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Last week I purchased a new RD-800.

It is a fantastic instrument and I have been spending every spare chance I can get familiarising myself with it. However I have come to discover that the g#2 key is faulty. Essentially it sounds much louder than adjacent notes and takes very little weight to trigger a fortissimo sound. Consequently it is very difficult to play with a consistent volume and tonal quality on that region of the keyboard.

I have ruled out that it may be a tonal characteristic of that particular note because it occurs with all patches and also affects the corresponding note when transposing up or down. For example, if I transpose an octave up, the offending note on that particular physical key which is now an octave higher exhibits this characteristic but not the note that is now down an octave which corresponds with the pitch of the original (un-transposed) note. I hope that makes sense...

I have attached a recording to illustrate the issue. I apologise for the noisy recording; my computer broke down and so I had to record it using the inbuilt microphone on my tablet.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/v4datcaqeyfimo2/rd-800?dl=0

I've sent an email to Roland Australia regarding the issue and will report back when I get a response. Has anyone else had a similar issue with any of the keys on their RD-800?

Cheers

Ocram

I have not had any issues like this. That's a real bummer because it's such a great board. I hope that Roland's customer service is able to get you sorted out ASAP.

Me too! They do have a reputation for excellent customer care so I'm confident it will get resolved. There are also a couple of service agents in my area so hopefully I won't have to ship it to Sydney...

Just got off the phone to Roland Australia - they're keen to help and are confident the local guy will sort it! Sweet!

Ditto -- I've had not a lick of such trouble with mine and do hope that you get this solved pronto! It is such a wonderful board, and I hate to see your enjoyment diminished by this.

I'm a bit bummed because I was planning on gigging with it for the first time this weekend, but on the other hand it only seems appropriate to give my trusty old Kawai MP5 one last outing before I sell it...

Once this is all resolved I might have to pick your brains for any tips or tricks you might have on the RD. There's a lot of stuff to delve into there.

Possibly a dirty/faulty key switch? Frustrating, buy it can happen with any keyboard instrument. I'm sure you'll have the problem fixed in no time.

Cheers,
James
x

I'm sure it wouldn't have happened if I'd gone with the MP7, right?

Yeah, the service rep seemed confident it was a simple fix. I've had to deal with Roland in the past and they were great. No doubt it will get resolved quickly and easily, especially if I can do it locally...

I'd say the chances of it happening would have been more or less the same.

Cheers,
James
x

I don't have this problem on mine.
Hope they can get it fixed for you soon.
It would be interesting to know how they resolve this too.

Local tech has already been contacted by Roland. Dropping it in tomorrow. So far so good!

Hi Ocram,

I like Kawai James' answer....for it most certainly can happen on any brand. I thought I had 2 faulty keys on my new MP7, but was asked to play it a lot and see if they settled down, which they did (phew!), however I saw a MP7 in Perth that had been bought just before I got mine, and it had some very clanky keys in the final high octave. I would have struggled to put up with that. All I can say is that Kawai Australia are very helpful. I've had keybed issues with previous Roland products, one of which required a total replacement of the keybed in the first month after purchase, and the other was out of warranty, but turned out to be a problem with the rubber sensor strip, and was fine once replaced. That problem was very similar to what you have described. All the best.

Hi Ocram,

I've got similar problem with C5 on my RD-800. It stands out from all other notes and when I play it is ringing like a bell. Besides this all keys from C5 have unusual resonance even with reverb off. Transpose does the same thing as in your case.

Very interested how they diagnose your problem, sample defect or different part of electronics.

One thing to note,
You can actually adjust the level of individual notes on the RD-800. So you could turn that one note way down as a kludge until you have a chance to get it serviced. That *might* make it useable in the meantime.

Tried that - it kinda works in that the volume is lower but the tonal characteristic is still that of a fortissimo whack. I also meddled with the note's voicing - similar deal.

In any case, it is in for repair today. I'll report back.

In the meantime, does anyone have any suggestions for pulling a consistent tone in mono? My reality is that for nearly all my gigs I monitor in mono through a small (but very good) powered speaker, and like most digital pianos, the RD-800's tone suffers from the summing process. Has anyone tailored a piano patch that suits this scenario? I've messed with the "spectrum" effect with interesting results - it seems to bring more body out and alleviate some of the wooliness - but would be interested in learning of other users' approaches.

Update:

Got my RD back today. Apparently there was "debris" on the lower key contact which was causing the hair-trigger like response on the relevant key. The tech tried to explain it to me but I admit I couldn't quite understand what it all meant. He also ordered a new contact strip which he will install when it gets sent to him, because apparently the debris scratched the contact slightly - but I was assured it would play just fine in the meantime.

He also took a good look around the guts of the RD-800 and advises that he was very impressed with the build quality and components used in these keyboards - in his words "much better than many of Roland's recent offerings, which looked slick on the outside but were pretty cheap under the hood".

He said the chassis was very solid and the "plastic" top is not actually plastic but aluminium with a plastic-like coating. So there you have it...not plastic after all. I guess that plastic will start to rub off in due course...

He was also very excited about the keyboard action, best he's ever seen, apparently...(he also let slip that his "son" was in the market for one of these, so I suspect he spent a bit of time having a sneaky test-drive of the instrument).

I've been getting stuff fixed by this bloke for about 20 years, so I guess he's seen his fair share of keyboards.

All in all, very impressed with Roland's (and my local tech's) quick and professional response.

Glad to hear everything worked out for you. Regrets as well. That almost NEVER happens with a Roland.

Glad to hear that your technician (whom you trust and know well) is able to reaffirm for all of us, the build quality of the RD-800.

It's a fantastic board.

Glad you now can just play..


Jay.

Hi Jay

Well, it seems I spoke to soon...

The key is indeed fixed, but unfortunately another (seemingly more serious) problem has arisen.

When I press any of the first four tone buttons, the tone button two across also lights and that sound is layered over the one I selected, even though I haven't pressed the corresponding tone button. For example, if I select ”concert”, ”vintage” is also selected, or if I press ”studio”, ”modern” also lights up and both sounds are layered. The only way I can ”un-layer” them is by toggling the ”upper 2” switch. Selecting any of those first four tone banks again causes this behaviour. It doesn't happen with the rest of the tone banks. They behave normally.

I tried a factory reset, but it doesn't work. Pressing ”enter”on the factory reset menu item just returns to the regular playing more and all my changes are still there.

I also reinstalled the firmware. It installed successfully but did not correct the error.

Also, doing tasks like copying live sets to USB don't work.

There is something seriously wrong...

Getting a bit stressed now, having owned the keyboard for 3 weeks, spent $700 on a custom flight case and not able to use it. Three gigs and counting...

Get your tech to double check that all ribbon cables were properly reconnected and re-seated.

That sounds like a misconnection problem from re-assembly

Jay

Thanks Jay. I hope that's the case. Would that explain why the ”enter” button doesn't respond in some cases? (FYI - the key combo to check firmware version at power-on is also not working. It was working before I took it in for repair).

Ya that completely sounds like one or more Ribbon cables are not seated properly....Hopefully your tech makes it right as rain ASAP, so you can get to playing that beast of piano awesomeness!

Jay

Cheers Jay.

Just got off the phone to both Roland and the tech. He has a similar suspicion. Looks like I'm racing home in my lunch break again to bring it in again. I guess I'm lucky I don't have to send it a hundred km's to Sydney each time...

Would it void the warranty to crack that baby open and just re-seat the ribbon cable? Re-seating a ribbon cable isn't exactly rocket science.

I'm not prepared to go there, petes - Sure it's an inconvenience having to bring it in again but I don't wanna risk voiding my warranty. Plus, I'm not entirely convinced the problem is as simple as that. Hopefully I'm wrong...

The saga continues...

The problem is not related to poorly seated ribbons, I'm told. Tech identified what he thinks is a faulty board, which is now on order, to be delivered from Japan in two weeks. Keyboard is now pretty-much unusable in its current state.

On the bright side, the crippled keyboard is now safely tucked into it's brand new, shiny custom-made seven-hundred-dollar flight case, sitting in the shop, waiting for a part that will (presumably) bring it back to life...

It's a very nice flight case...

When I cracked out RD700NX open there didn't appear to be any telltales. I tend to open anything that seems to need it, most often electrical issues are mechanical in nature.

Very weird. So sorry to hear it. Have to ask if the board exhibited these symptoms before the attempted repair of the faulty key? Sometimes not grounding oneself before touching the internals can cause issues too.

How much is Roland Australia aware of? Our factory service centres tend to check this stuff pretty carefully before releasing a repair.

Sorry there's such a nightmare going on.

Jay

No, the problem wasn't evident before the initial repair. You might be onto something with the grounding thing. The other theory was a cold-solder joint or something cracking when reaching in to unplug a wiring loom.

Thanks for your concern and interest Jay, but it really is a first world problem so I'm gonna make sure I keep it in perspective

Your MP5 is having quite a swan song.

In all seriousness though, I'm sure the problem will be fixed shortly, and you'll be able to enjoy gigging with that lovely new RD-800.

Cheers,
James
x

Ha! It sure is! I have a new appreciation for its worth, that's for sure!

Roland rep just called me back. They've organised an express delivery from Japan (next few days) and will replace all boards in the RD to eliminate the possibility of mis-diagnosis and further delay.

That's what i would expect. We care. We really do. And we try hard.

Jay

Wow - that's great service from Roland! Such things should be an important part when choosing an instrument.

Looks like you got great service from Roland. Question, has any one had issues with their Service or communicating with Roland. Have the same key issue with another company, now they don't even respond to e-mails. If Roland service is that good, looking to sell my Great Piano, would keep it even though I have had 3 keys fixed, and another one is going bad, but lousy service, not from the dealer, but from the US distributor.

I don't have any experience of any other DP manufacturer, but I certainly can't fault Roland's service.

I had a 'problem' with my V-Piano four years ago (entirely of my own making, when I botched up several attempts to install the free update). Once I contacted Roland, they arranged collection of my V from my home at a time that suited me, and returned it to me within a week, all at no cost to myself.

All I needed to do was to pack it carefully back into its box prior to collection.

Just got word that parts arrived today (including a whole new key contact strip to replace the one "scratched" by the debris on the original faulty key) and it's all back together and working as it should.

I'll report back once I've put it through its paces but I have to say that the response from Roland has been exceptional.

So I had a play last night and it all seemed to work as it should.

However, it did display one bit of odd behaviour. When scrolling through the presets, I had selected the ”European pf” tone and pressed the enter key. This caused the keyboard to switch to a tonewheel organ patch and the edit screen brought up the drawbars etc. It did this a few times, then when I switched to a different patch, then back to that patch, the behaviour was normal. I was not able to reproduce the glitch.

I guess it may be a firmware bug but will let Roland and the tech know just in case things deteriorate.

How can I put this diplomatically...?

This keyboard is f@#ked.

Finally had my first rehearsal with it last night.

Apart from my struggles to dial in a workable piano tone (clearly this thing doesn't like mono) all the issues detailed earlier in this thread came back after about an hour of playing, starting with the switching-to-tonewheel organ thing described in my last post.

Within minutes of that, things deteriorated badly and it's doing the layering thing again and I can't access any menus. Now the exit button brings up a live-set swap option and most buttons take me straight to that blessed Tonewheel organ live set patch.

Plus a whole heap of other weirdness.

The whole thing seems to start once I attempt to access various parameters such as effects to try and shape a sound.

I just want to get my money back and forget this ever happened.

But then I'll be stuck with a $700 flight case.

My confidence in the rd-800 is shattered.

I'm not even convinced that if I get a fully working replacement after all this drama that I'll be able to get a piano sound I like.

The fact that the Rhodes patches seem to work well is small consolation.

By the end of next week it will be five gigs running that I've owned this heavy, awkward slab and not been able to use it.

Sorry for venting...

The button problems started after the unit was opened for fixing the key problem, right?
It is clearly the problems were introduced by the service person.
I think at least you should ask for a new unit.

The good news is that Roland has agreed to ship a new unit to me and take the old one back, which is the ideal solution as they will hopefully be able to analyse what the heck is going on and resolve the issue for future customers.

Yeah... not convinced of that - I think the problem is deeper. It did show some quirks right from the get-go but at the time I put it down to unfamiliarity with the operation of the unit. Now I'm certain they were symptoms of a bigger problem...

Anyhow, I'll be getting a new one, so there's light at the end of the tunnel...

I'd expect nothing less from Roland. I do hope you get this resolved soon so you can actually have fun with what I believe to be an absolutely fantastic instrument. Good luck!

Wow, That's a run of bad luck. It looks like you got a real lemon. I'm glad to see that Roland is doing the right thing and shipping you a new unit. It really is a great board, and there's an awful lot of customizability to the piano sounds. I hope you can find a tweak to the sound that you really enjoy. Good Luck with the replacement board!

Thanks guys. I'm sure I'll get there once I've had enough time to adjust to it.

Any tips from either of you (Fizikisto and petes1), as RD-800 users, on tweaking a nice cut-through piano tone for a band situation (typically drums, acoustic guitar, electric guitar and bass)?

I'm no expert at this (I'm just a hobbiest), but I'd think that you'll want to tweak your tone "character", likely to a higher number, change the key touch to "super light", change the eq to have less bass and more high-middle tones (but not make it too thin), and likely reduce reverb, all similar changes you'd make on any other keyboard. The key is to play around with settings while listening through the PA you'll be using and not through headphones. When you've got settings that you like, put them in a Live Set, and then set up an assignable button to jump to this live set when you need to cut through.

Thanks petes1. They are good starting points and along the lines of what I was doing, but super light you say? Wow. That I did not consider!

I was getting there with one of the Studio Grand presets and was saving incrementally as I tweaked, but alas I'll have to start from scratch with the new keyboard when it arrives (word from Roland is Monday or Tuesday next week).

Ocram,
I think the concert grand patch is beautiful for solo stuff, but I suspect that it might not fit so well in a mix with a full band. I don't play in a band so I'm mostly guessing here, but I think some of the other patches would work a lot better for that. The Bright Concert NX patch and The Comp Bril Grand patches might make for better starting points. There are lots of others to play with if you don't like those. With all the different supernatural sample sets and the tone designer options, there's really an insane amount of customizability available to you. Finding the sound you want might be frustrating at first (especially given that you're already frustrated with your technical problems) but it's worth putting the time/effort in because the board is capable of some really beautiful sounds. The studio grand patch might also work pretty well if you jack the character up a bit. I also really like the upright patch; it might work well for some songs. In addition to the suggestions of petes1, I would suggest playing with the tone color knob to reduce the stereo field a bit when you're in venue and see if that makes a difference in how well the sound cuts through.

I was a bit concerned when I read through this thread, so I sat down at our almost-new RD800 to see if ours exhibited any of the issues mentioned in this thread. Thankfully, it did not. So far, so good. Knock on wood.

It's very comforting to hear that Roland stepped up to the plate and replaced the unit.

Good luck with your new unit.

New keyboard just got delivered. Fingers crossed...

If you play like that, you can't blame Roland if it sounds bad!

Haha! Thanks for the pro-tip!

Mucked around with it for an hour and a half last night. So far so good. Made a bit of progress dialing the elusive mono piano sound, too.

Just a question for the other RD owners out there: The S1 and S2 buttons are set to transpose down and up an octave by default. Should their corresponding led come on when they are pressed?

Also, what's the go with the "lofi piano" tone? Weird...

I think the lights are on when the buttons are assigned to control things that can be on/off like Rotary Speed.

You can press octave up/down several times to transpose more than one octave, so that may be why they don't light up.

Ah, cool. Just wanted to verify that it wasn't a fault - forgive my skittishness.

Your frustration is totally understandable.
If I got the same problems, I would be really paranoid.

One thing to check is to make sure you're running the latest OS.
I read from a post on Keyboard Corner forum that a unit with older OS transposes itself up after some playing.
My friend who had the older OS on his unit also saw the problem.

First jam last night with "RD MkII". All good! It also seemed to sound better from the get-go (but I'm sure that's all in my head) and I'm well on my way to dialling in some really nice, mono-friendly piano tones.

For the record, a big thank-you to the staff at Roland Australia for pulling out all stops to get my issues sorted. I couldn't have asked for better, more friendly and efficient service under the circumstances.

Onward and upward!

Sweet! Enjoy

Just out of curiosity: how much do Roland charge for the stand for the RD800? And what sort of pedal comes with it? How much is the triple pedal?

Can't tell you about the stand. I use an "On Stage” z-style stand with a second tier that holds my Hammond xk-3c. Sturdy as heck and doesn't move a millimetre when playing, no matter how hard you hit.

The pedal is the fp-10 continuous damper pedal.