Difference between how piano sounds (FA-06 vs. FA-08)

[specialplant]

What I meant by timbre is tone character. You only changed it a little at the end of your last video. Does the sound get more wooden if you change 'tone character' to the lowest position? If I change this parameter in the Integra, there is a very noticeable change. The FA-08 demos you posted also seem to have more bass frequencies, which make the lower notes warmer and may be due to the recording or equalizer settings.

[rusnakaa]

Yes, when I change "tone character" to the lowest position, the change is noticeable! But It doesn't sounds good - sounds unreal. In all videos I've been watched with FA-08, the sound is much more realistic and good and if there is a little difference in these videos, the sound is much better than piano sound of FA-06.

[specialplant]

After listening to your last video and this one
http://www.supportimusicali.it/lab/demo ... d+FA+06+08
again, I think the main difference is that the supportimusicali demo is recorded with more bass frequencies and therefore sounds more wooden and warm.
Concerning the piano sound in your video, I can confirm that this is the SN-A piano sound which is familiar to me from my SN-A piano in the Integra. There is nothing wrong with it, it may not match the quality of the Kronos/Krome German Grand of 2 Gigabytes, but to me (and others) it sounds more realistic than all the pianos in the Yamaha Motif XF/MoXF (which BTW are all not 88 keys sampled).
If you receive a midi from the other user and can compare it under "ceteris paribus" conditions, I'd be interested in the result. At the moment I think there is just a difference in bass frequencies and maybe tone character setting.
BTW, I could imagine that your psychic perception sort of exaggerates the differences you hear due to the lightweight feel of the keybed. I once made the same experience with the MoX: my auditive perception changed as my fingers felt that it is no real piano. When I compared recordings later without looking at which is which, the perceived differences became smaller.

[Grammar Wombat]

…If you receive a midi from the other user and can compare it under "ceteris paribus" conditions…

I love it when members post in Latin!

"Ceteris paribus" sounds much more intelligent than "all other things being equal."

Vombatus Grammaticus.jpg (12.87 KiB) Viewed 2043 times

[specialplant]

Exactly, I couldn't have expressed it properly in English ;-)

[Cyrano]

After listening to your last video and this one
http://www.supportimusicali.it/lab/demo ... d+FA+06+08
again, I think the main difference is that the supportimusicali demo is recorded with more bass frequencies and therefore sounds more wooden and warm.
Concerning the piano sound in your video, I can confirm that this is the SN-A piano sound which is familiar to me from my SN-A piano in the Integra. There is nothing wrong with it, it may not match the quality of the Kronos/Krome German Grand of 2 Gigabytes, but to me (and others) it sounds more realistic than all the pianos in the Yamaha Motif XF/MoXF (which BTW are all not 88 keys sampled).
If you receive a midi from the other user and can compare it under "ceteris paribus" conditions, I'd be interested in the result. At the moment I think there is just a difference in bass frequencies and maybe tone character setting.
BTW, I could imagine that your psychic perception sort of exaggerates the differences you hear due to the lightweight feel of the keybed. I once made the same experience with the MoX: my auditive perception changed as my fingers felt that it is no real piano. When I compared recordings later without looking at which is which, the perceived differences became smaller.

I can confirm that I recorded this little demo directly on audacity and absolutely out of the box, no eq, no tweaking, no external effects


My humble opinion is that the 61 keyboard is not the best one to transmit the velocity nuances needed for a realistic piano paying...on the other hand the 88 is really good

[JakeJohnson]

Was this question ever resolved--was the midi file recorded to determine if there is any difference between the pianos?

[alphaC]

Just connect a FA-08 and a FA-06 with a midi cable and playing FA-08 keyboard listen to both (the same patches).

[specialplant]

Maybe two users could try to apply the midi file of the well-known "piano shootout" website to the FA-06/08 SN-A pianos.

[andyr1960]

I'm happy to report that there is ABSOLUTELY no difference between the FA06/08.

I got a friend to bring round his 08, and we hooked it up along with my 06 to the XV88 - they both responded exactly the same to various velocities - they both sounded great. I gave up playing my 06 directly from it's keyboard a week after buying it - the velocity scaling is dreadfully unnatural no matter what setting you use.

The problem with listening to online demos is that you have no idea how it was recorded, what desk/interface was used, subtleties in EQ adjustment etc, which can make the same instrument sound totally different.

[rusnakaa]

I played on FA-06 and FA-08. Absolutely no difference.... :)

[Tomdini]

Interesting. I actually really like the keybed of the FA-06. I have only played other 61-key MIDI controllers, not workstations or synths, and most of the action on your M-Audios and Akai keyboards is truly horrific, from 25- to 88-key models. Not a lot of good choices unless you buy an actual workstation or synth. The Novations feel kinda terrible to me but in the local GC, they're never hooked up to anything so I can actually test the responsiveness with a piano coming out. And I'm always too lazy to pick it up and move it over to a MOTIF or a Krome. Supposedly those are good keybeds.

I can play with full dynamic range on the FA-06 no problem, from tiptoe whisper quiet to blasting forte, but psychologically I feel like the pianos sound better when played through my A-88 bottom board. The majesticness of my tone seems to shine when I drop a nine-finger chord onto those lovely keys. I performed tests months ago, which I didn't save, because I thought that the pianos were sounding better or more nuanced on the A-88 keybed (which is the same keybed as is on the FA-08) and it turned out it was all in my head. The SNA pianos are so good that they just felt better to me, as a longtime concert pianist, under the weighted 88.

I agree that the engines and hardware are exactly the same, and between the FA-06 and FA-08 I heard no discernible difference between two identical patches. It is possible the sounds have been edited or tweaked some in those videos.

-Tom

[Onj]

I have four modules and two keyboards, both with similar keybeds. I come from the Juno-G, and played this for the last 6 years. Switching to the FA-06 wasn't a bother for me. Though this has nothing to do with the piano, more the action, I just don't find it that much different, or a bother to play. I can understand you concert pianists utterly despising the action but for a synth-player such as myself it's no bother.
Anyway, for the Supernatural pianos, you may find assigning a knob or pedal to CC18 helps with the thickness if you will, of the sound. It kind of EQ's it in a way, and makes it not just more bassy which would be quite boring and achievable in other ways, but broadens the sound to my ears.
CC18 also works in other fun places such as the obviously named 'TcDlyEP CC18' patch, which emulates quite well I might add, a tape-delay and that's fun to play with live during some kind of twisted synth track.

[Elecmuso]

This is a real old thread but touches on the piano sound of the FA06 which is what I'm after.

I have just stumbled on this keyboard and contemplating using it as a sound source to upgrade by old Yamaha P200 (and give me another unweighted keyboard for organ sounds).

I'm impressed by the videos (great playing helps!) but just hoping someone here might help by post opinions on the FA06 piano sounds versus Nord Electro 5D piano and VR-09 piano (2 extremes in cost).

Cheers

[etherweet]

the information is out there. some of the specs for other roland 88 note piano keybeds list at least 128 levels of key position resolution.

its bound to be true about not only the fa-08, but definitely the rd-800 and v piano.

i played a used juno ds8 at the store here after i got the fa-06 and vr-09 and have started saving to snag a used juno ds8.

i plugged the rd-700 i have into the fa-06 and was promptly disapointed because the keybed and firmware do not have anywhere near 16 bit (128 level) resolution.

however they all sound really good to me, most likely because i have never sat down in front of a real piano.

so if you go looking for an 88 note controller to use with your fa-06 or any other instrument, you might want to double check resolution on both ends and not wind up with the same problem only with an additional 27 notes.