Roland RD2000 Dynamic Response

[RD57]

I want to get this keyboard but a couple of comments on pianoworld forum have scared me a bit. The 2000 is the first of the RD series that caught my attention.I tried the 600 but hated it live, like the sound was stuck in the box. It sounded too compressed compared to the original 500. I returned it after trying it live.The 700 and 800 seemed similar. Playing the 2000 in the store seems great but how does it respond live with a band. The one comment on the forum was that live wise it didn't have good dynamic response and turning it up didn't fix that but only made it too loud but the sound still sounded like it was stuck in the box. For anyone using it live is this the case?

[BbAltered]

Some questions:

1) What digital piano do you think has the best dynamic response and the best sound?

2) Have you tried adjusting the piano's touch response setting? Different velocity curves will give you different response to dynamic playing.

3) What are you using to hear your digital keyboard? Different monitors (headphones vs. passive vs. powered speakers; etc.) will greatly influence the sound of your keyboard.

 

I have to say: the Roland RD-500 is now about 20 years old and modern digital keyboards sound very different today. That said, I use an RD70nx (now superseded by 2 subsequent generations of Roland digital pianos), and I have no trouble playing the whole range of piano dynamics from pp, thru mf to ff.

 

For myself, I too struggle to be both dynamic and loud enough for ensemble play. The musical abilities of your band-mates is important. I found I had to change the way I play with most drummers: playing long held notes only makes others play louder and muddies the sound. I turn my keyboard volume up, never play legato or held notes, and use my fingers and note choices to control note volume.

 

Pretty much everyone here says it is helpful to try a variety of pianos as you consider buying one. The extra time is worth it in my opinion.

[timwat]

I've had this same problem with every digital I've ever played or owned. A real grand in a room has a very large dynamic range from ppp to FFF - you can dominate from a whisper to a scream until somebody brings in an amp and turns up.

 

The only thing that has every helped me is now using the PX S3000 with the triple pedal. I use the soft pedal to comp, and full volume to solo or stand out. Have not found another solution that works as well.

 

All to say, I'm not sure if it's a problem unique to a particular set of digital pianos, or just the nature of the shortcomings of digitals in general relative to the real deal.

 

Tim

[Dave Ferris]

I want to get this keyboard but a couple of comments on pianoworld forum have scared me a bit. The 2000 is the first of the RD series that caught my attention.I tried the 600 but hated it live, like the sound was stuck in the box. It sounded too compressed compared to the original 500. I returned it after trying it live.The 700 and 800 seemed similar. Playing the 2000 in the store seems great but how does it respond live with a band. The one comment on the forum was that live wise it didn't have good dynamic response and turning it up didn't fix that but only made it too loud but the sound still sounded like it was stuck in the box. For anyone using it live is this the case?

 

 

Sounds similar to what I've posted on the RD-2000 here, although I can't recall posting it there. But maybe I did sometime ago.

 

I too thought the 2000 was their first DP that really sounded like it might "work" for me. But alas :

 

The Roland RD 2000 -- while it felt and sounded good playing by itself, when I was in a "live in the studio" controlled environment, I had the same problems I've had with past Roland models. I wasn't hearing, or feeling it present enough within the soundscape of the group. Consequently, I was playing harder then I usually do and and was turning the volume up more to compensate. And it's then too loud. Basically I've given up on Roland..

 

You like the Roland RD2000 piano? I think the action is terrible. I actually considered it for awhile.

 

I liked the action, but the sound live, man it was same old same Roland for me - sounds good playing by yourself, get it into a band context and it disappears. And this was in a very controlled environment - live in the studio with pretty good phones..

 

Back in the summer I had an experience where the RD2000 replaced a CP300. I'd been pretty enthusiastic on this board until this experience. Funny, this is the same issue I had with the older Roland 700GX, I think it was.

 

I wrote a little about it a few months back fwiw.

 

I recently had a live experience, in the studio, with the RD2000. I've played it multiple times - at NAMM, in the store A/Bing with the CP4 - but never used it in the heat of battle.

 

So back at the end of July I played at a bass player's studio who holds regular jazz sessions and records them for posterity. He had been using the CP300 for many years but bought the RD2000 recently.

 

Before we started, I was hearing it back through phones in stereo and thought it sounded pretty good while just playing it alone. But when the group started playing (3 horns and rhythm section), I found it just not sitting very forward in the mix of bass & drums. It seemed invisible during comping when one horn was soloing or multiple horns were playing the heads. Needless to say I never had that experience with the CP4.

 

Basically when I was soloing the piano just had this sort of bland, vanilla and not-alive sounding character. Also due to my perceived lack of presence on the 2000, I was instinctively playing harder and digging in more unnecessarily then I do on my Yamaha. That in turn causes tension and affects the overall musical flow on my solos.

 

I'm fairly certain after that particular session, in a fairly controlled studio environment, even if someone was schlepping it for me, I would pass on the Roland.

 

This was my first time playing over at this particular fellow's studio, so I never played his CP300. But I did own the CP300 myself awhile for a few years until the size and weight became a little too much. And I hit my late '50s. I replaced it with the CP5, which still was big and heavy but it felt like a Nord Electro after the CP300. lol

 

I can definitely say the CP300 fared better for me in a live Jazz context then the RD2000..

 

I'd welcome one for the home but not for live - unless it was accompanying a vocalist in a duo context maybe. Based on that experience and fwiw of course.