The RG-1

The Roland RG-1 is a sophisticated and beautiful digitally styled grand piano that features stunning and realistic piano sounds. It is a gorgeous grand featuring a highly polished ebony finish. Open the cover of the piano and you’ll discover a light satin black finish decorated with brass finished screws.

Progressive Hammer Action

The RG-1 features a progressive hammer action that replicates that of an acoustic piano. The sound bank on this keyboard has a limited selection of sounds with only 20 sounds available. Truly there are only really five distinct sounds with each sound possessing four variants. I must say that although there is a limited set of sounds, the grand piano does require honorable mention here as it is one of the best piano sounds I’ve ever heard. If I were to buy a piano I would most definitely buy this one.

Looking at the electric piano section I find that Roland has a good set of sounds. The Roland RG-1 also features vibes which don’t make a lot of sense as it is difficult to solo with vibes alone.

100 Touch Sensitive Levels

This keyboard features refined touch level of sensitivity with up to 100 levels which are adjustable they have a response features 10 levels of sensitivity.

The RG-1′s were keyboard can be layered with each layer having its own adjustable volume balance and the keyboard can be split with adjustable split points. If you’re looking for a keyboard that has great polyphony than this is the one with 128 voices.

Although this keyboard features 20 preset tones the RG1 also has 240 internal sounds. Interestingly, the effects processor features a hammer noise for the piano tones in addition to the standard reverb, string and damper resonance.

External storage includes a USB memory slot, floppy disk (when using optional floppy disk drive). The Roland RG1 also has 47 songs and seven tone demos built into the unit.

The Roland RG1 also has several connector ports including USB (MIDI) connector,external memory connector (USB), output jacks (L/Mono, R), input jacks (L/Mono, R), Headphones jack x 2 (Stereo), MIDI connectors (IN, OUT) and pedal connector

The Good

The Roland RG1 has a great sounding grand piano that uses new technology that builds the sound from the ground up unlike most keyboards that use sampled sound.

The Bad

The keyboard is somewhat bulky and is not easily transportable. There is a limited number of preset sounds.