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Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

articles.roland.com

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Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#81

Post by alfiedotwtf »

tshaddox wrote: post #69
rjh29 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I believe the Nord Grand uses Kawai’s Responsive Hammer III action, which is also on the much cheaper (and excellent!) Kawai ES920 portable digital piano.

Yep - https://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/2986123/n...

You could go Kawai VPC-1 which is just the controller, and then connect it via MIDI to whatever you like. That way, you get a wooden action without paying for the sound engine (I've got my VCP-1 connected to a CP Reface):

https://kawaius.com/technology/wooden-key-actions/

Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#82

Post by kibibyte »

illumin8 wrote: post #60
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.

Kawai makes quite nice digital pianos. The CA95 that we bought about 5 years ago has real wooden hammer action and a wooden soundboard. It also reproduces the harmonics (through digital samples) that you get when you hold the sustain pedal down and play a different string (resonant frequencies can vibrate other strings that you haven't played). I highly recommend them if you are considering a digital piano.

You can get this feature at their lowest end model of that series (CA49), though it may lack some other aspects of the resonance modeling that they reserve for higher end models. I believe almost all digitals starting at $2000 across the board have this feature, and the limiting factor that'll hold you back from hearing it all at the lower end of the price range is the audio setup that comes with the keyboard.

I remember discovering this feature when I held down all keys from A0 through E1 (without sounding them), depressed the sostenuto pedal, and then played a bunch of other keys.

Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#83

Post by shever73 »

verdverm wrote: post #52
jdalgetty wrote: post #28

I wonder if you could do some sort of noise cancelling of the prop noise?

They don't look to uses props, but bladeless air flow tech, based on the renders anyhow

The article states:

> 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.

Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#84

Post by anigbrowl »

pdntspa wrote: post #68
anigbrowl wrote: post #63

This is a fine example of why Roland isn't really relevant in the electronic music gear market any more. They have a great legacy and great marketing department, but I can't remember the last time they released a product that really excited people.

I've always thought of them as a maker of reliable workhorse stuff. The MIDI keyboard I have from them has been rock solid and it's outlasted at least two others.

My point isn't a dig at their quality (which is excellent) but at their lack of technological innovation for the last ~20 years. Their products are very good, they're just extremely risk averse and resting on a reputation they earned in the 1980s.

Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#85

Post by tshaddox »

FlyingRobot wrote: post #78
tshaddox wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not extremely concerned with sound quality, both because I intend to play around with lots of VSTs and because I‘ll be upgrading from a Roland RD-700SX which has served me incredibly well but which is very outdated when it comes to the sound engine!

Sounds like a good approach to me. Buy for the best action your budget will allow. With VSTs you can tailor the sound to your liking. I don't have a stake in Pianoteq, but if you aren't aware they claim that version 8 is going to be brought to iOS soon. If you use a decent quality open back headphone, I feel like this is even more true, because the onboard sound becomes irrelevant.

I used Pianoteq on PC many years ago, and I just heard that they’re possibly coming to iOS soon. I’m looking forward to it.

Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#86

Post by boppo1 »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #76
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.

You know, before wifi and bluetooth we had this amazing technology designed to transmit audio through the air with zero latency. It was called "radio".

Aren't wifi and bluetooth just "radio that sends packets"?

Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#87

Post by boppo1 »

hoherd wrote: post #22
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

Seriously. My first thought was playing the piano while waiting to be shot by a sniper. Ever since I saw some of the Syrian war vids, I just can't disassociate that sound from mortal danger.

How so? Aren't snipers far-off? I would think a buzz noise would worry me about explosives. How were drones used in Syria?

Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#88

Post by blub »

The Piano seems to be Android-powered and is connected to the internet. Wouldn’t use this even if Roland paid me to.

It’s startling how much things have changed from when I first started using computers, when it seemed that nearly anything could be improved through electronics. Nowadays adding a computer means malware, spyware and losing support after two years.

Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#89

Post by bzzzt »

austinprete wrote: post #79
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.

Did the same search about a year ago, ended up ordering the CLP-775 after testing Kawai and Yamaha in stores. It _finally_ arrived last month, completely love it so far. On the somewhat cheaper side the 745 also felt great in store. I don’t think you can go wrong with the equivalent Kawai models either. They somehow didn’t quite do it for me when I played them in store (compared to the CLPs), but couldn’t quite pin d…

The CLP line is from Yamaha ;) Just to give a +1 to the CLP-775, I also chose that one and it's a joy to play. While the CLP display looks a bit more 'dated' than the Kawai models it starts up a lot faster and response is instantly. The Kawai models I tried have some low-end mobile chip which needed some time to boot and touch screen response was slow.

Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#90

Post by rjh29 »

alfiedotwtf wrote: post #81
tshaddox wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the Nord Grand uses Kawai’s Responsive Hammer III action, which is also on the much cheaper (and excellent!) Kawai ES920 portable digital piano.

Yep - https://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/2986123/n... You could go Kawai VPC-1 which is just the controller, and then connect it via MIDI to whatever you like. That way, you get a wooden action without paying for the sound engine (I've got my VCP-1 connected to a CP Reface): https://kawaius.com/technology/wooden-key-actions/

The Reface CP is amazing isn't it!

I looked up the VPC-1 and while I probably would pay a bit more just to have speakers and a sound engine - the weight difference is interesting. It's 29.5kg for the VPC-1 vs. 17.0kg for the ES920!

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