Roland RD300 GX Stage Piano
By Dan on Sep 16, 2009 with Comments 15
Today we are going to talk about the Roland RD300GX 88-key stage piano.
What’s amazing about this keyboard is that it features two complete sets of piano sounds which have been taken from the popular RD700SX keyboard.
I took this keyboard out for a spin and when I began to play, I quickly realized how well constructed the key response was. My fingers just loved to race across the keyboard. Roland’s PHA ll alpha ll weighted keyboard technology gets kudos for letting my fingers fall in love with the touch response.
One of the cool features I like gives the ability to play audio directly into the RD 300 GX via a USB memory key. This feature is compatible with standard MIDI files, WAV, AIFF and MP3s. Essentially the bottom 15 keys on the RD300GX control the playback and other features of the audio file.
The piano features 128 voices of polyphony with 128 MB of wave memory.
The effects section include 6 reverb types and a 2-band digital equalizer.
A glance at the rhythm section reveals that there are 200 patterns to get you in the groove. Personally I found that some of the drums patterns leave a little bit to be desired. Some just didn’t quite cut it for me.
While exploring the various ports I noticed that the RD300GX is supplied with 1/4 inch left and mono output jacks, a damper pedal, headphone jacks and DC IN jack.
The keyboard can be split into 3 separate zones with the level slider controller. In addition the RD 300 GX features equalizer knobs, pitch bend and modulation levers and assignable switches.
The RD300GX also features 1 MB of internal memory.
Filed Under: Roland Keyboards
Hi Dan. I’ve had my 300GX for a while now and have yet to figure out how to improve the sound delivered from the Line outs. The sound through the headphones sounds great but as soon as the sound is lined out through the PA, it sounds (as someone aptly commented last night) as if it’s being played through a drain pipe. Not quite the comment that one wants to hear after shelling out so much cash for this keyboard. My out dated U20 had a far superior piano sound when played through the PA. Do you have any thoughts on this?
Thanks
Nick
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Dan Reply:
September 28th, 2009 at 6:26 am
Nick,
That is the first time I hear of that type of issue. It could be many things that is causing it. First of all, it could be the jack wires. Are you sure they are good? If you suspect the keyboard, then it could require repair. If it is under warranty I would return it to have it checked out.
Dan
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GD Reply:
December 30th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Hi guys,
The problem is that with headphones you are hearing the full stereo image. Thru a PA you are hearing the samples summed to mono. This causes a phase cancellation interference in the highs and mids. There are plenty of posts on the Bose musicians website for musicians trying to find a workaround for using stereo keyboards live. The best solution is for manufacturers to provide a selection of mono samples for live use.
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dwain c Reply:
February 25th, 2010 at 4:20 am
I have an older RD 100. Which is a great keyboard. I to have noticed when playing through my Mackie PA system the keyboard does not sound all that great as compared to playing or listening through headphones. It maybe that a PA system isn’t geared for electric piano sound. I am thinking about a keyboard amp. In some ways I prefer analog piano to electric, but again not sure on that either.
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Nick/Dan
I’ve a 300GX since last November, and never got success improving midtone sounds.
I tried PA’s, home stereos, and even headphones. I don’t think it migth be an issue that could be solve with any kind of repair…
I’ll keep searching the web reviews/comparisons/tests that could tell me if I’m or not wrong.
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I have the Roland Fantom X8.. there have been owners describing similar midtone issues on the X8 and I noticed it too.. after playing around with different settings it was smoothed out by adjusting the Output Gain to 0[dB] and Master Level to 100. These settings are under the Menu/System area on the X8. After making this adjustment you will have to turn the volume knob up higher to get the same level of volume you had before but it smoothes out the midrange problem.. it sounds quite good now. I’m not sure if you have the ability to change these settings on the 300GX.. if you have trouble finding it, try contacting Roland to find out how to adjust it on the 300GX. Changing these settings made a very noticable difference. Post back when you get a chance.. I’m interested to know if this helps.
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Dan Reply:
October 18th, 2009 at 6:35 am
Thanks for posting a workaround regarding the midtones.
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Jake:
I guess that’s not possible to adjust the Output gain on the 300GX… Only master volume.
It seems the solution, to me, is to buy the 700GX, hoping to find anyone who wants a practically new 300GX.
Thanks for the tip!
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Jake Reply:
October 21st, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Here’s a link to the 300GX manual.
http://lib.roland.co.jp/support/en/manuals/res/1810808/RD-300GX_e2.pdf
Page 87 seems to be describing how to change the gain level for items 01 – 04. If you can adjust those items try playing with them to get the midtones smoothed out. I’m not sure what combination works best here but “0″ worked for me.
With reference to page 35 and 36 try turninig off any type of boost.. I believe that might be similar to adjusting the output gain. Im not sure how compression changes the sound.
Also, page 36, refers to the equalizer adjustments that may also work like the output gain control.
Let me know how this works since I was considering a 700GX myself and I’d like to know if these settings can help smooth out some of the midrange issues. I’ve heard people describe some sort of midrange issues on several Roland keyboards and from my experience with the X8 it may just take getting to know the different settings and figuring out which settings work best.
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dwain c Reply:
February 25th, 2010 at 4:29 am
I wonder if a graphic equalizer would help.
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Jake… It helped but not too much. By adjusting attack and release time I got better results improving midtones… but I would seriously consider the 700GX.
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jim Covington Reply:
June 7th, 2010 at 11:09 am
Have really noticed the difference between the headphones (which have a warm balanced clarity without harshness) and the audio outs (which, with even changing the pans on the mixer to extreme Left and Right, still has harshness and some brittle tone in the mid tone range….).
RE: your improvement of mid tones…..what settings did you settle on for the attack and release times? I use a RD700 GX.
thanks in advance,
Jim covington
Big Bear lake, ca. USA
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Jim…
I’d like to help you, but I sold my 300 and bought a 700GX… Pleased with it, I still have not changed any of the factory settings.
Regards.
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Hello, I bought the 300 gx and found the rthym section on all jazz and swing shows the wrong numbers in the screen. I checked it with my metronome and they are all at least 30% out. I tried to contact Roland to tell them but with no success. The dealer would not take it back and said they are all like that maggie.
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Ihave been seaching for answers related to the 300gx piano tones aswell. It just does not sound that good. I had and FP1 and the one piano tone that I used was far superior than the 300gx sound. I really feel that as muscians roland could have come up with something much better than this keyboard. the demo on the piano sounds really good through the PA. BUT the minute you go back to playing the main piano tone it just sounds very weak. I almost feel as though we got ripped off.
If you go into the factory stored set sounds ie. the place where you can save sounds, you can go to factory saved setting 29 or 30. use this setting as your main sound and edit it by putting compression on it and then setting keyboard touch to light -7
I then stored the sound plus a dual warm pad sound to warm up the piano. it really sounds way better now.
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