Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Bought an old Roland RD-700 by impulse, feeling stupid!

(the original rd700 without the gx, nx, sx ...whatever those strange acronyms means)
I bought it without knowing what it was. I feel stupid and I do not like the piano sound very much, but the keys are fantastic. Build quality is out of this world.

I also noticed the sample rom was only 64Mb!!!, I do accept the sound is not in the bits and bytes only, but this sounds almost way to small.

How can you even fit a 88-note 3 layer stereo sample on that space, even with the best producers? I think that is one reason the samples are not ringing out naturally , but get looped very fast, and a short decay.

Anyway , I think the piano has possibilities, what could I do? buy a laptop with a updated piano sample library, and use it as a controller? , but I am skeptic to this solution at stage work.

To me a RD-700GX, with 250Mb wave rom, sounds like more "realistic" approach to me, even if I got sounds in software that take gigabytes, I still think you can do lot with that size.

Any tip? Should I sell it and go for a RD-700GX?, or keep it. Thank-you for reading this.

Why did you buy it?

I thought the RD700 was the next best to RD800,and I did a really good buy (big mistake) confuced by all those strange lables. but it was a really big step down in quality compared to the rd800. I bought for playing at stage , pianobar like gigs , where the piano is the carrying sound, "important" sound.

RD700 was a great stage piano at the time. One of my friends had it and I've had the chance to play on stage with it. The piano sound was very good for live playing and was able to cut through the band perfectly. There's a good Rhodes if I remember correctly. And the keyboard is the typical Roland's light and swift yet substantial action. If I were you, I'd keep it for live playing. However for solo home playing it's very outdated. If I am not mistaken, it's the same nasal piano sound that I had in my FP5 and which I hated mightily.

There is mounted an expansion XRS? something board inside ... It gives the piano a lift , really superduper good back then ,but in a live setting doubt my audience can differ from this and a multi-gigabyte sample library.

My point is that "I" must feel good when playing, even my audience do not get it.
All I can say is , I love that keys , I get so connected to the instrument.Do they even make keyboards as sturdy these days ? I was thinking of keeping it as a home practice board.

One of the latest SRX expansion boards was specifically piano oriented, OTOH I'd say SRX-11 and it was pretty decent sounding one, equal or better to SX which I owned and I used to like.

http://www.museresearch.com/products/

I think I can have a plugin in this box and have a some decent dedicated hardware instead of a laptop ...

In your place, I'd find a laptop computer, and load the free "trial" version of Pianoteq. And use the RD-700 (since you really like the feel of the keyboard) as a MIDI controller.

A few notes will be silent, but you'll know quickly whether you like those Pianoteq sounds, or not. If you think they're OK, you can buy the "Stage" version for way, way less money than you'll spend on a new DP.

great stuff, do you have some history with using laptops live, is it error prone ? Pianoteck seems to be a modelling software , not just a sample player, only need 40mb ....

I think the rd700 with the build in sounds is not bad at all: Here is an good example http://youtu.be/ff8UwvPK0G4
or
http://youtu.be/YYSFDjdchIg

Daniel

In the first video, the pianist (vkgoeswild) is playing a Roland RD700-GX. In the second one, also from vkgoeswild, the model number is not readable, but in her latest videos, she seems to be playing the same instrument, and it has some letters after the RD-700.

The Roland RD-700, with no added letters at the end, looks different from the instruments vkgoeswild is playing in the above videos.

http://www.roland.com/products/rd-700/

Edit (third one) This video showcases the RD-700, and it's not so bad. It's from 2007, so the RD-700 is probably at least ten years old.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jicjyXyr9bc

she is doing the 700gx, even the 700sx, 700nx is the newest ? Well all those strange letters, to much for my little mind ....

I don't know much about Rolands, but vkgoeswild plays a 700NX in her more recent videos, so it's probably the newest in the 700 line.

By the way, love her covers, you just saved my evening, been listening to her playing, before going to sleep.

She for sure is , redefined my notion about playing harder rock with a piano ....

I think original RD-700 was released back in 2000 or 2001.
Back then 64MB ROM was considered big. At around the same time, the original Motif had only slightly more than that.

I agree that virtual instruments on laptop would give you a lot better sounds and a lot of options.
But since you play live, you may want to consider if you want to manage that on stage (switch sounds, live editing etc.)

No, I haven't used it "live".

It has never crashed, when I've been playing it.

To reduce the chance of a crash or glitch:

. . . disable the computer's WiFi adapter;

. . . disable automatic Windows updates;

. . . disable anti-virus software (turn it on when re-connecting
. . . to the Internet).

Don't you want to be a pioneer? <g>

Yes, it's a "pure modelling" program. 40 mBytes of program, no need for a super-fast disk. It _does_ need a fairly fast floating-point CPU -- Intel i5 is enough.

I try to avoid nerve wrecking situations where 200 people wants more, and the laptop is updating windows. There are to much going on on a laptop, would prefer a generic box .... anyway thanks for your input, really great!It would help with a designated laptop.

I bought once a mp3 player witch stopped during a gig because it needed a driver update... what the heck is this happening to me?

Hi Rolfie, what an unfortunate mistake to make. An alternative solution (if you decide to keep the RD700 for it's keyboard action), is to simply buy yourself a good quality sound module and operate it via midi cable from the RD700.

There are usually some pretty good sound modules available at cheap prices secondhand, that would hopefully contain some satisfactory piano sounds, plus more.

I am certainly not knocking the suggestion of using a software piano and laptop etc, but there is potentially quite a cost involved, and you have to consider latency issues.

If you decide to explore the sound module option, try not to get something too old, otherwise you'll not be getting piano sounds that are sufficiently superior to what you already have. Make sure you listen before buying.

I have 2 sound modules which are now getting a bit dated in terms of the piano samples, compared to some of the high quality samples in the likes of Roland RD800, Korg Kronos. Kawai MP7 (& MP11), ES8, Yamaha CP4, and some of the top end Kurzweil's, Nord's etc, but they are still very usable. For instance, my 2008 Korg MicroX (which you can buy very cheaply these days and yet packs a huge punch..and comes with a sturdy protective orange plastic carry case) is a reasonable option. For me, the ultimate sound module is the Roland Integra, but they are expensive, but you'd have an awesome arsenal of top notch Roland sounds that could be driven via midi from any midi keyboard you use....and you don't need a laptop, and have no latency issues.

All the best with your decision.

Thanks for the correction...
By the way whats the differerence between all these imstruments in the 700 line?

She plays really awesome.. Here is another example http://youtu.be/4fGE07dATvc

Daniel

Seems the RD-700SX is the oldest model, after the RD-700 of course. The GX is the next to come out, and lastly the the RD-700NX.

Not sure what the differences are, at least they concern action and sound, the GX and NX have the Supernatural sounds. The GX has the PHA II keyboard action, and the NX the PHA III. The higher numbered actions are probably improved from the lower numbered ones.

In the first paragraph, I've linked to the Roland's information pages for each of the models, for details and specifications.