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My kids were given tablets long before phones. Not iPads mind you, but tablets none the less. Tablet apps are definitely one of the entry points to start making music. Whilst it is wrong to ignore this, it would be equally wrong to consider them the only entry point. Kids get plenty of exposure to other devices like chrome books and computers too from education and from their peers. I'd also agree that most kids are not as tech savy as per stereotypes. They have limited experience of a few apps and only a skin deep knowledge of tech generally. However, they learn quickly, have no fear of new things and enormous energy to explore the unknown when given the opportunity.

CC numbers refer to a type of MIDI message. There are 4 main groups of messages, not just in the RD-88 but common to all MIDI devices. 1. Notes on/off when a key is played 2. Control change (CC) when a controller is moved, such as a mod wheel, fader, dial 3. Program Change (PC) when changing scenes and patches. 4. SysEx (system exclusive) general data that is specific to a particular manufacturer and device. Back to CCs. Specifically MIDI assigns a different numbers to identify different controllers your keyboard may have, with a range from 0 to 127. Some of these CC numbers have become standard across the industry to refer to a particular thing. Examples are 1. Modulation 7. Volume 10. Pan 64. Hold/sustain pedal The RD-88 has a defined a number of these CC messages, mostly following a combination of industry and Roland standards. They allow control of the keyboard and the current sounds and scene whilst you are playing. So if the keyboard receives a CC7 message it will turn the volume of the current sound down. Each CC message has a value which ranges from 0 to 127. For CC7 volume, 0 would be off and 127 would be full volume and it can also be set to any value in between. The RD-88 allows you to assign different CC numbers to the 8 rotary dials, so that you can choose what you want to control on the sound. For some of the synth sounds, it is possible to assign a dial to control the cutoff frequency or resonance for example. Not every tone responds to every type of message so you may need to experiment to see what works and what doesn't. You can use CC numbers that are not assigned to anything else to program yourself. Some settings can be linked to any CC number and you can then assign a contoller to control that CC number. So, this may let you use an expression pedal to change a specific setting by assinging the CC number to the pedal. You can also program other devices like a sequencer to send MIDI data to the RD-88, which includes the CC messages as well as the other types of MIDI data.

Like having both paddles and wheels on the Fantom 0.

Another vote for VST Live. I found it fairly intuitive and quick to learn. It is a lot cheaper than the likes of Gig Performer and Camalot and worth a look. It makes a good VST host for live use. The software is a little rough around the edges but is still quite new and under active development. The dev team are very responsive on their forums and have even delivered on feature requests for me. Not sure there is an iPad version but it is available for Windows and MacOS.

Admit it, this whole thread is an advertising feature? Making me think again.

For a lightweight board under 30 lbs, the PHA-4 action is as good as it gets. It is the same as on the more expensive RD-88 and Fantom 08 boards. If you just need a basic piano, it is excellent and head and shoulders above anything else in this price range.

For small rooms a Vox VX50 would do. If you were thinking of a stereo setup, two of these would be ideal. They have the huge advantage of weighing a mere 9 lbs, so you could have a full stereo rig for under 20 lbs. They are rated at 50 Watt RMS so not the most powerful but if you are not competing with a drum kit and bass amp I think they would be absolutely fine. They have 3 input channels to so you can plug a mic in too.

There is an editor available for PC and Mac here https://aka-v-c-f.blogspot.com/2023/09/roland-rd88-editor.html?m=1 I've not tried it myself as I had already traded in my RD-88 for a Fantom 08 before this came out but it looks good. Anything that makes programming the RD-88 less painful would be welcome. Bear in mind that tone editing on the RD-88 itself is restricted to a very limited set of parameters. The editor won't change this but will make it easier to get around, play with the various effects and so on. If you want to go deeper into tone editing you will need to use the Zenology Pro synth plug-in from Roland Cloud to edit on your computer and then import the tones to the RD-88 via a USB memory stick.

This is correct. Press the left and right arrows to move between the various pages in the menus. You are looking for the General page under the Zone Sound menu.

I better also mention how the tones are organised. This is not obvious. There are two types of tone, Zen-core core and RD-88, with different parameters available for each. The parameter guide has separate sections for each type. It is likely you are looking at a different type, which is why the guide doesn't match what you are seeing on the screen. The RD-88 group contain tones made by Roland's Supernatural engine. This includes the better pianos and a few other instruments, like strings. They have their own sound bank. Most of the sounds are in the other group, using Zen-core synth engine. These are in 6 sound banks, named pr-a, pr-b..., pr-e and cmn. The way sounds are organised in these banks appears to be a legacy of which other synths these sounds originally came from. You can find pianos scattered through them all for example, not just in bank pr-a. You can select a category like piano or strings and search across all the banks, or you can browse the list of tones in a particular bank. I guess with nearly 4000 tones, organising them would always be fun but Roland havent made it particularly easy.

The buttons to change sounds are for scenes. They are grouped by category, piano, strings, synth etc. Scenes are numbered from 1 to 400. The Inc and Dec buttons move up and down scenes - as long as the scene number is selected on screen. You can alter the tones on the current scene by using the up and down buttons to move the cursor to the tone shown. If all 3 zones are not visible, you can use the split button to make them appear or use the zone edit menu. Unless you use the Write function, editing is temporary and changes will be lost if you move to another scene. Each scene has up to 3 zones, Upper1, Upper 2 and Lower. The split button will separate the keyboard into 2 parts, with Upper 1 and Upper 2 layered at the top and Lower in the bottom. Scenes can be edited to create 3 separate parts and change the split points but if you touch the split button they revert back to the default 2 part split again regardless. The flashing lights you see when editing are how you select which zone to edit. Lower will be flashing. Press the next buttons along to change to upper 1 and then upper 2. The next 3 lights show which zones are switched on or off in the scene. These lights are steady, not flashing. If the light is on that part is switched on. All 3 lights on means you have all 3 zones on. Remember to save the scene if you want to keep your changes. Each category has a number of initial scenes at the end if you don't want to overwrite the factory settings. Just use the Inc button to move the destination scene till you find one labelled initial. If I remember correctly you have about 120 of the 400 empty. As a final hint, the Favourites bank is just a pointer to a scene, to help you find them quicker. Using this means you don't need to worry about where you saved your scenes above. The bank buttons allow up to ten favourite scenes per category and you have 10 category buttons, piano, strings, synths etc, meaning you can save 100 favourites. So you can set piano slot 1 as a favourite for scene 280, slot 2 to point to scene 56 and so on. Turning favourites off again reverts the category banks to their normal behaviour to select pianos, strings etc. It takes a little while to get used to all this but it does start to make sense eventually - honest.

In a way you are correct in that there are workarounds and other ways to manage things via a VST Host. It isn't a complete showstopper. However, some people find the lack of functionality annoying. It prevents lots of different work flows. One simple example is when I'm looking through presets. I can use a foot pedal to load the next tone rather than having to fiddle with a mouse and computer keyboard. It's easy to map this on my Fantom but try and do the same in Zenology. Basic controls make using software simple and easy. Not providing them for no good reason is very frustrating. When working as a software developer I've spent countless hours in meetings where UI designers / project managers / bean counters don't want to include basic navigation in applications because it doesn't look pretty, it may cost a day's more work and so on. It makes the software objectively worse. Keep that mindset going and it destroys the usability of software and has a major commercial impact. Midi PC has been around forever and should be part of every basic implementation. I shouldn't have to spend time programming VST hosts to compensate for its absence.

Would be interested apart from one thing. It doesn't have a USB hub port to plug other devices in. Shame. Will stick with the Arturia Minifuse for that reason.

We are drifting from music related topics a bit but this will affect developers of iPad and iOS music apps. 1. I got the iMac and iPhone 6 for building and testing iOS apps. 2. To build iOS apps requires using Apple's XCode software. 3. Apple doesnt allow old versions of XCode to put apps onto store. 4. Apple doesn't allow new versions of XCode to run on non supported versions of MacOS. 5. When Apple ended support for my iMac in 2018 this prevented new updates to MacOS. 6. Without the latest MacOS, I couldn't run the latest XCode so could no longer build iOS apps on my Mac. So the very purpose I bought the kit for was removed. By Apple. For no reason other than they said so. It no longer runs the Apple software it did on day one because Apple says no. Same applies for the iPhone. It no longer can test new apps because Apple deliberately prevent me building apps for iOS12. XCode removed all earlier versions than iOS 13 in 2019 IIRC. In both cases, security updates are worthless as Apple as stopped their own software from running. Text book definition of planned obsolescence if I'm not mistaken.

Yet my iPhone 6 was locked to iOS 12 and perfectly good hardware was made a paperweight in 2019 as new apps I built were not allowed to target it. This following on the heels of my 2012 iMac scrapped in 2018 despite a full upgrade to 16GB ram and an SSD drive because Apple decided not to allow a new version of MacOS which XCode required for development. Apple have practically invented planned obsolescence in phones and computers and sadly other manufacturers have copied their lead. When quality hardware is usable for 20 years, deliberately disabling it and making it obsolete in 6 years is obscene. Celebrating 8 years of use is a joke.

If the suggestions above don't do what you need, there is another option. Whilst you can't do much in terms of editing the tones on the RD-88 itself, you can edit them in Zenology Pro on a computer and then import them in a user bank to the RD-88. Zenology Pro is available from Roland Cloud.

Not sure how you get to that conclusion. My vintage Roland RD300sx driver is still running on Windows 11 after 20 years. Worst case, audio over USB becomes unavailable, the keyboard reverts to the class compliant USB Midi driver and audio gets plugged into an audio interface. Not the greatest hardship. Out of interest, own any Apple devices?

This is standard for the RD series and Fantoms, maybe other Roland stuff too. They are class compliant for USB MIDI but not for USB audio. You need to install the drivers and use the board in Vendor mode to get both USB audio and MIDI. This applies both to MacOS and Windows. The generic mode is class compliant and runs without drivers. It is also the only way to connect via USB to an IOS or iPadOS device. So no USB audio for those.

I have this desk https://www.thomann.de/gb/thomann_combodesk_designed_by_zaor.htm Draw can fit a 61 note keyboard or be used for the computer keyboard and mouse. The top desk is just about wide enough to fit my 88 note Fantom 08, with a slight overhang each side. The raised shelf at the back hold my 38" ultra wide screen and a pair of iLoud micro monitors. It has removable panels that allow it to hold racks. It also has a shelf at the back which is handy for power supplies, USB hubs and so on. Someone even thought about cables so there are holes to pass them through the back panel too. Whilst it is shipped flat pack, it is well designed and has proper metal bolts to hold it together. It is the most solid bit of flat pack furniture I have ever had. Only minor gripe is that the keyboard drawer doesn't lock in position. If anyone has any clever solutions for this, please share.

I don't use Gig Performer, I have Steinberg's VST Live instead. I would expect that they both work in a similar manner. Is there a specific issue you are having? The Nanokontrol2 is programmable and it took me a little trial and error and tweaking of this plus the bindings in VST Live to get it exactly how I want. For example, after using the midi learn feature in VST Live to map to the mute button, I had to edit the binding to send a data value range from 0 to 127. Midi learn had decided the button sent a value of 127 only, so the mute would not turn off. I also had to edit the nanokontrol and change the button from momentary to held, to keep mute on after letting go of the button.

I use a Korg Nanokontrol2. https://www.korg.com/uk/products/computergear/nanokontrol2/

I've been using a laptop with a lightweight keyboard for a while when playing live sometimes. Although I like Steinberg VST Live and it has all the features I need for creating setlists, setting up patches for each song and switching patches, I haven't been comfortable using the touchscreen. It is not so bad to switch songs but changing parts during a song, muting/unmuting some parts or adjusting volumes I find tricky. I decided I wanted to use MIDI to control everything and have tactile buttons, knobs and faders. My Casio CT-S500 has few controls, so I acquired a Korg NanoKontrol midi controller. This has 8 sets of faders, mute, solo and record buttons, plus transport controls and other programmable buttons. The form factor fits perfectly on top of the Casio, being long but limited height. This has been an absolute revelation. It has removed all anxieties from controlling the laptop during performances. I no longer have to touch the screen for anything. Even simple things like having illuminated Mute buttons so I can see which sounds are currently active has made a difference. I'm interested in how other people that use tablets or computers live get on. Do you use touch screens or Midi to run your sets, change songs and edit patches whilst performing?

Here is the tone list. Roland RD-88 Tones and Scenes.xlsx

I have a copy of one somewhere. I added mappings to the Zenology libraries too. Dont know if I can attach here. If not you can message me with your email and I can send it.

Worth finding an interface with a USB hub port too. The Arturia Minifuse is one example.