Roland RD800 as this forum helped me a lot on final decision which instrument to buy.

The main criterias was:
1) Acoustic piano and Rhodes sound
2) Keybed
3) Overall quality of the instrument - should be well done


I was chosing from the following models:

1) Casio PX-5S
2) Yamaha CP-4
3) Nord Piano 2
4) Nord Stage 2
5) Roland RD-800



I had chance to try Casio PX-5S and Both Nords, because in area I'm leaving Yamahas and Roland especially this two new models was hard to find.

But I had chance to try Yamaha CP-40 and Roland RD 700NX.

1) Casio PX-5S. If I hadnt already Nord Electro 3 HP(hammer weighted action) probably I would go for this instrument. It's cheap ( around 900 euros), has quite good keyboard,
nice piano sounds and it's really light weighted. Electric Piano - I didn't like it. Read some ideas about possibilities of infinite tweaking - with menu of this keyboard it's not clear how to do it easily.
not informative and not readable. But for the price 900 eur - it's probably best keyboard on the market. But again - for this price range.

2) Yamaha CP-40. As I've told - hadnt possiblity to try YAmaha CP-4, but' checked Yamaha CP-40(shares not best, but some sounds with Yamaha Cp-4, the same case, holes for addiotional EQ knobs and ports are simply closed by plastic).
Havent got Idea why the price is higher than Casio. Some sounds are worse than casio, keyboard is GH and not the best of Yamahas GH keybeds.
Sounded Like a toy instrument for me for quite big money. The build quility is not great. Good(it's still yamaha). But it's much more cheaper than it's price tag.

3) Nords. A lot of good things have been said about them. As for me the main problem of this keyboards are keybeds. They are worse than Casio PX-5S. Not bad, but for the price they asking for - they are not good enough. When you are paying heck a lot of money for the instrument - everything should be perfect. Sound - incredible. Possibility to load samples - nobody allows it(probably Kurzweil soon, but Again fatar keyboard). Faziolly grand - incredible, rhodes sounds - best on the market. But keyboard feel is real compromise, which allows both piano and electro instrument playing. After playing long time Nords, playing real piano becomes strange(need time to adapt).


5) Had only chance to try the RD-700NX. Was impressed by everything - keyboard, piano sounds,rhodes was not so good as Nord, but playable. So, after everything decided for RD-800 as read that they improved both keybed and sounds, reduced weight - seemed like perfect instrument for me.

And I wasn't dissapointed for single second. Instrument is incredible.
Keybed - best I've played so far. Grand Piano Sounds - Incredibly good and are on par with Nord samples, but nord doesnt allow you to tweak the sound as it allows roland with Piano Designer, you can even adjust single note. Rhodes sounds - much more better than I even expected.

All other sounds - very good. You can find everything you need and do it FAST, directly on stage. With nord it wasn't so easy.

First gig played two days ago and no worries about "cutting through mix" - no problem at all, sounded perfectly with drums, double bass and saxophone.

What i'm not happy for:

1) there is cable attached to the keybord. I really don't undestand the guy who put power Cable into XLR(the distance is enough not to do it and there is a sticker for power cable on top of the board), but ok I can live with it.

2) No even optional music stand. Why it's not done like Yamaha or Nord way - Don't understand, but ok, I can live with it.


Also ordered Roland three pedal unit - happy with it, fits perfectly with my RD800.

So, from my experience with stage pianos I would put it - Highly recommended. The closest competititor(but price 1.5 times more) - Nord Stage 2, it allows you to load samples, very good leads and pads,, but keep in mind - keyboard is not as close good as on the RD700 nx or RD800. All other instruments I've tried are not even close to the RD800.Acoustic piano and Rhodes on RD800 are on par with Nord Stage 2 completely.

Leonid, welcome to the forum, and thank you for sharing your thoughts about the various instruments.

From the brief time that I have spent playing the RD-800, it's undoubtedly a very good stage piano. Congrats!

Regarding your comment about Nord instruments being the only boards that allow different samples to be loaded into memory, I believe some Yamaha Motif models also offer this functionality.

Cheers,
James
x

Leonid,
Great review, thanks! A few points: The Nord stage 2 does let you tweak the piano sounds in a lot of different ways. And those piano sounds are best in class. It's true that the Nord doesn't give you the fine control over the piano sound at the single note level like the RD800 does, but it still does give you quite a bit of control (tons of effects, 3 band EQ, etc...). You can shape the sounds quite a bit. And there are so many completely different piano sample sets to choose from. As the saying goes, quantity is a quality all on its own. And of course, the Organ emulations on the NS2 blows away the competition (not just B3 emulations, but Vox and Farfisa as well). Also, you can run the Vast collection of sounds from the sample library through the synth engine to do some incredible tweaking. And of course, there's the synth engine itself that lets you do a lot of really cool stuff.

As for the keybed feel of the nord, I really like it. I'm in the minority. heh. I think it just takes some getting used to, but it's actually very playable once you do. With that being said, yeah, the keyboard action on the RD-800 blows it out of the water. It is so good! I am tempted to midi up my NS2 to the RD800 and try playing some of its pianos with the RD-800 keyboard, but other than for fun/experimentation there's really no need. As you say, the Roland's pianos are quite beautiful sounding on their own.

RE: the cable thing. The cable wasn't originally attached to the board, and there was no sticker. The sticker and attached cable were the solution to prevent the misconnection from happening. Before the cable was attached, I can see how it would be really easy for a careless player or roadie to hook it up wrong on a dark stage if they were in a hurry. Apparently someone actually did that and ruined their board. And, from what I gathered, it created a potential shocking hazard, so Roland had to do something to fix it.

Re: the lack of a music rest. Yes, I already ranted about that in another thread. I agree. But there are ways to work around it.

Re: the triple pedal. Yes, it's a very nice unit. sturdy, heavy and the pedals feel realistic.

It's an absolutely fantastic board! I suspect that you're going to get a lot of enjoyment out of it!

Yes, thanks Leonid for a very insightful review. But on the matter of the Nord keyboard, I have a question: how many different types do they use in their range. Because I had a brief go on two Nords in a shop in Liverpool last spring and was surprised because,

1. they were not as bad as I expected
2. they were quite different from each other, but one would rank as very good as a synth keyboard, while the other was obviously a piano type.
3. the piano type Nord (I think it was called 'Stage' but not sure) was really OK - not wonderful but good, and maybe competitive with some (though not the best) of the keyboards made by the big 4 Japanese brands.

They're still damned expensive, though - but by all accounts sound wonderful and behave well on stage ......and they're pretty.

Congrats on your Roland RD800, Leonid. For those who can dish out the needed cash, it's probably one of the best stage pianos today, along with the Kawai MP11. Even for those who mainly play piano, it's a very tempting option. At least I like to have all those extra sounds and features to play with, though I mainly play/practise piano.

...not to mention it's capable little brother, the MP7.

Leonid, may I ask if there is a reason why you did not consider these two Kawai models?

Cheers,
James
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To Kawai James: Thanks! You are right about Motif, but from models I was choosing from - Nord is the only with samples available for download. Motif I excluded because of it's weight - too heavy. By the way - the same reason was for MP11 which is I think is great instrument as well. But 30 kilos - too much.

To fizikisto: Thanks as well.

Re: Agree - Nord allows you to do a lot, the same about organs, vox and forfisa(I have it all in my Nord Electro 3 HP) - great, unbelievably great sound. Keybed is rather good, but for this price tag - I believe it could be better. It's better than Yamaha GHS, and what does Nord, this adjusting - it's very good job,very good connection between sound and keyboard. And I think it was you who mentioned in review - technique becomes sloppy because of lack of dynamic range. That Roland did with dynamic range and possibilities it gives for performer-great.

To toddy: nord on nord piano 2 and stage 2 as far as i know Fatar TP40/M but with some adjustments.

I understand, but how about the MP7?

Cheers,
James
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Something should be said about the RD-800's included DP-10 pedal.

Bravo Roland! I'm speaking of the swing out foot/heel pad on the bottom that keeps the pedal from walking forward. The weight of your foot actually keeps it planted. Innovative, simple genius, whatever you want to call it, I love it and the designer deserves Kudos. Why doesn't everyone else's pedals have this? No matter the maker's claim about their pedal's non-slip bottoms keeping them in place, they all walk. I've been using a 25lb shot bag in front of mine for years. No More!

As soon as I get the material, all my pedals are going to get this mod.

Dan that's cool! I got the triple pedal unit with mine so I didn't even open the DP10 box yet. You've got me curious now, I'll have to take a look. I was thinking of maybe setting it up as an expression pedal for the organs. Btw, the triple pedal is also nice. I have it braced against my music rest stand, so I don't know how well it avoids "walking" without some additional support, but I can say that the pedals themselves feel very realistic.

Since the A-90 came out ('96?), I assumed that this is how pedals were.

I've since had some other pedals and it's like I'm stamping a fire out when trying to find them on a bouncy stage.

The pedal is great. From memory it ships set to "switched". Flip it over to continuous.

A few years back the RD-700NX took a lot of heat for having a metallic sound in the middle registers. Many people here preferred the Studio Grand over the other pianos in the RD700NX but as I recall the Studio Grand still had the metallic mid register complaint.

Does the RD-800 rid the world of the evil metallic mid register?
Does the RD-800 have better sounding pianos than the RD-700NX?
Is the Studio Grand in the RD-800?

There are Dynamic Harmonics adjustment for each piano. So although I never characterized it as evil, you can adjust all of them.
Yes (subjective)
Yes (Tone 034)

i had the 700 nx,and now the 800.

I was never disturbed by what you said about the evil metallic mid register.
(but more a live player)
Everytime i see this kind of things noticed by someone on a Rd700 nx,or the new 800,i have the impression most people are listening the preset and that's all.

These stage pianos have a powerful engine,that's not only the samples and the way you can play it.
You can tweak a powerful engine,effects...and equalizer.
If you work to design with all these parameters your sound,you can access to different feelings with the same piano..
YOU are the boss to edit the piano like you want.
That's the way the rd series must be used and their strongest part.
The rd 800 is a cameleon.
I have took all the pianos and edit them to make them sound like my piano vision.

The Rd 800 has all the pianos from the 700nx,so much different keyboards sounds from older series,and a new grand +a new upright.(correct me jay roland if i'm wrong)

So studio grand from the 700nx is in the box,and more...

jay:
I saw your post in the same time of mine:-)
Thanks for your answer!

Just a few word for you:
It seems there isn't so many people who consider the power of the supernatural engine.
They consider presets,and think it's a definitive view of the presets they listened in the demo.

When i read discussions in forum about the rd800 or 700nx,it seems so much people don't realize these aspects like it can be understood.

Maybe your marketing has to make some demos of the supernatural engine/effects to explain on the net what you can do with a simple preset,edit them..and showing the difference.

That's in the Turbo start videos I did. For acoustic, Electric and Organs. Showing the editors on board the RD800. Not sure when they'll be released, but they are shot and edited and now with Marketing.

Jay

Really cool!

Jay,
That's really cool. Definitely looking forward to viewing the turbo start videos. Meanwhile I'm really loving my RD800 even though I know that I've only barely scratched the surface of what it can do.

Am also looking forward to the Turbo Start videos! C'mon marketing dept!

This past weekend was fun for me because my uncle played my RD800 at a family party, with a few other musicians joining in, as an impromptu jam. He's a very good player... and plays sort of traditionally, but dynamically (really bounces the left and rolls the right - if that makes any sense!) He actually works for a Toronto Piano store that sell a lot of the Roland Home models, so Jay you'd probably know him I'm guessing! Anyways, it was nice to hear how balanced this keyboard sounded from the audience perspective - and it just sounded good against the other instruments. Still had depth. To say he was pleased with it was an understatement... he just kept smiling. Loved the action.

Your uncles initials GWILLY? Are they BW?

Jay