Man, that's a lotta firsts..

When I was four I was stung badly by the sounds of the first instrument I heared live, the organ at St Patrick's Cathedral in NYC. 4 years later I convinced mom to get me an organ, a wurly "funmaker" spinet. I kinda wanted something bigger, like a hammond or a larger wurly, but I recognize now what a monumental sacrifice that little wurly must've been to my mom.

Needless to say, beautiful gesture, but it had such limited scope on keyboard and pedals that was not more than a fancy paperweight. I felt discouraged by it to the point I quit music. I'd still hammer some tunes out at church (Hammond C-2 organ) and at a friend's house (Balwdin Acrosonic piano, late-60's early 70's?), but I relly dropped music in the late 80's, spent the next 20 years without an instrument of any kind.

Fast-forward a couple of decades, and for the past 10 years, something inside me has been urging me to get a piano. Lately it was more than just urging, it was something in me outright yelling "GET A PIANO!"

I just spent 3 weeks reading this site and a few of its forums, which enabled me to go hunting for a digital. I originally had thought of a used upright, but on playing the modern digitals, I realized I get most of what makes a piano a piano, while giving up little, I think.

This past Saturday, I took delivery of a Roland HP201. I chose this model for a variety of reasons, but mostly, for 4 things:

1. Solid cabinetwork -- Stomp on it as hard as you please and it still feels solid. Other digital pianos in the store felt like they were going to break if hit hard. The Roland cabinet is heavier, by about 40 pounds, compared to what I originally had in mind (YDP230 is what I originally had in mind.)

2. Tone. Oh my, the roland has Tone. And it changes as you play. Play pp and it's mellow, play fff and it rings out like a bell. Reminds me of a great big 9' concert grand, probably a steinway, what with that bell-like tone and big fat rancorous bass. Sustain out of the ying-yang, and on playing long arppegios with sustain pedal down, really nice harmonics, overtones and string resonance. The other digipianos I tried.. well.. none could really vary the tone very much, i found them rather monotonic and "blah". Sterile, even. At any pricepoint, I thought. I played a $5000 digipiano in the store, and a few $2000-- the brillance, fatness of tone, the ability to change tone with how you hit a key, etc, were just not present -- but the Roland has it. All of the rolands I tried have it.

3. Action. The roland has hammers. Or a reasonable facimile thereof. It feels real. It makes my fingers hurt just like my friend's Acrosonic did -- in the same places, even. By this you can tell I'm no pianist -- I can't even read. Still, I recognize in the Roland the touch and feel of a real hammerklavier. The other digipianos I played felt 'squishy' in comparison. Heavy, but squishy. The HP's keyboard feels *real* -- heavy like a real piano, but with the same balance and smoothness, no squishy. In the "Y" pianos I found I had to "home" the key for the thing to sing -- on the Roland I don't have to.. a sharp strike sends the hammer flying into the "string" (optical sensor, I gather.) The keyes even do that little 'bounceback' a grand piano's action does (at least the Knabe in the same dealer floor had that little 'bounce' when you let up on a key.) I found very, very little difference from the Knabe to the Roland, touch-wise. The Roland also has half-pedal (maybe even continous?) on the sustain and unacorda. The sostenuto is on/off, then again I could be wrong -- the middle pedal was always a mystery to me ;o) At any rate, the Roland's PHA II feels so real I swear I can feel the hammer hitting the strings -- only there aren't any strings.

4. Price. The HP201 was around what I'd pay for a moderately-to-severely beat-up old upright. A little more than the YDP323, a ton less than a mid-to-high-end Clavinova -- and those Clavinovas didn't get the tone right, not to my ear and fingers. It was the action and tone that sold me on the roland, actually.. everything else was ancillary and only helped -- but the second I hit C1 with varying intensities on the Roland, I was sold. *Bonnnnnnkknnnnnnnnnrrrnnnnnnrrrrnnnnrrrnnn*

I already have a computer to hook up to this roland. Given the right software, I should be able to start learning how to sightread -- that's my ultimate goal. Once I learn to sightread well, the rest will come.

ANyway, sorry for the long post, just wanted to say "hi", and to thank those who run and participate in PW for helping this unseen, unheared piano newb -- just lurking and searching pointed me to a digi piano which fit all my criteria, and re-defined what I thought was possible on these fake, toy pianos. ;o)

I'm basically starting from scratch, not having done any kind of music playing in 20 years. The desire was always there, mind you -- just never got the chance to get my own instrument until now. I just keep looking at it, and I know how humble this instrument is -- it *IS* very entry-level -- yet I keep looking at it, feeling this feeling of .. greatfulness? Even some regret -- why not earlier? Yet there it is... my own piano. My very first... nothing i've done to my apt. compares to this. Seeing that little Roland in my pad just changed it all. I'll come out right up front and say it -- I bought it for therapeutic reasons -- life isn't what it once was, and I have a feeling getting back into music may help me find center again... *shrug*

One last thought on the Roland 201: If you strike the keys to your left, sound comes out of the left.. strike around middle c, and it comes out of the middle.. strike at the treble end, and sound comes out of the right.. the sound even comes out and up through the keys.. Roland really did a sterling job on this thing. I keep looking at it and shaking my head -- it feels and sounds like a good old hammer-and-string piano... and that's all I ask from a digipiano. The harmonics, overtones and string "singing" or resonance in the roland is just *wow*. I don't wanna sound like a newb, but this roland scares me. I didn't think it was possible to capture the little 'flaws' that makes a string-and-hammer piano 'real' -- but these guys close enough.

Now, if anyone can explain in detail how PHA II works, I'd be grateful.. I know it has a hammer, I know it uses optical sensing, but I don't know if that sensing is done at the key, or at the hammer. I think it's done at the hammer. It just feels way too real to me to be otherwise. The sound is hammer-dependent, not key-dependent (if that makes any sense.)

stringless, congrats on your purchase and glad that you'll be making music again.

As far as sightreading software that uses your keyboard as a MIDI controller - I highly recommend Etude . It's cheap and gets the job done.

Thanks.

One day I'll have my video 'debut', if y'all don't mind some bad playing

I'll be looking at that one, and a few others (E Media, TeachMePiano, and a few others).. I may even wind up with a real teacher, should my journey take me there.

"there", btw, is "everything" from classical to jazz to stride to ...?



I'm tickled pink with this piano. today was a very, very long day.. all I could think of was the piano. Hooked!

Congratulations!

You're very enthusiastic. Nice story about your considerations!

web page

Have fun with your new piano.

Regards

'cause every "new piano thread" should have pix... here are some pix On the wide shot, that piece of music is the one and only piece of music I had on hand when the piano came in.. a little ditty from an anime.

I am. Stoked, even. It took me a *long* time to appreciate the piano for what it is... for the longest time, it was organ or death. Then I started paying attention to what the piano was saying, in capable hands. It can say a LOT. Whereas in the organ the only way to get color is to use different stops to add contrast, with the piano, it's all done by how you key it... it took me a LONG time to figure out that little bit of elegance

I can't wait to develop a minimum amount of skill so I can actually *do* something with it.. soon.. soon

Congrats on the new instrument!

Is that an Asuka figure on the left?

Congrats on the new instrument!

Is that an Asuka figure on the left?

The ill-tempered redhead herself.. got the charts for quite a bit of eva, but sadly, right now, it's way over my head. SOon.

Gee, I hope you are not completely turned off of organ forever! It is an extremely versatile, (and fun!) instrument that receives very little appreciation. It sounds like you have not had any proper opportunity to experience what an organ can really do. Take a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Neu-t6ofW6o

I doubt that even a piano can match the feeling one gets from that tutti at 1:35!

Keep in mind that I love both organ and piano, for different reasons.

Oh no no no, I"m not turned off on the organ at all!

I was discouraged by the Funmaker, that's all.. Funmaker had maybe a dozen pedals, and maybe a 44-key scope.. can't do much with that.

Truth be told, the one and only reason why I don't have an organ now is funding. A 3-manual drawstop digital with action imitating a tracker is out of my reach for now (i'm thinking Cantor or Rodgers, I lean much more towards Cantor.) I refuse to get another Funmaker-style compromised instrument, so I have my heart set on something more Baroque.

Such an instrument sells new for about the same price as a mid-to-high end grand piano.

Hi Stringless,

I like the frame around your pictures.

Serge

Hi Stringless,

I took note of your taking delivery of a Roland HP201. I was considering the Roland KR103 but find that I don't need all the bells & whistles of that model & am now thinking of buying the HP201 also.

I also find that the feel, sound, etc. is much better on a Roland than on any other model I've tried.

Plus, by buying the 201, I'll save a few dollars over the KR103 in the process.

Thanks for your post.
___________

RWH

^^ Is the KR the "grand" looking one? about 10000 dollars? I gotta tell ya -- I tried one (KR117? 107? Ivory-like keys, PHAII + escapement, shiny black cab with speakers on the soundboard).. it was sooooooooooo tempting Alas, fundage only allowed for the 201.. but I tell ya.. it ain't chopped liver.. I've now put about 24 hrs on it in a week, and the 201 just gets better and better. Now that I've had more time to actually listen to each note, it's really freakin' me out, man. It's got the 'plink' on attack, it's got a bit of the 'thdd' on release.. o.O some keys are perfectly tuned, others aren't.. some ring, some don't.. sounds like a really fine, well-maintained big american grand. At least on piano I.

@Eternal: Gave Etude a spin, I thinks I'll buy. 2 days, 2 octaves, for some reason, the way it does it, is the way my brain likes it. No cutesy graphics, and I like the fact that they *don't* put the notes' names. I'm starting to read the bass clef, which I had *never* fully learned.. and this Etude thing is making it easy peasy. Thanks for the tip

Stringless,

The KR103 is just a few steps up from the HP201, 103 has some extras that I don't need. Depending upon where you buy, the 103 goes from $2000-$4000.
_______

RWH

^
Ah.. not too familiar with the older Roland series. The only KR I know is a very very cool piece of kit, duplicating a grand piano's acoustics by having speakers on the "soundboard" and thus bouncing the sound off the lid into the room -- like the real deal.

I also found Roland makes / has made a digital harpsichord complete with "breaking eggshells" keyboard feel, a little positiv organ (one manual, a dozen stops), and to top off the digital lunacy.. not one, not two, but SIX digital accordions.

Any company that demented deserves a listen =oD

This is the KR I know, the KR117.. about 10,000 simoleans

I looked up the KR you mention, and I thinks my dealer has one on the floor. I'd rather get an HP207, but alas, fundage.. fundage... (the 207 comes in satin black, has escapement, and ivory-like keys..) but the cab is the HP series taken to the extreme.. looks like a fine old upright, especially if you half-close the "fallboard" -- leaving only the keyboard, hiding the bells and whistles. The KR-117 also does that, making for a very strange looking baby-baby grand. A chibi grand. A grand left in the dryer too long

Well, you certainly make that DP sound very appealing! I'd like to take a better look...

OK, what am I missing? I have tried to look this DP up on the Internet (Google, Yahoo, etc.) and it seems that it's only available in England! I didn't see ONE link for a US company online that sells the Roland HP201.

ALL the listings were companies in the United Kingdom. So, why is this? What am I missing?

Is the model number different in Amercia?

Couldn't find the HP201...I live in Virginia & put in my zip code on rolandus.com, dealer locator, & came up with many dealers. However, if you get to the point of buying, e-mail me off-forum for some interesting info that will help you on your purchase.
_______

RWH

I don't think the HP series is available online in the States. Dealers only.

Their search app is broken, btw.. half the time it didn't return any results, then later it would.

The euro 201 isn't the same -- it has the older action. Or so says the global website.

I just read the first four bars of the wtc prelude in c major. I actually read them, and it sounded good. I think I can get to like this