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#101303 - 11/07/01 07:38 AM
Re: Stage Pianos: What's your choice?
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Senior Member
Registered: 11/24/99
Posts: 3305
Loc: Reseda, California USA
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Mark, The model I'm surprised you didn't mention is the new roland RD700. This is the best roland piano out there. It has the 128 note polyphony, graded hamer action, easy to use and unlike other models it has pitch bend, mod wheel, aftertouch and comes with hundreds of their best sounds including drums, brass, guitars, and has room for two expansion boards. It also does simple splits and layers and has a built in drummer. All this for around $1795.00. A bargain. Also, Roland makes the FP3 which is also their graded hammer action with great piano and other keyboard sounds but also with some guitars, brass, strings, easy splits and also includes a basic arranger section with some preset accomp. styles for around $1200.00. George Kaye Kaye's Music Scene
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George Kaye Kaye's Music Scene (Closed after 51 years) West Hills, California (Retired 2021)
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#101304 - 11/07/01 08:26 AM
Re: Stage Pianos: What's your choice?
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Junior Member
Registered: 09/23/00
Posts: 21
Loc: Cleveland, Ohio USA
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Mark, I recently purchased a stage piano for the church I attend. I tried out the following: Roland RD700, Technics SX-P50, Kawai ES-X, Yamaha P80. I selected the Roland RD700 for many of the reasons George stated. It has a very good action, great acoustic and electric piano sounds. It also has many other good sounds (organ, bass, pads, strings, etc.) It also has expansion slots for two roland srx expansion cards (the same expansion cards used by the XV5080). The only disadvantage is the weight (54lbs) of the keyboard. We paid around $1,800 and felt it was by far the best stage piano for a very reasonable price.
If I needed a lighter keyboard and could only pay about $1,000, I would choose the Technics (1st choice) or the Kawai (2nd choice). They both are about 35 lbs and have excellant piano sounds. They both sounded much better than the Yamaha P80. Tehcnics utilizes "string resonance" in their sample. Kawai has a similar technology called harmonic imaging. Their piano samples sound much more like a real piano than the P80. The accoustic pianos on the Technics and Kawai were both very good. I liked the electric pianos and organs on the Tehcnics better than the Kawai.
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#101305 - 11/07/01 02:40 PM
Re: Stage Pianos: What's your choice?
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Member
Registered: 11/25/99
Posts: 42
Loc: Rotterdam, NL
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Thanks everybody. George you are right I forgot the RD700. But in fact I will use my future stage piano either as the only keyboard on a night or in combination with my X1 (or maybe SD1 in the future). I know I can get a lot of more features for the 700-800$ extra, but in fact when I play only the stage piano I will propably use only a good piano sample, maybe two, and a good e-piano sound on the whole evening. More or less the same when I will combine it with my X1. If I need good brass, strings, organs etc. I have my X1 anyway, right? The the question is why carry every sound double with me. I know the Roland has nice sounds and extra drum maybe even some stuff I dont habe on my X1, but is it really worth to carry a much heavier and more expensive keyboard around for couple of extra good sounds. I also have a JV880 module which also uses the same expansion boards the RD700 uses, so in that case I could carry even more Roland sounds with me via MIDI if I wanted. I know it sounds like I am trying to convince YOU but actually I am talking to myself. I almost never use the extended ,asterkeyboard functions that my PC88 has and neither do I use all of the beautiful sounds. It comes down to maybe 5 sounds I actually really USE on a performance (besides my X1). I believe I will be better out with a simpler stage piano in combination with the SD1 that I am planning to purchase sooner or later. BTW, today I went to try out the Technics P50 in a local shop here in Rotterdam. I like it a lot. But how stupid to put a DEMO button right on top of the panel!!! I am sure I would hit it at least once a night by accident and would treat my audience on a spontanious Chopin etude! Only one button stoped me from buying it!. (I mean what's the use of 19 demo songs????) I also tried the Fp-3 and I like the piano a lot, maybe even more than the Technics, but I am not sure on that. But I sure don't need that arranger feature etc. I know ther is a fp-9 wich has basically the same stuff the fp-3 has but without the hassle-bassle. Can you actually still buy the fp-9 new? How much is the retail price of a new fp-9 at the moment (I know it is couple of years old already). I really think the fp-9 would be my piano. I played it on many gigs and It always felt ok. The technics is still an option for me. Any more thoughts,? George?
Marc
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