Roland RD-700NX

Roland RD-700NX: My Initial Impressions

Strengths: Excellent keybed:Very even velocity response; excellent player to instrument connection. SuperNatural Pianos rival the current crop of software and hardware based sampled/modeled digital pianos.

Weakness: A mic input (Like the Yamaha CP5) would have been thoughtful; also stereo 1/4" inputs would help (as found on Roland's FP series). Wish that Roland had kept the previous RD's SRX expansion slots.

This keyboard is a game changer. SuperNatural Piano technology is a winner, with its proprietary blend of sampling and modeling technology. Plus the playability factor is very high: the keybed tactile response is superb, the velocity implementation quite smooth. The slightly antiqued, satin style keys are a refreshing change from the glossy plastic keybeds of most digital pianos. While nothing,...
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This keyboard is a game changer. SuperNatural Piano technology is a winner, with its proprietary blend of sampling and modeling technology. Plus the playability factor is very high: the keybed tactile response is superb, the velocity implementation quite smooth. The slightly antiqued, satin style keys are a refreshing change from the glossy plastic keybeds of most digital pianos. While nothing, IMO, will replace a real piano, the RD-700NX does play quite a bit like a real, musical instrument; it's a very expressive digital keyboard.

A year ago, I thought I would have a Yamaha CP5 in my live rig. The RD-700NX definitely offers a piano that rivals the CP5. Though both keyboards offer similar features, the Roland is much more intuitive to use from its' front panel. I could throw away the manual, and still manage to figure out the control features of the RD-700NX; not so with the CP5, which - while still having great, comparable sounds - has a rather challenging, non-intuitive user interface, especially for selecting non-piano tones, setting up MIDI control maps, etc.. Doing those things on the RD-700NX is quick, and relatively simple.
Like previous RD-700 Series pianos the RD-700NX offers a tonewheel organ engine - basically the Roland VK model; even offering a limited but capable version of drawbar control (the sliders/drawbars are separated into two adjacent pages on the screen). This drawbar organ model is still quite far ahead of anything offered on a multi purpose keyboard by Yamaha, Korg, and others (though, in all fairness, Kurzweil offers a very high quality, full drawbar control organ in KB3 mode of its PC3 series).

As with previous RD models, Roland provides a varied palette of all-purpose instrument tones in the RD-700NX. However, the keyboard has a expanded quantity, and improved quality of sound in this area. There are basically 1000 tones with which to work (including a GM2 block); these - including the SuperNatural Pianos and Electric Pianos - are arranged in 'Live Set' banks (up to four tones in each Set [internal, and external], 100 Preset Live Sets, 100 User [programmable] Live Sets).

Not having the SRX expansion card slots of previous RD Pianos is a weakness of the RD-700NX, though. I have several SRX cards in an aging XV-5080 module; I would've enjoyed the opportunity use some of those sounds in programming Live Sets in my RD-700NX. Also missing is a mic input; which is thoughtful touch that Yamaha did provide on the CP5. I would have liked to have seen a pair of stereo 1/4" inputs on this instrument, as are provided on Roland's FP series of digital pianos. That's a very useful feature that could have been included in the RD-700NX, considering its' price tag.

Overall I'm quite impressed with the RD-700NX. I believe it will prove an invaluable and substantial anchor piece for my live rig.

By allan_e58 - Dec 23, 2010

Best Digital Piano

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By bestcovery.com - Mar 5, 2011