Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards A Tale about a digital sound on the RD700NX avoiding preset

Just sharing some ideas...

I have been using the RD700NX as a piano for years, it's never going to leave me. It responds so well. If it's action you want it's all there in the 700NX.

It's a simple thing, but I have discovered a completely different side of this instrument and it's great. This is how my revelation came about....

The RD700NX has some pretty decent electric piano sounds, including one called the SAE E.Piano1. It's Roland Custom Sound. So right out of the box you have an eminently useable sound that works, it's unique, not a standard sound.

This is our starting sound

Not changing topic but...

I was thinking about what makes the Hammond such a legendry organ. I think it includes three things:

The versatility of the machine - the drawbars, swell pedal and other buttons that enable the Symbiosis of various googly emotional sounds they The Hammond could produce.

The familiarity and skill of the organist to exploit the way these dials etc. work in human terms - musically.

The fact that the Hammond CANNOT make a variety of non organ sounds (GM sounds, synth sounds) - no distractions to muddy the Hammond wave machines.

I was also thinking about the RD700NX and it's claim to be a "live performance orientated keyboard".

I started lateral thinking about this and it has led to a vast improvement in my sound

So in the tradition of De Bono - PO!


The EP1 sound is a very versatile bell-like sound. It has lots of sinusoidal properties but it has a lot more interest than a bland sine wave, its got a jelly like timbre and some resonance built in. its great starting material

Mostly when I play I play piano (so if your synth head forgive me). So when I use organ EPs I general settle for a preset and forget about what can be done live.

To my great surprise and pleasure I found that Roland had got there before me and the factory settings for the EP1 sound are already very exploitable.

The four faders already have sounds loaded. The far right is the EP piano sound, the fader next to this is a faintly choral sound with a slowish attack, when used together in the right amounts these enable the player to impart a "spectorish" or "ghostly" to the sound. If you switch this sound on in the B section, or the chorus, it gives a wonderful lift and the fader allows you to add this quality in varying amounts (like riding drawbars on a Hammond).

The second from the left fader is a percussive sound not dissimilar to the percussion effect used on Hammonds. This sound can be used with the EP1 sound to give it more bite, when you want to smack around your sound and give it a cut through the mix quality.

The first fader on the left gives the sound a fairy like etherealness and it also places a chime like percussiveness at the front of the EP1 sound. This is also versatile

Now it is true that there are thousands of sounds and thousands of keyboards. But... (and this is the point)

Just as a a Hammond Player might exploit the Hammonds functions. so by LIMITING yourself yo this small collection of eminently useful sounds I found, after playing ONLY these sounds for four or so weeks, hours and hours) I began to 'know' this group of features in the same way as a Hammond Player knows the sins and heavens of their instrument.

For me, this has changed everything. Instead of the usual trip through the presets, now I can customise a GROUP of near related sounds for a song or setting.
By limitation, by making only small changes it's possible to make the whole thing very organic and give your sound personality.

Now my choruses have more animation and power - live, and my melodic expressiveness now has other dimensions to exploit. Its a world of colour and instead of two dimensionality.

Of course the usual tools of expressiveness found in a pianist's fingers and feet still apply and they only add vivacity.

This way its possible to develop your own unique personality on your instrument.

I can't emphasise enough, how important it is to exploit these features, using them judiciously like salt and pepper to your sounds.

The human ear is used to natural sounds that already have these kinds of peculiarities at note level (Bang a drum ten times get ten unique sounds).
Using two dimensional same same same sounds has limitations and the ear gets bored faster.

It is a human thing.


Z

ZeroZero,

I have also found that layering sounds like this can create some very nice sounds. Do you happen to have any particular combinations that you like playing with?

On another note, I wonder whether or not you (or any other 700NX owner) could test or confirm something for me. I have recently reacquired an RD700NX after having had to part mine a few years ago, and my naturally paranoid personality is finding little things to worry me that it isn't working correctly. When sustaining a supernatural piano tone and rotating the data wheel to move to other tones, do you hear a little "static blip," or is it completely seamless?

Hi Lazer,

Thanks for your help on the other thread. I run a test - initially no, but..I note as you scroll through the pianos different layers switch themselves on and off. If you faders are high when these sounds come on, there can be a bit of a bump, not a bang , but a bump made of the sound of layer. No static Blip.


Lazer never get rid of your ROLAND!!!! Or I shall be angry and go and tell BOTH your parents!!!!

Tip: Make sure this one is on robust legs, since I did this the keyboard responds "better".

Theory: I think the weight of the keyboard plays a great part in the fantastic feel of this keyboard. I have a Nord C2 sitting there ready to go, but always, always, i jump on the ROland simply because it is so responsive. The C2 feels like a toy.

"Do you have particular combinations you like to play with"

Yes, for me the SE.Piano1 is fantastic in Rock settings, and great too for Jazz Ballads. It has the expressive capability of a piano tone, plus the tweakability of a Hammond. Using subtle tweeks as you play, when the tune ramps or turns a corner, payes back big time. What I am trying to say in this one setting, the way its factory set when you hit the last grey button, is a throbbable living instrument, it has a soul of its own.

I have lots of synths here. Omnisphere, NI Absynth, lots more, but I never use them live. Why?

There are those kind of sounds where you can just lean on one key and out of the synth comes a mini soap opera of sound. These things are useless to a player, there is simply too much going on and if you cut to a staccato feel, they sound as if something has been chopped out of the sound.
As for "lead" sounds, unless you want that 70's synthetic sound, mostly they are not organic enough for me - binned.

I have lots of piano VSTS too, I suppose my favourite is/was TruePiano.

But I always go for the straight Concert Grand on the Roland. I don't really go near the Studio or Brilliant, to me they just sound like the Concert Grand with something lacking - mangled or lessened.

I have played the Concert Grand for hours and hours every day for about five years. Its MY sound - again just as is.

Personally the EP tines and Reeds sound like samples being played rather than the 'real' thing, they lack dimensionality - so far at least, but I have not really explored them deep and have never played the real thing.

As for the rest of the sounds, they are decent enough, not world class, but certainly 95%

I am still having trouble with that manual. I find it obscure. I still don't really understand their nomenclature. I have asked for a glossary but i don't expect there is one. I have loads of other samples in my studio things like East West Orchestra to take care of orchestral.

How about you, what sounds do you use? How do you set up and what do you play?

Try this simple experiment.

Select the EP1sound and enable the layer buttons.

Switch all the layer buttons off except the fourth. Listen to the standard sound.

Switch on the third layer and bring in the 'choral synthy' (my name) sound to a level where it is just poking into your consciousness but not overwhelming the core EP sound. When the level is set, switch the third fader off again.

Play a song, when you get to the last chorus, switch in the sound and very gently ride the faders.

Let me know what you think about this simple technique

Z