magnusgl Posted November 28, 2006 Share Posted November 28, 2006 Hi! I've just bought a Roland RD-700sx, and I'm using it on stage for the first time the upcoming weekend. This is my first digital piano, so I would like to hear if anyone have any advices with how to get at good sound on a PA? By example: Should I turn of the reverb &/or chorus/delay, and just let the soundman handle this? The soundman could probably also help, but he naturally doesn't know all the possibilities, so hopefully you guys can give some good advices? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raddtunes Posted November 28, 2006 Share Posted November 28, 2006 Congratulations on your new purchase - I've had mine a while now, and it's simply an awesome, inspiring instrument. Regarding the reverb, this will depend on the size and nature of the venue, as well as the system. There are certainly large concert venues where you might wish to reduce, or even turn off the reverb. In most cases, you'll be fine to leave it on. There has been lots of discussion of the RD-700sx here - especially in comparison to the Yamaha S90es - also an amazing instrument. You might peruse these and pick up helpful info. Have fun! Regarding chorus/delay, you'll probably want to leave these on - although, again, the venue and situation may make you want to tweak the parameters of these effects. Last comment, and I'd love to hear from others on this - on my last gig, the PA company took the two balanced lines out of my RD-700sx. They said the signal was unusually hot, and they eventually switched to the 1/4" outs with direct boxes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazz+ Posted November 28, 2006 Share Posted November 28, 2006 You also may need a brighter piano playing live than you are used to at home. Most live PAs and spaces seem to muffle the presence and highs. Even though I am playing jazz I use the brighter Rock Grand on my Roland SRX-11 card. I always turn the reverbs off in a live setting, reveb makes it less present sounding to me and the room has enough weird ambiance already. Live piano reverb muddies the sound in my ears. Find 750 of Harry's solo piano arrangements and tutorials at https://www.patreon.com/HarryLikas These arrangements are for teaching solo piano chording using Harry's 2+2 harmony method. Harry was the Technical Editor of Mark Levine's "The Jazz Theory Book" and helped develop "The Jazz Piano Book." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffLearman Posted November 29, 2006 Share Posted November 29, 2006 For starters, just use the presets and find the best preset for the situation. After some experience you may find you want to tweak the sound to optimize it for stage, which usually means less reverb. However, don't expect the sound guy to do much with your sound. (IMHO, sound guys that add much reverb in a live venue are "occupationally challenged" anyway.) More important: how are you going to hear yourself? You'll need a monitor of some sort. If the sound guy has an extra monitor channel for keyboard monitors, great -- but don't expect it! In general, you should have something to hear yourself with, like a keyboard combo amp. Note that it's not just so YOU can hear yourself, but also so the rest of the band can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobsk8 Posted November 29, 2006 Share Posted November 29, 2006 Originally posted by learjeff: For starters, just use the presets and find the best preset for the situation. After some experience you may find you want to tweak the sound to optimize it for stage, which usually means less reverb. However, don't expect the sound guy to do much with your sound. (IMHO, sound guys that add much reverb in a live venue are "occupationally challenged" anyway.) More important: how are you going to hear yourself? You'll need a monitor of some sort. If the sound guy has an extra monitor channel for keyboard monitors, great -- but don't expect it! In general, you should have something to hear yourself with, like a keyboard combo amp. Note that it's not just so YOU can hear yourself, but also so the rest of the band can. I detest playing though a house PA because of the problem that you mentioned. You can't hear what you sound like and you don't know what the person is going to do with the gain and EQ that is running the sound board ( qualifications for that job seem to be related to having a heart beat). I prefer to bring my own amp(s), and give the sound man a feed and tell them to EQ it flat and don't play with the gain once it is set. If you keys have a demo program ( which the RD-700SX has ) , you can run it and go out in the room to see what it sounds like.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burningbusch Posted November 29, 2006 Share Posted November 29, 2006 Originally posted by raddtunes: Last comment, and I'd love to hear from others on this - on my last gig, the PA company took the two balanced lines out of my RD-700sx. They said the signal was unusually hot, and they eventually switched to the 1/4" outs with direct boxes. Yes the outputs are hot but that's adjustable. Press EDIT->SYSTEM->MASTER VOLUME. Bring it down from there. To the original poster: I suggest you try to wean yourself off reverb. It just gets in the way when playing live. I run completely dry or close to that. The standard chorus is stereo, so be aware of that when running in a PA, i.e. it will lose something when running in mono. In general you'll want to be running in stereo. Busch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill H. Posted November 29, 2006 Share Posted November 29, 2006 Here's another who always turns reverb completely off when playing live. It sounds unnatural going through PA horns (which aren't kind to reverb) and there's always enough ambience in even the driest room to make your sound "bloom" once you exit the stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Bennett Posted January 2, 2007 Share Posted January 2, 2007 Ive been having some P.A. issues, its going into protection mode for some odd reason, cant figure it out. I actually got a new powered mixer and chords in today. What is this about the RD700SX being hot? Could that be my problem? Should I purchase a direct box? Does turning down the master volume make a difference if I just end up turning the slider switch up more? Answer me that please. Ive got all new Carvin gear and out of the blue at medium volumes, poof, protection mode. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raddtunes Posted January 2, 2007 Share Posted January 2, 2007 Hi TB - Happy New Year - I had said above that the balanced outs on the RD seemed "hot" - meaning that the signal was very loud/intense - more so than what the PA system would be set for. However - if you read on, above, busch provides the solution that worked well. Protection mode - is that your mixer? If so, then it's possible you're feeding your mixer a signal that's too hot. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raddtunes Posted January 2, 2007 Share Posted January 2, 2007 Hi TB - Happy New Year - I had said above that the balanced outs on the RD seemed "hot" - meaning that the signal was very loud/intense - more so than what the PA system would be set for. However - if you read on, above, busch provides the solution that worked well. Protection mode - is that your mixer? If so, then it's possible you're feeding your mixer a signal that's too hot. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceNorman Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 I didn't see it mentioned specifically - so I'll add that you should be certain to run two feeds (one right and one left) and NOT rely on the LEFT/MONO output! The stereo piano patches sounded absolutely horrible when I was using the LEFT/MONO output alone - so bad that I thought there was something physically wrong with the unit. I happened to run it in stereo one day - and couldn't believe my ears. I went out and upgraded my gig amp to allow me to run everything in stereo that day! The SpaceNorman The SpaceNorman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burningbusch Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 Originally posted by Tony Bennett: Ive been having some P.A. issues, its going into protection mode for some odd reason, cant figure it out. I actually got a new powered mixer and chords in today. What is this about the RD700SX being hot? Could that be my problem? Should I purchase a direct box? Does turning down the master volume make a difference if I just end up turning the slider switch up more? Answer me that please. Ive got all new Carvin gear and out of the blue at medium volumes, poof, protection mode. Set the volume slider to MAX and then increase gain using EDIT->SYSTEM->MASTER VOLUME until you're starting to peak the input when hitting full velocity chords. Then back it down some. That way you shouldn't overdrive the input even if you you've got the volume slider maxed. I don't see the need for a direct box. You got balanced XLRs already. Protection mode doesn't sound right. I've never heard of it kicking in if inputs are overdriven, only the amplifer out or if there's a short. Busch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADino Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 Less verb, modify the Ult piano a bit, xlr outs with a moniter, no complaints about the outs being hot. While u have the ability to adjust the tones while playing, I find that I generally lower the highs on the accoustic piano patches as the volumne goes up, and pump the highs on the Rhodes suitcase patch. Nice board so far, I really like the action. Good luck, A. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Bennett Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 Ok, maybe a stupid question. Bear with me, Ive always owned the gear and let other people (the singer) run it. Now that there have been issues Im trying to learn about gear. Ive been running my keyboard mono by just hooking up with an instrument cable. Sounds like I should be using an XLR? Is there such a thing as an XLR instrument cable? Or is a mic cable the same creature? Should I hook up stereo even if in the end the p.a. is running in mono? I just got a new Mackie powered mixer in last night Im playing with, but its running both mains and monitors so its running mono. Perhaps the best solution is to purchase an additional amp to run either the mains or monitors? Im driving some Carvin 400 watt speakers that I like the sound of, I just need a little more oomph on occasion with out cutting out. I was able to run the Mackie last night with out incident, but the peak indicator light was flashing on occassion. Maybe Im expecting too much, but shouldnt a new Mackie 808S hooked to new Carvin Speakers and monitors practically blow me out of my basement with out me seeing the clip light turn on? Or is that really not that much power? Thank you for your patience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dementedchord Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 depends... are you seeing the individual input clip or the amps output??? "style is determined not by what you can play but what you cant...." dave brubeck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Bennett Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 The mains clip, can't say that I've been watching the individual input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluesRockKeys Posted January 19, 2007 Share Posted January 19, 2007 Hello all: Does anybody adjust the EQ on the RD-700SX? My rig is hooked up to Mackie SRM450's in stereo and I find the mid-range (middle C +/- an octave) to be muddy and not at all "piano like". thanks. Kawai MP-10, Yamaha CP33, Hammond XK-1, Leslie 3300 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ITGITC Posted January 19, 2007 Share Posted January 19, 2007 Originally posted by Tony Bennett: I was able to run the Mackie last night with out incident, but the peak indicator light was flashing on occassion. Tony, Use a standard microphone cable and run it from the RD-700SX to the Mackie. This will provide a balanced line and increase your signal to noise ratio. Most importantly: You'll need to adjust the input trim on the Mackie for the channel you are using or it will clip. The directions for this are located in the first few pages of the manual. Set up the SD-700SX internally so that it runs in mono instead of stereo. You should be fine. Now. Did you receive your new JBL speakers from Sweetwater Sound? Have you tried them yet? How do they sound? Thanks, Tom "Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent." - Victor Hugo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legatoboy Posted January 19, 2007 Share Posted January 19, 2007 MoogtoRoland, When I had my RD700sx I usually used an S type EQ curve with a low midrange divet in the middle on the RD700SX eq itself before the board/amp! That EQ screen is very nice! lb CP-50, YC 73, FP-80, PX5-S, NE-5d61, Kurzweil SP6, XK-3, CX-3, Hammond XK-3, Yamaha YUX Upright, '66 B3/Leslie 145/122 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill H. Posted January 19, 2007 Share Posted January 19, 2007 Just general advice... before EQ-ing run a sequence of your piano playing or have someone play while you check the sound out in the audience. Two way PA cabs take 10+ feet for the sound of the compression horn and the woofer to combine. What you hear close up is not the same sound as out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Bennett Posted January 19, 2007 Share Posted January 19, 2007 Thanks for the advice Gas in the car, I will give it a try. The speakers are on back order, should be no more than a couple of weeks. I ended up with a gig tomorrow night but we are using a drummer for this gig and he has some crappy speakers....but it's a crappy, loud, slosh through the night sort of gig so it will be a great match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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