Roland FP7 Digital Piano Review
By Dan: Learn About Us on with Comments 5
Continuing with the FP series, the Roland FP-7 is the latest in digital piano design. Roland keyboards has decided to roll out the FP-7 due to the popularity of previous models.
Roland FP-7 feels very solid and is well constructed much like its predecessors and weighs in at approximately 80 pounds which unfortunately makes it difficult to lug around.
You will definitely need a solid stand for this keyboard. Encased in a slim package, the FP-7 is aesthetically pleasing to look at. The casing features a black deck with silver button trim. Although the sparse number of controls give the appearance of a simple keyboard, don’t be fooled, under its skin lies a fairly complex and comprehensive system of controls.
The FP-7 comes bundled with Sonar LE, a well-known sequencing software package. This lite version from Sonar is powerful enough to make your keyboard sing. Equipped with stereo speakers, this keyboard punches out fairly decent sounds. It also has twin headphone jacks which is perfect for teaching. The keyboard itself features a graded hammer key action which is responsive to the lightest touch.
A sustain foot pedal with damper action provides the musician with simulated acoustic piano action playability. When i first sat down to play this keyboard, I noticed the sound bank is grouped according to instrument type.
There are basically seven instrument banks featuring piano, which by the way sounds very good, electric piano strings and the usual assortment of instruments complete with two sets of organ sounds. Several church organ, gospel, jazz are just a few of the organ sounds that are available.
The sounds can be enhanced with with 2 rotary speakers much like Leslies of the vintage 1960s and 1970s Hammond organs. The keyboard’s weight and rugged design lends itself well as a bona fida road warrier
At a cost of approximately $1,599 USD, the keyboard is not cheap. If this piano is beyond your budget you may want to look at the FP-4 which retails for approximately $1,299 USD. See also: Roland keyboards
Filed Under: Roland Keyboards
Can someone tell me the advantages of the FP7 over the FP4 please?
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VB Reply:
April 15th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
FP7 has addl. record/playback feature
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plus… it has 100 different velocity levels rather than the FP4 only having light, medium, medium heavy and heavy.
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best keyboard i’ve found to date…great action…..
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Wondering if there’s a big enough difference between the FP-7 and the newer FP-7F to warrant the extra $300 (Canadian). I’m a classical pianist and this is an apartment piano for me, so I need the best for the money. I do NOT need all the electronic bells and whistles, mostly interested in the sound of the Grand Piano function as well as the touch. Thanks.
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