just got it home and set up and was fiddling around with it. Those things sound great! Im glad to finally have something to practice on which more or less feels like my instructors acoustic.

pics plz

Wow, the background is so white!

LOL I think LesCharles was looking for a pic of your setup.

lol...theres no need for a pic of my living room. I understand now why you chose it as well, it fits my needs perfectly as a beginner. The sound is just great as is the action.

I got some S-Logic HFI-550 headphones that sound great. last night i got confused and had to take them off to make sure they were really connected.

Im going to love this thing....kudos to Roland.

I have a Yamaha FP8 that I purchased in 1980 or 1981 after seeing it at the NAMM show. It still sounds, feels, and works great. The FP is a great instrument, and yours must be even better, being a product of more recent technology. Congratulations to you, and I wish you much joy in success in your music making.

Nice mallard, too bad those babies are $3000 here.

Out of my budget

it was $1,895 at sam ash. its worth saving for because the voices and key action are just really good.

another poster here who is a music teacher got one if thats any indication of their quality

Mallard, how much did you pay for those headphones? I'm loving my fp-7 except that there's a buzzing that happens when I play the G4 or C4 keys. I spoke to a dealer and they said it was a common problem due to the onboard speakers, and it was just a matter of a screw being loose inside. However, the closest Roland service center is 3 1/2 hours away, I don't have the original packaging, and the place I bought it from (online) won't do anything about it. The service center doesn't want to touch it since I didn't buy it from them. So now I'm going to try and hook it up to external speakers.

Anyways, a nice set of headphones would be nice to have as well, but I don't want to spend $200 for them :p .

I believe those were 150 and well worth it. They sound better than the costlier Sennheisers i have. I WAS going to get some high end Sony headphones just for my piano (i think they were 215) and a guy at the store recommended this other pair. The bass is loud and clear and like I said, i had to take them off to make sure i hadnt pulled the plug out and playing my piano loudly at midnight. I tested all the keys in grand piano and they all sounded fine to me. Im sorry you have an issue with one because the original packaging is quite a chore to get it in and out of.

A while back, you posted that you were looking at a Kawai EP3. Can you tell me why you preferred the FP7?

Mallard,
Thanks, I'll keep en eye out for them, possibly ask for them as a birthday gift . I really am enjoying having it, even with the buzzing issue.

Mallard, Congrats, how did you decide on the FP-7 over the FP-4? Thanks

thanks all...I was practicing my fingering exercises this morning and after piano class yesterday I think the keys may even be a bit more stiff than the piano but I have hardly broken it in yet. My biggest problem is keeping my cat off it (I pull a dust cover over it and she cant resist hopping up to inspect it).

As far as choice it was a matter of what was available. My requirements were really good key action, nice sounding internal speakers, good piano sound and everything else just made it better. The Kawai EP2 sounds really nice in the store and its action and speakers were good....its just its very hard to find stores that carry it. the local Sam Ash was the only one and they didnt carry the new model. They could order one but im not going to order to preview. Also, the FP7 has a huge range of voices and although I am primarily interested in piano, I went through all of them and they just sound great. There are also some technical details that make the FP7 a good model (such as fine tuning the voices) that I didnt know about until after purchase.

Also, the size and weight are reasonable. I do need to get a hard case for it now.

It should last me years. I do also eventually want an acoustic...but this more than fills my need for a suitable instrument to practice on.

Also, I didnt try the FP4...the FP7 cost more than other models (like the EP2/3) but it was worth it to me.

Mallard, What are you using for a stand? Thanks

right now Im using an X stand until the platform style model #KS7150 arrives.

Mallard,

After using your FP-7 for a couple weeks is it meeting your expectations?

I am looking for a new portable(ish) keyboard to replace my 13 year old Kurzweil and I am leaning toward the FP7.

Do the internal speakers sound decent? How much power does it have? Can it be as loud as an acoustic grand?

How does the Session Partner feature work? I used a similar feature on my old Kurzweil a lot and I'm sure I would use it on the FP7 if it does a good job.

etc.

Thanks for any info.

The FP7 speakers are prety loud "out of the box"but you can press a few edit buttons and increase the db sound level very significantly LOUDER.WHEN i FIRST FOUND THIS FUNCTION i WAS realy pleased.(Not the neighbours though)

After power down the setting reverts back to
the original level though.

The speakers are a real selling point on this instrument.

Just an update on this in case anyone else encounters this problem. My warranty is void now, and as I said, the Roland dealer did not want to service it when it was under warranty since I didn't buy it from them. Hooking it up to external speakers helped tremendously, and I needed to borrow a powered amp for when I use it out of the studio.

I recently got up the guts to remove the case and try to find the loose screws. I tightened down all the screws, and when I put the case back on, the buzzing was the same if not worse. I sat there and played while my husband would press down at certain places to see if it was the case causing the buzzing, and it wasn't. We finally narrowed it down to a design flaw with the speakers. He removed the speakers and tried to put some of those felt pads with a sticky backing in places where the speakers touch the case with minimal results. I now can use the onboard speakers at a louder volume before the buzzing begins, but nowhere near the volume needed for playing recitals at a nursing home, for example.

My guess is it's possibly an issue with the speakers themselves. Any thoughts or suggestions?

I've never used their design services, but I hear that the people at www.parts-express.com can be quite helpful if you need to replace speakers. Take your DP apart again, remove one of the speakers, and write down as many dimensions as you can before you call. If you can find a part number on the speaker you might try Googling that. Even if you can find the exact replacement, I think I'd try something a bit higher quality than the stock speakers. Impedance, efficiency, and frequency response are the things you want to match up, with higher efficiency and flatter & wider frequency response steps in the better direction.

I've bought lots of stuff from them, they're a really great resource for speaker building.

Next time you're in there, could you take some pictures of the speaker and electronics and post them here?

Thanks, dewster. Actually, I haven't put the screws for the case back on yet, so I can easily do that now....I will get pics when I have a chance but might not be until next week.

Do you think the problem could actually be the speakers themselves? Maybe I can record the sound too.

hey does the fp7 have the layer issues like the 700nx? you know playing strings and piano and 8 notes in, the stealing begins. congrats btw!

Please don't feel pressured to do this. I am mainly just curious as to what is in there.

Are there any identifying numbers on the speakers?


I thought you narrowed it down to the speakers? Or does it seem to be more of a problem of the speakers rattling against their mountings?

Very good question. I'm having to downgrade (very annoyed about this) from the 700NX to the FP7-4. However I will try it out first to MAKE SURE it doesn't do what the NX does. I will obviously be loosing countless features going from the NX to the FP so very annoyed, But i need a super natural piano that works and allows me to play back .wavs without killing its self like it does with the NX!

Plus, I've been advised to not 'wait around' for a fix from Roland by a Roland high up technician as he thinks nothing will be done because its a hardware (CPU processor) problem with the keyboard, that just cant handle SN pianos basically... so never mind WITH audio play back. I've heard people say the processor in the FP doesn't have this problem... crazy that the NX (a 'better' stage piano) DOES have the problem.

It's not when just layering strings, its when about playing 8 notes or more on JUST a piano! It's ridiculous... watch a video I made for Roland to try and show the problem, hoping they'd fix it rather than just sit and watch it for 4 months....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNNGiJjPEI4

'enjoy'

I just hope this advises people considering buying an NX...

After talking more with my husband who fiddled with it while I away, he said that it's a design issue. The speakers themselves are fine, but it happens to resonate with some of the buttons on the case and there's really nothing that can be done about that. Kind of stinks. But if I don't use the onboard speakers it's fine of course. But then, I purchased it with the thought that it had the nicer onboard speakers than the FP-4, so I'm miffed about that.

For what it's worth, mine doesn't have an case resonance that I can notice, even if I turn it right up. I personally think the speakers do sound better than the FP4's I tried.. Personal opinion obviously.

Regards. Rimmer

Guess I got a bad one then, and nothing I can do about it

Resonance is a weird one. Sometimes you hear stuff vibrating in the room and you think it's coming from a specific place it isn't. Bit like when I record a drum kit and try and find where the ring is coming from. It's almost always from somewhere other than you think.

Regards. Rimmer