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Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

articles.roland.com

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Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#41

Post by Gigachad »

ilyt wrote: post #21
xattt wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As of now, the drones’ propellers are still somewhat noisy. But as quiet drone technology becomes available, they’ll be able to add it to the existing framework.

Yes the law of physics will clearly just decide to bend to Roland's whims /s

I don't believe the limitations of physics are anywhere near what current drones sound like. They are loud because zero effort goes in to making them quiet. It's not so much the moving air that makes them loud, its the whining motors and bearings that are loud. If you were able to encase those motors inside and perhaps put some effort in to making the air stream less turbulent, they could be a lot quieter.

Although I still can't see drones being good for this even with good designs.

Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#42

Post by jonahbenton »

rjh29 wrote: post #37
jonahbenton wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Got the kids a $2k Roland FP 90x for Christmas to replace a $1k Casio. I don't play but they liked the Roland action when we tried their models in stores over Yamaha, Casio, and some others. Now that we have it- incredible instrument, well worth the upgrade, good match for their skills. It is a really, really good sound producer, better than most analog pianos I've heard, though I can easily tell the difference betwe…

It's a matter of taste I guess. I had a Yamaha and switched to Roland and much prefer the chunkier key action and the slightly brighter/compressed piano tone. Definitely important to try it in store. My absolute favourite is the Nord Grand, but it's a little too expensive.

Ooo, yeah, I saw one of those, didn't get to listen to it. It does seem like it would totally be about taste and preference.

Was really pleasurable, also wistful, taking my son to try them out. We could just hang out in this large room in a retail store in the middle of NYC for a few hours, he just playing whatever was there. Sometimes other kids would drop in too. That kind of relaxed vibe now incredibly rare.

And though I can hear and feel the music, I can't make it, never learned. Don't have time and space to do it now. Really glad he is getting it into his brain at a young age.

Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#43

Post by brudgers »

henearkr wrote: post #23

Wouldn't latency be horrible, if e.g. the drones are connected through wifi or bluetooth? My understanding is that that's why until now no serious electric piano has ever proposed bluetooth audio connectivity for the player. [Edit]: they use an other tech with zero latency, as described in the article. Thanks for the replying comments.

Reverb is the result of latency, and in large spaces the audio signal to distant speakers is delayed to minimize dead spots due to wave interference.

Which is to say musical experience is complicated and hence live sound design is also complex in ways that aren’t casually obvious.

The rule of thumb is sound travels one foot per millisecond (30cm per millisecond). So at 30m, ten milliseconds latency wouldn’t change the spatial perception very much even without correction. Of course 90ms is plenty of time to correct for latency if you want to be spot on.

My wild ass guess is a microphone on the drone could be used to sync the remote speakers with the piano speakers to phase align the sources.

Basically ordinary audio signal processing succumbed to compute about twenty years ago.

Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#44

Post by peterkelly »

Finally, an internet connected piano.

I can't wait until I get prompted to install updates while playing, have to pay a subscription fee to use the sustain pedal, and have the instrument become non-functional 15 years after purchase once the manufacturer finds the service is no longer profitable and decommissions its server.

Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#45

Post by FlyingRobot »

jonahbenton wrote: post #35
tshaddox wrote: post #10

Over the last several weeks I have been deep in research for a new digital piano, spending a lot of time looking at Roland, Kawai, and Yamaha models, and seeing this made me giggle. I doubt I would ever buy even one of the less traditional-looking production models (like the Kiyola), but I am glad they have fun with creating wild concepts like this.

Got the kids a $2k Roland FP 90x for Christmas to replace a $1k Casio. I don't play but they liked the Roland action when we tried their models in stores over Yamaha, Casio, and some others. Now that we have it- incredible instrument, well worth the upgrade, good match for their skills. It is a really, really good sound producer, better than most analog pianos I've heard, though I can easily tell the difference betwe…

To me even the very highest end digital pianos still sound digital, but they are close enough and the benefits of digital outweigh what you might sacrifice in sound for most people.

I've noticed there is also fierce debate between digital pianos that are based on sampled sounds versus modeled. I believe most Roland digitals are modeled with Fourier series, while all/most of their competitors are sampled (not sure about Nord). That said Pianoteq is a popular after market VST that will bring a very convincing top tier modeled sound to even a low end digital piano.

Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#46

Post by aae42 »

peterkelly wrote: post #44

Finally, an internet connected piano. I can't wait until I get prompted to install updates while playing, have to pay a subscription fee to use the sustain pedal, and have the instrument become non-functional 15 years after purchase once the manufacturer finds the service is no longer profitable and decommissions its server.

i know this is tongue-in-cheek, but roland is not that kind of company

Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#47

Post by kzrdude »

bob1029 wrote: post #12
tshaddox wrote: post #10

Over the last several weeks I have been deep in research for a new digital piano, spending a lot of time looking at Roland, Kawai, and Yamaha models, and seeing this made me giggle. I doubt I would ever buy even one of the less traditional-looking production models (like the Kiyola), but I am glad they have fun with creating wild concepts like this.

Same. I'm about to just buy that P515... I can't stand the indecision any longer.

Have fun with the new piano :)

Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#48

Post by brudgers »

dragonsky wrote: post #2

>>> As of now, the drones’ propellers are still somewhat noisy. But as quiet drone technology becomes available, they’ll be able to add it to the existing framework. So really everything you would expect from hanging a speaker from a drone, noisy and power hungry.

Mic up the prop, phase shift 180 degrees and cancel the prop noise…kinda like noise canceling headphones?

Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#49

Post by sneak »

aae42 wrote: post #46
peterkelly wrote: post #44

Finally, an internet connected piano. I can't wait until I get prompted to install updates while playing, have to pay a subscription fee to use the sustain pedal, and have the instrument become non-functional 15 years after purchase once the manufacturer finds the service is no longer profitable and decommissions its server.

i know this is tongue-in-cheek, but roland is not that kind of company

The IAP cloud subscriptions and in-app surveillance spyware in the Roland iOS app seem to suggest otherwise:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/roland-piano-app/id1610462043

Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#50

Post by kimburgess »

userbinator wrote: post #39
whalesalad wrote: post #14

uhh, have y'all ever heard a drone hovering? not exactly the kind of thing you want anywhere near a musical instrument LOL

I can think of a few genres of music where drone sounds would not feel out of place. Unfortunately, they're genres of music which aren't suited to a piano either.

Namely: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_music
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