Roland RD 800 Review:
It is a perfect combination of an excellent key action, powerful effects and rich, exquisite sound that is bound to leave you spell-bound.
After a long hectic day at work or dealing with conflicting priorities in personal life, nothing can be more de-stressing and tranquilizing than the sound of a piano.
The piano industry has witnessed an ample amount and types of piano. May it is acoustic, stage or digital every type has its discrete areas to serve.
A stage piano is an electronic musical instrument designed for use in a live performance on a stage or a studio. They possess a lot of features that set them apart from digital pianos.
As far as sound quality is concerned, stage pianos have come a long way. They have improved on the portability aspect too.
One such brand known for its stage pianos for years is Roland. Let’s dig deeper into the details of the brand:
About the Brand: Roland
Roland Corporation is a Japanese electronic musical instrument manufacturer founded by IkutaroKakehashi in Osaka, Japan, in 1972.
Roland has a well-earned reputation for building instruments that musicians love to play. Roland has been a severe competitor in the stage piano market with their RD series.
Roland is a brand known for its innovations and great sound sampling. It usually manufactures high-end products. Undoubtedly, Roland products are a favorite of every musician.
Let’s have a look at one of its hot-selling products:
Roland RD 800 Digital Piano Review
Even after so many years, Roland’s RD-series stage pianos are still the instruments leading the charts and are the first choice of the world’s leading performing artists.
Roland RD 800 is Roland’s flagship stage piano that inherits some of the best technology from the formidable V-Piano by Roland. It delivers a solid performance like any stage piano, but unlike others, it seizes a lot of innovative and perplexing features.
Take a look at them:
Design:
Now, stage pianos tend to be heavy. But Roland RD-800 delivers the same solid performance as a stage piano and is slightly lighter in weight.
The Roland RD 800 comes with a fully-weighted keyboard and weighs under 48 pounds, i.e., it can be carried anywhere easily. The sleek and durable design is bound to grab your attention.
It includes a DP10 Half-Damper pedal that enables continuous damping functionality. It comes with a basic manual and a curiously attached AC cable.
Its intuitive interface is designed for easy operation while performing and gives fast access to essential functions such as tone layering and keyboard split point.
The front panel is very comprehensive, and all the knobs for the panel have LED indicators to enhance visibility. The LCD comes with a fantastic graphical, user-friendly interface that can be adjusted according to any lighting condition.
Key Action:
One of the best features of Roland RD 800 is its key action. This 88-note keyboard with hammer-action design features a PHA-4 Concert Keyboard with touch-detection technology.
It also has an Escapement feature and lends that ebony/ivory feel to the piano.
A split keyboard button allows the user to easily assign any of the four layers to a specific zone.
Four sliders control part volumes, and the keyboard can be split and layered as well as transposed.
Sound System:
Roland RD 800 comes with a SuperNatural sound engine that is exceptionally great and powerful, which gives a vibrant acoustic piano sound. It comes with four sound engines onboard:
The SuperNatural Piano, SuperNatural electric pianos and Clavis, a virtual tonewheel organ, and a PCM sound generator for the other sounds. There’s a total of 1113 tones, a maximum of 128 voices, and 16 parts.
One of its top features is Individual Note Voicing. This technology lets you adjust the pitch, character, and level for every individual note of a piano sound, and a Tone Colour knob is also available for every sound.
Another highlight can be a new Concert Grand tone derived from the V-Piano Grand can modify sound immediately, thus cutting through a live performance.
You can manipulate sounds quickly on stage via dedicated controls for Live Set selection, part levels, Modulation FX, Tremolo, Amp Simulator, etc.
There are 56 types of modulation effects, six reverb and five delay types, and a three-band compressor and a five-band digital EQ.
Overall, the piano sounds exquisite.
Connectivity:
There’re two USB ports on the rear panel. One connects to your Mac or PC and transmits MIDI files, and the other can be used to connect a USB memory stick or a wireless adaptor.
An excellent addition is WAV recording or song playback and user memory backup with optional USB flash memory.
There are 2 XLR outputs, two ¼ inch outputs, one mini stereo input for external input like an iPod or iPad, and a headphone jack. There’s hardware MIDI in, out, and through four pedal inputs: Damper, Ext, and two-foot controllers.
Additional Features:
There are Live Sets available that allow you to store your tone layers and prepared setups. There are 10 Live Set selector buttons from A to J for you to choose from.
The jewel in the crown is that up to 200 possible slots are available for live sets, implying that many combinations are possible and the edits are extensive.
You can store the Live Sets to USB flash drives and their internal memory.
An audio recorder that allows users to record their performance in WAV format to a USB thumb drive through the WLAN adaptor port on the back of the keyboard.
There’s also a multi-band system compressor just upstream of the main audio outs. A Rhythm/Song area features over 180 drum patterns. There are over 1,100 tone variations with limitless editing capabilities therein.
Roland RD800 Price
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Conclusion
Roland RD 800 piano is bound to inflict the best and solid performance. It is a perfect combination of excellent key action, powerful effects, and rich, exquisite sound that is bound to leave you spell-bound.
All the effects are excellent, and the instrument as a whole is supremely playable. To sum up, it is an excellent stage piano that is worth every appreciation.
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