Considering RD-800, some specific questions

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Cleverson
Posts: 5
Joined: 13:22, 27 September 2015

Considering RD-800, some specific questions

Post by Cleverson »

Dear all,

I plan aquiring a digital piano as a replacement for an old accoustic I have today. After doing some basic research on top level DPs from some different brands, I thought of getting a Roland v-piano, which theoretically is the Roland's current top model, has lots of configurable parameters and would give me some portability.

However, upon researching a bit more, it appears that v-piano is already superceded in some aspects by recent models. In particular, there have been good reports on the recent LX/HP models (HP 605 for example) concerning the quality of the keys action and tones' autenticity. One advantage of it would be the built-in speaker system, which would offer a sensation closer to an AP when compared to external monitors. In any case, although I don't plan playing outside my home regularly, I may want to carry my instrument once in a while, as well as using it as a MIDI controller for home studio recording, so an HP wouldn't be quite good.

Then recently I was paying some attention to RD-800, which also appears to be able to reasonably emulate most of pianos characteristics and has good midi controller capabilities, but has less configurable parameters compared to v-piano.

I've had an opportunity to play a v-piano when I went to another city, and apreciated it a lot. Unfortunately I'm not being able to locate an RD-800 near me to try it out, but I guess it's not that different (?) In any case, could you give general opinions on how good it would be when combined with good external speakers (lets say the Yamaha HS8), also in conjunction with the Roland RPU-3 tripple pedal, for someone who has some background in classical piano? Also being more specific, upon reading the manual I notice it hasn't some parameters like decay time, stretch tuning, unison tuning, etc. Do you know if the piano tones have a good decay time and whether its octaves are stretched like in a real piano?

That's it for now, thanks much for any advice, greetings.
Cleverson
howardS
Posts: 1759
Joined: 03:22, 10 March 2006
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Considering RD-800, some specific questions

Post by howardS »

Welcome to the Clan, Cleverson. You can get in and tune individual notes using Individual Note Voicing which is found on page 34 of the manual. The preset default selection has lower notes tunes slightly flat and the higher notes are a little sharp.
Cleverson
Posts: 5
Joined: 13:22, 27 September 2015

Re: Considering RD-800, some specific questions

Post by Cleverson »

Hello, OK thank you, so there should be no problem in this regard.

Cleverson
howardS
Posts: 1759
Joined: 03:22, 10 March 2006
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Considering RD-800, some specific questions

Post by howardS »

You're welcome. Good luck with the decision.
Cleverson
Posts: 5
Joined: 13:22, 27 September 2015

Decay time and hard attack

Post by Cleverson »

Hi,

Some people on the Piano World forum said that the decay time of the RD-800's piano tones is too short compared to accoustic pianos, and there is no decay time parameter. Can someone confirm whether it's possible to work around this?

In addition, I've noticed from some videos that the notes attack is too hard, especially when playing in F or FF. Is it possible to soften this as well?

Thank you.
Cleverson
Posts: 5
Joined: 13:22, 27 September 2015

Speakers suggestions

Post by Cleverson »

I'm just about to buy it, and would like to buy speakers along with it. Some have suggested Yamaha HS8 or Adam A7x, what do you think would be more adequate please?
barrydmd
Posts: 8
Joined: 00:41, 15 May 2005

Re: Considering RD-800, some specific questions

Post by barrydmd »

I have a Rd-800 with Rokit 5 speakers, but honestly, I prefer using my headphones.

barrydmd
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